Short-term rental with no tax returns to show
Can I get a DSCR loan on a short-term rental with no tax returns?
A short-term rental with no tax return history is not unusual — it is closer to the default case for a new acquisition — and the lenders in this directory who specifically tag STR DSCR underwriting are built around that.
- Short-term rental DSCR loan STR-specific DSCR underwriting is built to qualify a property on projected nightly income rather than tax returns, which is exactly the gap a new or recently acquired short-term rental has.
- A borrower-income product requiring two years of tax returns A newly acquired or converted short-term rental has no operating history to show on a prior tax return, which a tax-return-based product cannot work around.
Lenders in the directory
No lender here publishes a rule for this
This is an underwriting judgment, not a published threshold. None of the 37 lenders in the directory states a policy on it, so there is no honest way to build a shortlist — and a list computed only from which products a lender writes would tell you nothing you could act on.
What matters here is how the file is presented rather than which lender receives it. The sections below cover that. When you are ready to approach lenders, the directory shows what each one does publish, with the date it was verified.
Why tax returns are the wrong document for a new STR
A tax return reflects a prior year’s activity. A newly purchased short-term rental, or one just being converted from long-term to short-term use, has no prior-year tax return that reflects its intended operation at all — asking for one is asking for a document that cannot exist yet.
What STR-specific DSCR underwriting uses instead
Lenders in this directory tagging STR DSCR or STR-friendly DSCR underwrite based on projected income — commonly drawn from a market analysis of comparable short-term rental performance in the area, sometimes using third-party platform data — rather than a signed long-term lease or prior tax return.
Which lenders in this directory tag this specifically
The roster on this page reflects only lenders whose products explicitly include STR DSCR or STR-friendly DSCR underwriting, not the broader rental DSCR product list — a standard DSCR lender with no STR-specific program is a narrower fit for a property with no lease and no history at all.
What to have ready instead of tax returns
A market analysis of comparable STR performance, platform listing data if the property already has any booking history, and clarity on local short-term rental licensing rules all substitute for what tax returns would otherwise show.
What to have ready
- A comparable-market STR income analysis (AirDNA or similar)
- Any existing platform booking history, even partial or recent
- Local short-term rental licensing and zoning documentation
- A furnishing and setup budget, since these loans finance the property, not the furnishings
Questions
Do STR DSCR lenders require any tax returns at all?
What income source is used instead?
Is this different from a standard rental DSCR loan?
Terms used on this page
- Short-Term Rental Investing — Short-term rental investing means owning property rented by the night or week through platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo, rather than on annual leases.
- Debt Service Coverage Ratio (DSCR) — DSCR is a property’s gross monthly rent divided by its total monthly mortgage payment. A DSCR of 1.00 means the rent exactly covers the payment; 1.25 means rent exceeds the payment by 25%.
- Rental Arbitrage — Rental arbitrage means leasing a property long-term and re-renting it on short-term platforms, keeping the spread between the nightly revenue and the lease payment.