Five steps — from your initial Wealth Plan to closing day and a portfolio that keeps building. No surprises, no complexity, no jargon.
It starts with a conversation. A 30-minute call where we learn what you're trying to accomplish — your income goals, your timeline, how much you have to invest, and what kind of portfolio makes sense for your situation.
This isn't a one-size-fits-all approach. Some investors find a property to start with after the initial planning session. Others take several consultations before feeling confident in their decision. We'll align on your plan and then look at live properties from our tailored inventory. By the end, you'll have a clear picture of how many properties it takes to hit your target income, which markets fit your budget, and what the numbers actually look like.
Most of our investors are buying their first or second rental property. You do need capital for a down payment (typically 20–25%) and the ability to qualify for a DSCR loan. We'll help you figure out if you're ready. The Wealth Plan is designed for people who are exploring, not people who've already decided. Come with questions. That's the point.
Once your Wealth Plan is set, we match you with properties that fit. Every property Lineage offers has been evaluated — location, rental demand, condition, financial performance. You're not sifting through listings. You're choosing from a curated set that already meets your criteria.
Each property comes with a full financial breakdown: purchase price, expected rent, expenses, cap rate, cash-on-cash return, and the DSCR ratio your lender will use. No ambiguity. You see the numbers before you commit.
Every property is inspected, appraised, photographed, and financially underwritten before you see it. Between the third-party reports and video walkthroughs, you'll have more information than a single visit would give you.
In thousands of transactions, no Lineage investor has ever needed to travel to their property to resolve an issue. Mobile notaries handle closing documents wherever you are. Everything else is managed remotely through the platform and your property manager.
This is where the platform earns its name. Once you select a property, Lineage coordinates the entire close — lending, insurance, title — in parallel. No chasing separate providers. No waiting for one piece to hold up another.
85% of Lineage investors finance through the platform using DSCR loans. These loans qualify based on the property's rental income, not your W-2 or tax returns. You can get pre-approved before you choose a property, and the lending process runs alongside everything else — not sequentially.
Rental property insurance is placed as part of the workflow. We match you with the right coverage for your property and market. It's done before closing day — not something you're scrambling to figure out after the fact.
Title work, document prep, and closing coordination happen on the platform. We've closed transactions in as few as 13 days. The industry average is 30 to 45. Your only direct fee to Lineage is $749. Standard closing costs (title, appraisal, lender origination) are the same as any real estate transaction. We earn our fees from service providers, not from you.
Every property goes through independent third-party verification before you close:
Your Investment Consultant walks you through every report. If something doesn't check out, you get your deposit back.
Property: 4BR/2BA, Cape Coral, FL | Price: $349,900
Financing: DSCR at 6.25% | Insurance: Placed same week
Timeline: Contract to close in 13 days
Investors on calls always ask about costs.
Paid at closing. Flat fee, every deal, every investor.
Paid during escrow. Refunded if the property doesn't appraise and the seller can't resolve.
Reserves your property. Fully refundable.
We connect you with our partner who handles state filing, operating agreement, and EIN.
Your DSCR loan rate and insurance premium are market-rate. Closing costs (title, recording fees, prepaid taxes/insurance) are standard and itemized before you sign. That's it. No advisor fees. No platform fees. No origination markup.
After closing, your property is handed off to a local property manager from our network of property managers we've worked with for years. They're already familiar with your property, your market, and your goals. They handle tenants, maintenance, rent collection, and reporting.
You get a monthly statement and a deposit. That's the level of involvement most of our investors want, and that's what we deliver.
Lineage works with a network of roughly 40 property managers across our active markets. These aren't random referrals. These are PMs we've worked with for years, across hundreds of transactions. Our investors and their tenants consistently give them high marks for communication, maintenance responsiveness, and tenant quality.
What we look for: years of operating history, investor satisfaction scores, tenant retention rates, maintenance response times, and financial transparency. We review PM performance across every market we operate in — monthly at minimum. That means we catch issues before you do, and we hold PMs accountable because we see the data across hundreds of properties, not just yours. If a PM isn't performing, we hear about it, and we act on it. PMs who don't meet our standards don't stay in the network.
Our property managers require:
This isn't a checkbox exercise. PMs who manage Lineage properties earn their placement fee (75–100% of first month's rent) by filling units with qualified tenants who stay. Their screening standards are part of why our eviction rate stays under 5%.
Closing isn't the end of the relationship. We monitor your insurance annually, your lending stays in our servicing pipeline, and when you're ready for your next property, we're already up to speed on your portfolio and goals. 69% of our investors come back for another. We recommend setting aside six months of fixed expenses (debt service, taxes, insurance) per property as a rainy day fund beyond the reserves your PM holds. This aligns with our lending underwriting requirements and ensures you're never caught off guard.
30 days after closing: Your Investment Consultant checks in. Is the property leased? Is the PM responsive? Any surprises?
6 months: First portfolio review. Are returns tracking to your Wealth Plan projections? How's the PM performing on maintenance response times and rent collection?
Annually: Full portfolio review. Insurance coverage check against current property values. Refinance opportunities. Market conditions. Is it time to add your next property?
This cadence continues as long as you own properties through Lineage. Your Investment Consultant doesn't disappear after closing.
Here's what ongoing management actually looks like: 15 minutes at the beginning or end of each month. You check your management portal statement against your bank deposit, confirm the numbers match, and flag anything that looks off to your Investment Consultant. That's it.
You're there to manage the management company — not the property, not the tenant, not the maintenance calls.
Your Investment Consultant tracks your portfolio performance — cash flow, occupancy, maintenance costs, and equity position across every property. You get regular updates and a clear picture of where you stand without building your own spreadsheets.
Your Investment Consultant monitors your portfolio for refinance opportunities — enough equity built up, rates dropping, or your DSCR ratio supporting better terms. When conditions shift in your markets, you'll hear about it. We're building platform tools to automate these signals, but today your consultant is actively watching the numbers on your behalf.
When you're ready for your next property, your Investment Consultant helps you identify when and where to add it. Because Lineage already knows your portfolio, your financing capacity, and your goals, the second deal — and the third — moves faster than the first. Your Wealth Plan evolves with you. Most investors who build a portfolio of three or more properties started with a single conversation.
Already own rental properties? See how Lineage consolidates your portfolio →
We don't just connect you with any property manager. Our PM partners are selected based on years of working relationship, investor satisfaction scores, response times, and tenant retention rates. We hold them accountable to performance standards — and if they don't deliver, we move your property to someone who will. Your investment is only as strong as the team managing it.
Every PM in our network has a proven operating history, strong investor satisfaction scores, and documented tenant retention rates. We don't onboard PMs based on volume or geography alone — we onboard them based on results.
We track maintenance response times, vacancy rates, rent collection consistency, and investor feedback across every PM in the network. These aren't vanity metrics — they're the standards our PMs are held to, and we review them regularly.
If a PM isn't meeting standards, we hear about it and we act on it. PMs who consistently underperform don't stay in the network. And if your PM isn't working for you specifically, we'll transition your property to another partner. You're never stuck.
Closing day isn't the end of the relationship. Here's exactly what happens next.
If it's a renovation property, the seller has signed a month-to-month lease guaranteeing rental income from day one — before your first mortgage payment is due.
If the property isn't yet leased, they market it immediately. In our top markets, properties lease within 10 days of completion.
You compare it to your bank deposit. Takes about 5 minutes.
15 minutes a month to review statements. Your Investment Consultant checks in to make sure everything is tracking to your Wealth Plan.
Are returns matching projections? Is the PM performing? Is it time to start planning property #2?
If you have concerns about your property management experience, your Investment Consultant is here to help work through them. We'll engage directly with your PM to resolve issues, and if the situation warrants it, explore options within our network. The same goes for insurance — if your coverage or pricing isn't right, we'll fix it.
Rental property investing comes with real tax advantages. Here's what you should know going in.
The IRS lets you deduct the cost of a rental property over 27.5 years. On a $175,000 property (land excluded), that can mean $4,500 or more per year in paper losses that offset your rental income, even when the property is generating positive cash flow.
A cost segregation study can accelerate depreciation by reclassifying parts of the property (appliances, fixtures, landscaping) into shorter depreciation schedules. For high-income investors, this can create significant first-year tax deductions. Ask your CPA if it makes sense for your situation.
When you sell a rental property and buy another, a 1031 exchange lets you defer capital gains taxes on the sale. Lineage investors use this to upgrade properties, change markets, or grow their portfolio without triggering a tax event. We coordinate with your tax advisor and qualified intermediary.
A note on tax advice: We're not tax advisors, and every investor's situation is different. What we do is structure our transactions to be tax-efficient and work alongside your CPA or tax professional. Your Wealth Plan includes a discussion of the tax implications specific to your situation, so you can involve your advisor from the start.
This is the #1 question we hear from prospective investors. Here's how we think about it.
Most investors have been taught to buy low and sell high — find a deal below market, flip it, and pocket the spread. That works for traders. It doesn't work for building a rental portfolio.
Here's why: a property bought at appraised value in a cash-flowing market beats a “deal” that needs $15,000 in deferred maintenance and sits vacant for three months. The returns come from the rental income, the appreciation, the tax benefits, and the principal paydown — not from getting 10% under ARV on a house with a dying HVAC.
We've run the math on every starting point — 2008 (the top), 2011 (the bottom), months before wars, presidential transitions, recessions. In markets with diversified employment and strong rental demand, the entry point matters far less than the hold period. A property purchased in 2008 at the absolute peak still outperformed the S&P 500 over a 15-year hold when you include all four returns.
The best time to buy a rental property is when you find a deal where the math works and you can afford to hold it.
Straight answers to what most investors ask before their first Wealth Plan.
Most of our investors start with $40,000–$80,000 for a down payment and closing costs on a DSCR loan. The exact amount depends on the property price and your lending terms. Your Wealth Plan will give you a clear picture of what's needed for your specific situation.
No. Every property is inspected, photographed, and financially underwritten before you see it. Our investors buy from cities across the country without visiting. Your property manager is your boots on the ground.
A DSCR (Debt Service Coverage Ratio) loan qualifies you based on the property's rental income — not your personal income, W-2, or tax returns. If the property's rent covers the mortgage payment, you qualify. It's the standard way investors finance rental properties through Lineage. Learn more about DSCR loans →
Our average close time is 13–17 days from contract execution. The industry average is 30–45 days. We're faster because lending, insurance, and title all run in parallel on one platform.
Returns depend on the property, market, financing terms, and your investment goals. During your Wealth Plan, we walk through specific projections — cap rate, cash-on-cash return, and total return including equity buildup and tax benefits. We show you the real numbers, not marketing numbers.
Your property manager handles day-to-day issues — maintenance, tenant problems, vacancies. Your insurance covers major events. Lineage stays connected to your portfolio through lending servicing and ongoing insurance support. You're not alone after closing.
No. Most of our investors are buying their first or second rental property. They're professionals across every field — physicians, attorneys, engineers, electricians, plumbers, small business owners — who want real estate in their portfolio but don't want to become real estate experts. If you've saved enough to invest and you want a smarter place to put it than a savings account, that's exactly who Lineage is built for.
Most of our investors buy their first property through Lineage. But some come to us with properties they already own — self-managed, with a different PM, or scattered across providers. We can help with that too.
If you own rental properties in Lineage markets, we can connect them with a property manager from our network. Same PM standards, same reporting, same accountability — whether you bought the property through us or not.
One recent investor came to us with six properties. Only one was with a Lineage PM. He was self-managing the other five. We connected all five to a vetted PM, and now his entire portfolio runs through one management relationship.
How it works: Start with a Wealth Plan call. We review your current portfolio — what you own, where, and how it's managed. If your properties are in Lineage markets, we match you with a PM and handle the transition. If they're not in our markets, we'll tell you that upfront.
What it costs: $35/month platform fee per property brought onto the Lineage platform. No upfront fee. No long-term commitment.
If your current PM agreement has expired or you're month-to-month, switching is simple. We coordinate the handoff — lease assignments, security deposit transfers, vendor transitions.
If you're under an active management agreement, we can't initiate a switch. But when that agreement ends, we're ready. Your Investment Consultant can help you plan the transition timeline.
Every property on the Lineage platform — whether you bought it through us or brought it yourself — gets:
Ready to consolidate? Bring your property addresses, current PM details, and lease information.
Talk to an Investment ConsultantA free, 30-minute call to map out your rental portfolio strategy. No commitment. No pressure. Just a plan.
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