Reviewed by Craig Hoebing, AZ Commercial Mortgage Banker CMB-1047342 · Updated October 2026
The comparison is narrow on purpose. The property is one to four units. An investor owns it. The borrower does not live there. A.R.S. 6-901, as posted by the Arizona Legislature, defines a residential mortgage loan as a mortgage loan secured by a dwelling of one to four units, and it defines commercial property as real property that is not that dwelling. The citation marks the collateral. It is not legal advice, and it is not a consumer mortgage offer. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's site is about consumer finance. A business-purpose rental file is not a page on that site, and this note does not borrow consumer protections it does not have.
Apartments of five or more units are a commercial coverage loan, described on Arizona commercial DSCR. They are outside this one-to-four-unit comparison. Capital Market Funds is not a Fannie Mae DUS lender.
What each lender is actually reading
On a rent-based file, the lender divides rent it accepts by the yearly payment. Leases, vacancy, taxes, insurance, and fees change the numerator. The lender decides whether a projection counts. On a conventional investment-property file, the same building can be underwritten with the borrower's wages, tax returns, and personal debts in the stack. The property still matters. The personal file matters too. A landlord with several rentals sometimes cannot fit another wage-based loan even when the new building carries itself. That is a reason to ask about a rent-based structure. It is not a reason to promise one.
Neither structure has a rate on this page. Neither one has a ratio this office requires, because this office is not the lender. What is a good DSCR explains the ratio in plain language. The DSCR calculator divides numbers you type. The rates and loan calculator does the same with a rate you supply. Words used on the file are in the glossary.
How an arranger uses the distinction
We ask which income the sponsor actually has: a lease, a booking history, or a W-2 that the next lender will still read. Then we ask a lender that uses that income, if one will. Investor property in Arizona, without forcing the DSCR label, is Arizona investment property. The Mortgage Bankers Association's site is industry context for commercial mortgages. It is not a cutoff for a fourplex.
The office is 7373 E Doubletree Ranch Rd #255, Scottsdale, AZ 85258. The phone is (480) 495-8072. Arizona CMB-1047342 and NMLS 1445066. A term sheet is the lender's. This comparison is not an application.
Sources
Questions
- Is a DSCR loan in this comparison a mortgage to buy a home to live in?
- No. The rental is investor-owned and the borrower does not occupy it. A purchase someone will live in is a consumer loan and is not this note.
- Does a conventional investment loan ignore the property?
- No. It still looks at the collateral. It also often looks at wages, tax returns, and personal debts. A rent-based file leads with the rent instead.
- Which of the two has the better rate?
- This page does not say. It does not print rates. The lender's term sheet on a real address is the comparison that matters.
- Does the CFPB set the rules for an investor DSCR loan?
- The CFPB's public site is consumer finance. This note stays on business-purpose rentals the borrower does not occupy. It is not a consumer-loan guide.