Blanket Loan for Rental Properties 2026: What 10 Investor Lenders Publish, How Partial Release Works, and the Fannie Mae 10-Property Limit

Blanket loan vs portfolio loan: one search, two different products

The two phrases pull 1,600 and 1,900 US searches a month, and they are not the same product. A blanket loan is a single mortgage secured by more than one property. Easy Street Capital defines it on its own FAQ: a blanket rental loan is “the term used for having one loan secured by multiple properties,” and it adds that this is “also sometimes called a ‘portfolio’ loan.” A portfolio loan in the banking sense is a loan the lender keeps on its own books instead of selling it to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or a securitization. The two overlap, but a bank can hold a single-property loan in portfolio, and an investor lender can sell a blanket loan into a securitization.

The bank meaning is easy to see in a rate sheet. Axos Bank’s wholesale single-family rental sheet for Friday, August 21, 2026 lists a minimum loan of $500,000, priced bands up to $10,000,001 to $20,000,000, a 30-day average SOFR index on its adjustable rates, optional prepayment penalties of none, one year or two years on investment loans, and a line labelled cross-collateralization (−0.250 in the adjustment table of its portfolio ARM sheet; the sheet does not explain its sign convention). That is a balance-sheet portfolio product with cross-collateralization as an option, not a blanket loan program with a published property minimum. The rest of this page is about the first meaning: one loan, many rentals.

What investor lenders publish: how many properties and how big a loan

We read the portfolio or blanket page of ten lenders on October 7, 2026 and saved each one. Two of the ten show no blanket program. Kiavi’s page at the address ending “rental-portfolio-loans” now titles itself “Buy, Refinance, and Grow with a Rental Property Loan,” describes single-property loans, and its FAQ says Kiavi offers “single asset bridge and rental property loans” and anticipates “adding more property types and portfolios soon.” Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions’ Investor Cash Flow page lists loans from $100,000 to $3 million and a “Max of five loans with AOMS,” with no blanket product. Of the other eight, here is what each states.

Blanket and portfolio programs: property counts and loan size (pages read October 7, 2026)

Three things stand out. First, the entry point has fallen: the oldest document here (Visio’s blog, “originally published in September 2017”) says “most lenders will only do a blanket mortgage on a minimum of 5-7 properties” and promotes four; today four programs from three lenders accept two or three. Second, the lender pages disagree with their own older pages: Lima One’s press release for Rental30 Premier describes “portfolios valued at $500,000 and higher that consist of 5 or more properties,” while its rental page now says “Two or more rental properties, one loan.” Third, units and properties are different counts. RCN asks for “20 to 100+ units,” which a portfolio of five 4-unit buildings can meet, and CoreVest’s rental portfolio page says “5+ rental properties or units.”

Leverage, coverage ratio and amortization

Blanket and portfolio programs: leverage, DSCR, term and amortization

A reader comparing these with single-property DSCR loans should note two inversions. Easy Street’s single-property EasyRent program states that it does not require a minimum DSCR, but its blanket program “requires a minimum DSCR of 1.20x” and the same state for every property. And the long-term products of the larger lenders (CoreVest 3 to 10 years, RCN 5 to 10 years, LendingOne institutional 5 to 10 years) are not 30-year loans: they mature in 3 to 10 years and have to be refinanced or paid off, unlike the 30-year fixed blanket loans of Lima One, Easy Street, Visio and FACo. Our page on DSCR loan requirements covers the single-property numbers, and the DSCR loan calculator lets you run the coverage ratio on a portfolio’s combined rent and payment.

Prepayment, recourse and cross-collateralization

Blanket and portfolio programs: prepayment, recourse, cross-collateralization and release terms as published

CoreVest’s page adds a feature few blanket loans advertise: “For loans over $5 million, we generally grant a one-time right for a purchaser to assume the existing debt,” subject to underwriting and an assumption fee. Easy Street’s FAQ ties the price of a prepayment penalty to the rate: “Generally, the higher and longer the prepayment penalty is in effect, the lower interest rate you will have.” Lima One’s blog states the tradeoff in one sentence: cross-collateralization lets a borrower combine the equity in several properties “while retaining the ability to sell single properties out of the portfolio if necessary.” It does not say at what price.

Partial release: the clause that decides whether you can sell one house

Cross-collateralization means every property secures the whole loan. A partial release clause is what lets a borrower pay down part of the loan to take one property out of the collateral and sell it. No lender page we saved states a release price, the number of releases allowed, or the coverage test. To see what the clause says, we read two loan agreements filed with the SEC as exhibits to 8-K reports.

Front Yard Residential, Freddie Mac Loan Agreement – SFR (effective August 8, 2018; $508,700,000; Berkadia as lender) — filed with the SEC as Exhibit 10.2 to an 8-K. The agreement’s Section 7.05 sets these conditions for a voluntary release of a mortgaged property, and its definitions set the price:

• Price. The Release Amount is “115% of the Allocated Loan Amount” when there is no continuing event of default, the greater of 115% and 100% of transfer proceeds when there is one, and 100% for a mandatory release after casualty, condemnation or a hazardous-materials event. The allocated loan amount is “the portion of the Loan made with respect to such Mortgaged Property, as set forth on Schedule I.”
• Frequency. “No more than two Release Property Transfers can occur in a calendar year,” and none “in the six months immediately prior to the Maturity Date.”
• Notice. The borrower submits the request “not less than 30 days prior” to the transfer date, with a $350 review fee.
• Coverage test. The rent-to-debt-service ratio, computed on twelve months of collected rents minus the released property’s rents over twelve times the preceding month’s principal and interest, must be at least the required ratio in Article I, which reads 1.25 : 1.00, and the total released may not pass a release cap of 954 properties.
• Payment. At closing the borrower pays the Release Amount “plus all interest and prepayment premium amounts required under the Note.”

Invitation Homes 2019-1 Loan Agreement (dated June 7, 2019; Rothesay Life PLC as lender) — Exhibit 10.1 to an 8-K. Here the allocated loan amount is a share of the outstanding balance in proportion to a broker price opinion: “the most recent BPO Value for such Property, divided by … the total of the most recent BPO Value for all Properties, multiplied by … the Outstanding Principal Balance.” The release price steps up as more is released:

A worked example with the 115% price (our arithmetic; the percentages come from the Front Yard agreement and the allocation method from the Invitation Homes agreement). A $1,000,000 loan on five rentals with broker price opinions of $280,000, $240,000, $300,000, $260,000 and $320,000, total $1,400,000. The first house is 20% of the total value, so its allocated loan amount is $200,000 and its release price at 115% is $230,000. Sold for $300,000 less 6% costs ($282,000 net), it leaves $52,000 in the borrower’s hands. The loan falls to $770,000 against $1,120,000 of remaining value, a loan-to-value of 68.75% where it was 71.43%. The clause is built to improve the lender’s position with each release, which is why the premium exists, and why a borrower who plans to sell one house a year has to price that premium, the cap and the coverage test before choosing a lender. These two agreements are large securitization-type loans; a $1 million blanket loan from a small lender may use a different formula, and only its own documents say which.

Why investors move to blanket loans: Fannie Mae’s 10-property limit

The limit is in the Fannie Mae Selling Guide, section B2-2-03, “Multiple Financed Properties for the Same Borrower,” version of 11/05/2025. The table says that for a second home or an investment property the maximum number of financed properties is “DU - 10.” The count is specific:

• It is “the number of one- to four-unit residential properties where the borrower is personally obligated on the mortgage(s),” with “multiple unit properties (such as a two-unit) counting as one property.”
• It includes the borrower’s principal residence if it is financed.
• Multifamily property “consisting of more than four units” and commercial real estate are not subject to the limit.
• Mortgages in an LLC’s name on which the borrower is not personally obligated are not counted. The Guide’s own example: a borrower with four two-unit investment properties financed in an LLC “is not personally obligated on the mortgages” and so is “not included in the property count.”

Section B3-4.1-01 (version of 08/07/2024) adds reserves as the count rises: “2% of the aggregate UPB if the borrower has one to four financed properties,” 4% for five to six, and “6% … if the borrower has seven to ten financed properties (DU only).” Lenders say the same thing in marketing terms. LendingOne’s comparison table lists conventional loans at “Max 10 Properties,” and Lima One’s blog says “most people can only qualify for 10 or so Freddie Mac loans before they hit the limit” (a Lima One statement, not Freddie Mac text). Our page on DSCR versus conventional loans works through when the limit binds and what a conventional loan costs by comparison. One qualification belongs next to it: because the count includes only mortgages the borrower is personally obligated on, an investor who already finances rentals through LLCs without a personal obligation may not be as close to 10 as the number of properties suggests.

Are blanket loans in the federal mortgage data? What HMDA does with them

Two federal rules explain why blanket loans are hard to see. Business-purpose credit is among the transactions Regulation Z lists as not subject to its rules (12 CFR 1026.3(a)(1): “An extension of credit primarily for a business, commercial or agricultural purpose.”), so it is not subject to Regulation Z. And under Regulation C, a closed-end loan made primarily for a business or commercial purpose is excluded from HMDA reporting unless it is “a home improvement loan under § 1003.2(i), a home purchase loan under § 1003.2(j), or a refinancing under § 1003.2(p)” (12 CFR 1003.3(c)(10)). A blanket loan that buys or refinances rentals is therefore reportable, if the lender is above the reporting threshold (a lender that originated fewer than 25 closed-end mortgage loans in either of the two preceding calendar years does not report, 12 CFR 1003.3(c)(11)). We checked 12 CFR 1003.3(c) and the official interpretation on loans with several collateral properties.

The interpretation is the catch. Comment 4(a)(9)-2 says that if more than one property is taken as security, the lender “reports the covered loan or application in a single entry on its loan/application register and provides the information required by § 1003.4(a)(9) for one of the properties taken as security that contains a dwelling,” and “does not report information about the other properties taken as security.” A 20-house blanket loan is one row with one address. The reported property value is “the property value relied on in making the credit decision” (comment 4(a)(28)-1) and the combined loan-to-value ratio “may include more than one property” (comment 4(a)(24)-6). So HMDA cannot count properties in a blanket loan, but it leaves a trace: a loan larger than the one property whose value was reported.

We downloaded the FFIEC HMDA Data Browser nationwide file for 2025 on October 7, 2026 (5,320,033 originated conventional loans) and selected originated first-lien, closed-end, non-reverse loans on investment properties (occupancy type 3) made for a business or commercial purpose. There were 413,732. By term (our arithmetic): 73,358 ran 36 months or less (the hard-money type in our hard money loan rates study), 30,096 ran 37 to 119 months, 44,380 ran 120 to 359 months and 264,690 ran 360 months or more; 1,208 reported no term. Loans with a term of 60 months or more, our proxy for rental term loans, number 338,210 and total $291,969,210,000.

2025 long-term (60 months or more) business-purpose investor loans in HMDA, selected lenders

How to read it. Kiavi, Visio, Angel Oak and Lima One make single-property loans in this record: essentially none reports a loan above its property value, and Kiavi’s largest is $2,005,000. CoreVest looks different, with a median loan of $405,000, 75 loans of $2 million or more, a largest loan of $37,495,000 and 30.5% of its loans above the reported property value, consistent with pooled collateral reported under one property’s value. One CoreVest record in the file shows a $1,745,000 loan against a reported value of $455,000. This is an inference from the reporting rules, not proof: a loan above its reported value can also be a data-entry error or a loan with a rehabilitation component, and 21st Mortgage (a lender outside this table) alone accounts for 428 of the 2,372. Easy Street Capital’s 2,409 HMDA loans in the group all have terms of 36 months or less, so its blanket loans do not show here. Visio’s 2,202 loans have a 360-month term, matching its 30-year product, with no sign of pooled collateral in the HMDA record. HMDA has no field for blanket, DSCR or cross-collateralized loans; the filters and the API address are in the data file.

What a borrower can do with this

1. Ask for the release clause before the term sheet. On every page we saved, the price, the number of releases a year and the coverage test were missing. In the SEC-filed agreements they are the 115% price, two releases a year and a 1.25 coverage test (Front Yard) or a 105% to 120% price by tier (Invitation Homes). Put the same four questions to each lender: release price as a share of allocated loan amount, how the allocation is set, how many releases a year, and the coverage test on what remains.
2. Match the product to the plan. If you will hold for decades, the 30-year fully amortizing programs (Lima One, Easy Street, Visio’s older product, FACo) avoid a refinance. If you want 3-, 5- or 10-year money, CoreVest, RCN and LendingOne institutional are term loans that must be refinanced or sold, and CoreVest says its yield maintenance runs 54 months on a 5-year note.
3. Check the count that matters. Under Fannie Mae B2-2-03 only mortgages you are personally obligated on count toward the 10. If you hold rentals in LLCs without a personal obligation, list them separately before assuming you must go to a blanket loan.
4. Price the penalty with the rate. Easy Street’s own FAQ ties a longer, higher prepayment penalty to a lower rate; ask for the quote with the penalty you actually expect to pay.
5. Compare the single-property alternative. A blanket loan with a 1.20x coverage requirement (Easy Street) and one-state collateral is stricter than the same lender’s single-property program, which has no stated minimum DSCR. Our best DSCR lender comparison and the reviews of Lima One, Easy Street Capital and LendingOne cover the single-loan side.

Kiavi pays us a referral fee when a loan closes through its button in the box below. On the pages we saved, Kiavi’s and Visio’s current DSCR pages describe single-property loans, while Lima One lists a portfolio rental program; ask each lender directly whether it will pool your properties. This is analysis of public documents and the law, not investment, legal or tax advice, and not a loan offer.

FAQ

Lender pages and rate sheets: Lima One (limaone.com rental loans page, rental-portfolio-loans blog, rental30 press release), CoreVest (corevestfinance.com rental portfolio, 30-year DSCR portfolio and loan-types pages), LendingOne (SFR Portfolio Loans page and Institutional Group Product Overview PDF), Easy Street Capital (EasyRent page and rental FAQ), RCN Capital (loan programs and FAQ), FACo Lending rental portfolio page, Visio Lending (DSCR page and Rental360 Portfolio+ blog), Kiavi (rental property loans page and FAQ), Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions (Investor Cash Flow page) and Axos Bank (SFR wholesale rate sheet of August 21, 2026), all saved October 7, 2026. Loan agreements: Front Yard Residential 8-K Exhibit 10.2 (Freddie Mac Loan Agreement – SFR, effective August 8, 2018) and Invitation Homes 8-K Exhibit 10.1 (loan agreement dated June 7, 2019), SEC EDGAR. Rules: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B2-2-03 (11/05/2025) and B3-4.1-01 (08/07/2024); 12 CFR 1026.3 (eCFR, 2026-10-01); 12 CFR 1003.3 and Supplement I to Part 1003, comments 4(a)(9)-2, 4(a)(24)-6 and 4(a)(28)-1. Data: FFIEC HMDA Data Browser, nationwide 2025 originated conventional loans, downloaded October 7, 2026 (request address and filters in the data file; the business-purpose rows are in sources as a compressed file); lender names from the FFIEC 2025 filer list. All counts, shares, medians and the worked release example are our arithmetic. Programs change without notice and rates are not published on most of these pages. This is analysis of public documents and the law, not investment, legal or tax advice, and not a loan offer.