Methodology
How the numbers on this site are handled
Every claim here is meant to be checkable. This page says how, because a directory that cannot explain where its figures came from is just an opinion with a table.
One rule above the others: invent nothing
If a lender does not publish a figure, no figure appears. A page that needs a number the lender has not published is written so it does not need it. You will not find a market average, an estimated rate, or a credit floor described as typical anywhere on this site, because none of those would be facts about the lender you are about to call.
Verification dates
Criteria change without notice. So each lender record carries the date its figures were last checked, and that date is shown next to the figures rather than buried. Of the 37 lenders in the directory, 26 carry a verification date and 11 do not — the directory groups them separately and says which is which.
A lender with no verification date still gets a profile, because the company is real and the products it writes are real. What it does not get is a page asserting criteria we cannot stand behind.
Why some lenders have fewer pages than others
A lender gets a requirements page only if it has a verification date and publishes at least one of a credit floor, a DSCR minimum or a maximum LTV — 24 of 37 qualify. It gets a rates page only if it has a verification date and publishes a rate range — 11 of 37 qualify. The rest are not generated, because a page headed "requirements" with nothing on it is worse than no page.
How lender lists are computed
Scenario pages filter the directory rather than listing hand-picked names. The filter runs the deal the page describes against stored criteria and sorts every lender into one of three outcomes:
- Clears it — the lender publishes the relevant threshold and the deal meets it. A checkable claim.
- Has not published it — the lender writes the right product but has not stated the threshold. We will not say it qualifies and will not say it does not.
- Omitted — the lender publishes the threshold and the deal fails it, or the lender does not write the product.
The middle bucket is the honest one and it is often the biggest. Collapsing it into either of the others would misrepresent the directory in one direction or the other.
Where a scenario turns on something no lender publishes, the page shows no list. It says so instead. That covers most of the scenarios about borrower history, lease circumstances and loan structure.
Ownership and status
Lending companies get acquired, merge and stop originating, and stale ownership information is one of the most common errors in directories like this one. Where a lender has changed hands or ceased originations, that appears on its profile and on any comparison involving it — including when two lenders being compared turn out to be under common ownership.
State information
The 50 state pages carry factual figures — property tax rates, income tax, principal metros — alongside four qualitative classifications that are this site's own and are labelled as such on every page. They are not law and not a licensing determination.
No state page names which lenders lend there. There is no lender-to-state mapping in this data, and manufacturing one from a state count would be a fabrication. Confirm licensing with the lender, or through NMLS Consumer Access.
Calculators
Every assumption in a calculator is an editable field rather than a hidden constant, including the interest rate. The result descriptions explain what the arithmetic means structurally; they never assert what a lender would do with it. A calculator here is a way to understand a deal, not a quote.
Corrections
If a figure is wrong, tell us and we will recheck it. Corrections are free and are not conditional on anything.