Do I need a signed lease before the rent on my current house counts?

What has to be true

The loan on the new home follows Fannie Mae’s selling guide, and your lender has adopted the departing-residence section dated September 2, 2026. Fannie Mae requires it for applications dated on or after November 1, 2026.

The rent figure comes from the market, not from a lease: the lender obtains at least three comparable rental properties and uses market analysis tools such as listing sites and the multiple listing service.

If this would be your first rental, you hold six months of the departing home’s housing payment in reserve, on top of what the new purchase costs you.

What the lender checks

Evidence of market rent for the home you are leaving, built from comparable rentals rather than from a document you produce.

The adjusted figure: the guide multiplies the monthly gross rent by a set share for the net rental income amount, so the figure your lender works from is smaller than the rent you expect to collect.

Your property management experience, because fewer than twelve months of it brings the six-month reserve requirement for the vacated property.

Limits

The rent does not become income. When the adjusted figure is positive it offsets the housing payment on the home you are leaving, meaning principal, interest, taxes, insurance and any association dues, and nothing else.

These are Fannie Mae rules for loans sold to Fannie Mae. Freddie Mac’s seller guide is not covered on this page, and lenders adopt guide changes on their own schedules.

This page states no rate, no payment and no dollar figure.

Why a bank may say no

It has not adopted the September 2026 section yet, or it follows a different guide, so it still asks for a lease or reads the rent differently.

The adjusted rent does not clear the departing home’s housing payment, so the leftover cannot help you qualify for the purchase.

You moved out before the file was underwritten. The Fannie Mae section describes the eligible departing residence as a primary residence that will be vacated when you purchase the new home, and it says nothing about a home you have already left, so how a lender reads an early move-out is a question to ask before you move.

What I would check first

Which guide your lender follows, and whether it has adopted the September 2026 departing-residence section yet.

What rent documentation the lender wants from you, and what reserves it will ask you to show.

Whether you have given a tenant a date or written an offer, because the sequencing is where files go wrong.

Example

Say you are buying the next home and keeping this one. Your lender follows the September 2026 section, so it does not ask for a lease. It builds a market rent figure from three comparable rentals, applies the guide’s reduction, and sets the result against the housing payment on the home you are leaving. Because you have never been a landlord, it also asks you to show six months of that housing payment in reserve. Whatever rent is left over after the offset does not count toward the purchase.

What changed, and what replaced the lease

The old instruction was simple, and it is now out of date: find a tenant, sign a lease, hand it to the lender, and the rent starts counting. The Fannie Mae selling guide section on rental income from a departing residence, dated September 2, 2026, closes that door in one sentence: “Lease agreements are not permitted for any departing residence.”

What the guide asks for instead is evidence of what your home would rent for on the open market. It directs the lender to obtain at least three comparable rental properties, and it names market analysis tools, including listing sites and the multiple listing service. That moves the work: the rent figure is now something the lender builds from the market rather than a document you produce.

The guide does not use the whole number either. Its instruction is to “Multiply the monthly gross rent(s) by 75% for the net rental income amount.” It gives no reason for the reduction and I will not invent one. The direction is what matters: the figure your lender works from is smaller than the rent you expect to collect.

What that rent can actually do for your loan

Here is the part that surprises people. The rent does not become income. The guide states the limit in its own shorthand: “If ANRI is positive, the lender may use rental income to offset the departing residence PITIA only.” In plain terms, when the adjusted rental figure comes out positive, it can be set against the housing payment on the home you are leaving, meaning principal, interest, taxes, insurance and any association dues, and against nothing else.

Offset means cancel, up to a limit. Strong rent can reduce or erase the departing home’s housing payment inside the qualifying calculation. Once that payment is gone, anything left over stops working for you. It never becomes spendable income for the purchase. That is why plans that look obvious on paper come back declined.

The same section attaches a cash requirement to how long you have been a landlord: “The lender must verify the borrower has six months of reserves to cover the PITIA obligation for the vacated property when the borrower has less than 12 months of property management experience.” If this would be your first rental, plan on holding six months of the departing home’s housing payment in reserve, on top of what the new purchase costs you.

A guide rule becomes your lender’s rule on your lender’s schedule

Two things are true at once, and skipping either causes trouble. These are Fannie Mae rules, which govern loans sold to Fannie Mae rather than every loan written. And lenders move to new guide sections on their own timetables. Fannie Mae’s announcement encourages immediate adoption and requires the changes for applications dated on or after November 1, 2026, which tells you when the industry has to be there, not where any one lender stands today.

So the answer for your file comes from your lender, and four questions get it. Which guide does this loan follow? Have you adopted the September 2026 departing-residence section yet? What rent documentation do you want from me? And what reserves will you ask me to show? Ask before you give a tenant a date or write an offer.

Questions people ask next

Related questions

• Buy the next home and keep this one as a rental
• Can I use a HELOC for a down payment?
• Can I get a HELOC on a rental property?

Which page is this?

Buying a home? Let's talk through your next step.

Tell me what you're buying and where you are in the process. I'll help you understand what needs to be reviewed before you move forward.