wide establishing exterior photograph of a lakefront timber house set in the edge of a glassy lake, warm sunset, spring bloom

Feasibility · Legality · Lenders

Will your Airbnb qualify for a loan — and is it even legal here?

Run one address. Get projected nightly revenue, your city’s current STR rules, your DSCR, and the lenders who fund Airbnb income. Not a lender. Not hype. Just the truth about whether the deal works.

Revenue + legality + lenders in 60s
No credit pull
Legality included

How it works

One address. One honest verdict. Sixty seconds.

We fuse four checks no one else answers together — then hand you the lenders, not a call-center pile-on.

Run the address

Enter an address (or city + beds/baths/type), price, and down payment. We geocode it to the right metro and ordinance.

See revenue + legality + DSCR

Comparable nightly revenue, the city’s current STR rules (cap-adjusted), and your STR DSCR — in one verdict card.

Get matched

See the ranked STR lenders whose DSCR floor you clear and who accept projected income. You control who contacts you.

The honest verdict

We name the bad news — caps, bans, revenue haircuts — plainly.

A projection without a source is noise. We show the comp count, the radius, the ordinance, and the cap adjustment, then tell you whether it pencils.

Run your address

Bakersfield, CA

Projected DSCR 1.06× — borderline at 2 lenders

Night-capped · 120/yr

120-night cap. Revenue adjusted from $40,000 to $19,200 (48% of an uncapped year) before DSCR.

Revenue (cap-adjusted)$19,200/yr

STR DSCR1.06×

Lenders clearing the floor2 borderline of 9

The legality moat

STR rules changed in 8+ tracked cities this year. We track them.

Incumbents’ evergreen “DSCR for Airbnb” pages are already wrong because the legality data decays monthly. We re-check it city by city and stamp every status with a date.

See STR laws by city

Craftsman bungalow with a deep welcoming front porch in Madison, Wisconsin

Madison, WINight-capped · 180/yr

Madison tightened its short-term-rental rules in 2026: a license is required, and non-primary-residence rentals are capped at 180 nights per year. Wisconsin’s high property tax compounds the cap’s DSCR impact.

updated 2026-06-02

rustic multi-level timber and log cabin with wraparound decks in Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Gatlinburg, TNSTR-legal

Gatlinburg permits overnight rentals throughout its tourist-oriented zoning with a city permit and fire-safety inspection. There is no annual night cap, which is why cabin investors favor it.

updated 2026-05-30

stucco Spanish-style suburban ranch home with a tile roof in Bakersfield, California

Bakersfield, CANight-capped · 120/yr

Bakersfield adopted its first short-term-rental ordinance in 2026, introducing a 120-night annual cap, a permit, and a local-contact requirement. The cap is new, so most evergreen lending pages are already wrong.

updated 2026-05-28

low-slung desert-modern home with smooth stucco walls and a flat roof in Scottsdale, Arizona

Scottsdale, AZPermit required

Short-term rentals are legal statewide under Arizona law, but Scottsdale requires a city STR license, a 24/7 local emergency contact, posted occupancy limits, and TPT registration. Operating without a license carries escalating fines.

updated 2026-05-22

atmospheric wide photograph of an outdoor dining table set for dinner overlooking a mountain valley, on a warm morning

Revenue you can defend

9 lenders

accept projected nightly revenue (no rental history needed)

1007 / 1008

the appraisal forms lenders use to verify STR income

trailing 12 mo

comparable-listing window behind every revenue band

Projections come from real comparable listings — the source lenders actually verify. We show the comp count and radius every time.

Flagship sub-section

Refinancing out of hard money? Time your cash-out.

The BRRRR Trapped-Equity + Seasoning calculator shows your earliest legitimate cash-out date by path — delayed financing, no-seasoning, 3-month wholesale, or the standard 6 months — measured from the recording date, the subtlety most people get wrong.

Time My Cash-Out

editorial interior vignette of a open-plan living room with floor-to-ceiling windows framing a nature view, lit by table lamps at dusk

Earliest cash-out

today · in 47 days · or at 6 months

Why trust the verdict

Operator-to-operator. RevPAR-fluent. Radically honest.

9 named STR lenders that accept projected revenue — a real short-list, not a pile-on.
A published STR DSCR Feasibility & Legality Index — proof of currency, updated continuously.
Named, credentialed STR-lending author + a transparent “How we make money” page.
Revenue-source transparency: comp count, radius, and trailing-12-month window on every figure.

See the Feasibility & Legality Index

FAQ

The questions every STR buyer asks

Will a lender qualify me on projected Airbnb income with no rental history?

Yes — many STR-specialist lenders qualify the loan on a market projection (AirDNA/Rabbu) or an appraiser’s Form 1007 short-term-rent schedule, so you can buy before you have a track record. The engine shows how many lenders accept projections at your DSCR.

Does a night cap kill my DSCR?

Not always — but it haircuts revenue. We adjust projected revenue down to the capped share of an uncapped year (e.g. a 120-of-250-night cap → ~48% of revenue) and recompute the DSCR, then show the before/after honestly. Sometimes it still pencils; sometimes it doesn’t, and we say so.

Is short-term rental legal where I want to buy?

It depends on the city, and the rules change monthly. We track each metro’s current status — legal, night-capped, permit-required, primary-residence-only, or banned — with the source and an “as of” date, and fold it straight into your feasibility verdict.

Are you a lender?

No. NightYield is a marketing and lead-referral service, not a lender or broker. We don’t originate, quote, or negotiate loans. We show you the feasibility truth and connect you with STR lenders who fund Airbnb income.

What down payment and LTV do STR DSCR loans require?

Most STR DSCR programs want 25–30% down (70–75% LTV) — slightly more than a long-term-rental DSCR loan, reflecting the variability of nightly income. A stronger cap-adjusted DSCR and credit band can unlock the higher-LTV tier.

What DSCR do STR lenders require?

Most set a floor around 1.0 on the cap-adjusted DSCR (revenue ÷ PITIA). Some offer no-ratio or sub-1.0 STR programs at a premium for thinner deals. The engine shows your ratio against each lender’s specific floor.

Can I use a DSCR loan on a condotel?

Yes, from the 5 of 10 lenders we track that allow condotels — many DSCR programs exclude them over warrantability. Set the property type to “condotel” and the match filters to lenders that actually fund them.

inviting lifestyle photograph of a fire pit ringed with Adirondack chairs with a desert sunset backdrop, on a warm morning

Don’t buy a short-term rental the city bans. Run the address first.

Free · No credit pull · Legality included · Not a call center.

Check the Address