Short-Term Rental Loans: How Lenders Count Airbnb Income
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Quick Answer
As of October 12, 2026, the two ways to finance an Airbnb count its income very differently. Fannie Mae’s Selling Guide, in a topic dated 09/02/2026 (B3-3.8-03), allows short-term rental income only on “one-unit investment properties,” only if the property is “legally permitted to operate as a short-term rental,” and on a purchase counts 50% of the gross rent from three comparable short-term rentals or a Form 1007 before subtracting the payment (“The remaining 50% accounts for vacancy losses and maintenance expenses”). DSCR lenders publish their own factors: Easy Street Capital’s 2023 tear sheet takes, for a non-professional owner with under 12 months of history, AirDNA projections less a 25% haircut; AD Mortgage’s 2023 post counts 75% of the 12-month average; HomeBridge’s June 2023 bulletin counts annual AirDNA revenue divided by 12 but requires a 1.25 DSCR, a 700 score and no more than 75% loan-to-value. Lima One’s short-term rental page lists 75% LTV on a purchase, 70% on a cash-out, a minimum FICO of 700 and loans of $75K to $2.5M. Kiavi’s national DSCR page says its qualifying rent is the lower of 110% of appraised market rent and a valid lease rent, while its Arizona page says short-term rental loans “Qualify on nightly rental revenue.”
Key Takeaways
- Conventional route: Fannie Mae’s new short-term rental topic (B3-3.8-03, dated 09/02/2026, Announcement SEL-2026-08) covers one-unit investment properties only, bars income from an accessory dwelling unit, requires the property to be legally permitted with all local registration and licensing, counts 50% of gross rent on a purchase, and on a refinance uses Schedule E cash flow averaged over 12 months. A positive result may only offset the payment; a negative one goes into the debt-to-income ratio.
- DSCR route: no two lenders count the income the same way. Published factors range from 100% of AirDNA revenue (Easy Street, for what it calls a professional STR investor) to 75% of the 12-month average (AD Mortgage, 2023) to a 25% haircut on projections (Easy Street’s 2023 tear sheet). Easy Street says most DSCR lenders use “generally 20% less” than the AirDNA projection.
- Lender pages disagree with each other: Kiavi’s Arizona page promises nightly-revenue qualifying while its national DSCR page describes market rent and lease rent only; Visio’s STR guide and DSCR page give different volume totals; and Lima One’s STR page now says minimum FICO 700, where our earlier page quoted 660.
- The law can remove the income after you close. Arizona (A.R.S. 9-500.39) bars a city from prohibiting short-term rentals but lets it deny or suspend a permit on listed grounds; Florida (Fla. Stat. 509.032(7)(b)) bars local bans except for local laws adopted on or before June 1, 2011; New York City’s Local Law 18 of 2022 lets only a natural person who is a permanent occupant register (our reading: an investor-owned, non-owner-occupied unit cannot).
- Two claims we could not support: Kiavi’s Arizona page says “cities can’t ban STRs” and implies that protects your investment (the statute still lets a city refuse or suspend a permit), and AD Mortgage’s 2023 post says “Short-term rental is illegal in Texas” (the Texas Comptroller’s hotel-tax page treats house rentals as taxable).
- Freddie Mac’s equivalent text is not on this page: its Guide is a script-driven application that returned no readable text to us, and we did not substitute secondary summaries.
CSV · 69 rows
Short-term rental loans: Fannie Mae's rule, lenders' published STR terms, state law and the IRS seven-day test
69 rows: Fannie Mae B3-3.8-03 and B3-3.8-01 (September 2, 2026), nine lenders' published STR terms with their dates, Arizona, Florida, New York City and Texas sources, and the Treasury regulation. One source per row.
How Fannie Mae counts Airbnb income (the conventional route)
If you are buying one short-term rental and have the income and the 20-plus percent down for an investment-property mortgage, the conventional route is the first to price. Our conventional investment-property loan page covers the general rental-income rule (75% of rent for a long-term rental); the short-term rental rule is separate and, in Fannie Mae’s Selling Guide, new. The guide dates topic B3-3.8-03 to 09/02/2026 and lists Announcement SEL-2026-08 beside it. The older section number many pages still cite, B3-3.1-08, now redirects to B3-3.8-01, “General Rental Income Information,” also dated 09/02/2026.
| Item | What B3-3.8-03 says (09/02/2026) |
|---|---|
| Property | “One-unit investment properties only.” Income cannot come from an accessory dwelling unit. |
| Legality | The property must be legally permitted as a short-term rental, “including compliance with all applicable local registration and licensing requirements.” |
| Definition | A furnished, residential property rented for brief periods, “typically less than 30 consecutive days.” |
| Purchase: income evidence | Form 1007 completed on standard long-term rentals, or validated rental data for three comparable short-term rentals from the MLS or property management companies (daily, weekly or monthly rates, days rented in the last calendar year). |
| Purchase: how much counts | The lender multiplies the monthly gross rental amount by 50% and subtracts the PITIA. The guide’s reason: “The remaining 50% accounts for vacancy losses and maintenance expenses.” |
| Refinance, property on Schedule E | A cash flow analysis of Schedule E, averaged over 12 months, minus the PITIA. |
| Refinance, property not on Schedule E | Gross rent multiplied by 50%, minus the PITIA. |
| Positive result | May offset the PITIA only. |
| Negative result | Counted in the debt-to-income ratio. |
Two conditions sit outside this topic, in B3-3.8-01. First, a lender may use positive rental income only if the borrower “has at least 12 months of property management experience,” proven mainly by a tax return showing rental income and 365 Fair Rental Days; with less, rental income can only offset the payment. Second, the guide’s own example says that if a short-term rental has been in service for more than a year but Schedule E shows fewer than 365 Fair Rental Days, Schedule E must support the reduced number of days and related repair costs. For a first-time buyer of a vacation rental, the practical result (our reading) is that the rent can reduce the qualifying payment but not add to income.
An illustration with made-up numbers (our arithmetic). Take a purchase where the validated comparables imply $5,000 a month of gross rent and the payment (PITIA) is $3,200. Fannie Mae counts 50%, or $2,500, so the adjusted net rental income is $2,500 minus $3,200 = negative $700, and the lender adds that $700 to your monthly debts. The same $5,000 clears a DSCR lender’s test in the table further down, which is why investors who buy more than one property look at the DSCR route.
What DSCR lenders publish about short-term rentals
Our pages on DSCR requirements and the best DSCR lenders cover ratio, score and entity rules. This page covers only what changes for an Airbnb. Below is what each lender says on its own site or in its own published bulletin, read October 12, 2026. They are the lenders’ claims, dates are shown where the document has one, and where a lender is silent we say so.
| Lender (document, date) | How the income is counted | Ratio, score, leverage as printed |
|---|---|---|
| Lima One Capital (STR loan page, undated) | “We underwrite properties using AirDNA and other data sources that look at actual short-term rental property income in the surrounding market.” | Up to 75% LTV on purchases, up to 70% on cash-out; minimum FICO 700; $75K to $2.5M; no DSCR minimum printed |
| Visio Lending (STR guide, post dated February 18, 2025) | Properties are evaluated using “historical short-term rental income or market-based projections”; the guide does not say how projections are discounted | Up to 80% LTV; 20% to 25% down expected; a list of funding minimums on the same page includes a 680 credit score, $150,000 property value and $75,000 loan; no DSCR minimum printed |
| Easy Street Capital (STR page, undated) | DSCR is projected income divided by PITIA. It uses 100% of AirDNA projected revenue for a professional STR investor (three or more STRs with 12 months of records, or one in the same market for a year or more); otherwise long-term market rent from an appraiser, and AirDNA only in certain cases | No minimum DSCR; 20% minimum down; up to 4 units |
| Easy Street Capital (EasyRent tear sheet, file path dated 2023/03) | Non-professional owner: trailing-twelve-month revenue if the property has 12 months of history; AirDNA projections less a 25% haircut if less | 80% LTV on purchase (older document) |
| Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions (DSCR page, undated) | Lists “AirDNA Analysis – Automated short term rental report” among its options; the page does not say how it is weighted | Loans of $100,000 to $3 million; rental AVM option capped at 75% LTV, one unit only |
| LendingOne (RentalFlex page, undated) | “Financing available for short-term vacation rentals like Airbnb and Vrbo properties”; no method printed | Headline DSCR “Lowered to .75” (the page does not say it applies to short-term rentals) |
| Griffin Funding (DSCR page, “last updated: October 2026”) | Market rent from the appraisal, documented rental history, or AirDNA-style market data, “depending on the program”; “your market must permit STR use” | Says STR files have their own coverage minimums and LTV limits but does not print them |
| Kiavi (national DSCR page; Arizona page) | National page: lower of 110% of appraised market rent and valid lease rent. Arizona page: STR loans “Qualify on nightly rental revenue” | National page: up to 80% LTV; no STR-specific figure printed |
| HomeBridge Wholesale, Access program (Bulletin 23-31, June 26, 2023) | Purchase: AirDNA Rentalizer annual revenue divided by 12. Refinance: 12 months of documented payment history from a third-party manager, including months with zero deposits | Purchase: minimum 1.25 DSCR, minimum 700 score, 75% LTV with a year of STR experience and 70% without; refinance: 70% LTV |
| AD Mortgage (broker post, March 15, 2023) | 75% of the 12-month average rental income, or of the 1007; with no actual rent, 75% of AirDNA Rentalizer values at the underwriter’s discretion | Not stated on the post |
What this table does not give you. Lima One, Visio, Angel Oak, LendingOne and Griffin print no haircut on projections, and Visio, Angel Oak and Griffin print no short-term rental DSCR minimum. The two documents that state numbers, HomeBridge’s and AD Mortgage’s, are dated 2023 and may have changed; Easy Street’s tear sheet is also from 2023 and its current page describes a different no-history rule (long-term market rent from an appraiser, with AirDNA “in certain cases”). Treat the 2023 numbers as examples of how lenders structure the haircut, not as today’s terms.
Same property, five methods (illustration with made-up numbers, our arithmetic). A short-term rental projected at $5,000 a month with a $3,200 payment:
| Method (source) | Income counted per month | Result against the $3,200 payment |
|---|---|---|
| Fannie Mae purchase (50%, 09/02/2026) | $2,500 | Negative $700 goes into the debt-to-income ratio |
| Easy Street under-12-month non-professional (AirDNA less 25%, 2023 sheet) | $3,750 | Ratio 1.17 |
| AD Mortgage (75%, 2023 post) | $3,750 | Ratio 1.17 |
| HomeBridge purchase (annual AirDNA revenue divided by 12, June 2023) | $5,000 | Ratio 1.56 against a 1.25 minimum |
| Easy Street professional STR investor (100% of AirDNA) | $5,000 | Ratio 1.56; no minimum printed |
The spread is the point: the same listing can be a 1.17 at one lender and a 1.56 at another before anyone looks at your credit. The input that moves it is the revenue projection, which none of these lenders publishes in full, so ask for the projection report you are being underwritten on.
Where the lenders’ own pages disagree
- Kiavi. The national DSCR page says the qualifying rent is “the lower of 110% of appraised market rent and your valid lease rent.” A short-term rental has no lease. Its Arizona page, by contrast, lists a short-term rental loan to “Qualify on nightly rental revenue.” The two pages do not reconcile, and neither gives a haircut, minimum ratio or score for short-term rentals. Ask Kiavi in writing which rule applies to your file.
- Lima One. Our DSCR requirements page, read September 26, 2026, shows a 660 score for Lima One’s short-term rental program; its STR loan page on October 12, 2026 lists “Minimum FICO 700.” We have not reconciled the two; the Lima One page is the later reading.
- Visio. Its DSCR page says more than $4.2 billion in DSCR loans including over $1.2 billion in vacation rentals; its STR guide says more than $3.5 billion including over $990 million. These are marketing totals, not underwriting terms, but they show the pages are not maintained together.
- Easy Street. The 2023 tear sheet and the current STR page describe different treatments of a property without history (a 25% haircut on AirDNA versus long-term market rent with AirDNA in certain cases).
The law that can end the income
Every lender above ties its loan to the income continuing, and short-term rental law is local. State law sets the outer limits. Three examples read from official texts:
| Place and text | What it says | Why it matters to a lender (our reading) |
|---|---|---|
| Arizona, A.R.S. 9-500.39 | “A city or town may not prohibit vacation rentals or short-term rentals.” A city may require a permit; it may deny one only on listed grounds, including that the owner has a suspended permit for the same rental, may require liability insurance of at least $500,000, and a court may suspend a property’s use as a short-term rental for up to twelve months after a qualifying felony offense. | The income is protected from a ban, not from a permit loss. Kiavi’s “cities can’t ban STRs” is accurate as far as it goes; “State law protects your investment” goes further than the statute. |
| Florida, Fla. Stat. 509.032(7)(b) | “A local law, ordinance, or regulation may not prohibit vacation rentals or regulate the duration or frequency of rental of vacation rentals.” The paragraph “does not apply to any local law, ordinance, or regulation adopted on or before June 1, 2011.” | Whether a Florida city can restrict your rental depends on when its ordinance was adopted. Check the date before you rely on the statute. |
| New York City, Administrative Code 26-3101 to 26-3102 (Local Law 18 of 2022) | A short-term rental is a rental “for fewer than 30 consecutive days.” It is unlawful to offer one unless the dwelling unit is registered, and no registration issues unless “The applicant is a natural person who is a permanent occupant of the dwelling unit.” | A non-owner-occupied investor unit cannot meet the permanent-occupant test, which is the profile a DSCR loan requires. Fannie Mae’s “legally permitted” condition has the same effect on a conventional file. |
Texas is the opposite check on a lender claim. AD Mortgage’s 2023 post says “Short-term rental is illegal in Texas.” We found no Texas statute that says so, and the Texas Comptroller’s hotel-tax page says that “Persons leasing their houses must collect hotel occupancy tax from their customers.” That does not make every Texas city or homeowners association permissive, and we did not read any Texas city ordinance; it means a statewide statement from a lender is not a substitute for the local rule on your address. Fannie Mae makes the point in its own text: the property must be “legally permitted,” including local registration and licensing, and Griffin writes that “your market must permit STR use.”
The tax test lenders do not ask about, and why it still matters
The Treasury regulation on passive activity losses says an activity “is not a rental activity” for a year if “The average period of customer use for such property is seven days or less” (26 CFR 1.469-1T(e)(3)(ii)(A)), or if the average is 30 days or less and significant personal services are provided. IRS Publication 925 says to figure the average by “dividing the total number of days in all rental periods by the number of rentals during the tax year.” None of the lender pages above mentions this test, because a lender’s income calculation does not turn on it; it decides whether a loss can offset other income, not whether the loan closes. It still interacts with the loan: a property that averages two- or three-night stays is judged under the material participation rules instead of the rental rules. Our page on real estate professional status sets out the regulation word for word and what the Tax Court has decided. This is not tax advice.
What a borrower can do with this
- Decide the route by the file, not the rate. For one property and a salaried buyer, price Fannie Mae’s 50% rule first; for a second or third property, an LLC or income that does not document, compare the DSCR lenders (see DSCR versus a conventional mortgage).
- Ask each lender four questions in writing: whether it underwrites on a projection or on 12 months of platform history for your situation; what share of the projection it counts; what minimum DSCR and score apply to a short-term rental specifically (not the long-term program); and whether a permit or registration is a condition of closing.
- Read your address before the lender does. Pull the city or county rule, the HOA documents and any state statute for the property’s exact location; a permit you cannot get is income you cannot count.
- Keep records from day one. The refinance rules at Fannie Mae (Schedule E) and HomeBridge (12 months of manager statements that identify the property by address) turn on documented history, and Easy Street’s 100% treatment of AirDNA revenue is reserved for owners with 12 months of records on other properties.
- Run the ratio both ways in our DSCR calculator with the haircut you are quoted, and see investment property loans for the other products.
Kiavi pays CrowdfundedWealth a referral fee if a new borrower who clicks the button above closes a loan; Visio and Lima One do not. Of the three, Lima One and Visio publish a short-term rental page; Kiavi’s published short-term rental language is limited to its Arizona page, and the table above reads the same way for all of them.
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FAQ
This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice. Lender terms come from each lender’s own website, broker tear sheet or bulletin, read October 12, 2026 (Lima One Capital, Visio Lending, Easy Street Capital, Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions, LendingOne, Griffin Funding, Kiavi, HomeBridge Wholesale Bulletin 23-31, AD Mortgage); they are the lenders’ claims, not ours, and the Easy Street sheet, HomeBridge bulletin and AD Mortgage post are from 2023. Conventional rules come from the Fannie Mae Selling Guide topics B3-3.8-01 and B3-3.8-03 (09/02/2026); Freddie Mac’s Guide was not readable. State and city law comes from A.R.S. 9-500.39 (azleg.gov), Fla. Stat. 509.032 (leg.state.fl.us), Local Law 18 of 2022 (nyc.gov) and the Texas Comptroller’s hotel occupancy tax page. Tax text is 26 CFR 1.469-1T (eCFR, October 1, 2026 version) and IRS Publication 925. Illustrations marked “our arithmetic” use made-up inputs. Compiled by CrowdfundedWealth, October 12, 2026.
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