Requirements
Kiavi lending requirements
The published qualifying criteria for Kiavi — the thresholds a deal is screened against before anything else about it matters. Verified Sep 17, 2026.
Minimum credit score
660
Kiavi sets its credit floor at 660. A borrower scoring below that is not eligible for this program, independent of how the property itself cash-flows.
Minimum DSCR
0.80
A 0.80 minimum accepts a property whose rent covers only 80% of its full monthly payment — principal, interest, taxes, insurance and association dues. A property renting for $1,600 against a $2,000 payment scores exactly a 0.80 DSCR and clears this floor; the same property would be declined outright at a program whose floor sits at 1.00. See How DSCR is calculated.
Maximum leverage
80% LTV / 95% LTC
Maximum loan-to-value is 80% of the property's appraised value — the borrower brings at least 20% of value in cash or equity. Maximum loan-to-cost is 95% of total project cost — purchase price plus rehab budget. That is the binding number on a value-add deal where the finished value will exceed the purchase price, since an LTV cap alone would understate what Kiavi will actually lend against the project.
Loan size
$100,000 – $2,000,000
Loan sizes run from $100,000 to $2,000,000. A deal outside that band, in either direction, is outside Kiavi's box regardless of credit score or DSCR.
State coverage
49 states
Kiavi is licensed in 49 states as of the verification date below. A property outside that footprint is not eligible here regardless of how it scores on every other criterion.
Reading these thresholds together
Kiavi publishes 5 of the 7 criteria categories this directory tracks (credit score, DSCR, leverage, loan size, entity requirement, origination channel, and state coverage). Any category not shown above is not publicly disclosed by Kiavi as of Sep 17, 2026 — treat an absent category as unknown, not as "no requirement."
None of these thresholds are guarantees. A deal that clears every published floor still goes through underwriting on the specific property, borrower history, and documentation and entity structure . These are the gates a deal has to clear before that review even starts.