Current DSCR HELOC guidelines, updated from one source.
The figures below are the second-lien tier of the program, the line written behind a first mortgage the owner keeps, read from Lendmire’s centralized guideline source and refreshed on this page as the wholesale program changes: the combined loan-to-value ceiling, the credit score to start, the line sizes, and the draw and repayment periods.
Of the rental’s value, first mortgage included
Total liens on the rental, the first mortgage plus the new line, may reach 70% of value behind a first mortgage you keep; the ladder below shows the first-lien tiers on a paid-off rental, which run to 75% at the top tier.
Credit score for a second-lien line
The program floor on a line behind a first mortgage is a 720 profile; a first-lien line on a rental with no mortgage starts at 700. Higher tiers earn higher ceilings; the largest first-lien lines carry a reduced ceiling of their own.
Automated valuation on lines to $400,000
Lines run from $50,000 to $500,000 behind a first mortgage; lines up to $400,000 use an automated valuation with a property inspection report, and every line above that amount takes a full interior appraisal.
Interest-only, then 25 years of repayment
A 5-year interest-only draw period and a 25-year repayment period make up the 30-year line. The rent must cover the qualifying payment at 1.10 or better, measured on the whole line at a stressed rate.
| Credit profile | Max combined LTV | Max line | Lien position · valuation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 740+ | 70% | $500,000 | Second lien behind the first mortgage · Automated valuation + inspection to $400,000, full interior appraisal above |
| 720+ | 70% | $500,000 | Second lien behind the first mortgage · Automated valuation + inspection to $400,000, full interior appraisal above |
| 740+ | 75% | $500,000 | First lien on a paid-off rental · Automated valuation + inspection to $400,000, full interior appraisal above |
| 720+ | 70% | $500,000 | First lien on a paid-off rental · Automated valuation + inspection to $400,000, full interior appraisal above |
| 720+ | 65% | $750,000 | First lien on a paid-off rental · Automated valuation + inspection to $400,000, full interior appraisal above |
| 720+ | 65% | $1,000,000 | First lien on a paid-off rental · Automated valuation + inspection to $400,000, full interior appraisal above |
| 700+ | 70% | $500,000 | First lien on a paid-off rental · Automated valuation + inspection to $400,000, full interior appraisal above |
The 70% combined loan-to-value ceiling behind a first mortgage requires a 720 credit profile. A first-lien line on a paid-off rental starts at a 700 profile, reaches 75% loan-to-value at the top tier, and runs to $1,000,000 at 65% on lines above $500,000. The rent must cover the qualifying payment at 1.10 or better.
Current DSCR HELOC snapshot · updated October 29, 2026 · seven tier rows across both lien positions · variable rate through the draw and repayment periods · at least 80% of the line (and $50,000) drawn at closing · later draws from $5,000 · first or second lien position · vesting in the owner’s LLC allowed · no reserves required · 6 months of ownership before the line.
Program parameters shown on this page are wholesale lender guidelines read from Lendmire’s centralized guideline source, subject to change without notice and to full underwriting; they are not an offer, a quote, or a commitment to lend. The line amount, combined loan-to-value, coverage test, and eligibility depend on the valuation, the lease and the rent, the credit profile, the vesting, the property, and the lender’s own calculation. No rate, index, payment, or fee is stated on this page; terms are provided in writing by a licensed loan officer. Lendmire, LLC is a mortgage broker, not a lender, licensed in sixteen states for consumer mortgages; the lender’s program sheet writes this line in fifteen of those sixteen states. NMLS #2371349. Equal Housing Opportunity.
What a DSCR HELOC is — and how the rent sizes the line.
A DSCR HELOC on a Foley rental is sized the way a line of credit is and qualified the way a DSCR loan is: by the equity that is actually there, the tier the credit profile lands in, and the rent the property earns. The cards below cover the line itself, the rent test, the tier ladder, and how the file closes.
For the program overview, see Lendmire’s DSCR HELOC program, or the statewide guide at DSCR HELOC in Alabama.
A line on the rental, behind the mortgage you keep
The line is a credit limit, not a check: a Foley landlord draws against it as deals and repairs arrive, pays interest only on the outstanding balance during the draw period, and amortizes whatever remains over the repayment period that follows.
The rent qualifies the line, not your tax returns
Because the payment used in the test is a fully amortizing payment on the entire credit limit at a stressed rate, a Foley rental with thin cash flow qualifies for a smaller line than its equity would allow. Equity sets the ceiling; rent sets what the ceiling can actually fund.
Your credit tier sets the ceiling and the cap
The score the lender pulls decides the tier, and the tier decides the ceiling and the cap. On a second-lien line the top tiers share one ceiling and one cap; on a first-lien line the largest lines carry a reduced ceiling. Nothing in the file moves the tier except the report itself.
Valuation, the lease, the LLC, and closing
Seasoning matters on a rental: a property bought or refinanced inside the program’s seasoning window waits, and ownership must season before the line closes. A Foley rental listed for sale in the months before the application is not eligible, and a declining-market flag on the valuation trims the ceiling.
Enter the value, the balance, and the tier, and the calculator shows the ceiling, the cap, the available line, and the valuation path. What it cannot show is the rent test; that depends on the lease, the market rent, and the lender’s qualifying payment, and it is settled in underwriting.
Foley’s rental equity in figures — and how a line fits it.
A rental line is sized against a value, and Foley’s values are the context: the median says where the typical equity position sits, and the owner share says how deep the pool of long-held properties runs. Census figures below, program figures above.
These are context figures, not underwriting inputs. Read the median against the balance on your own rental. Where values have run ahead of the mortgages on them, the room under the ceiling is wide and the rent test is the tighter of the two gates; where purchases are recent, the room is narrow and the ceiling is the tighter gate.
Data sources: U.S. Census Bureau — ACS 5-Year (2024) housing and population estimates, including tenure, home values, gross rents, and household income.
Distinct Foley rental neighborhoods, distinct equity pictures.
The line is sized on the property, and Foley’s properties differ by district: values, tenures, unit counts, and the rent the market supports. Each submarket below carries its own equity picture.
High-value rentals
High-value Foley rentals present a cap question: how much of the equity can one line reach? The answer is the maximum line for the tier and lien position, and a full interior appraisal sets the value the ceiling is measured against. Foley is home to about 24K people and sits within the Daphne-Fairhope-Foley, AL area.
Condominium rentals
Condominium lines in Foley turn on the project review: warrantable at one ceiling, non-warrantable at a lower one, condotels not at all. The valuation reads the unit against recent unit sales in the project, and the lease carries the coverage test. Roughly 8,012 Foley households own their homes on the latest Census estimate — 71% of all households, the pool a rental equity line is written for.
Newer infill and recent purchases
Recent purchases in Foley’s infill corridors present a different file: high leverage, thin room under the ceiling, and a seasoning clock that may still be running. The program waits on the calendar, and the line is sized on what the value leaves above the balance. On a one-unit rental at Foley’s median home value, the second-lien ceiling puts total liens near $202,510 — the line is what remains after the first mortgage balance, and the rent must cover the qualifying payment; a paid-off rental on a first-lien line sits above the second-lien ceiling.
Entity-held portfolios
Portfolio owners in Foley hold rentals in LLCs for liability, and the program meets them there: the line is written in the entity, the members sign as guarantors, and the deed never moves. The exposure limit on loans and dollars per borrower is the figure to check first. Median household income in Foley sits near $66,336 on the latest Census estimate.
Two-to-four-unit buildings
A Foley fourplex brings several leases to the coverage test, so the equity, the tier, and the cap are often the binding limits instead. The leases for the occupied units document the rent, and the valuation uses the multi-unit form on the larger lines. The median owner-occupied home value in Foley runs near $289,300 on the latest Census estimate.
Established close-in rentals
The close-in Foley neighborhoods hold rentals bought a decade or more ago, and those files carry the deepest equity: a small first mortgage, a value that has run far ahead of it, and room under the ceiling that the rent, not the equity, usually caps. About 29% of Foley’s households rent — roughly 3,281 renter households on the latest Census estimate.
The patterns above are market observations drawn from the housing stock and the Census figures, not program rules. Every Foley rental is read on its own valuation, its own lease, and its own tier.
Four ways Foley landlords put a rental equity line to work.
Why a line rather than a refinance? Because most Foley investors need money in pieces and want to keep the mortgage they have. The four uses below are the ones the program sees most, and each one works with a closing draw and a line that stays open.
Consolidate business debt at the property level
Consolidation on a rental line keeps the debt where the asset is: secured by the property that produced the need, repaid over the repayment period, with the owner’s personal income never part of the file.
Finish a value-add before the permanent loan
Where a hard-money loan would have carried the work, a line on a seasoned rental can carry it instead, drawn as the work bills and repaid when the improved property refinances. The first mortgage on the seasoned rental is untouched.
Bridge a sale, a tax bill, or a buyout
A line bridges the gaps a portfolio produces: a partner’s buyout, a property-tax bill that lands before a sale closes, a deposit due before another rental refinances. A Foley owner draws, closes the gap, and repays when the money arrives.
A standing reserve for the portfolio
Some Foley investors open a line for what has not happened yet: the furnace that fails in January, the vacancy that runs long, the assessment the association votes through. The closing draw is set by the program; the rest waits.
Estimate your Foley rental’s available credit line before requesting a quote.
Enter your Foley rental’s value, the balance on it, your credit tier, and whether the line sits behind a first mortgage or stands first on a paid-off property. The result is the room under the ceiling, capped at the program maximum, with the closing draw and the valuation path beside it. The rent must still cover the line; the lender decides that from the lease.
Foley rental available-equity calculator
Size the line first, then let the rent decide how much of it the property carries. Every field is yours to change.
Illustrative starting assumptions: a $290,000 rental value near Foley’s median owner-occupied home value and a $130,000 modeled remaining first-mortgage balance (U.S. Census Bureau). Combined loan-to-value ceilings and line caps follow the current program tables for the lien position and credit tier selected and update from Lendmire’s centralized guideline source on the live page. The rent test is the lender’s: the gross rent must cover the qualifying payment on the whole line at the program’s coverage minimum. Every field is editable.
Illustrative estimate only — not a credit decision, approval, quote, or commitment to lend. The actual line amount, combined loan-to-value, and eligibility depend on the automated valuation or appraisal, the lease and the rent, the credit profile, the vesting, documentation, and full underwriting by the selected wholesale lender; the rate, the payment, and any costs are provided in writing by a licensed loan officer. Minimum score, line-size, coverage, and draw requirements follow the current program snapshot shown on this page. Licensed in sixteen states for consumer mortgages.
Same rental equity, four very different ways to reach it.
The same Foley rental can reach its equity four ways, and they differ in what qualifies the borrower and what happens to the first mortgage. A DSCR HELOC qualifies on the rent and leaves the first mortgage alone; the other three read the owner’s income, the owner’s deposits, or replace the mortgage outright.
A rent-qualified line, an income-qualified line, a cash-out refinance, or a bank statement line.
Qualified on the rental’s rent, vested personally or in an LLC, and written behind the first mortgage you keep or first on a paid-off rental. The owner’s tax returns and debt-to-income ratio stay out of the file. The trade: a lower ceiling and a higher credit floor than the income-qualified line, and a rent that must cover the qualifying payment.
Qualified on the owner’s documented income and debt-to-income ratio, vested in the owner’s own name, and written behind the first mortgage. It reaches a higher ceiling than the rent-qualified line and starts at a lower credit floor, at the cost of the full income file. For the income-qualified route, see Lendmire’s investment property HELOC.
The refinance is the lump-sum route: one closing, one new first mortgage, the equity out at once. The line is the revolving route: the old mortgage stays, the equity comes out as needed. Which is cheaper depends on the rate you hold and how much you need. For the refinance route, see the investment property cash-out refinance.
For the Foley self-employed owner whose business deposits tell a better story than the returns, on a property held personally. Where the rental’s own rent covers the line, the DSCR HELOC asks for less; where it does not, the bank statement line reads the owner instead. For the deposit-qualified route, see the bank statement HELOC.
What to prepare for a Foley scenario review.
A DSCR HELOC file is shorter than an income-qualified one, because the owner’s income is not in it. What the lender needs is the property’s file: the lease, the rent, the mortgage statement, title, insurance, and the entity papers if an LLC holds the deed.
This is a general preparation guide, not a universal checklist. The selected lender may request additional information based on the lease, the entity, the property, the lien position, and the credit profile. Nothing here is legal or tax advice.
Local details that can change the line.
Every file has a detail that decides it. For Foley rental lines these are the usual ones; confirm each against the snapshot and with a licensed loan officer before planning.
Use these checks to keep the Foley file clean and fundable.
Think of the details in two groups. Some size the line: the tier, the valuation, the lien position, the rent. Others decide eligibility outright: the property type, the seasoning, a recent listing, a solar lien, the entity papers. A Foley file clears the second group before the first matters.
- Confirm the vesting: Whether the deed reads in an individual’s name, an LLC, or a trust, and which kind of trust.
- Confirm the dates: Whether the line can be timed for the month both seasoning clocks, the transaction window and the ownership window, have run.
- Confirm the tier: Whether a second-lien line is offered at the tier at all, or only a first-lien line on a paid-off rental.
Title in your name or your LLC
A trust on title is a different question from an entity on title: a land trust is on the program’s ineligible list, and a revocable trust is read by the lender case by case. A Foley rental in an LLC is written in the LLC’s name; a rental in a land trust is not written at all.
The seasoning clock on purchases and refinances
A rental bought or refinanced inside the program’s seasoning window is not eligible yet, measured note date to note date, and ownership seasons on its own clock from the purchase settlement. A Foley investor who closed this spring plans the line for after the window.
The credit tier decides the ceiling and the cap
The score that counts is the one on the report the lender pulls, not the one in an app; a self-pulled score can land a tier away. Each tier on the ladder carries its own ceiling and cap by lien position, so a Foley line can change size without the value or the balance moving at all.
The valuation sets the value the ceiling applies to
Lines to the valuation threshold use an automated model plus a property inspection report; larger lines take a full interior appraisal. A model that misses the program’s confidence standard sends the file to a full interior appraisal, and a Foley value estimated from listings can land lower on either path.
How many financed properties the program allows
The count is per borrower across the program: a set number of loans and a dollar ceiling, both fixed by the program sheet and confirmed at the scenario review. A Foley landlord whose other rentals are financed elsewhere starts the count here at zero; one with several lines on the program reads the list first.
From a Foley rental prequalification to a funded line.
Four steps, one file: review, prequalify, verify, close. Each one below says what the lender reads and what the Foley owner provides, and none of them promises a timeline, because the valuation, the title search, and the entity review set their own.
Scenario review
Before any application, the scenario is read against the program: lien position, tier, valuation path, seasoning, the property list, and the entity. A Foley owner leaves the review knowing the line the tables support and the gates the file must clear.
Prequalification
With the credit report in hand the tier is fixed, and with the lease in hand the rent test is run. A Foley prequalification settles the two gates that size the line and lists what the valuation and the title search will confirm.
Verification and valuation
This is the step the owner does not control: the valuation lands where the comparables put it, and the title search shows what is recorded. A Foley file whose value or lease comes in under the estimate is re-sized here, not declined, unless a gate fails.
Closing and funding
At closing the line is recorded against the rental, in the entity’s name when an LLC holds title, and the minimum draw funds. The first mortgage is untouched, the draw period begins, and later draws follow the program’s minimum.
A brokerage that matches the line to the rental.
The DSCR HELOC is a niche product, and the niche is where a broker earns the file: knowing which program writes an LLC-vested rental line, at what ceiling, with what rent test, and whether the Foley owner would do better on another route entirely.
Four routes, the right one quoted
The rent-qualified line is the answer to a specific problem: an entity on title, returns that understate, a ratio that is full. Lendmire reads whether that is the problem on a Foley file before recommending the line that solves it.
The entity stays on title
Landlords who built a portfolio inside entities for liability reasons should not have to unwind it for a line. The DSCR HELOC is placed through a wholesale program that writes the entity, and Lendmire’s Foley review starts with the deed as it is.
Licensed, in writing, the lender never named
Lendmire is the broker, not the lender. The program is placed with select lenders in the wholesale network; the figures on this page are program parameters subject to underwriting, and the rate and the payment on a Foley line are quoted in writing, never on a web page.
Trusted by landlords & investors alike.
Foley DSCR HELOC FAQs
The questions Foley landlords ask before a rent-qualified line, answered from the program as it stands; figures live in the snapshot above.
What is a DSCR HELOC?
It is the DSCR idea applied to a line of credit: the rental qualifies itself. A Foley landlord keeps the first mortgage, opens a revolving line behind it sized by value, balance, and credit tier, and proves only that the rent covers the line’s qualifying payment. Vesting in an entity is allowed.
Can the rental stay in my LLC?
Yes, for a rental. The program allows entity vesting on investment property only, so the LLC stays on the deed and the line records against it. What the lender wants is the entity’s paperwork and the guarantors’ credit, not a deed out of the entity.
How is the rent test calculated?
Gross rent over the qualifying payment. The lender uses the lesser of the lease rent and the market rent, stresses the rate, amortizes the full line, and reads the ratio against the program minimum. Where the rent falls short, the line is reduced until the ratio clears, or the file does not qualify.
Is an appraisal required?
A valuation is required on every line; a full appraisal is required on the larger ones. A Foley owner with a line under the threshold usually sees an automated model and an inspection rather than an appraiser’s full report, unless the model’s confidence falls short.
How do the draw period and repayment work?
The line has two lives: an interest-only draw period and an amortizing repayment period, shown in the snapshot. A large share of the line funds at closing by program rule, later draws are at least the program minimum, and the payment rises when the repayment period begins.
What credit history does the program expect?
A clean recent mortgage history with no thirty-day lates in the last year, and a set number of years since a bankruptcy, foreclosure, short sale, or deed-in-lieu, both in the program. The program’s tradeline-depth rules are waived at the score shown in the snapshot, which every tier the program offers meets, so the credit file is read for its history rather than its depth.
Does a duplex or fourplex qualify?
Yes, up to four units. The lender reads each lease, allows one vacant unit, and tests the combined gross rent against the qualifying payment on the whole line. A Foley owner with a unit between tenants does not wait for the lease to open the line.
What does the closing look like on an LLC-held rental?
The line records against the rental in the LLC’s name; the members sign as guarantors; any member on title who is not a borrower signs a non-borrowing owner acknowledgment and the security instrument. Insurance is updated to cover both liens, and the closing draw funds after any rescission period the law provides.
Is there a minimum line or a minimum draw?
A minimum line applies, and most of the approved line funds at closing by program rule. Later draws are at least the program minimum. Size the line to the amount you will use within the draw period, not to the largest figure the tables allow.
Can I open a line if the rental was recently listed for sale?
Only after the window has passed. The program does not write a line on a property listed within the months before the application; a Foley landlord who listed and withdrew waits for the window, then applies.
Start with the scenario, not the application.
Start with the figures: the rental’s value, the mortgage on it, your credit tier, the lease. The review takes minutes, states program parameters rather than offers, and names anything in the file that needs a check.
This guide covers Foley — for the statewide ceilings, tiers, and state rules, see DSCR HELOC in Alabama, part of Lendmire’s DSCR HELOC program.
Nearby markets in Alabama: Orange Beach · Gulf Shores · Fairhope · Daphne · Mobile · Dothan · Montgomery · Tuscaloosa
Other loan programs in Foley: DSCR Loans in Foley, AL · Super Jumbo DSCR Loans in Foley, AL · Short-Term Rental Loans in Foley, AL · Investment Property Cash-Out Refinance in Foley, AL · Hard Money Loans in Foley, AL · Bank Statement Loans in Foley, AL · Super Jumbo Bank Statement Loans in Foley, AL · Bank Statement HELOC in Foley, AL · Investment Property HELOC in Foley, AL