The quick read: No, not under federal law. The Garn-St Germain Act lists the transfers that cannot trigger a due-on-sale clause on a home loan of one to four units, and a deed to your own LLC is not on it. The loan's owner can add its own exceptions: if Freddie Mac owns your loan, its Guide permits a transfer to an LLC you manage after 12 months. If another holder owns it, get its written transfer rule or consent before you record a deed, or refinance into a DSCR loan that closes in the LLC's name.
Federal exemption list (12 U.S.C. 1701j-3(d)): eight named transfers plus a regulatory catch-all, on residential property of fewer than five dwelling units, and none of them is a transfer to a company
OCC rule (12 CFR 191.5(b)): the specific limits apply to a loan on a home occupied or to be occupied by the borrower
Freddie Mac Guide (Section 8406.1(d)(ii), dated 09/10/25): a transfer to an LLC is permitted after at least 12 months, with the original borrower as managing member
Fannie Mae Selling Guide (B2-2-01, dated 09/03/2025): borrowers must be natural persons who take title in their own names, with exceptions that include inter vivos revocable trusts
30-year fixed benchmark (Freddie Mac survey, published on FRED): 7.24 percent for the week of October 29, 2026, against a series low of 2.65 percent for the week of January 7, 2021
This page answers whether deeding a mortgaged rental into a company lets the lender call the loan. For whether an LLC can borrow on commercial property at all, read can an LLC get a commercial real estate loan.
What does federal law exempt from a due-on-sale clause?
Federal law names eight transfers on which a lender may not exercise a due-on-sale clause on a loan secured by residential property of fewer than five dwelling units, from a second lien to a spouse becoming an owner to an inter vivos trust, and a transfer to a company is not among them. Everything else follows the loan contract.
The list sits in 12 U.S.C. 1701j-3(d), the due-on-sale section of the Garn-St Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982. It covers a subordinate lien that does not transfer rights of occupancy; a purchase-money security interest for household appliances; a transfer on the death of a joint tenant or tenant by the entirety; a lease of three years or less with no option to purchase; a transfer to a relative after the borrower's death; a transfer in which the borrower's spouse or children become owners; a transfer under a divorce decree, legal separation agreement or property settlement; and a transfer into an inter vivos trust in which the borrower is and remains a beneficiary. A ninth clause reaches only transfers the regulator adds by rule.
Subsection (b) sets the default for everything off that list: a lender may enforce a due-on-sale clause notwithstanding state law, and the exercise of that option is governed exclusively by the loan contract. Subsection (b)(3) encourages lenders to permit an assumption at the existing contract rate or a blended rate, but nothing in the section requires it.
Table: which transfers the federal rules and Freddie Mac's Guide exempt
| Rule | Second lien | Lease, 3 years or less | Spouse or child becomes owner | Inter vivos trust | Your own LLC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rule 12 U.S.C. 1701j-3(d), 1 to 4 units | Second lien Exempt if occupancy rights stay | Lease, 3 years or less Exempt with no purchase option | Spouse or child becomes owner Exempt | Inter vivos trust Exempt if you remain a beneficiary and occupancy rights stay | Your own LLC Not listed |
| Rule 12 CFR 191.5(b), home you occupy | Second lien Exempt if occupancy rights stay and not a contract for deed | Lease, 3 years or less Exempt with no purchase option | Spouse or child becomes owner Exempt if the transferee occupies | Inter vivos trust Exempt as beneficiary and occupant | Your own LLC Not listed |
| Rule Freddie Mac Guide, Section 8406.1 | Second lien Exempt when you occupy, if occupancy rights stay and not a contract for deed | Lease, 3 years or less Exempt when you occupy | Spouse or child becomes owner Exempt if the transferee occupies | Inter vivos trust Exempt as beneficiary and occupant | Your own LLC Permitted after 12 months if you manage the LLC |
| Rule Text that reaches a rental you do not occupy | Second lien Statute only | Lease, 3 years or less Statute only | Spouse or child becomes owner Statute only | Inter vivos trust Statute only | Your own LLC Freddie Mac Guide; other holders set their own rule |
Why is a deed to your own LLC not covered?
A deed to your own LLC conveys title to a different owner, and the federal list protects only lien, appliance, death, lease, family, divorce and trust transfers, so the deed falls back on the contract, and the statute defines the clause as letting the lender accelerate when any interest moves without its prior written consent.
The OCC's regulation defines a sale or transfer broadly. Under 12 CFR 191.2(b), it means the conveyance of any right, title or interest in the real property, whether legal or equitable, by sale, deed, installment contract, a lease longer than three years or any other method. Recording a deed from you to your LLC is a conveyance by deed. Owning every membership interest in the company does not change who holds title once the deed records: the LLC does.
The regulation also narrows the protections that do exist. 12 CFR 191.5(b) applies its specific limits to any loan on the security of a home occupied or to be occupied by the borrower. A rental you do not live in sits outside that sentence before you ever reach the list of exempt transfers.
What the clause gives the lender is an option. The statute's definition says the lender may declare the loan due at its option, so a transfer does not accelerate the loan by itself. Whether the holder uses the option is that holder's decision, which is why the order that protects you is written consent first and the deed second.
When Freddie Mac owns the loan, its Guide turns the option into an instruction: Section 8406.1(a) tells the servicer to accelerate after a transfer of ownership unless the Guide's lists or applicable law protect the transfer.
What changes if Freddie Mac owns your loan?
If Freddie Mac owns the loan, its Seller/Servicer Guide permits a transfer to an LLC once at least 12 months have passed since origination, provided the original borrower manages the LLC, every co-borrower is a member, and the servicer has met any mortgage insurance requirements for the transfer. The servicer cannot make the LLC requalify.
Section 8406.1(d)(ii) of the Guide, in the compilation current as of Bulletin 2026-14 published on October 14, 2026, sets the conditions. With one borrower, that borrower must be the managing member. With several, all of them must be members of the LLC and at least one must be a managing member. If the transfer turns a primary residence into an investment property, the change must not violate the security instrument, for example its 12-month occupancy requirement. A limited partnership qualifies on the same terms, with a general partner in place of the managing member.
Two consequences follow. The servicer may not evaluate the LLC's creditworthiness, require it to assume the mortgage, or demand its own or Freddie Mac's approval for a transfer that meets the conditions. And the servicer must notify you that the property has to be transferred back to the original owner or a natural person before any later refinance or modification application. The LLC can hold the property under the old loan, but it cannot take a Freddie Mac refinance in its own name.
Fannie Mae's Selling Guide sets the matching origination rule. Topic B2-2-01, dated September 3, 2025, says Fannie Mae buys mortgages made to natural persons who take title in their individual names, with exceptions that include inter vivos revocable trusts. If Fannie Mae owns your loan, its Servicing Guide sets its own transfer rules: ask the servicer which section governs a transfer to your LLC and whether your loan qualifies, and get the answer in writing.
Start by asking the servicer, in writing, who owns the loan. A portfolio bank, a securitization trust and each agency set their own consent rules.
Does a trust work instead of an LLC?
A transfer into an inter vivos trust is on the federal list only while you remain a beneficiary and the transfer does not move occupancy rights, and the OCC rule and Freddie Mac's Guide both add that you must also occupy the property, so a trust holding a rental you do not live in falls outside both of those versions.
The statute's wording, in 12 U.S.C. 1701j-3(d)(8), requires the borrower to be and remain a beneficiary and the transfer not to relate to a transfer of rights of occupancy. 12 CFR 191.5(b)(1)(vi) protects a transfer into an inter vivos trust in which the borrower is and remains the beneficiary and occupant, and lets the lender ask for reasonable means of getting timely notice of any later transfer of the beneficial interest or change in occupancy. Freddie Mac's Guide repeats the beneficiary-and-occupant condition in Section 8406.1(c).
A trust is also not a company. A two-step plan, deeding to a trust and then assigning the beneficial interest to an LLC, runs into two parts of the same regulation. The definition of a transfer in 12 CFR 191.2(b) reaches equitable interests, and 12 CFR 191.5(b)(5) preserves the lender's right to enforce the clause when a later event disqualifies a transfer that was exempt when it happened.
When does a DSCR refinance into the LLC fit?
A DSCR refinance fits when the rent covers the new payment and the rate you would give up is close to today's market, or when your current loan matures within the next 6 to 12 months anyway, because the new loan closes in the LLC's name and pays off the old lien, ending the due-on-sale question.
Regulation Z exempts a loan to your LLC on a rental on two counts. Section 1026.3(a) exempts credit to other than a natural person regardless of the purpose of the credit, and the CFPB's official interpretation deems credit to acquire, improve or maintain a rental that is not owner-occupied to be for business purposes, regardless of the number of units, unless you expect to occupy it for more than 14 days in the coming year. A DSCR loan sizes that credit on the property's rent against its payment.
The cost of the move is the rate. Freddie Mac's weekly survey average for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, published on FRED, was 7.24 percent for the week of October 29, 2026; the series low was 2.65 percent, for the week of January 7, 2021. The survey is a benchmark for the rate you would give up, and a DSCR quote is priced on its own terms.
Our arithmetic, illustrative only and built on no real transaction. On a $300,000 balance, each percentage point of rate is about $3,000 of first-year interest, so refinancing a 3.00 percent note at a 7.24 percent rate would add roughly $12,720 of interest in the first year. Then run the coverage test. A 30-year payment on $300,000 at 7.24 percent is about $2,044 of principal and interest; add $406 a month of taxes and insurance and the payment is $2,450. Against $2,950 of monthly rent, the DSCR is 1.20.
Timing changes the math. If your current loan, such as a five-year balloon or a bridge loan, matures within the next 6 to 12 months, a refinance is coming anyway, and the new closing can vest title in the LLC and pay off the old lien together. To pull equity out at that closing, read can you do a cash-out refinance with a DSCR loan before you size the request.
What to assemble before you ask for terms:
- The current note and mortgage or deed of trust, with the transfer clause marked
- The servicer's written answer on who owns the loan
- The LLC's articles and operating agreement, showing who manages it
- Every lease and a current rent roll
- The latest tax bill and insurance declarations page
When the rate you hold sits far below the market and the loan has years to run, keeping the loan usually costs less than a refinance: use a transfer the holder's written rule permits, such as Freddie Mac's, or get the holder's written consent.
How do you get a DSCR loan for your LLC placed?
Option 1, and our recommendation, is a commercial mortgage brokerage that checks your note and the holder's transfer rules first, then prices DSCR terms in the LLC's name against the rate you would give up. YieldStack is an AI-native commercial mortgage brokerage that arranges financing for commercial real estate investors.
Option 1: a commercial mortgage brokerage (our pick). We put it first for three reasons. The due-on-sale answer depends on who holds the loan and what the note says, so the file should open with the note and the servicer's written answer. The refinance only makes sense against the rate you would give up, which means pricing DSCR terms side by side. And DSCR terms in an LLC, such as any personal guaranty, the prepayment structure and reserves, are negotiable. YieldStack's software matches the deal against 20,000+ loan programs, with a median first offer in under an hour, from an institutional lender. Human brokers then structure the request, negotiate for the borrower and carry the deal toward closing.
Option 2: ask your current holder for its transfer rule or written consent. Start here if the rate you hold is well below the market. Ask whether the holder's written rules permit a deed to your LLC or whether it will consent to one, what it will charge, and whether it will put the answer in a signed letter before you record anything.
Option 3: go straight to a DSCR lender. This works when the deal is simple and you already know the rent covers the payment. You will see one lender's terms instead of a comparison.
When your note, leases and rent roll are ready, send the LLC refinance for review. It costs Zero upfront to submit a deal and review offers; YieldStack's broker fee is 0.50–1.00% of the loan amount and is paid only at closing. Every credit decision is made by the lender; YieldStack arranges the introductions and negotiates on the borrower's side, and no loan, rate, or closing is guaranteed.
The bottom line
Federal law does not protect a deed from you to your LLC: the Garn-St Germain list and the OCC's rule name no company transfer. If Freddie Mac owns your loan, its Guide permits the transfer after 12 months with you as managing member, at the price of moving title back before any refinance. If another holder owns it, get that holder's written transfer rule or consent before the deed records, or refinance into a DSCR loan in the LLC's name, which is cleanest when your current loan matures within the next 6 to 12 months anyway.