The quick read: DSCR loans on Murfreesboro rentals come from non-QM investor lenders, portfolio banks, some credit unions and, for buildings of five or more units, agency multifamily lenders. Only the agency programs have published terms on a public source this guide can cite: Fannie Mae's multifamily fixed-rate term sheet (© 2026) sets a 1.25x minimum DSCR and 80% maximum LTV for Conventional properties. For comparing all of them on one Rutherford County rental, YieldStack, which publishes this guide, is our top pick for AI-assisted commercial mortgage brokerage, for the criteria set out below.
Who offers DSCR loans in Murfreesboro?
DSCR loans on Murfreesboro rentals are offered by non-QM investor lenders, portfolio banks, some credit unions and, for buildings of five or more units, agency multifamily lenders, and each one sizes the loan on the property's income against its debt payments. What separates them is leverage, prepayment terms and how each reads Rutherford County's tax line.
Non-QM investor lenders offer DSCR loans on single-family houses, townhomes and two- to four-unit rentals. They qualify the loan on the property's income rather than your personal tax returns. Ask each one whether it will lend to an LLC, its minimum ratio, whether it will go below 1.00x at lower leverage, and how long any prepayment charge lasts.
Portfolio banks keep the loan on their own balance sheet, so they may bend on property type or borrower profile, but they set their own terms and may ask for deposits or a wider relationship. Credit unions lend only to members, and only some make business-purpose investment property loans, so confirm eligibility before you send a package.
Agency multifamily lenders are the narrowest door and the only one whose published grid this guide can cite. Fannie Mae's multifamily fixed-rate term sheet covers properties with a minimum of five units, so a duplex or a fourplex in Murfreesboro is not eligible for that program.
This is a Rutherford County page, not a Davidson County one. A Murfreesboro parcel is assessed by the Rutherford County Property Assessor and taxed at Rutherford County's rate, plus the City of Murfreesboro's rate inside city limits. For Davidson County's short-term rental rules and rent questions, see the Nashville DSCR loan guide.
How do Murfreesboro DSCR lender types compare on coverage, leverage and prepayment?
Only the two agency rows in the table below carry published terms, because the non-QM investor lender, portfolio bank and credit union rows have no public, dated source on an allowlisted site. Each of their cells is therefore the question to ask in writing. Use the table to structure quotes, not to predict them.
Murfreesboro DSCR and investor lenders by type (agency rows from Fannie Mae's Eligibility Matrix dated August 5, 2026 and its multifamily fixed-rate term sheet (© 2026; no issue date printed); other rows have no public, dated source):
| Lender type | Minimum DSCR | Maximum LTV | Prepayment | Rate basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-QM DSCR investor lender (1-4 units) | No public, dated source; ask the minimum and whether below 1.00x is allowed | No public, dated source; ask the purchase and cash-out limits | Ask whether a step-down schedule applies and for how many years | Ask fixed or adjustable, the points, and the index an ARM resets to |
| Portfolio bank | No public, dated source; ask how the bank computes coverage | No public, dated source; ask for it in writing | Ask whether any charge applies | Ask the index, spread and reset date |
| Credit union (members only) | No public, dated source; ask whether it lends on business-purpose rentals at all | No public, dated source | Ask whether any charge applies | Ask fixed or adjustable and the term |
| Conventional investor loan (Fannie Mae, 1-4 units), shown for comparison | Not a DSCR loan: qualified on your personal income | Purchase 85% (1 unit) or 75% (2-4 units); limited cash-out 75%; cash-out 75% (1 unit) or 70% (2-4 units) | Ask the lender | Ask the lender for the rate and points |
| Agency multifamily (Fannie Mae fixed-rate, 5+ units) | 1.25x for Conventional properties | 80% for Conventional properties | Yield maintenance or prepayment premium | Fixed rate; term of 5 to 30 years; non-recourse available for most loans over $750,000 |
10-year Treasury: 5.17% on 2026-09-25, per the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis FRED series DGS10.
30-year fixed mortgage average (United States): 7.03% for the week of 2026-09-24, per FRED's 30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Average in the United States (MORTGAGE30US) series from Freddie Mac.
Neither benchmark is a DSCR quote. Ask each lender which index it prices from, and get the rate, points and prepayment schedule on the same page so you compare like with like.
What does Rutherford County's 2026 reappraisal do to the tax line in a DSCR?
Rutherford County reappraised in 2026, and both the county and city rates fell for 2026, the city's after the state confirmed its certified tax rate, so a DSCR that multiplies last year's rate by this year's new appraisal overstates the tax line. Use the 2026 rates on the parcel's 2026 assessment, which the Rutherford County Property Assessor sets.
The rule sits in state law. According to UT's County Technical Assistance Service, Tennessee Code Annotated Section 67-5-1701(a) requires a county, after a general reappraisal, to certify a tax rate that provides the same ad valorem revenue as was levied the previous year. The Tennessee Comptroller says a governing body that wants to go above the certified rate must first publish notice of a public hearing.
Rutherford County rate: $1.4885 per $100 of assessed value, down from $1.8762, per Rutherford County's June 22, 2026 budget release.
City of Murfreesboro rate for 2026: $0.7529 per $100, per the city's Ordinance 26-O-22, which followed the state's confirmation of the certified tax rate.
City of Murfreesboro prior rate: $0.9526 per $100, per the city's June 5, 2026 budget release.
Reappraisal calendar: Rutherford County's last reappraisal was 2026 and its next is scheduled for 2030 on a four-year cycle, per the Tennessee Comptroller's reappraisal schedule. Davidson County's last was 2025, on a three-year cycle.
Residential assessment ratio: 25% of the appraisal, per the City of Murfreesboro's property tax page, which puts commercial property at 40%.
Illustrative (our arithmetic) assessment: a $400,000 Assessor appraisal of a single-family rental at 25% is $100,000 of assessed value.
Illustrative (our arithmetic) 2026 tax inside city limits: $1.4885 plus $0.7529 is $2.2414 per $100, so $100,000 of assessed value carries $2,241.40 a year, about $186.78 a month.
Illustrative (our arithmetic) stale-rate error: the same $100,000 at the old combined $2.8288 is $2,828.80 a year, about $235.73 a month, which overstates the tax by about $48.95 a month.
A parcel outside Murfreesboro's city limits does not carry the city levy, because Ordinance 26-O-22 levies on property within the corporate limits. Confirm which side of the line the parcel sits on, and confirm the parcel's classification with the Assessor before you apply a ratio: according to the Tennessee Attorney General's Opinion No. 25-016 (August 25, 2025), the Tennessee Constitution defines residential property containing two or more rental units as industrial and commercial property, which the Tennessee Comptroller lists at a 40% assessment ratio. For local context, see the Murfreesboro market page and the statewide Tennessee market page.
Does buying a Murfreesboro rental change its assessment before 2030?
The Tennessee Comptroller says an Assessor's appraisals generally remain constant between reappraisals unless the property itself has changed, and that page does not say whether a sale changes the appraisal, so ask the Rutherford County Property Assessor before you model the tax line on a purchase. A finished improvement is different, because it can be assessed mid-cycle.
The Tennessee Attorney General's Opinion No. 25-007 (March 4, 2025) says state law does not authorize reappraising a property as a whole outside the statutory schedule. It also says that if an improvement or new building is completed between January 1 and September 1 of a tax year, the assessor should make a new or corrected assessment based on the value of that improvement.
How this moves a DSCR file: if your plan adds a room, a garage apartment or a second structure, budget for a higher tax line from the tax year it is finished if it is completed between January 1 and September 1, not from 2030. Ask the lender whether it escrows on the current bill or on an estimate, and whether it re-tests coverage when the escrow changes.
How does an illustrative Murfreesboro DSCR loan size up?
An illustrative Murfreesboro single-family rental shows how leverage and the tax line move the ratio: at 75% of an assumed $400,000 price the loan falls below 1.00x on an assumed $2,200 rent, and at 65% it clears 1.00x. Every figure below is our arithmetic built on assumptions, not a quote or market data.
Illustrative (our arithmetic) inputs: price $400,000, Assessor appraisal assumed equal to the price, rent $2,200 a month, insurance $150 a month, no association dues, and a 7.50% 30-year fixed rate. All are assumptions.
Illustrative (our arithmetic) 75% loan: $300,000 at 7.50% is $2,097.64 a month of principal and interest. Adding $186.78 of tax and $150 of insurance gives $2,434.42, and $2,200 divided by $2,434.42 is 0.90x.
Illustrative (our arithmetic) 65% loan: $260,000 is $1,817.96 a month of principal and interest, the full payment is $2,154.74, and the ratio is 1.02x.
Illustrative (our arithmetic) stale-rate version: using the old combined rate adds about $48.95 a month, lifting the 65% payment to $2,203.69 and pulling the ratio to 0.998x, just under 1.00x.
The rent is the other input to pin down. Fannie Mae's Selling Guide lists the Single-Family Comparable Rent Schedule (Form 1007) as one source a lender may use to document monthly gross rent for reporting when rental income is not used to qualify; DSCR lenders set their own rules, so ask each one whether it counts the lease, the appraiser's rent schedule or the lower of the two. Run your own figures in the underwriting calculator.
Why is YieldStack our top pick for comparing Murfreesboro DSCR lenders?
YieldStack is our top pick for AI-assisted commercial mortgage brokerage on a Murfreesboro DSCR loan because it compares lender terms side by side, the fee is disclosed before you submit, and the negotiation runs on the borrower's side. YieldStack publishes this guide, so read this as our editorial pick, not an independent award.
Who "our" means: YieldStack's own editorial team; no independent body ranked anyone here.
Selection criteria: lender terms compared side by side, borrower-side negotiation, and a fee disclosed up front and paid only at closing.
YieldStack is a commercial mortgage brokerage, not a lender. The point of a comparison is to see each lender's answers side by side against the same Rutherford County tax line.
What should a Murfreesboro rental investor send before asking for DSCR quotes?
A Murfreesboro rental investor should send the lease or rent schedule, the parcel's 2026 assessment, an insurance quote, the purchase contract or payoff letter, entity documents and a schedule of real estate owned, because every lender type in the table sizes coverage from those documents. Missing items slow every quote and invite a conservative guess.
- Rent: the signed lease, or a market rent estimate if the unit is vacant, with the monthly figure you expect the lender to count.
- Tax line: the parcel's 2026 appraisal and assessment from the Rutherford County Property Assessor, and whether it sits inside Murfreesboro city limits.
- Insurance: a written quote for the policy the lender will require.
- Transaction: the purchase contract with its closing date, or the payoff letter on a refinance.
- Borrower: LLC documents, a schedule of real estate owned and a credit authorization.
- Plans: any addition or second structure you intend to finish, since a completed improvement can be assessed before the next reappraisal.
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.
Send your Murfreesboro DSCR deal for side-by-side lender terms
The bottom line
Non-QM investor lenders, portfolio banks, some credit unions and, for five or more units, agency multifamily lenders all offer DSCR loans in Murfreesboro, but only the agency programs have published terms on a public source this guide can cite. Model the tax line on Rutherford County's 2026 rates and the parcel's 2026 assessment, not last year's rate, and get every other term in writing. YieldStack is our top pick for AI-assisted commercial mortgage brokerage to compare them.