A vacation rental is a business, and it should be financed like one. I specialize in the coastal Florida deals other lenders find complicated: short-term rentals that qualify on their own income, waterfront homes above the conforming line, and the insurance and flood math that decides whether the deal pencils. From the Florida Keys to Anna Maria Island and the Gulf coast, this is what I do every week.
Most lenders push you into one box. The right structure depends on the property, your income, and how you will run it. Here are the paths I use.
Qualifies on the property's rent, not your tax returns. The workhorse for short-term rental buyers. No W-2, no employment check. See the DSCR program.
For high-value waterfront homes above the conforming limit, non-warrantable condos, and VE-zone property. Portfolio lenders handle what agency loans reject. Jumbo details.
If you use the property personally part of the year and rent it the rest, a conventional second-home loan can mean a lower down payment than an investment loan.
For self-employed and investor buyers who write everything off. Qualify on bank statements or assets instead of tax returns. Non-QM options.
To move fast on a deal, buy before you sell, or renovate a property into rental shape, then refinance into a DSCR loan once it is stabilized. Bridge financing.
That is the point of a call. I look at the property and your goals, then tell you the best path and why, before you write an offer. No guessing, no wasted applications.
This is the question that decides a DSCR deal. There are three ways to prove the income, and coastal Florida vacation markets are well covered by all of them.
If the property already operates as a rental, lenders use 12 months of documented income. This is the strongest case, real numbers beat projections every time.
For a new purchase with no history, many DSCR lenders accept a short-term rental income projection for the specific address from AirDNA or Rabbu. Coastal Florida vacation markets like the Keys, Anna Maria Island, and 30A are well covered by this data, which is why STR-income DSCR works so well here.
Some programs use the appraiser's long-term market-rent estimate on form 1007 instead of a short-term projection. It is usually more conservative, so it matters which method your lender uses. I match the property to the program that counts its income the right way.
I wrote a deep guide on exactly how coastal Florida DSCR files get underwritten, the tier system, documentation, and the sub-1.0 strategies. Read DSCR Loans for Coastal Florida STRs.
A vacation rental on the water is not a normal investment property. Three things trip up out-of-state and generalist lenders, and each one can sink a deal.
Wind and flood coverage on a coastal property is a real monthly cost, and on a DSCR deal it lowers the ratio and your borrowing power. I quote it early and structure around the real number.
X, AE, and VE zones carry very different insurance costs. Knowing the zone before you offer is the difference between a deal that pencils and one that does not. Flood zone lending.
Coastal rental income is seasonal, and short-term rental rules vary by city and county. Lenders ask whether the rental is legal at that address. I know how to document both so the file holds up.
I focus where I know the water, the flood maps, the insurance, and the rental demand. If your target is coastal Florida, it is probably on this list.
Key West, Islamorada, Marathon, Key Largo, Big Pine, and the smaller islands. Waterfront, dock access, and the highest vacation-rental demand in the state. Keys mortgage hub.
Anna Maria Island, Bradenton Beach, Siesta Key, Longboat Key, and the Sarasota and Fort Myers coast. Strong short-term rental markets with well-covered income data.
30A and Santa Rosa Beach on the Panhandle, plus the Atlantic coast from St. Augustine south. Vacation-rental demand with the same coastal insurance and flood considerations.
Investing across multiple properties? See the investor page for portfolio strategy.
Vacation Rental Deal Review
Give me the address or market, the price, and how you plan to run it. I come back with the right path, DSCR, jumbo, second-home, or non-QM, the likely down payment, and what the coastal insurance does to the numbers.