Intermediate guides

A hard money loan is fast, short and expensive on purpose. Here is how lenders size one, what it really costs, how the renovation money is paid, and how you get out of it.

When the rent falls short of the payment, some programs lend anyway. Here is what they charge for it, what they ask in return, and how to price the shortfall you would carry.

Both loans help borrowers whose tax returns undersell them. One reads your deposits as income; the other ignores income and reads the rent. Here is how to tell which one your next purchase needs.

A DSCR rate is a base price plus a stack of adjustments for your file. Know the stack and you can see which levers are worth pulling, and what each one costs.

Almost every DSCR loan trades a lower rate for a fee if you pay it off early. Here is how the common structures work, what they cost, and how to match one to your exit.

A lower payment for the first years, a higher one after. Here is how an interest-only period changes the ratio, the cash flow, the equity and the price, worked on one loan.

A DSCR loan can qualify a vacation rental on what it books, not what you earn. The catch is in how the lender counts that income. Here is each method, with the numbers.

Two to four units are still residential lending, sized on rent over the payment. Here is how lenders read a multi-unit rent roll, what changes from a house, and where the commercial world begins.

A DSCR cash-out turns a rental's equity into cash on the strength of its rent. Here is how much you can take, how long you must own it first, and what it costs.

There is no national average worth using. There is a method: price the nights from real comparable listings, build the year season by season, subtract every cost, then test it.

The return a property would earn bought with cash. How to calculate it, what moves it, and what it says, and does not say, about one $400,000 house.

What your own dollars earn once the loan is paid. How to calculate it, what belongs on each side, and why one $400,000 house returns less than nothing as a long-term rental.

BRRRR recycles the same cash through one rental after another. The refinance decides whether it works, so here is each step, the rules that govern it, and a deal worked to the dollar.

A 1031 exchange defers the tax on a rental's sale if you reinvest in more real estate. The deadlines are unforgiving and the boot rules catch people, so here is how each piece works.

Depreciation lets you deduct the cost of a rental building over 27.5 years, even while the property gains value. Here is how to work it out, what it does to your taxes now, and what it costs you when you sell.

An LLC can hold a rental and borrow for it, but it changes which loans you can use and what you sign. Here is how the financing works, from forming the company to closing.