When I bought my first fixer-upper, I was full of optimism, adrenaline, and the kind of blind confidence you only get from bingeing real estate podcasts late at night.
The house was ugly, but I didn’t care. I saw past the peeling paint and busted HVAC system. I had a vision: I was going to BRRRR it. You know the formula: buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat. It wasn’t just a strategy; it felt like a cheat code for building wealth.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that this formula, while brilliant in theory, has a fatal flaw if you don’t pick the right financing partner. Most podcasts and blog posts make the refinance step sound like a quick and easy formality: You fix it up, get a tenant in, call your lender, and boom, money back, on to the next one.
But in real life? That refinance step can become the exact place where your entire BRRRR flywheel comes to a grinding halt. And that’s precisely what happened to me.
I found myself stuck, staring at a property that was beautifully renovated and cash flowing, but completely locking up my capital. I’d done everything right, except for one thing: I chose the wrong lender. And in this business, one mistake can quickly turn momentum into stagnation.
The Deal That Should Have Worked
I purchased a tired single-family home for $145,000. It wasn’t anything flashy, but I knew it had potential. I brought in private money to fund the deal and invested approximately $40,000 in renovations. We updated the floors, gave the kitchen a modern facelift, boosted curb appeal, and tightened up everything behind the walls.
Within 90 days, the transformation was complete. I had a qualified tenant in place paying $1,650 a month, and for a moment, it felt like the perfect BRRRR story was unfolding.
The numbers worked. The property was performing. Cash flow looked great on paper. Everything was going according to plan. Then came the refinance, and that’s when reality hit.
The Conventional Lender Brick Wall
Here’s what happened when I went the traditional route:
- The bank wanted two years of tax returns.
- They needed W-2s, proof of income, and a job history.
- As a self-employed real estate agent-turned-investor, I didn’t have neat paperwork.
- My adjusted gross income looked low, thanks to business write-offs.
- Even though the house was producing income, I couldn’t get approved.
That meant my capital was stuck in the deal. I couldn’t repeat the process. And that defeats the entire purpose of BRRRR.
An Investor’s Favorite Loan Product
A friend at a local investor meetup casually mentioned something called a DSCR loan. I had heard the term “debt service coverage ratio” before, but I had never taken the time to fully understand what it meant or how it could apply to my situation. At the time, I was knee-deep in conventional loan denials and overwhelmed by endless requests for tax returns and income verification.
The idea of a loan that looked at the property’s income instead of my finances seemed almost too good to be true. But that simple conversation stuck with me. It planted the seed for a new way of thinking about financing, and it ultimately became the turning point that allowed me to finally unlock the BRRRR strategy as it was intended to work.
What Is a DSCR Loan?
- Instead of judging you as the borrower, it looks at the property’s income.
- If your rental income covers the mortgage, you’re in the game.
- No W2s, tax returns, or income statements from your side hustle
The lender simply looks at the performance of the property.
The Numbers on My First DSCR Refinance
- The purchase price was $145,000.
- The rehab cost was $40,000.
- All-in for $185,000
- The property was appraised for $225,000 after repairs.
- I refinanced at 75% loan-to-value, pulling out $168,750.
- That gave me most of my capital back to invest in the next deal.
Did I get every dollar back? No. But did I get enough to keep going? Absolutely.
EasyRent for Smart Investors
EasyRent worked for me because the process was simple and focused on what mattered: the performance of the property. I submitted my lease agreement and basic documentation for the home, and they reviewed the rental income alongside the expected expenses. My tenant was paying $1,650 a month, while the proposed mortgage came in at $1,350, resulting in a strong debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) of over 1.2.
That alone was enough to get me approved and refinanced in less than 30 days. I didn’t have to justify tax write-offs or scramble to prove income. The numbers spoke for themselves, and for the first time, so did the property.
Why I’ll Keep Using DSCR Loans
I’ve now done multiple DSCR refinances. Each one helped me:
- Skip the paperwork nightmare
- Reuse my capital faster
- Qualify based on real-world income
- Build a portfolio without being boxed in by my personal finances
And Easy Street Capital? They made the process seamless. Here’s what stood out to me:
- They’re investor-focused.
- They don’t penalize you for being self-employed.
- They communicate clearly and move fast.
- The EasyRent product fits perfectly into the BRRRR model.
This Isn’t Just About Refinancing
The real win wasn’t just pulling $168,750 out of that refinance. It was unlocking the ability to keep going. In real estate, most investors don’t fail because they buy the wrong property. They fail because they partner with the wrong lender. When your capital gets trapped in a deal, you lose your ability to scale.
When a refinance stalls or falls through, the whole BRRRR strategy grinds to a halt. And when a bank cares more about your tax return than the actual performance of the asset, you’re stuck on the sidelines.
Easy Street Capital changed that for me. They didn’t just fund the deal; they gave me back my momentum.
Final Thoughts
Whether you’re a new investor trying to make your first BRRRR deal work or a seasoned pro looking to scale quickly, one thing is clear: You need lenders who think like investors, not just box-checkers.
Easy Street Capital’s EasyRent program is built for precisely that. It’s designed to keep your momentum going by focusing on the property’s performance, not your personal finances. With EasyRent, you can:
- Refinance out of high-interest hard money
- Pull your capital back out as soon as the rehab is done
- Avoid getting stuck during tax season because of complicated income docs
- Move confidently on to the next deal without delays
At the end of the day, that’s what investing is really about: repeating the process over and over again until you’ve built something lasting. EasyRent didn’t just make my deals possible. It made my strategy sustainable.