How we research this
Where our figures come from, how the questions were chosen, and what we will not claim to know.
Pricing figures
Every rate, point count, leverage cap and term length on this site comes from one file with one date on it, and no page hard-codes its own. When the market moves we change the numbers and the date together and rebuild, so the "updated" date on a page is not decorative.
Current figures were compiled on August 2026 from publicly advertised pricing and industry write-ups across North Coast Financial, New Silver, Gelt Financial, Crestmont Capital, Gauntlet Funding, SDC Capital and Brad Loans.
What we will not claim to know
There is no public loan-level dataset for private lending. Conventional mortgages have HMDA; hard money has nothing equivalent. Any publisher quoting a precise national average hard money rate is aggregating advertisements and calling it data. We are not going to do that, which is why our figures are presented as ranges with a stated provenance.
Similarly, we have not published a fifty-state table of lender licensing requirements, because the answer turns on business versus consumer purpose, on whether a dwelling secures the loan, and on broker involvement. That research is underway and will be published with citations to the actual statutes. Until then the verification pages cover what is verifiable today.
The questions
Every question on the FAQ page and in the FAQ block at the foot of each article was harvested from live Google search results on August 23, 2026 - the People Also Ask box and the related searches - for these twelve queries:
- hard money loans
- hard money lenders near me
- hard money loan rates
- hard money loan calculator
- hard money loan requirements
- fix and flip loans
- dscr loan vs hard money loan
- hard money loans for beginners
- hard money lender license requirements by state
- hard money loan scams upfront fees
- hard money loan points and fees explained
- brrrr method hard money refinance
Nothing was invented to fill space, and questions with unflattering answers were kept rather than quietly dropped - those are most of the interesting ones.
The calculators
The true-cost calculator computes interest under the lender's stated accrual basis, applies any minimum-interest floor, adds points on the stated basis, adds flat fees, draw fees, exit fees and extension fees, and divides the total by the average balance the borrower genuinely has the use of - the purchase loan throughout plus the rehab holdback at an average of half, since rehab is drawn progressively. That figure is annualised over the actual hold period.
The denominator deliberately does not follow the lender's accrual basis. If a lender charges interest on money you do not have, that is a cost, not a larger loan.
All three calculators run entirely client-side. Nothing is transmitted, stored or logged.
Competitive review
The editorial position of this site came out of a review of who currently ranks for the main hard money queries, conducted on August 23, 2026. The finding was that the first page is split between large consumer finance brands publishing interchangeable definitional articles and lenders publishing content about their own product, with no independent publisher anywhere in the category. That gap is the reason for the site's focus on cost mechanics rather than on lender comparison.
Corrections
We correct errors and say that we have. Tell us if you find one.