The Quick Read: The questionnaire is a form the building’s association fills out. It tells the lender whether the project itself is a sound piece of collateral. If the answers show serious problems, such as active structural litigation, weak insurance, or hotel-style operations, the building can cap your leverage or take the deal off the table. A clean questionnaire does not approve you. Your credit, reserves, and rental coverage still get reviewed separately, subject to lender guidelines.
What Is the Condo Questionnaire, and Who Fills It Out?
A condo questionnaire is a project-level form. The lender sends it to the condominium association, and the association returns it with facts about the building. It is not about you, and it is not about your unit.
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Here is why it exists. On a condo, the lender is underwriting two things at once: the unit and the building. The unit is what you own. The building is what keeps the unit’s value intact. If the association is broke, tied up in a construction-defect lawsuit, or underinsured, your unit inherits those problems.
A board officer, usually the president or treasurer, signs the form. In many buildings a management company completes it under its contract with the association. You cannot fill it out yourself. That matters, because the timing depends on someone else.
The standard industry version is the Condominium Project Questionnaire, Form 1076/476. It covers project completion, ownership concentration, delinquent dues, litigation, insurance, deferred maintenance, and reserves. DSCR lenders are not bound by that form. Many use a shorter version of their own, and the wholesale lenders Lendmire works with vary in how much they ask.
What Does the Questionnaire Actually Ask?
It asks about six things, and each one maps to a lender worry. The table shows what the lender learns and why it matters to a rental buyer.
| Section | What the lender learns | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Completion and control | Is the building finished? Does the developer still run the HOA? | Unfinished projects carry more risk |
| Ownership mix | How many units are rented or held by one owner | Concentration can hurt the association’s finances |
| Dues and delinquencies | Are neighbors paying their assessments? | Unpaid dues starve the budget |
| Litigation | Any lawsuits, and what kind | Safety or structural suits are the serious ones |
| Insurance | Master policy coverage and deductible | Underinsured buildings can leave owners exposed |
| Reserves and repairs | Savings, planned projects, special assessments | A thin reserve invites a surprise bill |
After the 2021 Surfside collapse, the industry added a building-safety addendum. It asks when a licensed architect or engineer last inspected the building. It also asks whether that inspection found problems with safety, structural soundness, or habitability. Lenders read those answers closely now.
Two documents usually travel with the questionnaire. One is the HOA’s financial statements. The other is the master insurance declarations page. On most files the lender also wants the litigation disclosure, if there is one.
How Does the Building Set Your Eligibility?
The building decides eligibility in two ways: hard stops and judgment calls. Hard stops end the review at that lender. Judgment calls change the leverage, the pricing, or the paperwork. Which is which depends on the lender.
Hard-stop territory usually includes:
- Hotel-style operations, where the building runs a rental desk or front-desk booking program
- Mandatory rental pools that force owners into a management program
- Active litigation over construction defects, structural failure, or safety violations
- Projects still under developer control or unfinished
Judgment-call territory includes:
- Routine lawsuits, like the HOA suing an owner for unpaid dues
- Modest reserve shortfalls
- A pending special assessment (a one-time charge the association levies on owners for a big repair)
- High investor concentration
Litigation is the one to understand best. Any lawsuit is not automatically fatal. An HOA collecting dues from a delinquent owner, or a slip-and-fall claim fully covered by insurance, rarely stops a file. A suit over defective construction or structural engineering is different. That one can freeze the building until it resolves. The reverse also happens. When the case settles, a building that was blocked can open up.
Insurance gets the same scrutiny. The lender compares the master policy, which covers the building itself, against what the questionnaire reports. A very high deductible or a coverage gap is a red flag. (Your own unit-owner policy does not fix a weak master policy.)
For context, one comparison helps. Agency-backed conventional lenders sort condo projects into eligible and ineligible using rigid cutoffs. Fannie Mae’s own Condo Status Finder reports that only about 3.6% of projects carry an ineligible status. Its top reasons are insufficient master insurance and critical repair problems. Condotel features, short-term rentals, and pending litigation are also common reasons. DSCR loans are not run through that system. The wholesale lenders that write them set their own project standards and usually hold the loans themselves. So a building that fails the agency test is not automatically dead here. It just gets a more careful look.
Warrantable vs. Non-Warrantable: What Changes on a DSCR File?
Warrantable and non-warrantable are secondary-market labels. They describe whether a building fits the rules for being sold to an agency. They say nothing about whether the building is livable or whether the unit will rent.
Investors often walk away the moment a conventional lender says “non-warrantable.” That is a mistake. The label describes resale eligibility, not rental performance.
On a DSCR file, the label still matters, but in a different way. It sorts buildings into lanes.
| Factor | Warrantable condo | Non-warrantable or condotel |
|---|---|---|
| Review depth | Standard project review | Closer, case-by-case review |
| Leverage | Full purchase tiers available | Typically tighter |
| Loan size | Full program range | Often capped lower |
| Lender choice | Broad | Fewer lenders |
Exact caps for non-warrantable and condotel files vary by lender and by project. Expect less leverage and a smaller set of lenders than you would see on a clean warrantable building. The building’s answers set that ceiling before your own file is ever considered.
One detail worth flagging: investor-heavy buildings. Many DSCR lenders regularly finance rental units in buildings where most owners are investors. That is normal for the product. Some lenders still treat concentration as a factor, so ask before you assume.
Condotels and Short-Term Rentals
If the building runs like a hotel, the questionnaire will show it. Resort-style buildings, buildings with a rental desk, and buildings managed by a hospitality company get flagged. Some lenders exclude them outright. Others will review them on a non-warrantable basis with tighter terms.
Short-term rental rules can vary by city, county, HOA, and property type, so investors should confirm local rules before relying on projected rental income. The questionnaire often reveals the HOA’s own stance on nightly rentals, which matters as much as city rules.
Across the network, STR programs run on their own guidelines. Purchase leverage tops out at 75% LTV. Expect a 640+ credit score and roughly 12 months of hosting history. Those are select-program figures, subject to lender guidelines. They apply to STR collateral, not to a standard long-term rental.
The Building Passes. Now Your File Has to Pass Too.
A clean questionnaire gets the building through the door. It does not approve the loan. Your own file runs on its own track, and the strongest deals clear both tests: enough equity and enough rental coverage.
Here is what the second track usually looks like across the wholesale network:
- Purchase leverage: most files land at 75%-80% LTV, meaning 20%-25% down. Select high-leverage programs reach 85% LTV with roughly a 700+ score.
- Credit: a 620 floor exists in parts of the network. Most programs want around 660. A 700+ score unlocks the strongest tiers.
- Cash-out refinance: tops out around 75% LTV for standard rentals, with about 6 months of seasoning as the common expectation.
- Reserves: commonly around 6 months of PITIA, stepping up to about 9 months above $1,500,000. They vary by lender, leverage, and loan size.
- Loan size: up to $3,000,000 on standard programs.
Programs change, and every file is underwritten individually. Treat these as typical ranges, not promises.
How the coverage math works. DSCR is monthly rent divided by PITIA. PITIA is principal, interest, taxes, insurance, and association dues. On a condo, that last piece is not small. HOA dues sit inside the payment, so a building with high dues drags the ratio down before you write a check.
Run it this way with modeled inputs. Picture a condo bought at 75% LTV by an investor with a 700 score. Rent used for lender review covers the full payment, HOA dues included, at roughly 1.15x. Coverage clears 1.00, so it fits the program. The same unit in a building with steep dues might land nearer 0.95x. These specifics are subject to lender guidelines and a full review of property, leverage, and credit.
That second case is not a dead end. Coverage below 1.00 is available through select lenders in the network, with leverage and terms adjusted. Expect lower LTV and different pricing.
One point trips up new investors. Clearing 1.00 is not positive cash flow. DSCR compares rent to PITIA only. Repairs, vacancy, management, utilities, and capital expenses sit outside the calculation. A condo at 1.20x can still lose money in a bad year. Size your reserves for that.
A larger down payment lowers the payment and can lift the ratio. It never erases leverage caps, credit floors, reserve rules, or property eligibility. Money does not fix a building the lender won’t finance.
Where Does the Rent Number Come From?
The appraisal supplies it. The appraiser values the unit and also reports market rent, using the standard rent schedule (Form 1007). Both come from a comparison of similar monthly leases. That rent figure feeds the coverage math.
Here is the trap for Airbnb-minded buyers. An appraiser should not take a nightly rate and multiply it by 30. That method ignores vacancy, furnishings, and operating costs. It is a documented appraisal error. If you plan to underwrite on short-term income, ask about a separate STR path rather than counting on the standard schedule. Your listing’s advertised nightly rate does not set your rent used for lender review.
DSCR vs. conventional financing
Two common ways to finance an investment property in this market. They qualify you differently — here’s how investors weigh them.
Why investors choose it
- Qualifies on the property’s rental income — no personal tax returns, W-2s, or pay stubs needed to document income.
- No personal debt-to-income ceiling to clear, so existing mortgages and obligations don’t cap your borrowing the same way.
- Can be closed in an LLC, keeping the property inside a business entity.
- Built for scaling — not held to the limit on number of financed properties that conventional financing applies.
- Underwriting centers on the deal: generally qualifies when the rent covers the payment, a 1.00x coverage ratio being a common baseline (confirmed in underwriting).
- Designed specifically for investment property, including long-term and, where the program allows, short-term rentals.
Where it’s strong
- Often the lowest ongoing financing cost for a buyer who fully qualifies on personal income — a fit for a first property or a cost-first purchase.
Trade-offs for investors
- Requires full personal income documentation and must fit within a debt-to-income limit — salary, existing debts, and other mortgages all count.
- Typically held in your personal name rather than a business entity.
- Caps how many financed properties you can carry, which can become a ceiling as a portfolio grows.
- Evaluates you as a borrower as much as the property, which usually means more paperwork.
How investors usually choose: a first or single property often optimizes for the lowest financing cost; portfolio builders often optimize for leverage, vesting in an LLC, and scaling past conventional caps. The right answer depends on your goals, the property, and current guidelines — both paths run through select lenders in Lendmire’s wholesale network, with eligibility and terms confirmed in underwriting.
What Do DSCR Loans Have to Do With Business Purpose?
DSCR loans are designed for non-owner-occupied investment properties. Because they are business-purpose investor loans, they are reviewed differently from a standard owner-occupied mortgage. The file qualifies primarily on property-level rental income covering the payment, subject to lender guidelines.
That is why the questionnaire carries so much weight. When the property’s income is the story, the property’s surroundings are part of the story too.
What Most Brokers Watch For (and Most Buyers Miss)
Across the DSCR condo files Lendmire places, a few patterns repeat. The building surprises the buyer far more often than the buyer’s credit does. Litigation disclosure is the biggest swing. A building can look fine on a listing and then show a structural suit on the questionnaire. Special assessments are next. A reserve shortfall on paper often means a bill lands on owners soon.
The stronger buyers ask for the association’s financials and insurance page before they go firm on a contract. It costs nothing. It also sorts out the buildings that will never clear review.
This is a genuine judgment call for some buyers. A discounted unit in a building with a big pending assessment might still pencil, but only if the coverage ratio holds after the assessment is priced in. Others would rather walk. Neither answer is wrong.
Mistakes That Cost Investors Deals
- Assuming non-warrantable means unfinanceable. It means secondary-market ineligible. Some lenders in the network will still review it, with adjusted terms.
- Assuming any lawsuit kills the deal. Routine, insured, or non-structural matters often pass. Structural and safety suits do not.
- Assuming the form is fixed. The standard form is common, but lenders may use their own. DSCR lenders often build shorter ones.
- Forgetting HOA dues in the ratio. Dues sit inside PITIA. They can pull coverage down.
- Using a nightly rate as long-term rent. The appraisal runs on monthly-lease comparisons.
- Ordering the questionnaire late. Association response times vary, and the file cannot move without it. Request it early.
Tax treatment can depend on how the funds are used and how the property is held; investors should keep clear records and speak with a qualified tax professional before relying on any deduction.
A Pre-Offer Checklist
Before you write an offer on a condo rental, run this list:
1. Ask the seller or agent whether the building is warrantable, and whether the HOA allows rentals and short-term stays. 2. Request the HOA budget, reserve balance, and master insurance declarations. 3. Ask whether any litigation or special assessment is pending or planned. 4. Confirm the building is finished and no longer under developer control. 5. Get the monthly HOA dues and run the coverage ratio with them included. 6. Talk to a broker about lender fit before the appraisal is ordered.
For larger balances, the questionnaire review works the same way but the reserve and credit requirements step up. Lendmire’s companion piece on how the questionnaire decides eligibility on a jumbo DSCR loan covers that end of the range. The complete DSCR loans guide covers the basics behind the ratio.
Key Terms Defined
DSCR (debt service coverage ratio): monthly rent used for lender review divided by the full monthly housing payment. A ratio of 1.00 means rent equals the payment.
PITIA: principal, interest, taxes, insurance, and association dues. It is the payment the rent has to cover.
LTV (loan-to-value): the loan amount as a percentage of the property’s value or price. Higher LTV means a smaller down payment.
Warrantable condo: a building that meets the standard rules for agency resale. It usually gets the simplest review.
Non-warrantable condo: a building that fails one or more of those rules. It can still be financed by some DSCR lenders, often with tighter terms.
Master policy: the association’s insurance on the building and common areas. It is separate from your own unit-owner policy.
Special assessment: a one-time charge the association bills owners for a large repair or shortfall.
Condotel: a condo building operated like a hotel, often with a rental desk or booking program.
Reserves: liquid savings you hold after closing, counted in months of PITIA. Do not confuse them with the HOA’s own reserve fund.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I see the questionnaire before I make an offer?
You can ask for the HOA’s key documents at that stage, and you should. A full lender questionnaire usually gets requested once the file is in process, but the budget, reserve balance, insurance page, and any litigation disclosure are worth requesting sooner. Reading them early sorts out buildings that would fail review.
Does a red flag on the questionnaire end the deal?
Not always. Some flags, like active structural litigation or hotel-style operations, are hard stops at many lenders. Others, like a modest reserve shortfall or a pending assessment, are judgment calls that can change leverage or pricing. A broker who sees multiple lenders’ guidelines can tell you which lane the building is in.
Does a non-warrantable building lower how much I can borrow?
Typically, yes. Non-warrantable and condotel files tend to carry tighter leverage and smaller loan-size limits than a warrantable condo, and the exact caps vary by lender. Your credit score and reserves still apply on top of that. Everything is subject to lender guidelines and property review.
Does an investor-heavy building block a DSCR loan?
Usually not. Many DSCR lenders regularly finance units in buildings where most owners are investors, since that is the product’s normal market. Some still weigh concentration in their review, so it is worth asking the lender directly before you commit to the unit.
What if the association is slow to return the form?
The file cannot advance without it, since the association is the only source of the answers. Request it early, follow up with the management company, and ask your broker to confirm exactly what that lender needs. Self-managed and small associations tend to be the slowest to respond.
Next Step
If you are buying or refinancing a rental property and want to see how the numbers work, Lendmire can help you compare DSCR loan options based on the property income, credit profile, leverage, and investor goals. As a mortgage broker, it arranges financing through select lenders in its wholesale network, with DSCR programs in 41 markets, including Washington, D.C. Loan eligibility is subject to lender guidelines, credit approval, and property review, and nothing here is a commitment to lend.
About Lendmire
As a DSCR and non-QM mortgage broker, Lendmire — NMLS# 2371349 — connects investors with wholesale lending channels across 41 markets, including Washington, D.C. The property’s rental income, not the borrower’s tax returns, is central to lender review, an approach that suits self-employed operators and portfolios beyond four financed properties. Scotsman Guide named Lendmire a Top Mortgage Workplace in both 2025 and 2026.
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References
1. Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae Form 1076/476, Condominium Project Questionnaire
2. Fannie Mae Condo Status Finder
This article is part of Lendmire’s super jumbo DSCR loan program — full qualification details, guidelines, and scenarios live on the program page.
Related reading: How The Condo Questionnaire Decides DSCR Eligibility On A Short-term Rental? · How The Condo Questionnaire Decides Eligibility On A Jumbo DSCR Rental Loan? · Can A Condotel Qualify For A Luxury Short-term Rental DSCR Loan?
Brandon Miller
Founder & CEO, Mortgage Loan Originator, Lendmire LLC
- Mortgage Loan Originator · NMLS# 1129696 · Verify on NMLS Consumer Access
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- North Carolina Insurance Producer · License# 19053198 · Property, Casualty, Life, Health · Verify on NAIC SBS
- Lendmire LLC · Firm NMLS# 2371349 · Verify firm licensure
Compliance and disclosures. Lendmire (NMLS# 2371349) is a licensed mortgage broker and is not a direct lender, depository institution, financial advisor, or tax professional. Content in this article is general market analysis and educational information — not financial, legal, or tax advice for any specific situation. Lendmire does not guarantee loan approval; every transaction is subject to underwriting by the funding lender. Mortgage pricing and loan program guidelines are subject to change at any time without notice and vary by borrower characteristics, property type, and state regulations. Lendmire complies with Equal Housing Opportunity. Licensure verification: NMLS Consumer Access.