AmWest Funding Review 2026: 3,792 DSCR Loans, 70 Complaints

One name, two businesses

The search results for “AmWest Funding” are mostly consumer-mortgage pages (employee and customer reviews, Yelp, WalletHub and the company’s own site), and the public website is built for homebuyers. Its home page, learning center and loan-types page describe conventional, jumbo and FHA home loans, and the loan-types page says its jumbo loans can be used for “1 unit primary, secondary, or investment property transactions.” The words DSCR, rental and non-QM do not appear on any of the consumer pages we saved. The company says it was “originally founded in 1995,” is based at 6 Pointe Drive in Brea, California, and shows NMLS ID 167441 in the footer. A California regulator’s 2017 papers say it was formerly known as PMAC Lending Services, Inc.

The investor product sits behind the trade portals. The site links to a wholesale portal, a correspondent portal and a retail pipeline for authorized retailers, and the correspondent site publishes an “Investor Advantage” guide. In practice a rental borrower reaches the program through a mortgage broker or a correspondent lender, not through the consumer pages. A 2024 company press release, which describes AmWest as originating government, conforming, prime jumbo and non-QM loans, says the company had over $15 billion of non-QM originations since inception, “primarily sourced via its national wholesale platform.”

One name trap: a California Department of Corporations accusation that turns up in searches for “AmWest” is against Ameriwest Financial, Inc., a different company. Nothing in this review comes from that file.

This page is mostly about the second business, the one that competes with Kiavi, Visio and Lima One, and reports the first only as the baseline against which it can be read. If you came for a home loan, see the owner-occupied rows and the complaint table, then check the licence for your state.

The same lender, side by side: HMDA 2025

HMDA obliges lenders to report each application and loan. The table counts loans originated in 2025 (action taken 1) and splits them by what the loan is for. “DSCR-type” is the definition used on our DSCR lender ranking: conventional, first lien, closed-end, one-to-four units, investment-property occupancy, flagged business-purpose, no debt-to-income ratio reported and a term of 30 years or more. HMDA has no DSCR field, so this is a proxy. All figures are from the public loan-level file for LEI 549300O6Z0I6KYMESL47, tabulated by us; the loan and dollar totals match the FFIEC data browser: 12,091 loans and $5,045,515,000.

“Denied share of decided” is denied applications divided by originated plus approved-not-accepted plus denied, the basis of our ranking. “Not sold” means the purchaser field shows no sale during the calendar year.

Three readings:

• The investor book is a third of the loans and a fifth of the dollars. DSCR-type loans were 31.4% of loans and 20.3% of dollars (our arithmetic) partly because they are small: a $225,000 median against $425,000 for the home loans. Owner-occupied loans are the larger business by dollars, $3.44 billion against $1.02 billion.
• The rate is the same, the product is not. Both books have a 6.875% median, but the home-loan side includes 412 FHA loans and 100 VA loans (at medians of 5.875% and 5.6875% for the owner-occupied ones) and 1,440 owner-occupied second-lien loans at 9.875%, while every DSCR-type loan is a conventional first lien. Compare like with like: owner-occupied conventional first liens had a 6.75% median on 5,013 loans.
• Investor loans stay on the books. 94.3% of DSCR-type loans were not reported sold within 2025, against 61.1% of the owner-occupied ones. HMDA cannot say whether they were sold in 2026, and the SEC tables below show AmWest sells non-QM loans into securitizations, so read this as timing, not as a decision to keep them.

Four years of the investor book

Over three years the investor book did not grow with the rest of the company. DSCR-type loans in 2025 were 2.7% below 2022 (3,792 against 3,898) while all loans were 29.4% above it (12,091 against 9,345), and 2025 was 52.3% above 2024 in loans and 56.9% in dollars (our arithmetic). The rate swing, 6.5% to 8.5% and back to 6.875%, follows market rates. The premium of the DSCR median over AmWest’s own owner-occupied median narrowed from 1.375 points in 2022 to 0.875 in 2023, 0.25 in 2024 and none in 2025 (our arithmetic). The company also bought loans from other lenders in every year (300 purchased loans in 2025, 247 in 2024, 397 in 2023 and 625 in 2022), consistent with the correspondent channel on its site.

Inside the 2025 DSCR-type book

Four points:

• The pricing is flat. The middle half of all 3,792 rates spans 0.625 points (6.625% to 7.25%). Across loan sizes from $100,000 to $999,999 and loan-to-value ratios from 60% to 75%, the median never moves more than 0.125 points. Only loans under $100,000 (7.375%) and at 75% loan-to-value or more (7.25%) stand out. Few loans are expensive: the 90th percentile is 7.625% and the highest rate is 10.375%.
• Texas and Florida are 41.9% of the loans (796 and 794 of 3,792, our arithmetic), California only 353. Our state pages on Texas and Florida cover those two markets. The 2025 loans were in 47 states and DC.
• Three-quarters of the loans are mid-sized. 2,846 of the 3,792 (75.1%, our arithmetic) are between $150,000 and $499,999, and 3,331 (87.8%) are on one unit. Only 12 loans were above $1.5 million and the largest was $2,395,000.
• Loan costs are invisible. Business-purpose loans are exempt from HMDA’s cost fields: none of the 3,792 reports total loan costs, points or lender credits, and none reports a prepayment-penalty term. The rate is what you can see; the fees are for your broker’s Loan Estimate or settlement statement.

A worked example, our arithmetic: at the 6.875% median a $225,000 loan costs $1,289.06 a month if it is interest-only ($225,000 × 6.875% ÷ 12) and $1,478.09 a month if it amortizes over 30 years, a difference of $189.03 a month. Which one you get is the next question.

The interest-only flag does not match the guide

AmWest reported 3,791 of its 3,792 DSCR-type loans in 2025 as interest-only payment loans, and also all but 5 of the 2,526 in 2023, all but 1 of 2,490 in 2024 and all 3,898 in 2022. Our DSCR lender ranking shows the same 100.0%. The lender’s own investor guide describes something narrower. The correspondent edition revised March 17, 2026 says, under its interest-only option, that purchase and rate-and-term loans take a maximum 70% loan-to-value with a minimum 700 FICO, and cash-out loans a maximum 65% with a minimum 720 FICO. Its October 26, 2023 wholesale matrix describes the fixed-rate loan as having “Fully amortizing payments for 360 months” and lists the seven-year interest-only period next to the 7/6 adjustable-rate loan.

Against that: 1,365 of the 3,792 loans (36.0%) have a loan-to-value above 70%, every one reports a 360-month term, and only 95 carry an 84-month introductory rate period, the HMDA field for a 7/6 ARM. HMDA’s interest-only field means the loan has interest-only payments; a lender that flagged all of them may be using it for an option on the product, may have changed its terms between the guide versions, or may be mis-coding. We cannot tell which. For a borrower the lesson is simple: ask in writing whether your payment is interest-only, for how long, and what it becomes afterwards. For anyone using HMDA, treat AmWest’s 100% interest-only share (here and on our ranking) as the lender’s reporting, not a measured payment type.

What the lender’s own investor guide says

These terms are from two AmWest Investor Advantage documents found on its websites and saved on October 21, 2026: the correspondent edition “Revised: March 17, 2026” and the wholesale matrix revised October 26, 2023. Both carry the notice “Information is for mortgage professionals and should not be provided to consumers or 3rd parties,” so they describe the trade price list and product rules, not an offer. The table gives the 2026 edition unless it says otherwise.

A worked example using the guide’s own rules, our arithmetic: rent of $2,400 a month against a $2,700 PITIA gives a DSCR of 0.89 ($2,400 ÷ $2,700). That is in the 0.85-to-under-1.00 band, so a purchase is capped at 75% loan-to-value ($225,000 on a $300,000 property) and the borrower needs 6 months of PITIA in reserves, $16,200. The guide’s own example is $3,000 of rent at a 0.75 DSCR, which allows PITIA of up to $4,000.

Two notes. The guide is silent on points and broker compensation, and the rate sheet is for brokers. And the prepayment answer is not in the 2026 edition: ask for the structure in writing. A 4% first-year charge on a $225,000 loan would be $9,000 (our arithmetic; the 2023 matrix does not say which percentage applies to which year).

Where the loans go: nine mortgage trusts

The SEC requires securitizers to report repurchase demands each quarter on Form ABS-15G. AmWest’s April 24, 2024 release says it formed a joint venture with funds managed by Ares Management to buy non-QM loans that AmWest sources and services, with Ares providing 90% of the capital and AmWest 10%, and that the venture “will seek to securitize the mortgage loans using the HOMES and PRKCM shelves.” The depositor that files the quarterly repurchase table, O4B Park Capital Securitization Depositor, LLC, is managed by Ares Agent Services, L.P., according to its signature block. Its table for the quarter to June 30, 2026, filed August 14, 2026, lists nine trusts, each with Amwest Funding as the only originator shown.

What it shows: across 7,832 loans and $3.30 billion, 7 loans were subject to a repurchase demand (0.09% of loans, 0.10% of dollars), 6 were repurchased or replaced and one demand was in dispute. The figure is small. For a comparison from another DSCR specialist, our Champions Funding review found 17 of 411 loans in four trusts (5.4% of dollars) subject to demand, though different sponsors, vintages and loan mixes make the two figures a pointer, not a ranking.

Caveats: a demand is a claim that a loan broke a representation, not a finding; the filing does not say which of the 7,832 loans are DSCR loans rather than bank-statement or other non-QM loans; the series name of the last trust is 2026 but the table prints a 2025 closing date, which we read as a typo; and loans with no demand are not proof of performance, since the report does not cover delinquencies. The filings do show that AmWest sells non-QM loans into securitizations that close months after origination, which is one reason a loan can be “not sold within 2025” in HMDA and still end up in a trust.

Complaints: what the CFPB database shows

On October 21, 2026 we searched the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database for “AmWest Funding.” Every match, 70 in all, is filed under one company name, AmWest Funding Corp.; searches for “AmWest” and “Am West” return the same 70.

What the table says: 40 of the 60 mortgage complaints (66.7%, our arithmetic) are about struggling to pay or about the payment process, which is the servicing side, and 18 (30.0%) about applying or closing. Eleven responses (15.7% of all 70, our arithmetic) were not timely, where the Acra review found one in 139; none ended with monetary relief. California alone produced 42.

How to read it. The CFPB takes consumer complaints, and the complaint file does not label a loan as investor or business-purpose; in our count of the saved records, 49 of the 60 mortgage complaints are filed as conventional home mortgages and 4 as home equity loans or lines. There is nothing in the file that marks any as a DSCR loan, and this review cannot say how many investor borrowers complained elsewhere (state regulators, the Better Business Bureau, courts). So the complaint record is a signal about AmWest’s consumer and servicing side. It is not evidence about the Investor Advantage product, and a clean record for that product cannot be inferred either. For how other DSCR lenders look in the same database, see is this DSCR lender legit? and our Acra Lending review.

Licences and regulatory history

AmWest’s website table lists licences in 50 states and DC under the heading “Licensed States,” with a licence type for each. For nine jurisdictions the number column reads “None” or is empty: Colorado (“Mortgage Company Registration”), Louisiana, Maine, Nebraska, New Jersey (two lines), New Mexico, New York, Texas (“SML Mortgage Banker Registration”) and Utah (“DFI Residential First Mortgage Notification”). AmWest funded 2,397 loans in those places in 2025 (19.8%), 1,065 DSCR-type (28.1% of the DSCR-type book), 796 of them in Texas alone (our tabulation). The table does not say why. Its own licence types for Colorado, Texas and Utah are a registration and a notification, which may explain the missing numbers there; for the other six it gives no reason, and we did not check each statute. The company’s NMLS number, 167441, is the public record to check on NMLS Consumer Access, which is an interactive search we could not query by script.

New York is handled differently. The website says AmWest originates and services business-purpose loans there, is not licensed in New York and does not conduct consumer-purpose lending there, and the 2025 data agrees: all 119 New York loans were business-purpose investor loans (our tabulation), 106 of them DSCR-type.

The one enforcement record we found is old and about the consumer side. On January 30, 2017 California’s Department of Business Oversight issued an Order to Discontinue Violations and an Order to Refund Excessive Per Diem Interest Charges against AmWest Funding Corp., finding that it charged borrowers “interest on loans for a period in excess of one day prior to the disbursement of loan proceeds.” The Statement of Facts says a 2014 examination found overcharges on 4 of 30 funded loans, about 13%, and that a self-audit reported 1,626 overcharges among 4,960 qualifying loans but the regulator found it unreliable after sampling found 57 missed in 144 loans (about 39.6%). The matter concerned California residential lending. California’s enforcement page for AmWest blocked our request, so we do not know whether a settlement followed; check it before relying on this paragraph.

What a reader can do with this

• If you are an investor, treat AmWest as a wholesale lender. You will meet it through a broker or correspondent. Ask for the Investor Advantage guide date, the rate sheet date and the broker’s compensation in writing; the guide is silent on points.
• Ask whether your payment is interest-only, and what it becomes. The HMDA flag and the guide disagree. A broker can give you the payment schedule before you lock; on our $225,000 example, the amortizing payment is $189 a month higher.
• Ask for the prepayment structure. The 2026 guide we saw is silent, and the 2023 matrix used 4-3-2. HMDA has no term for any of its 3,792 DSCR-type loans.
• Check the licence for your state and your broker. Look up NMLS 167441 and the broker on NMLS Consumer Access, especially in the nine places where the website shows no number. Do it for a rental loan in Texas, where AmWest made 796 DSCR-type loans.
• Shop at least one other lender the same day. For how others price the same loan, see DSCR loan rates 2026, best DSCR loan lenders 2026, short-term-rental DSCR loans and the DSCR minimums by lender type. In 2025, 2,166 of the 6,288 DSCR-type applications (34.4%, our arithmetic) were withdrawn by the applicant and only 8 were approved and not accepted, so many files end before a decision; HMDA does not say why.
• If you came for a home loan, the relevant records are the owner-occupied rows above, the complaint table, and the licence for your state. This page is not a review of the consumer experience.

FAQ

Sources, read October 21, 2026: FFIEC HMDA Data Browser loan-level files and aggregation totals for 2022 to 2025 (LEI 549300O6Z0I6KYMESL47, all actions), tabulated by us with the filter action taken = 1 for originations and the occupancy, lien, business-purpose, debt-to-income and term filters applied locally; the HMDA 2022 and 2025 filer lists; the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database search API; SEC Forms ABS-15G of O4B Park Capital Securitization Depositor, LLC (CIK 0002021598; accession 0001999371-26-017993, filed August 14, 2026, and earlier quarters); amwestfunding.com home, About Us, Types of Home Loans, Loan Servicing and Licensed States pages; the AmWest Investor Advantage correspondent guide revised March 17, 2026 and wholesale matrix revised October 26, 2023; AmWest’s press release of April 24, 2024; the California Department of Business Oversight’s Order to Discontinue Violations and Order to Refund of January 30, 2017 and the accompanying Statement of Facts (retrieved from the Internet Archive copy) and the Department of Corporations accusation against Ameriwest Financial, Inc., a different company. This is analysis of public records, not investment, legal, lending or tax advice. We have no commercial relationship with AmWest Funding; Kiavi is a paid link.