How to Scale Your Rental Portfolio with Blanket Loans

Managing 10, 20, or 50 separate mortgages is a headache you don't need. Different lenders, different rates, different payment dates, different escrow accounts — it's a full-time bookkeeping job. A blanket loan rolls all of those into one mortgage with one monthly payment. You can consolidate 5 to 500+ rental properties across multiple states under a single loan, and the pricing actually gets better as your portfolio grows. If you're spending more time managing mortgages than managing properties, this is how you fix it.

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What Is a Blanket Loan?

A blanket loan is a single mortgage that covers multiple rental properties under one loan with one monthly payment. Instead of carrying separate mortgages on each property — each with its own lender, interest rate, payment date, and escrow account — everything gets consolidated into one instrument.

Think of it this way: if you own 15 single-family rentals, you could have 15 different mortgages with 5 different lenders. Or you could have one blanket mortgage with one lender, one payment, and one rate. The math on administrative time alone makes this worth exploring.

Blanket loans work for portfolios of residential rentals (1-4 unit properties), and they're available for purchases, refinances, and cash-out refinances. The minimum is typically 5 properties and $500,000 in total loan amount.

Why Investors Hit a Wall with Individual Mortgages

The first roadblock is Fannie Mae's 10-financed-property limit. Once you have 10 conventional mortgages in your name, you're done. Banks won't approve number 11, no matter how strong your financials are. That hard cap forces investors into portfolio lenders, private money, or creative structures — all of which add complexity.

The second problem is operational. Let's say you have 25 rentals financed individually. That's 25 monthly payments, potentially 8-10 different lenders, different rate lock dates, and a bookkeeping nightmare come tax season. One missed payment on property #17 tanks your credit even though the other 24 are current.

The third issue is refinancing friction. When rates drop, you'd need to refinance each mortgage separately — 25 appraisals, 25 sets of closing costs, 25 rounds of underwriting. With a blanket loan, you refinance once.

How Many Properties Can You Put on a Blanket Loan?

There's no upper limit. Rental Home Financing's blanket loan program covers portfolios from 5 to 500+ properties across all 48 contiguous states. We've financed portfolios of 8 duplexes in one metro area and portfolios of 200+ single-family rentals spread across a dozen states.

The real constraint isn't property count — it's minimum loan size. Most blanket programs require at least $500,000 in total loan amount. For a portfolio of 5 properties, that means an average of $100,000 per property in loan balance, which is achievable in most markets.

Here's the part investors like: pricing improves at scale. A $2 million blanket loan typically gets a better rate than a $500,000 one. At $5 million and above, you're in institutional pricing territory. The more you consolidate, the more negotiating power you have.

Managing dozens of rentals gets simpler when they're all under one loan with one monthly payment.

How Blanket Loan Pricing Works

Blanket loan interest rates are typically 0.25% to 0.75% higher than single-property DSCR loan rates. That premium buys you consolidation, flexibility, and scale — and it often pays for itself in reduced administrative costs and better portfolio management.

Here's a general pricing framework:

• Interest rates: 7.0% to 8.5% depending on credit score, LTV, and portfolio size
• Origination fee: 1 to 2 points (1% to 2% of loan amount)
• Term options: 30-year fixed, 5/1 ARM, 7/1 ARM, or 10/1 ARM
• Amortization: 30-year amortization on all term structures
• Prepayment penalties: Typically a 3-year or 5-year stepdown (5-4-3-2-1 structure)

Larger portfolios get pricing breaks. A $3 million blanket loan at 75% LTV with a 720+ credit score will price significantly better than a $500,000 loan at 80% LTV with a 640 score. If you're comparing options, a 30-year fixed DSCR loan on individual properties may be cheaper per unit, but the operational simplification of a blanket loan often tips the scales.

What Are the Requirements for a Blanket Loan?

Blanket loan underwriting is portfolio-level, not property-by-property. The lender evaluates the entire pool of properties as a single asset. Here's what you'll need:

• Minimum property count: 5 properties
• Minimum loan amount: $500,000
• Credit score: 640+ (720+ for best pricing)
• Loan-to-value: 75% to 80% based on aggregate appraised value
• DSCR: 1.0x minimum on the portfolio as a whole
• Property types: 1-4 unit residential rentals (SFR, duplex, triplex, fourplex)
• Entity: Most close in LLC, LP, or corporate name
• Geographic spread: Properties can be in any of the 48 contiguous states

The documentation is lighter than conventional financing. You won't need tax returns or W-2s. You'll provide rent rolls, a property schedule, entity docs, and proof of insurance. The lender orders appraisals on each property (or may use desktop appraisals for smaller loan amounts per unit).

Release Clauses: Adding and Removing Properties

This is one of the biggest advantages of a well-structured blanket loan. A release clause lets you sell or remove an individual property from the loan without refinancing the entire mortgage. You pay a predetermined release price (usually 110% to 125% of that property's allocated loan amount), and the lender releases the lien on that specific property.

Why does this matter? Say you have 20 properties on a blanket loan and one of them is underperforming — bad tenants, high maintenance costs, declining neighborhood. You can sell that property, pay the release amount, and your blanket loan continues on the remaining 19 properties. No full refi needed.

Adding properties works the same way in reverse. If you acquire a new rental, you can fold it into the existing blanket loan through a loan modification rather than getting separate financing. This keeps your portfolio consolidated and your paperwork minimal.

Blanket Loan vs. Multiple Individual DSCR Loans

Both options work. The right choice depends on your portfolio size and how you manage your properties.

Individual DSCR loans make sense when: you have fewer than 5 properties, you want maximum flexibility to sell any property independently, or you're building your portfolio one property at a time and don't want to wait until you hit the minimum count.

Blanket loans make sense when: you have 5+ properties and want to consolidate payments, you're buying a portfolio of properties in a single transaction, you're hitting the Fannie Mae limit and need a non-conventional solution, or you simply want one point of contact for your entire portfolio's financing.

A common strategy is to use individual DSCR loans to acquire properties one at a time, then consolidate them into a blanket loan once you hit 5 or more. This gives you acquisition speed on the front end and operational efficiency on the back end.

How Does Portfolio DSCR Work on a Blanket Loan?

This is where blanket loans really shine for investors with mixed-performance portfolios. Instead of each property needing to meet DSCR requirements individually, the lender calculates one DSCR ratio for the entire portfolio.

Here's what that means in practice. Say you have 10 properties:

• 6 properties with a 1.3x DSCR (strong performers)
• 3 properties with a 1.0x DSCR (break-even)
• 1 property with a 0.8x DSCR (negative cash flow)

On individual loans, that 0.8x property wouldn't qualify for most DSCR programs. But in a blanket loan, the strong performers carry the weak one. The portfolio-level DSCR might come in at 1.15x — well above the 1.0x minimum. You keep all 10 properties financed under one loan.

This is especially useful if you own rentals in markets with different rent-to-price ratios. A property in San Antonio might cash flow at 1.4x DSCR while a property in Denver sits at 0.9x. The portfolio approach lets you hold both without having to sell the one that doesn't pencil individually. To get a quick estimate on individual property ratios, run the numbers through our DSCR calculator.

When to Consolidate: Signs It's Time for a Blanket Loan

Not every portfolio needs a blanket loan. But if you're dealing with any of these situations, it's probably time to consolidate:

• You're making 5+ separate mortgage payments per month and losing track of which ones have been paid
• You've hit the Fannie Mae 10-property limit and conventional lenders are turning you away
• You're buying a portfolio of 5+ properties in a single transaction and need one loan to close the deal
• You're spending hours on mortgage admin — tracking insurance renewals, escrow shortages, and rate lock expirations across multiple lenders
• One or two properties don't cash flow individually but your portfolio as a whole is profitable
• You want to pull cash out across your entire portfolio in a single refinance transaction

The tipping point for most investors is somewhere between 5 and 10 properties. Once you're past 10, the operational savings from consolidation start to compound quickly.

The Blanket Loan Closing Process

Closing a blanket loan takes longer than a single-property DSCR loan — expect 30 to 45 days from application to funding. Here's how the process works:

Step 1: Property schedule. You provide a list of all properties you want to include — addresses, current rents, estimated values, and existing mortgage balances. This is the starting point for the lender's analysis.

Step 2: Portfolio underwriting. The lender evaluates the portfolio as a whole: aggregate value, total rental income, portfolio-level DSCR, and overall LTV. They'll also pull your credit and verify entity documentation.

Step 3: Appraisals. Each property gets appraised. For portfolios of 20+ properties, lenders may use a combination of full appraisals and desktop valuations to speed things up and reduce costs.

Step 4: Title and insurance. Title work and insurance verification happen on each property in parallel. You'll need active landlord insurance policies on every unit.

Step 5: Closing. All properties close under one loan document. If you're refinancing existing mortgages, those get paid off at closing. If you're purchasing a portfolio, funds go to the seller. Either way, you walk out with one loan, one payment, and one lender relationship.

For investors who want to explore individual property financing before consolidating, our cash flow analysis guide walks through the numbers property by property.