Acra Lending Review 2026: 4,131 Rental Loans, 139 Complaints

Which company is Acra Lending

Acra Lending is not a separate legal entity in the federal loan file. Its website footer shows NMLS ID 144549 and an Irvine, California address, and the 2025 HMDA filer list names the filer Citadel Servicing Corporation (LEI 254900E6AIE4Z8YQM970). The trade press says the same: Citadel Servicing Corporation was bought in February 2020 by funds controlled by HPS Investment Partners and renamed its origination arm Acra Lending in 2021, “operating under the dba Citadel Servicing Corporation” in the words of Mortgage Professional America’s May 23, 2025 report. When you see a lawsuit, licence or complaint for “Citadel Servicing”, it can be the same company; when you see “Citadel” alone, it may not be. Citadel Federal Credit Union and Citadel Finance Company are unrelated names that turn up in the same searches.

Ownership has changed since the 2020 deal. MPA reported in May 2025 that the chief executive had stepped aside and that HPS was about to be acquired by BlackRock; BlackRock and HPS announced completion of that purchase on July 1, 2025, and MPA reported on August 11, 2025 that Acra had named a new chief executive. The same May 2025 report says the company had about 410 employees, 36% overall staff turnover in 2024 (43% in origination) and a Morningstar DBRS originator ranking of MOR RO2 whose trend was changed from Positive to Stable. We have not found a public document that names Acra’s current holder after the BlackRock closing, so treat the parent as HPS-managed funds until the lender says otherwise.

Its own site describes four channels: wholesale, consumer direct, investor and correspondent lending. The pages are written for brokers (a broker portal, “Become An Approved Broker”, rate sheets), so most borrowers meet Acra through a broker, not through its website.

What the federal loan file shows: 2022 to 2025

HMDA obliges lenders to report each application and loan. The table counts loans originated (action taken 1). “Business-purpose” means the lender flagged the loan under HMDA’s business-or-commercial-purpose field. All figures are from the public loan-level file for LEI 254900E6AIE4Z8YQM970, tabulated by us; the loan counts and dollars match the totals the FFIEC data browser reports.

Three readings:

• Growth came in both halves of the book. Originations rose 54% from 2022 to 2025 and dollars 84% (our arithmetic). Business-purpose loans went from 57% of loans in 2022 to 59% in 2025 (our arithmetic), so the mix did not tilt; the whole lender grew.
• 2025 added a purchase channel. The file shows 2,272 loans purchased for $1.04 billion in 2025 (1,524 of them business-purpose rentals), against none in 2024. Those loans were made by other lenders and bought by Acra, which fits the correspondent channel on its site; HMDA does not name the sellers. Counting purchases, the 2025 volume was 9,275 loans and $4.61 billion (our arithmetic).
• Note rates track the market, not the lender. The business-purpose median swung from 7.125% to 9.0% and back to 7.5% as benchmark rates moved. The figures are note rates; HMDA does not show a broker’s fee, points or the prepayment term on these loans.

Acra’s 2025 filing is comparable in size with other non-QM lenders reviewed on this site, such as Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions, which filed 6,232 loans for $2.76 billion. The two pages define “rental loan” differently (Angel Oak’s count uses loans without a debt-to-income ratio, this page uses the business-purpose flag), so do not subtract one median from the other.

What an Acra rental loan cost, by size, purpose and place

The table splits Acra’s 4,131 business-purpose loans of 2025. All were on non-owner-occupied properties, and 3,392 were on a single unit, 732 on two to four units and 7 on five or more.

The loan-size row is the one most borrowers can use: the median rate on loans under $150,000 was 1.125 percentage points above the rate on loans of $250,000 to $999,999 (our arithmetic). Lenders price small loans higher because fixed costs weigh more, and Acra’s middle half of business-purpose loans runs from $185,000 to $495,000, so a small-balance rental sits in the bottom quarter of its book.

South Carolina stands out. Its 163 business-purpose loans had a median size of $105,000, 83 carried a note rate of exactly 10.5%, and 122 were in Charleston County, with 16 in Horry County. Of the 281 business-purpose loans at 10% or more anywhere in the file, 87 are in South Carolina. HMDA does not say why. A program or buyer concentrated in one market could explain it, and so could a product other than a standard DSCR loan. Without that explanation, treat the 10.5% figure as the price of that cluster, not of Acra’s rental loans generally. Leaving South Carolina out, loans under $150,000 still had a median rate of 8.25% (543 loans).

What the lender says it offers

These terms are from acralending.com, read October 20, 2026. They are the lender’s marketing for brokers, not a quote.

Two lines on the DSCR page need a question to your broker. The first is “No Prepay Options available.” It can be read as “this program has no prepayment penalty” or as “prepayment-penalty options are not offered”, which mean opposite things for the borrower’s exit cost, and the page does not say which. Ask for the penalty, if any, in writing before you lock. The second is “LPC & Borrower Paid Comp available (or a combination of the two up to 4 points)”: lender-paid and borrower-paid broker compensation can total up to 4 points, 4% of the loan (our arithmetic), so a $300,000 loan can carry up to $12,000 of compensation on top of the note rate. HMDA does not report that cost on business-purpose loans.

The HMDA prepayment field adds little. It is filled for only 9 of the 7,003 loans in 2025 (14 in 2024, 3 in 2023, none in 2022), although 4,131 are business-purpose. We read that as the field not being reported for these loans, not as evidence about their terms.

The site states turn times for brokers: initial underwriting two to three business days for purchases and refinances, new appraisal review two to four business days, loan documents out one to two business days. These are the lender’s stated process times, not measured closing times.

Applications, approvals and denials in 2025

Because HMDA records every application, it shows what happened to the files that did not close.

Percentages of applications and “of decided” (originated plus approved-not-accepted plus denied) are our arithmetic. Two points follow. Denial is rare, 219 of 6,546 decided business-purpose files, and the first listed reason was “other” in 97, collateral in 93, credit history in 26 and insufficient cash in 3. And roughly a third of approved rental files ended without a loan because the applicant chose not to accept. HMDA does not give the reason; a broker who sends one file to several lenders and takes the best offer produces exactly this pattern, so it is more likely a sign of shopping than of a problem at Acra, but the data cannot confirm it.

Complaints: what the CFPB database shows

On October 20, 2026 we searched the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database. The only company whose name contains “Acra” is Acra Intermediate Holdings, LLC, with 139 complaints received from June 22, 2020 to September 23, 2026. Searches for “Citadel Servicing” and “Acra Lending” returned none, so the complaints sit under the holding company’s name.

What the table says: 97 of the 119 mortgage complaints (82%, our arithmetic) are about struggling to pay or about the payment process, which is the servicing side. The lender’s site says that borrower and servicing links lead to “the Citadel Servicing website which is the servicing channel of Acra Lending.” Only 19 complaints concern closing or applying, six years in. The company answered 138 of 139 on time; 5 ended with monetary relief. California produced 47 and Florida 21; 28 carry the “Older American” tag.

Limits: the database holds only complaints sent through the CFPB, and business-purpose borrowers file there less often. The yearly count is up from 7 in 2024, which may reflect the larger book or more servicing trouble; the file cannot say which. For how other DSCR lenders look in the same database, see is this DSCR lender legit?.

Licences: three numbers, one table

How many states Acra operates in depends on the page. The home page counter says “40+ Licensed States”. The company page says “operating in 39 states and DC”. Its licence table lists 45 states and DC by name (our count), and MPA’s May 2025 report says 47 states and DC. In 2025 HMDA, loans appear in 47 states and DC (24 more have no state reported).

Four states where Acra funded 2025 loans do not appear in the website’s table as we read it: Idaho (43 loans), Massachusetts (22), Rhode Island (3) and West Virginia (1), 69 loans in all, 56 of them flagged business-purpose. Whether a state licence is needed depends on the state’s law and on whether the loan is a business-purpose loan, and we have not checked each statute, so this is a reason to look, not a finding. NMLS Consumer Access, which holds the state-by-state record for NMLS 144549, blocked our automated request on October 20, 2026; check it yourself before you sign. Do the same for your broker.

What a reader can do with this

• Ask your broker for two prices in writing: the lender’s rate and the broker’s compensation, and ask whether the compensation is lender-paid, borrower-paid or both. The site allows up to 4 points in combination.
• Ask for the prepayment term in plain words. “No Prepay Options available” is ambiguous; a written term sheet is not.
• If your loan is under $150,000, price it separately. Acra’s small business-purpose loans were priced about 1.1 points higher than loans of $250,000 and up in 2025.
• Compare at least one other lender the same day. About a third of approved Acra rental files in 2025 did not close with Acra; shopping is normal. For terms across lenders see DSCR loan rates 2026 and best DSCR loan lenders 2026; for the broader product see non-QM loans 2026.
• Check licences and servicing. Look up NMLS 144549 and your broker on NMLS Consumer Access, and ask who services the loan after sale: almost all 2025 loans were sold, and the complaint record is mostly about servicing.

FAQ

Sources, read October 20, 2026: FFIEC HMDA loan-level files and aggregation totals for 2022 to 2025 and the 2025 filer list (CFPB Data Browser, LEI 254900E6AIE4Z8YQM970), tabulated by us with the filter action taken = 1 for originations and the occupancy and business-purpose filters applied locally; the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database search API; acralending.com home, company, programs, Investor Cash Flow, Business Purpose and Turn Times pages; Mortgage Professional America reports of February 25, 2020, May 23, 2025 and August 11, 2025; Lowenstein Sandler’s announcement of February 24, 2020; the BlackRock and HPS press release of July 1, 2025 filed with the SEC. This is analysis of public records, not investment, legal, lending or tax advice. We have no commercial relationship with Acra Lending; Kiavi is a paid link.