The quick read: DSCR loans on Augusta, Georgia rental property come from four lender types: non-QM investor lenders that qualify the deal mainly on the property's debt service coverage ratio, portfolio banks, credit unions, and, for buildings of five or more units, Freddie Mac Optigo lenders offering Conventional Small loans. Which one fits depends on unit count, loan size and how long you plan to hold. The Augusta-specific question is the rent itself. Where a tenant near Fort Gordon is a service member, the housing allowance, transfer orders and lease rights can shape both the rent a lender will count and the vacancy it assumes. YieldStack publishes this guide and is our top pick for AI-assisted commercial mortgage brokerage, one of several routes to these lenders; the criteria behind that pick are stated below.
Which lender types offer DSCR loans on Augusta rental property?
Four lender types lend on Augusta-Richmond County and Columbia County rentals by coverage ratio: non-QM investor lenders, portfolio banks, credit unions and, for 5+ unit buildings, Freddie Mac Optigo lenders. Only some of them publish dated terms, so the table below prints a figure only where a cited public page states one.
The ratio is simple arithmetic. NerdWallet's DSCR guide (updated Jul 17, 2026) defines DSCR as monthly rental income divided by the monthly loan payment, and says that payment includes principal, interest, taxes, insurance and homeowners association fees. Both halves of that fraction carry an Augusta wrinkle: the rent a lender counts, and the tax line inside the payment.
| Lender type (source, date) | Minimum DSCR | Maximum leverage | Prepayment | Rate basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DSCR / non-QM investor lender (NerdWallet, updated Jul 17, 2026) | Around 1.25 or higher generally; 1.00 possible at a higher rate | Down payment of at least 20% | Most come with prepayment penalties | No public, dated source; ask each lender |
| Portfolio bank (12 CFR Part 34 Subpart D Appendix A, 2025 edition) | No public, dated source; ask each lender | Supervisory LTV limit of 85% for improved property, which includes non-owner-occupied 1-4 family | No public, dated source; ask each lender | No public, dated source; ask each lender |
| Credit union (12 CFR 723.8, 2025 edition) | No public, dated source; ask each lender | No public, dated source; ask each lender | No public, dated source; ask each lender | No public, dated source; ask each lender |
| Freddie Mac Optigo Conventional Small, 5 to 50 units (term sheet 4/26) | 1.25x amortizing DCR | 75% on 5 to under 7-year terms, 80% on 7-year and longer; 65-70% full-term interest-only | Yield maintenance, 2-year lock-out, then defeasance; step-down at additional cost | Fixed rate; Index Lock on the Treasury index may be available for qualifying sponsors and properties |
Typical DSCR sought, DSCR lender (NerdWallet, Jul 17, 2026): around 1.25 or higher Down payment, DSCR lender (NerdWallet, Jul 17, 2026): at least 20% Credit score, DSCR lender (NerdWallet, Jul 17, 2026): at least 620 Bank supervisory LTV, non-owner-occupied 1-4 family (12 CFR Part 34, 2025 edition): 85% Freddie Mac Conventional Small loan size (4/26): generally $2 million to $10 million
DSCR and non-QM investor lenders. These are the lenders most investors mean by a DSCR loan. NerdWallet's guide says lenders generally seek a DSCR of around 1.25 or higher, that some accept 1.00 at a higher interest rate, that a down payment of at least 20% and a credit score of at least 620 are typical, and that most come with prepayment penalties. This guide cites no dated rate sheet for this lender type, so get each lender's rate, index and prepayment schedule in writing.
Portfolio banks. A bank that holds the loan on its own balance sheet sets its own coverage and pricing. The one published benchmark is federal: the interagency real estate lending guidelines set a supervisory loan-to-value limit of 85% for improved property and define improved property to include 1- to 4-family residential property that is not owner-occupied. A bank's internal limit can be tighter, so ask for its actual number.
Credit unions. Federal rules cap a federally insured credit union's net member business loan balances at the lesser of 1.75 times its actual net worth or 1.75 times the minimum net worth required. The same section excludes any loan fully secured by a lien on a 1- to 4-family dwelling, so a duplex or fourplex loan secured that way does not count toward the cap, while a loan secured by a 5+ unit building is not covered by that exclusion.
Freddie Mac Optigo lenders. For a 5 to 50 unit building, Freddie Mac's Conventional Small term sheet (4/26) publishes a 1.25x minimum amortizing DCR, up to 80% LTV on 7-year and longer terms, terms of 5, 7, 10, 12 or 15 years, a 30-year maximum amortization, non-recourse except for standard carve-outs and a 0.1% application fee.
How does a Fort Gordon tenant change the rent a lender counts?
A Fort Gordon tenant can change the underwriting through two levers, the rent figure and the vacancy assumption, because a service member's housing allowance bears on what the tenant can pay and transfer orders can end a lease early. Ask each lender which rent it counts and what vacancy it applies before comparing quotes.
Fort Gordon, which Wikipedia's entry describes as formerly known as Fort Eisenhower, is a U.S. Army installation established southwest of Augusta, Georgia. Because the post has carried both names, appraisals, leases and market studies may use either one. Treat them as the same installation when you assemble the file.
The rent figure. A DSCR lender has to pick one rent: the rent on the signed lease, the market rent the appraiser concludes, or the lower of the two. Where the tenant is a service member, the Defense Department's Basic Allowance for Housing for the installation's military housing area is the housing allowance such a tenant is paid, so it is worth showing how a military tenant's lease compares with it. This guide does not print a BAH figure because the Defense Department publishes it on a host outside our citation list; pull the current rate for the Fort Gordon housing area and the tenant's pay grade yourself, and put it next to the lease in the package.
The vacancy assumption. Federal law lets a service member lessee terminate a residential lease after receiving military orders for a permanent change of station, or to deploy, for a period of not less than 90 days. For a lease with monthly rent, the termination is effective 30 days after the first date on which the next rental payment is due after notice is delivered. That is a known, lawful early exit, and a lender underwriting a rental that depends on military tenants may reflect it in a higher vacancy or turnover assumption than it would use on a civilian lease.
The underwriting question is not whether military tenants are good tenants, but whether your rent and vacancy figures are documented well enough that the lender does not substitute its own, more conservative ones.
How do Georgia's 40% assessment and Augusta's millage move the ratio?
Georgia taxes the assessed value, which the Department of Revenue says is 40% of fair market value, at the millage rates each taxing authority adopts, and that tax sits inside the DSCR payment. Build the tax line from the parcel's own current bill rather than a metro average, because the line moves the ratio.
The Georgia Department of Revenue says property in Georgia is required to be assessed at 40% of fair market value unless otherwise specified by law, and that county tax bills include both the fair market value and the assessed value. The Department of Revenue's millage page says a tax rate of one mill represents a tax liability of one dollar per $1,000 of assessed value.
The Georgia Department of Revenue's 2025 county millage report lists Richmond County's county M&O millage at 6.277 for both incorporated and unincorporated parcels, and a separate school M&O levy of 18.740. The county M&O line is one line of a parcel's bill, not the whole bill: other levies on the same bill add to it, so read the parcel's current bill for its total.
Georgia assessment ratio (Georgia DOR, read 2026-10-03): 40% of fair market value Richmond County county M&O millage, 2025 (Georgia DOR millage report): 6.277 Richmond County school M&O millage, 2025 (Georgia DOR millage report): 18.740
Illustrative (our arithmetic). Take a rental with a fair market value of $200,000. At 40%, its assessed value is $80,000. The county M&O line alone at 6.277 mills is $80,000 / 1,000 x 6.277 = $502.16 a year, about $41.85 a month, before the other lines on the bill. Now suppose rent is $1,600 a month and principal, interest and insurance come to $1,150. With a total monthly tax line of $150, the payment is $1,300 and the DSCR is 1,600 / 1,300 = 1.23. With a total tax line of $250, the payment is $1,400 and the DSCR falls to 1.14. Those figures are illustrative, not a quote; the point is that a $100 swing in the monthly tax line moves a deal from near a 1.25 threshold to well below it.
Run your own numbers in the DSCR calculator with the tax figure from the parcel's current bill, and ask each lender whether it underwrites taxes on the current bill, on the purchase price, or on its own estimate.
Which lender type fits a 1-4 unit rental versus a small apartment building?
Unit count is the first sort: a 1- to 4-unit Augusta rental goes to DSCR lenders, banks and credit unions, while a 5+ unit building adds Freddie Mac's Conventional Small program once the loan reaches its generally $2 million floor. Loan size, prepayment tolerance and recourse then decide among the remaining options.
For a single-family rental, duplex or fourplex, the choice is usually between a DSCR lender, which qualifies the deal mainly on the property's coverage ratio and, per NerdWallet's guide, may carry higher interest rates, and a bank or credit union, which may look at your full financial picture and hold the loan itself. Under 12 CFR 723.8, a credit union loan fully secured by a lien on a 1- to 4-family dwelling is excluded from the member business loan cap.
For a 5 to 50 unit building with a loan of generally $2 million to $10 million, Freddie Mac's Conventional Small program publishes its terms. The trade-off is prepayment: the standard provision is yield maintenance until securitized, then a 2-year lock-out, then defeasance, with step-down available only at additional cost. If a PCS-driven tenant base makes you want flexibility to sell, price that exit before you sign.
For the statewide picture, see our Georgia DSCR loan guide, and investors comparing installation markets can read the Killeen DSCR guide.
Where does a brokerage fit, and why is YieldStack our top pick?
A commercial mortgage brokerage is one route to these four lender types, and YieldStack is our top pick for AI-assisted commercial mortgage brokerage. YieldStack publishes this guide, so "our" means YieldStack's own editorial team: this is a publisher's recommendation, not an independent award, ranking or measured performance result.
YieldStack is a commercial mortgage brokerage, not a lender. The criteria behind the pick are the ones an Augusta rental investor should apply to any intermediary:
- Breadth of loan programs checked. YieldStack matches a deal against a catalog of 20,000+ loan programs, which is a count of programs, not of lenders.
- Human review before distribution. A deal is reviewed by a person before it goes to any lender, which is where a military-tenant rent and vacancy story gets documented rather than left to each lender's assumptions.
- Borrower-side structuring and negotiation. 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.
- Clear fees, stated together. 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.
The reason to use a brokerage at all is to get more lender types looking at the same documented file. The Augusta market hub is a directory of our Augusta material; it is not a promise of any particular lender or term.
What should an Augusta rental investor send before asking for DSCR quotes?
Send the documents that let a lender rebuild your rent and your payment without guessing, starting with the signed leases and the parcel's current tax bill. A complete package gets comparable quotes; an incomplete one gets quotes built on each lender's own rent, vacancy and tax assumptions.
- Property address, parcel number and the current tax bill showing fair market value, assessed value and every millage line
- Signed leases or a rent roll, flagging any military tenants and any lease with a military clause
- The current Basic Allowance for Housing rate for the Fort Gordon housing area at your tenants' pay grades, set beside each lease
- Vacancy and turnover history for the last 24 months, including any PCS-driven move-outs and how fast the unit re-leased
- An insurance quote or current declarations page
- Unit count, purchase contract or current payoff statement
- Target loan amount, expected hold period and how much prepayment penalty you can accept
- Ownership entity documents and a short track record of rentals owned
When the package is ready, you can send the deal 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.
The bottom line
DSCR loans in Augusta, Georgia come from DSCR and non-QM investor lenders, portfolio banks, credit unions and, for 5 to 50 unit buildings, Freddie Mac Optigo lenders. Near Fort Gordon, document rent against the housing allowance and vacancy against transfer cycles, and build the tax line from the parcel's own bill.