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Rental Property Financing
Financing decides whether a good property is a good deal. Down payment, rate, PITI, DSCR-loan qualification, and the refi exit all move your returns. These guides cover the choices; the calculators size the payment and the cash to close.
Guides
PITI explained: the real monthly payment on a rental (2026)
P&I isn't your real payment — PITI is: principal, interest, taxes, and insurance. On a $250k rental at 7% with 25% down, taxes and insurance pile $400/month on top of the loan — 32% more — before the reassessment trap and escrow surprises. How to estimate each part, and how a $1,647 payment becomes a 1.27 DSCR.
11 min readHow much money do you need to buy a rental property? Cash-to-close worked at $150K, $300K, and $500K
Total cash is 1.4-1.7x the down payment, not 20% plus a bit — $50,744 for a $150K rental, $89,388 for a $300K, $142,231 for a $500K, itemised down to the tax escrow cushion. Includes the two buckets everyone omits (prepaids and lender reserves), the 2% reserve escalator on other financed properties, the 5%-down duplex that costs less cash than a $150K house, and what $50,744 actually earns: $881 a year.
12 min readHow much down payment do you need for an investment property? (2026)
15% down on a single-family rental, 25% on a 2–4 unit — but only if you don't live in it. The full 2026 down-payment menu, the no-PMI rule, and worked cash-on-cash and DSCR math on a $250k rental at 15% vs 20% vs 25% down — including why more down can mean a higher return when the loan constant (~8.2%) tops the cap rate. Plus the house-hack route in for $8,750.
11 min readAre mortgage points worth it on an investment property? (2026)
Points trade cash at closing for a permanently lower rate. At 2026 pricing the break-even runs about five years and the implied return about 20% a year — but only while you keep the loan. The buydown-ladder steepness that actually sets the break-even, the IRS rule that makes you amortize rental points instead of deducting them up front, the two points that lift a $200K-loan deal from a 1.14 to a 1.20 DSCR, and the refinance trap where buying down a rate you abandon in three years quietly costs about $1,600.
11 min readDSCR loans explained: what they are, when they make sense, what they cost in 2026
DSCR programs primarily use property coverage instead of personal DTI as the main ratio, while borrower and property checks still apply. Learn the costs and trade-offs.
10 min readHow to refinance a rental property — rate-and-term, cash-out, and DSCR options
Step-by-step on refinancing a rental property: when refi makes sense, rate-and-term vs cash-out, LTV limits, DSCR loans, the break-even math, and the 5 mistakes most investors make.
10 min readClosing costs on an investment property — the full breakdown (2026)
Every line item in investment-property closing costs, with real 2026 dollar figures on a $250k rental. Lender fees, title, transfer taxes, prepaids — what's negotiable, what isn't, and how to fold it into your cash-to-close.
11 min readCash-out refinance vs HELOC on a rental: which pulls equity better in 2026?
Two ways to pull equity from a rental — and in 2026 they aren't interchangeable. The investment-property LTV and rate reality, the cheap-first-mortgage trap (a refi resets your whole 3.5% loan to 7%; a HELOC doesn't), and a worked side-by-side where the higher-rate HELOC is the cheaper decision by thousands a year.
11 min readSeller financing and subject-to: creative deals explained (2026)
When 7% bank loans kill the deal, creative financing moves it. How seller financing and subject-to work, the due-on-sale risk that defines subject-to, where Dodd-Frank does and doesn't apply to investors, and the 2026 rate arbitrage (~$650/month on a 3.5% subject-to loan) underwritten with the downside priced in.
11 min readHard money vs DSCR: which loan product is right for your next deal in 2026
Hard money and DSCR loans solve different problems. Hard money is short-term capital for a deal you'll rehab and exit; DSCR is long-term capital for a rental you'll hold. Picking the wrong one costs you 4-6 points and 18 months of friction. Here's how to choose.
11 min readDebt-to-income ratio for an investment property: how lenders count rental income (2026)
Every investor assumes the rent "covers itself" on a loan application. It doesn't. Lenders credit 75% of gross rent, then subtract the property's full payment — so a rental pulling $446/month over its payment reads as a −$79 debt, not income. The net-rental mechanic worked on a $250K rental, why the 25% haircut swings DTI ~3 points, the house-hack version where the same rule adds $1,275 of income and turns a 54% ratio into 45%, the Schedule E add-backs that make a paper loss net to breakeven, and the DSCR escape hatch when your ratio finally hits the wall.
11 min readNegative leverage in real estate: when borrowing lowers your return (2026)
"Use leverage, returns go up" is only true when the asset out-earns the debt — and in 2026 it usually doesn't. The one number that sets the sign (the loan constant, not the rate), the cap-rate-vs-loan-constant rule, the leverage identity that makes it exact, a worked $300K property across five cap rates, and the trap where a deal still cash-flows and still clears a DSCR lender while quietly dragging cash-on-cash below the all-cash return.
11 min readCalculators for this
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