Portfolio Loans in Santa Barbara

No, we build it parcel by parcel. The county's tax rate book puts total ad valorem rates as low as 1.02988% in unincorporated Montecito and as high as 1.18136% in the City of Guadalupe, for fiscal year 2025-26, with every place in between running its own rate off its own school and community college bond overlay. No Mello-Roos community facilities district shows up anywhere in the county's rate book, but direct assessments and 1915 Act special assessments are not broken out there either, so that absence tells you the CFD picture, not the whole special-assessment picture. We read the actual tax bill on every door in the pool before we size the loan, not a countywide average.

It can, and it is worth flagging before you close. On May 8, 2026 the Goleta City Council advanced amendments to its short-term rental ordinance that would prohibit corporations and LLCs from holding a rental permit at all, cap non-hosted rentals at 120 nights a year, and add a 24-month waiting period after purchase before a newly bought property is even eligible for a non-hosted permit. Those changes had been advanced but not yet adopted as of that report. If your pool includes an entity-held Goleta short-term rental, we want that asset's licensing status in the file, because a permit an LLC cannot hold is a real coverage gap for that door's income.

Less than you'd expect, and it does not change by city. The county's documentary transfer tax is $1.10 per $1,000 of price, county-wide, with no city add-on anywhere, including the three charter cities of Santa Barbara, Santa Maria and Solvang. A $1,848,325 sale in the city of Santa Barbara pays about $2,033 in transfer tax, roughly 0.11% of price. That flat, uniform rate is one reason a release schedule is simpler to price here than in a county that stacks a city transfer tax on top of the state one.

It changes by asset, especially on the South Coast. This county's signature exposure is post-fire debris flow, not wildfire alone. The 2018 Montecito debris flows, on the burn scar left by the Thomas Fire, killed 21 people and destroyed 129 homes. A standard homeowner policy or a FAIR Plan dwelling fire form is not the same coverage as a mudflow endorsement, so any South Coast foothill parcel in your pool needs that quote confirmed before the appraisal, not after. We ask for it per asset rather than assuming one policy answer covers the whole portfolio.

With a per-asset licensing and rent-regulation memo, not one blanket answer. The City of Santa Barbara currently has covered older units under a rent freeze and a separate just-cause ordinance; unincorporated county land allows only owner-present homestays inland while the coastal zone stays unregulated; Goleta licenses short-term rentals with amendments pending (see above); and Carpinteria issues short-term rental licenses only inside its Vacation Rental Overlay District under an annual cap. A five-property pool that touches three of those jurisdictions is really three different compliance questions, and we want each one answered before the loan closes, not discovered after. Portfolio loans are structured around your actual hold and release plan for each asset.

A portfolio or blanket loan rolls several rental properties into one loan with a single monthly payment, instead of a separate mortgage on each property. It simplifies your financing, frees up capital, and lets you scale a rental portfolio without managing a stack of individual loans.

These structures usually make sense at around five or more properties, though we can look at smaller groups. The portfolio can be a mix of single-family rentals, small multifamily, and other income property.

Yes. Most blanket loans include a release provision, so you can sell an individual property and pay down the loan by that property's allocated amount while the rest stays in place. We set the release terms up front.

We underwrite the combined cash flow and overall leverage of the portfolio, similar to a DSCR loan but across the whole group. Pricing depends on the asset mix, the leverage, and your experience, and loan amounts typically start around $500K.

Usually not. Like our DSCR program, a blanket rental loan qualifies on the portfolio's cash flow rather than your personal income, so tax returns are generally not required. We will want to see the rent roll and operating history.

Yes. A common use of a blanket loan is to consolidate existing mortgages and pull cash out of the combined equity, giving you capital to acquire more property. Cash-out leverage is set against the portfolio's value and cash flow.