Which cap will your lender hit first?

In the order the lender actually cares about: the deal (purchase price against as-is value and after-repair value), your cash into the transaction, your exit, your track record, and last and least, your credit.

Practically, most lenders want to see 80%-90% of purchase price from them and the rest from you, a rehab budget that has been scoped rather than guessed, a credit score somewhere north of 620-660 as a screen rather than a pricing input, an entity to take title, and reserves beyond your down payment. First-timers get less leverage and worse pricing, not a refusal.

Bring a deal that works on the lender's numbers, not yours. That means a defensible ARV, a rehab scope with line items rather than a round number, cash to close that you can document, and a specific exit with a date. Everything else - credit, income, experience - moves your pricing but rarely decides the answer on its own.

Comparatively, no - which is the point of the product. Approval turns on the collateral, so a borrower who would be declined instantly by a bank can be approved in days. What is hard is getting good terms: the gap between what an experienced investor with ten flips is quoted and what a first-timer is quoted is large, and it shows up in leverage and points rather than in a yes or no.

Days rather than weeks, and the paperwork is a fraction of a conventional file. The friction is in the valuation and the draw process, not the approval.

See above. The realistic constraint for most first-time borrowers is not approval, it is cash to close - see how much cash you actually need.

A property under contract or owned, an as-is value and an ARV the lender can support, a scoped rehab budget, documented cash to close, an entity in most cases, hazard insurance naming the lender, title, and a stated exit. Income documentation is usually light or absent; that is the trade you are making.

Against as-is value, lenders typically go to 60% to 75%, so 25%-40% comes from you. On a purchase with rehab the more common framing is loan-to-cost: 80%-90% of the purchase price plus 100% of the rehab budget, held back and released in draws.

Do not confuse the down payment with cash to close. Points, flat fees, title, insurance and the first draw you fund yourself all sit on top. Ten to fifteen percent of purchase price is a realistic planning figure for total cash needed on a leveraged flip.

See above - 10% to 20% of purchase is the usual range, before fees and reserves.

Almost never on purchase price, and the offers advertising it usually mean something narrower: 100% of the rehab budget (common and real), or 100% of purchase where the purchase is far below as-is value and the loan is still inside the lender's ARV cap (rare and deal-specific), or 100% with cross-collateralisation against another property you own (real, and it puts a second asset at risk).

Treat a headline promising 100% financing with no cash as the marketing hook it usually is, and read what the offer actually caps at. See the truth about 100% financing.

Terms run 6 to 24 months, with 12 months the most common. That is a hard deadline with a fee attached, not a guideline - which is why the exit matters more than the rate.

Three ways, and you should know which one before you sign. Sell the property and pay off from proceeds. Refinance into longer-term debt, usually a DSCR rental loan. Or pay it off from other capital. Most hard money loans are interest-only during the term with the principal due as a balloon at the end, so there is no amortisation quietly reducing what you owe.