Many Baton Rouge landlords built their portfolios one $150,000 to $250,000 house at a time, with a separate loan, insurance policy and due date for each. A blanket loan puts five or more of those rentals under one note.
In short: LendingStreet offers blanket portfolio loans that combine five or more Baton Rouge rentals, each 1 to 8 units, into one loan with one closing and one monthly payment. The loan qualifies on the portfolio's combined cash flow rather than your income, and release provisions let you sell one property without refinancing the rest. Portfolio pricing applies, and properties in other Louisiana parishes or other states can be included on some programs.
Single-family rentals in much of Baton Rouge sell well below national prices, so a $150,000 minimum per loan can be awkward when each house is worth $180,000 to $240,000. Grouping six or eight houses into one loan solves that and replaces a stack of small payments with one.
It also helps when you want to pull equity from older purchases. Instead of six cash-out refinances, each with its own appraisal fee, title work and closing, you do one closing on the group.
Owners who bought in the years after the 2016 flood, when some damaged homes sold at a discount and were rebuilt, often have significant equity spread across many small properties. A blanket refinance is one way to put that equity to work on the next purchase without selling.
Portfolios here often mix older brick ranch homes in Broadmoor, Sherwood Forest, Westminster and Village St. George with houses in Mid City and near Florida Boulevard. Many investors add suburban homes in Central, Zachary, Baker and Denham Springs, where newer construction rents to families.
Some include student rentals near LSU in the Tigerland and Nicholson Drive area, or duplexes in Mid City. The mix matters: a portfolio that blends steady family rentals with student units spreads the risk across tenant types and lease cycles.
A blanket loan adds the rent from every property and compares it with the combined payment: principal and interest on the single loan plus every property's taxes and insurance. A weaker house can be carried by stronger ones, as long as the total clears the program minimum, usually 1.0x.
That flexibility is the main advantage over separate DSCR loans, where each property has to qualify on its own. It also means a single vacant or under-rented house shows up across the whole file, so bring current leases or a rent schedule.
Leases below market are common in long-held Baton Rouge portfolios, where owners kept good tenants at old rents. Those leases still count at their actual amount, so if renewals are coming up, it may pay to raise rents before you apply.
This example is illustrative and not a quote. An owner refinances six single-family rentals worth a combined $1,270,000 with total rent of $9,820 a month. At 75% of value the blanket loan is $952,500, with estimated principal and interest of about $6,660 on a 30-year term.
Taxes on all six are $945 a month and insurance, including flood coverage on two of them, is $1,155, so the combined payment is about $8,760. Portfolio DSCR is $9,820 divided by $8,760, about 1.12x. The table shows each property's value, rent and allocated loan amount at 75%.
| Property | Value | Monthly rent | Allocated loan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mid City house | $215,000 | $1,650 | $161,250 |
| Broadmoor house | $185,000 | $1,475 | $138,750 |
| Sherwood Forest house | $230,000 | $1,750 | $172,500 |
| Westminster house | $205,000 | $1,600 | $153,750 |
| Central house | $240,000 | $1,795 | $180,000 |
| Denham Springs house | $195,000 | $1,550 | $146,250 |
| Total | $1,270,000 | $9,820 | $952,500 |
Each property carries an allocated share of the loan. When you sell one, the release provision sets how much of the sale proceeds must go to pay down the loan before that property comes off the lien. Release terms vary by program and are often set above the allocated amount.
In the example, if the release price were 120% of the allocated amount, an assumption for this illustration, selling the Central house would require paying down $216,000 against its $180,000 allocation. The remaining five homes would need to keep clearing the portfolio DSCR after the release.
A Baton Rouge portfolio usually has a mix of flood zone designations. Expect a flood determination for every property and flood insurance on any in a mapped hazard area. Homes in Livingston and Ascension parishes near the Amite and Comite rivers deserve extra attention after 2016.
Some owners use a single landlord policy across the portfolio, which can simplify renewals. Whatever you use, every property must be covered for the loan amount the lender requires, and wind coverage is part of the cost in Louisiana.
Louisiana uses a 10% assessment ratio on residential property, and homes bought from owner-occupants lose their homestead exemption. If you bought houses recently, check that the current bills reflect non-homestead status, because a later correction will raise the payment and lower your portfolio DSCR.
Assessors in East Baton Rouge, Livingston and Ascension parishes reappraise on a four-year cycle. If a reassessment is coming, budget conservatively.
Send a schedule listing each address, unit count, current rent, lease end date, estimated value, taxes, insurance and any existing loan balance. LendingStreet will run the portfolio ratio, flag properties that drag it down and suggest whether to include, exclude or finance them separately.
If your portfolio is smaller than five properties, individual DSCR loans may fit better; see our comparison page. Call (877) 298-1001 or use the form below to get a quote.
Five or more investment properties, each with 1 to 8 units. Smaller groups are usually better financed with individual DSCR loans.
Yes. Properties across Louisiana parishes can be combined, and some programs allow properties in more than one state.
Portfolio DSCR uses combined rent, so a vacancy lowers the ratio for the whole file. A short vacancy may still work if the other homes carry it.
Yes. The release clause sets the paydown needed to remove that property from the loan. Terms vary by program.
No. The loan qualifies on the portfolio's rental income. We review credit, reserves and the properties.
Yes, up to program limits, and the combined rent must still clear the minimum DSCR at the new payment.
Yes, as long as each property is 1 to 8 units and is held as a rental. Bring the leases, since academic-year terms and by-the-bedroom leasing are reviewed along with the rest of the rent roll.
No. Our investor loans are business-purpose loans on non-owner-occupied property. Every unit has to be held as a rental.
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