DSCR
No. Authorized user accounts are not allowed as an acceptable trade line on a DSCR file, so a score built on them clears the FICO test and still fails the credit-depth test. A borrower also cannot have only one credit score or less than 24 months of credit history, which is a hard eligibility stop rather than a pricing adjustment. Being an authorized user is normal and nobody did anything wrong here, but the fix is time and own-name trade lines, in that order.
August 31, 2026
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One tradeline is ineligible on a DSCR investment-property loan. Two work only if one is a satisfactory mortgage rating of at least 12 months, opened or closed, within the last 24 months, plus one additional open tradeline. Three or more require at least one line opened 24 months and two lines rated satisfactory for 12 months. Authorized user accounts and non-traditional credit do not count.
August 31, 2026
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A bankruptcy does not disqualify you from a DSCR loan on an investment property, but it starts a clock. Chapter 7, Chapter 11 and Chapter 13 each carry a 36-month waiting period on The Fiirm's DSCR program, and all of them are measured from the date of discharge or dismissal — not from the date you filed. This page covers each chapter, what a dismissed case does, how multiple filings interact with the lookback, and the documents the file needs.
August 31, 2026
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Two facts decide it: the date the forbearance was filed, and whether it ended in a modification. A forbearance filed after 6/1/2022, or any forbearance that resulted in a subsequent loan modification or repayment plan, is treated as significant derogatory credit and carries a three-year waiting period. Anything outside those two descriptions is a documentation item: exited plan, on-time payments since the exit, and a letter of explanation. A loan in active forbearance is ineligible.
August 31, 2026
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You can refinance an owner-occupied commercial property that is currently listed for sale, but the file has to carry a signed certification of occupancy and intent to occupy, the listing documentation itself, and an appraisal that addresses the listing and its impact on value and marketability. Underwriting confirms eligibility and may require the listing be withdrawn before closing. The real risk is inconsistency: where your representations, the listing and the appraisal do not line up, the file must be escalated and may be denied. This page explains why a listing is evidence about both value and intent, and how to document it cleanly and early.
August 31, 2026
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Light industrial is an eligible property type in our Small Balance Commercial program; heavy or dirty manufacturing is not, and it carries no minority-tenant carve-out. The line is drawn by a five-part definition in Appendix A: under 25,000 square feet, no heavy manufacturing or specialized industrial process, office space at 3% to 25% of total area, enough plumbing, lighting and fenestration for personnel, and no heavy machinery, welding operations, cranes or hazardous materials. The last clause disqualifies more buildings than any of the others.
August 31, 2026
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If the owner's expertise is critical to the existing business and involvement in a new venture would detract from it, the loan may be treated as a start-up - subject to different approval criteria, or declined. The logic is key-person concentration: on an owner-occupied loan the qualifying income comes from the existing business, and a new venture has no operating history to read. This page covers where the line between an expansion and a genuinely new venture sits, what the experience ladder does to an operator crossing industries, and what evidence - management depth, a bench, a management agreement - actually answers the provision.
August 31, 2026
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Buying from a family member, a business partner, your own landlord, or a related entity is treated very differently by our two programs. On the commercial side a non-arm's-length transaction is generally ineligible, and a disclosed exception at initial application is the only path. On the 1-4 unit DSCR side, a specific list of non-arm's-length structures is named as eligible, fenced by a gift-of-equity prohibition, the property flip provisions, and hard occupancy rules. This page sets both treatments side by side and explains what documentation makes one work.
August 31, 2026
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A building is multifamily on our Small Balance Commercial program when it has five or more residential units and every one of those units has a full and legal kitchen. The kitchen requirement was added effective 07/10/2026, in the same change log entry that removed the old 400 square foot per-unit minimum. So small units are no longer disqualified by size, but rooms sharing a kitchen are not units at all, however the rent roll describes them. This page explains both thresholds and where the line sits between a multifamily building and a rooming house.
August 31, 2026
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A mobile home park is an eligible property type in our Small Balance Commercial program, but only pad rent is underwritten. Park-owned homes are given no value and their rent is not counted, and RV space rent and outside storage income are excluded as well. An operator who has invested years into park-owned inventory will see an underwritten revenue base well below the one on their own P&L. This page shows what is excluded, why, and what the gap does to a valuation and a loan amount.
August 31, 2026
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A mixed-use building is Tier I or Tier II based on which side of the property produces the rent, not which side occupies the floor area. More than 50% of gross rental income from the residential units makes it Tier I; more than 50% from the commercial units makes it Tier II. Tier feeds maximum LTV, pricing, and the self-management radius, which means a single commercial lease renewal can move a building from one tier to the other without a brick changing.
August 31, 2026
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A single-user office, automotive, warehouse, retail or light industrial building at or above 25,000 square feet of gross building area is treated as Special Purpose under our SBC program, and Special Purpose is ineligible collateral. But a change effective 07/10/2026 says multi-tenant properties may exceed 25,000 SF as long as no individual tenant occupies 25,000 or more. The test is tenant concentration, not building size.
August 31, 2026
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Our guideline sets no published experience tier for self-storage operators - storage experience is evaluated case-by-case. What is fixed is the investor experience table that caps an inexperienced borrower at 70% LTV, the property management requirements, and the rule that only traditional self-storage counts as the property type. Income from outside storage - RV, boat and trailer parking - gets no credit toward net operating income, which resizes the loan on any facility earning from an open lot. This is a conventional property-secured loan, not an SBA product.
August 31, 2026
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When your business occupies part of a commercial building and arm's-length tenants occupy the rest, and your share of the net rentable area falls below the owner-occupancy threshold, the property is classified as an Investor Property. There is a real benefit buried in that classification: for these partial owner-occupied properties, the standard investor experience requirement does not apply. This page explains how the classification works, why the carve-out exists, and the several experience-related requirements it does not reach.
August 31, 2026
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Buying a building to move your business into and closing your current location is eligible, but it is approved case-by-case: the operational impact has to be minimal and the move must not significantly disrupt operations. There is no relocation checklist in the guideline, and anyone who hands you one made it up. What actually decides the file is continuity of revenue and staff, the 50% owner-occupancy test at the new address, your business experience, and whether global cash flow still works after the move.
August 31, 2026
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A second location is financeable under our owner-occupied program, but the approval is carried by the business you already run. Expansions are acceptable when the new site — in the same state or a different one — comes online with minimal start-up time, places no undue burden on the existing location, and has a management plan where owner involvement or travel would be significant. The existing location serves as the primary source of income for approval, which is why a pro forma for the new site is not the qualifying document.
August 31, 2026
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On an owner-occupied deal, experience is measured in years in your business or industry, not in real estate. Under three years you are Inexperienced and capped at 70% LTV; three years or more puts the program maximum back on the table. Ownership, operational and employment experience all count, and the guideline is silent on where those years were earned. Expansions, relocations and new ventures are each assessed under their own provision.
August 31, 2026
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Not through our program. 501(c)(3) organizations and non-profits are named ineligible borrowers, because the program lends to for-profit entities wholly owned by individuals and requires a personal guaranty from the people who own them. A nonprofit has no owners, so there is nobody to sign. This page explains the mechanism, the separate property-type problem churches and schools run into, and the categories of lender built to serve nonprofits.
August 31, 2026
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You can self-manage a property you are financing, but only if you clear two gates at once. A commercial property requires the borrower or guarantor to live within 200 miles of it; a Tier I Multi-Family or Tier I Mixed-Use property tightens that radius to 50 miles. Both paths also require minimum investor experience. One discretionary override exists for owners who can verify 5 plus years of like-kind, like-size, like-geography experience.
August 31, 2026
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Above $1 million, our SBC program requires guarantors to show net worth at least equal to the loan amount. Below that threshold the test is not run at all. The trigger is the loan size or your total exposure to us, the evidence is a personal financial statement, a recent liquidity statement or a CPA-certified net worth, and the combined figure across all guarantors is what counts. It is a different test from post-closing reserves, which are measured in months of P&I and must be liquid.
August 31, 2026
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