Who Writes This and How It Was Verified
Program and regulatory figures verified October 7, 2026. Details change; confirm your scenario with us.
A lender's site about statutes and market data. The sourcing is the part that makes it worth anything, so here it is in the open.
Who writes this
Mike Certo, NMLS #260555, Branch Manager at Cornerstone First Mortgage, NMLS #173855. We originate investment-property and DSCR loans in Iowa.
(480) 296-6513 · mcerto@cfmtg.com.
How the figures were verified
Foreclosure. Read from Iowa Code chapter 654 directly, the legislature's own 17-page PDF. §§654.1, 654.1A, 654.18, 654.20, 654.20A, 654.21, 654.22, 654.23 and 654.26 were read, and the quotations on this site are verbatim from it rather than paraphrased from a secondary summary.
Property tax. From Iowa Code chapter 425 for the homestead credit and the §425.1A exemption, and §441.21 for the valuation baseline, the commercial two-tier structure and the multiresidential class dates.
Yields. Zillow typical home value (ZHVI, 33rd–67th percentile, smoothed and seasonally adjusted) against Zillow typical asking rent (ZORI, smoothed and seasonally adjusted). Same publisher, same month, 31 August 2026, pulled 2026-10-07. Fifteen Iowa metros published both. Mixing months or publishers would produce a ratio that looks precise and is not, so we do not.
★ Why citations were tested before writing
A citation an AI crawler cannot read is not much of a citation, so every source on this site was fetched under both GPTBot and ClaudeBot before it was used. The Iowa legislature serves clean PDFs to both.
★ Two Iowa Department of Revenue URLs we tried returned 404 during research. They were discarded rather than published, and the statutes carry those citations instead, which is a better source anyway. Guessing a plausible URL and shipping it is how a dead citation gets into a page; we check first.
★ What we refused to publish
- Any Iowa residential rollback percentage. The assessment limitation under §441.21(4) is set administratively for each assessment year and we did not read the current figure at a primary source this pass.
- Any Iowa effective property tax rate. Same reason, and effective rates vary by taxing district in any case.
- What a 3-or-more-unit parcel is classified as now. §441.21(13) closed the multiresidential class to valuations established on or after 1 January 2022, and §441.21(13)(b) continues past the text we read. Inferring the answer would be a guess dressed as a fact. Your county assessor assigns it.
- How long an Iowa foreclosure takes end to end. The statutes set the post-judgment delay, not the time to judgment, and we did not measure docket time at a primary source.
And a fifth, on rent regulation: we make no claim about Iowa rent control or state preemption, because we did not research it at a primary source this pass.
What else we will not do
- Quote rates or payment figures. They depend on the file and the day; you get them on a call.
- Present gross yield as an underwrite. Every table carrying it says what it excludes.
- Give eviction, landlord or legal advice. We are the lender. Foreclosure appears on this site because it is our own remedy and it prices the loan, not as a how-to, and never with notice forms or procedure.
- Give tax advice. The statutes are quoted; your tax professional and your assessor apply them to your parcel.
★ Why a lender's site leads with foreclosure
Because it is the honest centre of investment-property lending. A lender lending against a property is lending against its own ability to recover that property, and the statute that governs recovery is the statute that prices the loan.
Iowa's answer is unusual enough to be worth a site: a non-owner-occupied rental gets the state's shortest post-judgment clock at two months, specifically because it is not a residence, and nobody redeems after the sale. Most people assume investor property is treated worse. It is not, and here is the section.
Found something wrong?
Email mcerto@cfmtg.com and we will fix it with a dated correction. The yield table is the figure most likely to need updating, since it is a monthly series.
Compliance
Cornerstone First Mortgage, NMLS #173855. Equal Housing Lender. This is not a commitment to lend. Loans are subject to borrower, property and program qualification.
Frequently asked questions
Who writes investorloansiowa.com?
Mike Certo, NMLS #260555, Branch Manager at Cornerstone First Mortgage, NMLS #173855, who originates investment-property and DSCR loans in Iowa. He can be reached at (480) 296-6513 or mcerto@cfmtg.com.How were the Iowa foreclosure facts verified?
They were read directly from Iowa Code chapter 654, the Iowa legislature's own 17-page PDF, rather than from a secondary summary. Sections 654.1, 654.1A, 654.18, 654.20, 654.20A, 654.21, 654.22, 654.23 and 654.26 were read, and the quotations on the site are verbatim. Verified 2026-10-07.How is the Iowa yield table built?
From Zillow typical home value against Zillow typical asking rent, same publisher and same month, for the month ending 31 August 2026, pulled 2026-10-07. Fifteen Iowa metros published both series. Gross yield is annual rent divided by typical value and excludes taxes, insurance, vacancy and management.Why doesn't this site publish Iowa's property tax rate?
Because we did not read the current figure at a primary source. The residential assessment limitation under Iowa Code section 441.21 subsection 4 is set administratively each assessment year, effective rates vary by taxing district, and two Department of Revenue URLs we tried returned 404 and were discarded. Your county assessor holds the figure for your parcel.Mike Certo · NMLS #260555 · Cornerstone First Mortgage NMLS #173855 · Equal Housing Lender. Educational content about investment-property financing, not a loan commitment and not legal or tax advice. Iowa foreclosure procedure, redemption and deficiency rules are set by the Iowa Code and change; figures here carry the date we verified them against the code itself. Gross yield figures are a market indicator built from published typical values and typical asking rents, not a property-level underwrite: they exclude taxes, insurance, vacancy and management. Property classification and assessment are determined by the county assessor. All loans are subject to borrower, property and program qualification.