Answers without the sales pitch

A DSCR loan is a business-purpose mortgage for an investment property where the lender looks at the property’s income instead of your personal income. DSCR stands for debt service coverage ratio: the monthly rent divided by the full monthly housing payment — principal, interest, property taxes, insurance and any HOA dues. If the rent covers the payment, the file can work even when your tax returns would not support an income-documented loan.

Most DSCR programs do not ask for personal income documents. They ask for the property: a lease or rent roll, the appraiser’s market rent opinion, the tax bill, an insurance quote, and proof of the down payment and reserves. Some programs ask for entity documents, a credit report and a background check on the guarantor. Loans are made to a borrower and guaranteed personally, so credit and history still matter — coverage is simply the primary test.

Yes. Two-to-four unit residential buildings are the core of this desk. In Chicago that means the classic 2-flat, the 3-flat with a garden unit, greystones and small courtyard buildings. The file is underwritten on the rent for every unit, including the owner’s unit if it will be rented, and on the building’s actual tax bill — which in Cook County can move independently of the purchase price.

Vacant units are usually valued at the appraiser’s market rent rather than at zero. That is why the appraisal matters so much: the rent schedule becomes the income the lender uses, not the number you typed into a calculator. If market rent does not cover the payment, the file needs more equity, a cheaper insurance policy, a different program, or a different property.

Many wholesale programs allow title in a single-purpose LLC, and Illinois investors often use land trusts for privacy and succession. Vesting rules differ by lender, so we confirm the entity, the signer’s authority and the guarantee structure before the appraisal is ordered — changing vesting after the appraisal can restart underwriting.

Some programs allow short-term rental income, usually with a market-rent fallback and stricter reserves. The bigger question is local: Chicago licenses short-term rentals, many suburbs restrict or prohibit them, and condo boards and HOA declarations can ban them outright. We will not build a file around income the property is not legally allowed to earn, so confirm the ordinance and the HOA rules first.

Single-family rentals, 2-to-4 unit residential buildings, small multifamily of five or more units, condos and townhomes held as rentals, mixed-use buildings where residential income dominates, and portfolio or blanket structures across several properties. We do not arrange loans on a property you or a family member will live in.

Leverage is set by each wholesale lender’s program and by the property’s coverage, condition and unit count — not by a single number we publish here. A strong-coverage, well-conditioned 2-to-4 unit in a liquid neighborhood will usually support more leverage than a thin-coverage property in a slow market, and cash-out refinances are typically more conservative than purchases.

Always. The payment in the denominator includes principal, interest, the monthly share of the tax bill, the monthly share of the insurance premium, and HOA dues when they exist. In Illinois the tax line is often the difference between a file that works and one that does not, so we price it from the county record rather than from the seller’s last bill.

It can. Illinois property taxes are paid in arrears, and Cook County reassesses on a triennial cycle, so the bill a seller paid last year may not be the bill you will owe. Underwriters often want evidence of the current assessed value and any certificate of error or appeal, and they may escrow taxes even when the seller did not. We ask for the county’s own record early.

The purchase contract or the current mortgage statement, the rent roll and any leases, the last tax bill and the county assessment record, an insurance quote for a landlord policy, an entity operating agreement if you are closing in an LLC, and a rough scope of any work you plan to do. For a refinance, add the current loan payoff and a year of operating history where you have it.

The calendar is usually driven by appraisal scheduling, title work and the lender’s review queue rather than by the paperwork. Files with clean rent support, confirmed taxes and a bound insurance quote move faster; files that change vesting, scope of work or loan amount mid-stream start over. We sequence the appraisal and the insurance quote first for that reason.

Yes, through a business-purpose cash-out refinance, subject to the program’s leverage and coverage limits. The new loan is sized against the property’s rent and value, not against your income, and the funds can be used for another acquisition, a renovation, or reserves. The property must remain a rental — cash-out on a home you occupy is outside what this desk arranges.

Then this is not the right product. Every loan arranged through DSCR Loans Illinois is business purpose and non-owner-occupied, which means no borrower or family member may occupy any unit. Owner-occupied 2-to-4 unit financing is a different category of loan with different consumer protections, and we will tell you plainly that we cannot help with it.

This desk is built for Illinois property. If your property sits in another state, say so on the application and we will either refer you or tell you we cannot help. The tax, insurance and landlord-tenant detail on this site is Illinois-specific on purpose — generic national copy would be worse than useless on a Cook County file.

No. Loan Daddy LLC, NMLS #2827624, is a mortgage broker. We arrange and shop financing from wholesale lenders, and the lender — not us — makes the credit decision, sets the terms and funds the loan. We are paid for placing the loan, and the disclosures you sign at application spell out how.