Short-Term Rental & Airbnb DSCR Loans

By the Bentley Equity Loans Team
Investor lending specialists · DSCR, bridge, fix & flip & multi-family

Short-term rentals can out-earn long-term leases by a wide margin in the right market — but most lenders don't know how to underwrite them, so they either decline the deal or use a conservative long-term rent estimate that kills it. We finance short-term rentals on what they actually earn, qualifying Airbnb and VRBO properties on projected nightly income, not your tax returns.

The problem with most lenders and Airbnb

When a property has no long lease, a typical lender falls back on the appraiser's long-term market rent — a number that often badly undersells what a well-run short-term rental brings in. A beach condo that nets $6,000 a month on Airbnb might be valued at $2,200 in long-term rent on the appraisal, sinking the DSCR and the deal along with it. We use a more realistic approach.

How we qualify short-term-rental income

Instead of defaulting to long-term rent, we can use projected short-term-rental income to qualify the loan — supported by data sources like AirDNA, a documented operating history, or comparable nightly performance in the area. That means the DSCR reflects what the property can really earn, and strong short-term performers actually get credit for it.

• Qualify on projected or documented short-term-rental income, not just long-term rent.
• Single-family homes, condos, and small multi-family all eligible.
• No tax returns and no personal debt-to-income check.
• 30-year fixed and interest-only options for buy-and-hold STR investors.

Markets where this matters most

Short-term-rental financing shines in tourism-driven markets — think Miami and the Florida coast, Nashville, Scottsdale, and Smoky Mountain destinations. These are exactly the places where the gap between long-term rent and nightly income is widest, and where qualifying on real STR performance turns a dead deal into a fundable one.

Check the numbers first

Run your expected nightly income through our DSCR calculator using the monthly equivalent, then send us the scenario. We'll review it the way an underwriter would and confirm whether the short-term-rental income supports the loan you want.