Calculator
The refinance-out check
Whether your rental refinance actually repays the bridge, clears the DSCR threshold, and fits inside the seasoning window - before you take the hard money.
A BRRRR is two loans, and everything about whether it works is decided by the second one. Almost everyone underwrites the first.
This checks the three things that break it: the refinance not covering the payoff, the DSCR not clearing the lender's threshold, and the seasoning requirement leaving you no window inside your bridge term.
The two DSCRs
Rental lenders qualify you on gross rent divided by PITIA. That calculation ignores vacancy, management and maintenance, so a property at 1.20 on the lender's number is frequently below 1.00 on yours - it qualifies for the loan and loses money every month. The calculator shows both, because you need the first to close and the second to survive.
The seasoning trap
Do this before you take the bridge
- Get a DSCR lender to look at the deal while you are still shopping bridge quotes. A soft pre-approval costs nothing.
- Confirm their maximum cash-out LTV and seasoning requirement in writing.
- Run the DSCR at a rate 0.75 points above today's - you are twelve months out.
- Run the appraised value 10% below your ARV and see whether you can still close.
Questions people actually ask
Can I get a hard money loan for the BRRRR method?
Yes, and it is one of the two main uses of the product. The hard money loan funds the buy and the rehab; the refinance into a long-term rental loan is the exit that repays it. The whole strategy lives or dies on that refinance, so the question to answer before you borrow is not whether you can get the hard money - it is whether the refinance will appraise and cash-flow.
Can hard money loans be refinanced?
Yes - that is the intended exit for any buy-and-hold deal. The refinance is normally into a DSCR rental loan, which qualifies on the property's rent rather than your income.
Two traps. Seasoning: many lenders will not lend against the new appraised value until you have owned the property for a set period, commonly six months; refinance before that and you may be capped at your purchase price plus documented rehab instead. Timing: if your hard money term is 12 months and your seasoning is 6, you have a narrow window, and appraisal delays eat it fast.
Are DSCR loans considered hard money loans?
No, though they are often sold by the same lenders and confused constantly. A DSCR loan is long-term rental financing - typically 30 years, amortising, qualified on the property's cash flow instead of your tax returns. Hard money is short-term, interest-only, asset-based bridge capital. They are complements, not substitutes: hard money buys and renovates the property, the DSCR loan takes it out.
What's the downside of a DSCR loan?
Rates above conventional owner-occupied pricing, prepayment penalties that are common and sometimes steep, a hard floor on the debt-service ratio that a vacancy can breach, and reliance on a market-rent opinion that may not match what you actually collect. It is still usually far cheaper than staying in hard money.
How risky is hard money lending?
For the borrower, the risk concentrates in the term ending before the exit is ready, and in the personal guarantee that usually sits behind the loan. For the lender, the risk is a collateral value that turns out to be wrong. The product is not inherently dangerous; a short term against an uncertain exit is.