Breaking the Cap: Executing a 14-Unit DSCR Portfolio Beyond Institutional Limits

February 25, 2026.

Summary

In Houston, Texas, a real estate investor was under contract to acquire 14 newly constructed townhomes as long-term rental assets. The total financing requirement was $3,694,404, structured as acquisition loans.

While the asset quality and borrower profile were strong, the transaction exceeded two common secondary market thresholds. Most DSCR note buyers cap exposure at 10 financed properties per sponsor and limit aggregate loan balances at $3,000,000.

Placing and closing all 14 loans individually required a capital markets strategy and not just underwriting execution.

Rocco Mandarino, Branch Manager of Maverick Lending NYC, structured and executed 14 separate DSCR loans, navigating concentration limits while preserving flexibility and delivering synchronized closings across the entire portfolio.

Real Stories. Real Challenges. Real Solutions.

Every loan has a story behind the numbers.

In this section, The Elite Officer highlights real-world cases where Loan Officers turned
complex challenges into successful closings. Each case shows how persistence, creativity, and financial strategy can make the difference between a stalled deal and a successful closing.

The Deal at a Glance

• Property Type: 14 Newly Constructed Townhomes (Build-to-Rent)
• Location: Houston, Texas
• Total Loan Amount: $3,694,404
• Structure: 14 Individual DSCR Loans
• Leverage: 70% LTV
• Product: 30-Year Fixed DSCR Financing
• Strategy: Long-Term Rental Hold

The Challenge

The primary obstacle was certainly not borrower qualification. It was institutional
allocation.

Most secondary market participants enforce exposure caps of:

• 10 financed properties per sponsor
• Approximately $3 million in aggregate loan balance

This transaction exceeded both.

Without strategic placement, the borrower would have faced either a denial due to concentration risk or pressure to consolidate into a blanket loan structure, reducing
liquidity and long-term flexibility.

The second challenge was operational.

Closing 14 individual loans simultaneously is no simple transaction. It requires:

• Parallel underwriting across multiple files
• Standardized appraisal methodology across identical new-construction units
• Consistent DSCR modeling assumptions
• Coordinated closing schedules

Many lenders lack the infrastructure to execute multi-file DSCR transactions without
staggered approvals, valuation discrepancies, or operational bottlenecks.

Scale exposes weaknesses. Precision eliminates them.

The Solution

This transaction was approached from a capital markets perspective first.

Capital Strategy

Rather than forcing the portfolio into a single execution channel, the loans were structured to align with institutional note-buyer thresholds while managing exposure limits. Clean documentation, consistent credit profiles, and disciplined leverage positioning allowed the transaction to be placed strategically without breaching concentration caps.

The result: full allocation of all 14 loans without compromising pricing or structure.

Structural Design

Each property was financed individually to preserve:

• Asset-level liquidity
• Selective refinance optionality
• Independent exit strategies
• Reduced cross-collateralization risk

For build-to-rent investors, flexibility is a long-term advantage, and this structure protected it.

Operational Execution

Maverick Lending NYC has built its platform exclusively around DSCR and Non-QM lending.

Dedicated processors, underwriters, and closers focus solely on investment-property
execution.

That specialization enabled:

• Simultaneous underwriting tracks
• Appraisal consistency across all units
• Tight coordination between operations and capital markets
• Synchronized closings across 14 files

This was not volume for volume’s sake.

It was controlled institutional execution at scale.

The Outcome

The full $3,694,404 acquisition package closed successfully.

The borrower secured long-term fixed financing at strong leverage, retained full asset-level flexibility, and avoided restrictive blanket loan structures.

More importantly, the transaction demonstrated that with the right capital strategy and operational design, DSCR lending can scale beyond conventional secondary market limits.

Takeaways for Loan Officers

1. Understand note-buyer concentration caps before structuring multi-property deals.
2. Specialized DSCR platforms outperform generalist lenders at scale.
3. Preserve investor flexibility through individual asset structuring.
4. Build operational systems that allow synchronized multi-file execution.