Buying a house to rent out costs more than buying one to live in, and the gap is bigger than most people expect. It is not a rumor lenders whisper about. It is a published fee, sitting right on Freddie Mac’s own pricing grid, and it stacks on top of the credit-score fee every conventional borrower already pays.
This grid is conventional pricing, not DSCR pricing
Before the numbers: this fee schedule prices conventional loans sold to Freddie Mac. It has nothing to do with DSCR loans, which are Non-QM, meaning they are not sold to Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae and do not appear on any public price grid at all. If you are shopping a DSCR loan, this page is not your fee sheet. See DSCR loan vs. conventional investment loan for how the two loan types actually compare.
The base fee, plus the investment-property fee, stacked
Every conventional borrower already pays a credit-score fee, called a loan level price adjustment. That fee is documented in what your credit score costs you. Freddie Mac’s Exhibit 19, Bulletin 2026-09, effective 07/01/2026, adds a second fee just for financing an investment property, and by the guide’s own rule, credit fees are cumulative: they add together, not one or the other.
Here is what that looks like on a $320,000 loan, for a borrower in the 740-759 credit score band, across a range of loan-to-value bands. Loan to value, or LTV, is your loan amount divided by the home’s value, shown as a percent.
| Loan to value | Primary residence fee | Investment property add-on | Combined investment property fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60% or less | 0% ($0) | 1.125% ($3,600) | 1.125% ($3,600) |
| 60.01% to 70% | 0.125% ($400) | 1.625% ($5,200) | 1.75% ($5,600) |
| 70.01% to 75% | 0.375% ($1,200) | 2.125% ($6,800) | 2.5% ($8,000) |
| 75.01% to 80% | 0.875% ($2,800) | 3.375% ($10,800) | 4.25% ($13,600) |
The investment property add-on gets steeper as loan to value rises, and it flattens out at a flat 4.125% once you cross 80% loan to value, the opposite pattern from primary-residence pricing, where the fee sometimes drops back down at higher loan to value instead of climbing further.
At 80% loan to value, the exact worked example: the primary-residence borrower pays $2,800 in fees for a 740-759 score. The investment-property borrower on the identical loan pays $13,600, a $10,800 difference, from occupancy type alone. Nothing about the borrower’s credit or down payment changed. Only what the property is used for changed.
What happens above 80% loan to value
Above 80% loan to value, the investment property add-on becomes a flat 4.125% of the loan amount, no matter how far above 80% you go. The primary-residence base grid, by contrast, keeps changing above 80% loan to value, rising into the mid-80s band before actually dropping back down closer to 90% and 95%, the non-monotonic pattern already documented in the credit-score article. Because these two grids move differently above 80%, this page does not combine them into a single number past that point. Above 80% loan to value, expect the investment-property fee itself to sit at 4.125% of your loan amount, and check your own base-grid fee separately.
This fee is not your interest rate
Like the credit-score fee it stacks on top of, this is a one-time fee, called a credit fee in price, charged as a percent of your loan amount. It is not your interest rate, and it is not automatically added as cash due at closing either. A lender can absorb it into your rate, charge it as an upfront cost, or split it between the two. Two lenders quoting the identical loan can land that $10,800 fee in different places on your Loan Estimate, so ask each one to show the line item rather than guess how it landed in the quote you were given.
On this page’s own $320,000 example loan at 6.5%, with 1 point, the illustrative principal and interest payment works out to about $2,023 a month. Held over 5 years, that example loan’s combined interest, points, and fees run about $104,112, and over the full 30 years about $411,342. The $10,800 investment-property fee sits against that scale: a real cost, but a one-time one, not a monthly one.
Second homes carry the same schedule
Freddie Mac’s Section 3 grid gives the identical add-on schedule to second homes as it does to investment property. That is worth knowing if you are financing a vacation property rather than a rental, but the two are underwritten as different questions. A second home is about where you personally spend time. An investment property is about renting it out. Do not treat the two as the same loan just because the fee table happens to match; tell your lender clearly which one you are buying.
What this grid does not cover
A few limits matter before you read your own deal into this table:
- This is a base-plus-add-on grid only. Other add-ons, like a condo unit or an adjustable rate loan, stack on top of what is shown here, per the same cumulative rule.
- It does not set your interest rate. It is a fee the loan buyer charges the lender, priced into your quote however the lender chooses.
- It applies to conventional loans only. FHA, VA, USDA, and DSCR loans use entirely different pricing and are not on this grid at all.
- It expires. This grid is effective 07/01/2026 under Bulletin 2026-09. Freddie Mac updates it periodically, so check the source link for the current version before relying on it for a closing later than that.
What this means for you
If you are comparing a primary residence purchase against an investment property purchase, do not assume the only difference is a slightly higher rate. Ask your lender to show you the investment-property add-on as its own line, separate from your credit-score fee, and confirm which loan-to-value band it is pricing from. At 80% loan to value and a 740-759 score, that add-on alone is $10,800 on a $320,000 loan, money worth knowing about before you make an offer, not after you get your Closing Disclosure.