Home / Loan programs / Fix and flip loans
Fix and flip loans in New York
Bridge financing for investors who buy, renovate and resell in the five boroughs, Long Island and Westchester. One loan covers up to 90% of the purchase and the entire rehab budget.
Fix and flip loan terms
| Purchase financed | up to 90% |
| Rehab financed | up to 100% |
| Cap on after-repair value | 70 to 75% |
| Credit scores from | 600 |
| Term | 6 to 24 months |
| Payments | interest only |
| Average closing | 21 days or less |
The 90% and 100% figures apply at a 720+ credit score. Below that, leverage and pricing adjust down to a 600 minimum.
How the loan amount is worked out
The loan is built from two numbers. The first is a share of what you pay for the property. The second is your renovation budget, which is held back and paid out in draws as each stage of work is finished. The two together are limited to 70 to 75% of the after-repair value (ARV): the price the property should bring once the work is complete.
Example
| You buy the two-family for | $900,000 |
| Your rehab budget is | $250,000 |
| Expected resale value (ARV) | $1,600,000 |
| 90% of the purchase | $810,000 |
| 100% of the rehab | $250,000 |
| Loan amount | $1,060,000 |
| 75% of ARV, the ceiling | $1,200,000 |
| Down payment, before closing costs | $90,000 |
How experience and credit change the terms
- First deal? You can still qualify. A new investor with a 720+ score is eligible for the full 90% and 100%.
- Five or more flips in the past two years? You can close with no inspection and no appraisal, up to 75% of ARV.
- Score under 720? Programs run down to 600, with less leverage.
Experience is counted as properties you bought and sold in the past 24 months that were acquired within the past 36 months.
Built around a resale
- Interest-only payments while you renovate
- 6 to 24 month terms
- No prepayment penalty: pay off the day you sell
- No income or job verification
When a project stalls: mid-rehab loans
If a renovation is under way and the money has run out, a mid-rehab loan lends on the property as it stands today and adds the funds to finish.
What a New York flip involves
- Department of Buildings permits. Structural, plumbing, electrical and mechanical work in the city needs DOB filings and permits, often through a registered architect or engineer, and a change in the number of units needs a new certificate of occupancy. Carry the approval time in your budget and loan term.
- Landmarks. Large parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan are landmarked historic districts, including Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene, parts of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, Harlem and the Upper West Side. Exterior work there needs a Landmarks Preservation Commission permit as well as Department of Buildings approval.
- Lead paint. Paint in New York City buildings built before 1960 is presumed to contain lead. Local Law 1 sets safe work practices and extra duties when a child under six lives in a unit, and Local Law 31 requires an XRF lead paint test in rental units of pre-1960 buildings, including rentals in one- and two-family homes.
- Closing taxes at both ends. New York City charges a mortgage recording tax when a loan is recorded. On one- to three-family homes and condos the borrower’s share is about 1.8% of a loan under $500,000 and 1.925% at $500,000 or more. On commercial property and buildings of four or more units it is 2.8% at $500,000 or more. Outside the city the rate is lower and varies by county. On a New York City sale the seller customarily pays the city transfer tax, 1% of the price up to $500,000 and 1.425% above that on one- to three-family homes and condos, and 1.425% or 2.625% on other property. The seller also pays the state transfer tax of 0.4%, which rises to 0.65% on homes of $3 million or more and on other property of $2 million or more. Buyers of one- to three-family homes and condos at $1 million or more pay the mansion tax, starting at 1%.
- Tenants in place. Many apartment buildings of six or more units built before 1974 are rent stabilized, and since 2019 state law has made it very hard to deregulate an apartment or raise the rent for improvements. Good Cause Eviction, in effect in New York City since 2024, limits rent increases and evictions in most market-rate rentals. Exemptions include owners of 10 or fewer units statewide, buildings first occupied on or after January 1, 2009, and units renting above 245% of fair market rent.
- Where the deals are. Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, Bushwick, East Flatbush and Canarsie in Brooklyn; Jamaica, Ridgewood and the Rockaways in Queens; the North Shore of Staten Island; and older neighborhoods on Long Island and in southern Westchester.
Documents we ask for
- Loan application
- Signed purchase contract, or the closing statement from your purchase if you are refinancing
- A rehab budget broken into line items with a clear scope of work
- Contact details for your insurance agent, your attorney and the title company
- For an LLC: articles of organization, EIN letter and operating agreement
- For experienced investors: your projects from the last 3 years with closing statements
The full list is in our hard money loan document checklist.
Fix and flip loans: common questions
As much as 90% of the purchase price and 100% of the renovation budget, provided the total loan is no more than 70 to 75% of the after-repair value. Those figures apply to borrowers with a credit score of 720 or higher.
The average is up to 21 days. Once title work and insurance are ready, a loan can close in about 7 days. Each side has an attorney, and a title company insures the title.
No. First-time investors can qualify. Investors who have completed 5 or more flips in the past 2 years get a shorter process with no inspection or appraisal.
On the purchase, the mortgage recording tax on the loan, about 1.8% under $500,000 and 1.925% at $500,000 or more on one- to three-family homes, plus the mansion tax if the price is $1 million or more. On the sale, the city and state transfer taxes, customarily paid by the seller.
No. Co-op apartments are shares in a corporation, not real property, and boards set their own rules on investors, subletting and financing. Investor loans like ours are made on one- to four-family homes, condos, multifamily and mixed-use buildings, not on co-op shares.
Yes. When the work is done, a DSCR rental loan can replace the fix and flip loan, with a cash-out refinance at up to 80% loan-to-value.
No. We lend on investment property only.
Under contract on a flip?
Send the address, the price and what you plan to do with the property. We will reply with the leverage and pricing that fit your deal.