Fix and flip loans: what your flip needs to get funded, and how fast.

Usually 0–15% of the purchase price, set by your experience, plus closing costs. Lenders fund 85–100% of what you pay for the house and as much as the full renovation, so your down payment is the unfunded share of the price plus anything the ARV cap trims. On a $184,000 house, 90% financing means $18,400 down. Points, fees, title and monthly carry come on top, which is why even 100% programs need cash.

Lender floors sat between 600 and 660 on October 2026 program pages, with several at 650–660. Your score moves price and leverage more than eligibility: one lender keeps its 100%-of-price tier for borrowers with 720 or higher and 10 or more flips. If you might keep the house as a rental, check that exit too, because most rental refinance lenders want 640–660 or more.

Yes. Several national lenders publish no experience requirement for flips. What changes is leverage: one lender's grid gives a first-time flipper 85% of the price and a 70% ARV cap on light rehab, dropping to 70% and 60% on heavy rehab, against 90% and 75% after one finished flip. Others ask for one investment property you've already exited, by sale or refinance, within 36 months.

Published timelines run from about one to three weeks. One lender advertises closings in as few as 7 days, another 7–10 business days, and another says repeat borrowers close within 3 weeks. Lender speed only counts if your file is ready: the valuation, title, insurance binder and entity documents usually set the real date. Send them the day you apply.

Mostly things outside underwriting. An appraiser who can't get inside the house, a title search that turns up an old lien or an estate problem, an insurance binder that doesn't name the lender, an LLC whose name doesn't match the purchase contract, or a rehab budget sent back for revisions. Each is fixable, but each can cost days. Line them up before you sign a contract with a short closing date.

The renovation money is held back at closing and paid out as the work gets done. You finish a phase, request a draw, and the lender verifies it by site visit or by photos and video. Published turnarounds run 24–48 hours, and one lender offers same-day virtual draws. Draws reimburse finished work, so you or your contractor pay for each phase first. Some lenders charge per draw, such as $270.

Not on most programs. Interest is charged on what has been funded, so the undrawn rehab holdback costs nothing until it's released. On a $211,600 loan at 10.75% with $46,000 of rehab drawn over three months, six months of interest comes to $10,554, against $11,374 on the full balance. Points work differently: they're figured on the total loan amount at closing.

ARV, or after-repair value, is what the house should sell for once your scope of work is done, and the lender sets it, not you. Most order an appraisal with interior access that reports as-is value and ARV; some value the house in-house with no outside appraisal. One lender wants 6 closed comps from the past 12 months inside a 5-mile radius. Bring comps of finished, similar houses to back your number.

The loan can shrink, and you cover the gap. With a 75% ARV cap, each $10,000 cut from the value removes $7,500 of loan. On a deal sized at $211,600 against a $310,000 ARV, the cap doesn't bite until the value falls below about $282,000. At $270,000 the cap is $202,500, so you'd bring $9,100 more at closing, and the resale math needs rerunning at the lower price.

On paper, with a long track record. One lender's grid funds 100% of the price and 100% of the rehab only for investors with 10 or more flips and a 720+ score, still capped at 75% of ARV. Even then you bring cash: on a $184,000 house with $46,000 of work, 1.5 points, a document fee and closing costs come to about $9,300 before the first month of interest.

Usually 0 to 2 points at closing, where one point is 1% of the loan. Published examples in October 2026: 1–1.75% at one lender, 1.5–2 points with a $2,000 minimum at another, and zero-point options at a third that also charges a $1,995 document fee. One lender lets you defer origination until you sell. Compare points and fees together, not the rate alone.

Six to 24 months, interest-only, and 12 months is the norm: 70.9% of 2025 short-term investor loans in federal HMDA data ran exactly 12 months. Lenders publish 12-, 18- and 24-month options, and one offers 13, 19 and 24. Match the term to your plan plus slack. A four-month rehab and a two-month sale fit a 12-month term with room for a slow buyer.

Ask for an extension before maturity. One lender's fee sheet lists 1% of the balance for three extra months and 2.5% for six, with interest still running, and caps extensions at half the original term. On a $211,600 loan, three months cost a $2,116 fee plus about $2,416 a month in interest and holding costs. Reaching maturity without one can put the loan in default.

Yes, if the house rents for enough. The usual route is a DSCR (debt service coverage ratio) loan: the lender divides the monthly rent by the monthly payment and sizes a 30-year loan on that, not on your income. Expect cash-out leverage near 75% of the new appraisal and, from an outside lender, roughly 90 days of seasoning. One lender skips the wait when it made the original rehab loan.

DSCR (debt service coverage ratio) compares rent with the bill: monthly rent divided by the full monthly payment, taxes and insurance included. Conservative lenders want 1.0–1.05; several accept 0.75–0.8. On a $232,500 refinance at 7.375% over 30 years, principal and interest are $1,606, or $2,046 with $440 of taxes and insurance. Rent of $2,250 gives a 1.10 ratio; $1,950 gives 0.95.

Some lenders won't fund an individual at all, only an LLC or corporation, and most others prefer an entity. Either way you'll usually sign a personal guarantee, so the entity doesn't keep your own assets out of the deal. Expect to send the formation documents and proof of good standing, and make sure the entity on the purchase contract matches the borrower. Ask a CPA or attorney how to set it up.

Usually not through W-2s or tax returns. Flip loans are sized on the deal: price, rehab budget, after-repair value and your track record. What lenders do check is credit, cash and experience, through bank statements and closing statements from past flips. One lender's liquidity test adds a quarter of the renovation budget to your closing funds, so a $46,000 rehab means showing $11,500 more.

Often, if you move within about six months. Lenders call it a delayed purchase refinance: you buy at auction or off-market with cash, then borrow against the house to pull most of it back out and fund the work. One lender offers it within 6 months of purchase; another advertises returning up to 90% of your money. After six months it's treated as a seasoned refinance on current value.

Close, but not identical. Hard money is short-term lending from private lenders, sized on the property more than the borrower. A fix and flip loan is the version built for renovation, with a rehab holdback paid out in draws and a cap tied to after-repair value. Both are usually interest-only, both end in a balloon, and both price around 10%, the 2025 median in federal HMDA data.

Not on the published fix and flip programs reviewed for this page. Paying off early is the plan: you're expected to sell or refinance, and interest stops when the loan is repaid, so selling in month five of a 12-month term means five months of interest. Do read the exit terms, though. One lender adds a point if you refinance its rehab loan somewhere else.

No. A flip loan is business-purpose credit, so the house has to be an investment that you and your relatives stay out of. Under federal lending rules, expecting to occupy a property for over 14 days during the next year makes it owner-occupied. If the plan is to renovate a home and move in, a residential mortgage lender can walk you through renovation mortgages.