Private money lenders are typically independent companies and individuals who provide borrowers with financing to purchase investment properties.
Borrowers commonly use private money loans to rehab distressed properties (e.g., fix-and-flip loans), purchase rentals that they lease to tenants (e.g., DSCR loans), or buy a property while waiting for their current one to sell (e.g., bridge loans).
These borrowers — often professional real estate investors — prefer private money lenders over larger banks because:
- They close faster. Private lenders like Constitution Lending can close within 7 to 14 days, while larger banks usually take 75+ days.
- They don’t consider your personal finances or ask you to submit income verification or tax returns. Instead, they look at the property’s profitability and can make exceptions to help get the deal done. This way, you can qualify even if you have a high DTI ratio or are self-employed. Larger banks have stricter lending criteria, so borrowers in unique financial situations may struggle to qualify.
With that in mind, selecting the right private money lender is often the difference between closing quickly and outpacing cash buyers rather than having your loan application drag out for months. In our experience as both a borrower and lender, we’ve learned that there are three things you should look for in a private money lender:
- How quickly do they issue loan approval and term sheets? We’ve found that many private money lenders claim they can close within 14 days, but when you partner with them, it turns out to be more like 40 days. A reliable way to gauge a lender’s closing speed is by looking at the time it takes them to issue loan approval and term sheets. If this takes more than 24 hours, you probably won’t close quickly.
- Do they offer instant quotes? We’ve also learned that many lenders will require you to wait multiple business days for a loan officer to reach out. Then, you have to answer a multitude of questions before getting a quote. This is another indication of poor application processes that impact closing speeds. Instead, good private money lenders should offer an online pricer that lets you generate instant quotes without waiting for a loan officer to call.
- Is the loan officer the decision maker on your loan? Many lenders employ loan officers who are unfamiliar with lending criteria and can’t tell if you qualify without sending your application to underwriting. This is a problem because if issues surface deep into underwriting, your loan may get rejected near the closing date. Instead, partner with a lender where the loan officers are familiar with lending criteria and can greenlight your loan without sending it to underwriting first. This reduces the chances of last-minute rejections.
In this article, we cover the five best private money lenders in Connecticut and New York that help borrowers close quickly and reliably.
First, we discuss how we founded Constitution Lending to provide quick and reliable funding for real estate investors. We also review RCN Capital, Roc Capital, Easy Street Capital, and Lima One Capital, allowing you to compare your options.
You can price out different loan scenarios and see what interest rates you qualify for using our automated pricer.
1. Constitution Lending: A Direct Private Money Lender for Real Estate Investors in Connecticut and New York
Constitution Lending is a direct, private money lender that operates in states like Connecticut and New York.
We founded Constitution Lending in 2018 after nearly a decade as real estate investors, during which we faced two major issues with most investment property lenders:
- They often took over 40 days to close, despite claims of quick closings.
- They frequently rejected our loan applications just before closing.
Our lending process is designed to solve these problems by closing quickly and preventing last-minute drama.
This is what borrowers say about Constitution Lending:
Let’s review the specifics of our lending process below.
We Close Loans Within 7 to 14 Days
Many lenders have inefficient application processes that cause long closing times.
Specifically, borrowers have to wait multiple days for a loan officer to call them. Then, they have to sit on the phone with the loan officer for an hour, answering countless questions. Only after another few days do they receive a quote, approval letter, and term sheet, at which point they can begin submitting paperwork. This initial stage takes 5 to 7 days.
At Constitution Lending, we speed up the application process with our automated pricer and online documents portal. What normally takes 5 to 7 days can be done within one hour.
With our automated pricer, you can price out various loan scenarios and generate instant quotes — you don’t have to wait for a call from a loan officer.
Simply enter details like the property’s location, asking price, loan amount, and the type of loan you want to apply for, and our pricer will produce three quotes.
You can tweak these values, such as the purchase price, rehab amount, and rental income, to understand how each impacts your quotes. Then, you can apply for the loan you prefer by selecting it and entering your full name and email address. We’ll send you loan approval and a term sheet immediately.
Additionally, we’ll give you access to our documents portal. Here, you’ll find all the documents you need to submit depending on the kind of loan you’re applying for. These documents typically include:
- Entity and LLC documents
- Bank statements
- Proof of insurance
- Purchase contracts
- Rehab budgets
- Scope of work
This way, there’s none of the back-and-forth you get with other lenders, where you’re always waiting to hear if they require more paperwork.
This documents portal is also where you can track the status of your loan application and ask our team any questions.
Finally, we review your documents and close your loan.
The efficiency of our automated pricer and documents portal has enabled us to reliably close within 7 to 14 days. We’ve even closed within 4 days if borrowers needed to purchase a property quickly.
All Our Loan Officers are Final Decision Makers on Your Loan
As we alluded to earlier, most banks and private lenders staff loan officers who don’t understand hard money lending criteria and, thus, cannot approve your application by just looking at your paperwork. They must forward your application to the underwriting department, which will underwrite it for a week or two before giving you a final answer.
The problem with this is that if discrepancies arise late in underwriting because the loan officer couldn’t identify them early on, your loan application can be rejected right before you’re about to close.
At Constitution Lending, we solve this problem because all our loan officers thoroughly understand lending requirements and can approve your application before sending it for underwriting.
This way, you know whether you qualify immediately after submitting the required paperwork. It’s very unlikely that issues will surface deep into underwriting because our loan officers can identify them early on, preventing those frustrating, last-minute rejections.
New York and Connecticut Hard Money Lenders: Get Fast, High LTV Loans with Constitution Lending
Constitution Lending is a direct lender that has closed more than $200 million in loans since 2018. These include fix-and-flip loans, DSCR loans, bridge loans, and new construction loans. We operate in almost all U.S. cities, including New York City, Stamford, Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven, and more.
Because of the unique lending process discussed above, 92% of flippers do more than two flips with us per quarter and use us as their main lender. Additionally, 88% of investors have been with us for at least three years.
You can apply for a private money loan by using our automated pricer to generate an instant quote.
2. RCN Capital
RCN Capital is a Connecticut-based private money lender offering various loan programs to borrowers in 45 U.S. states. Since its founding in 2010, RCN Capital has helped hundreds of borrowers finance real estate investment properties.
On their website, RCN says they use common-sense underwriting and can make exceptions to help borrowers qualify if they are sitting on a good deal.
Loan Products
- Fix and flip property loans: Borrowers can use RCN’s fix and flip loans to renovate and sell a property at a profit.
- Long-term rental loans: Borrowers can purchase long-term rental properties without the hassle of income verification or tax returns.
- Multifamily loans: Borrowers can flip and rent out 5+ unit apartments.
- New construction loans: Borrowers can use RCN’s loans to build new properties from the ground up.
- Investor portfolio loans: Borrowers can convert all their investment properties’ loans (residential, mixed-use, commercial) into one loan.
Requirements
- Interest rates for short-term and long-term DSCR loans start at 6.99%.
- Interest rates for fix & flip loans begin at 10.75%.
- Loan amounts ranging from $50K and $2M are available.
- The maximum loan amount for multifamily homes is $2.5M.
- Borrowers can use RCN real estate loans to purchase 1 to 4-unit non-owner occupied properties, townhouses, and condos.
- RCN requires borrowers to have a FICO score of 660 in order to qualify.
- The maximum LTV is 80%, meaning the minimum down payment is 20%.
- Fix and flip loan terms range from 12 to 18 months.
- RCN loans cannot be used to purchase primary residences.
How to Apply
You must fill out an application form on the RCN website, and a loan officer will reach out.
3. Roc Capital
Roc Capital is a New York hard money lender that caters to professional real estate investors who need to close quickly. Like most private money lenders, it has flexible requirements and uses common-sense underwriting, so borrowers with high DTI ratios or who need exceptions can still qualify.
Loan Products
Roc Capital offers five main loan products:
- Fix and flip loans: Borrowers can quickly buy and fix up distressed properties with ROC’s fix and flip loans.
- Ground-up loans: If borrowers want to build property from the ground up, they can qualify for financing solutions with ROC.
- Stabilized bridge loans: Borrowers can bridge the gap between selling a property and buying a new one.
- Single-property rental loans: Borrowers can qualify for long-term rental loans and use them to purchase single-family properties without providing income verification.
- Rental portfolio loans: Borrowers can place their entire portfolio of properties inside a single loan.
Requirements
- A minimum FICO score of 680 is required.
- Borrowers can qualify for a maximum of 80% LTV on purchases and refinances and 75% on cash-out refinances.
- The minimum loan amount is $75K.
- The maximum loan amount for one-unit properties is $1M and $2M for one to four-unit properties.
- A minimum in-place DSCR of 1.20 is required.
How to Apply
To apply for a private money loan with ROC, you can call one of their loan officers or fill out a contact form, and a loan officer will contact you.
4. Easy Street Capital
Easy Street Capital is a private, hard money lender that funds real estate projects in Connecticut, New York, Florida, California and all other U.S. states except North and South Dakota. Founded in 2016, it has helped borrowers finance fix and flip projects, purchase long-term rentals, and build investment properties from scratch.
Loan Products
Easy Street Capital has three main hard money loan products:
- EasyFix: This is Easy Street’s fix and flip program, which allows Connecticut real estate investors to borrow up to $2M to fix and flip a property.
- EasyRent: This is Easy Street’s DSCR loan option. Borrowers can qualify for up to $3.5M in financing without needing income verification.
- EasyBuild: This is Easy Street’s construction loan option, which allows borrowers to build from the ground up without worrying about prepayment penalties.
Requirements
- EasyFix and EasyBuild loan amounts range from $75K to $2M per unit.
- The maximum loan amount for EasyRent is $3.5M (borrowers can also qualify for blanket portfolio loans up to $5M).
- The maximum LTV that borrowers can qualify for is 75%.
- Easy Street Capital funds 100% of the rehab amount.
- A minimum FICO score of 600 is required for fix and flip loans and 640 for rental loans.
- EasyFix loan terms range from six to 12 months.
- 10-year and 30-year loan terms are available for EasyRent loans.
How to Apply
To apply for a private money loan with Easy Street Capital, you can complete the contact form on their website, inform them about your situation and the loan you want to apply for, and a loan officer will send you a term sheet.
5. Lima One Capital
Lima One Capital is a private nationwide lender that helps borrowers fix and flip investment properties, rent them out to tenants, and fund construction projects. They currently lend to commercial real estate investors in Connecticut and New York.
Loan Products
Lima One Capital offers four types of loans.
- Fix-and-flip loans: Lima One's fix-and-flip loans allow borrowers to renovate distressed properties. Additionally, once the loan term is over, they can convert their fix-and-flip loan into a rental loan and lease out the property.
- New construction loans: Borrowers can use Lima One’s construction loans to build investment properties. Like the fix-and-flip loan products, borrowers can convert these construction loans into rental loans and lease the property to tenants.
- Bridge loans: Borrowers can bridge the gap between their property being sold and buying a new property.
- Long-term rental loans: Borrowers can qualify for long-term financing without any employment or income verification.
Requirements
- Borrowers can qualify for five, 10, and 30-year private money lending options.
- Lima One offers a maximum LTC of 80% on a purchase.
- 80% LTV on refinancing.
- 75% LTC on a cash-out refinance.
- Available loan amounts range from $75K to $1M.
- Borrowers can qualify for flexible interest rates.
- Loan amounts for fix and flip range from $75K to $3M.
- Lima One usually covers 100% of the rehab loan.
- Fix and flip mortgage loans come in 13-month, 19-month, and 24-month terms.
- Fix and flip loans can only be used to renovate one to four-unit residential properties.
How to Apply
You can book a call with a loan officer on the Lima One website and they will contact you.
Qualify for Quick Financing with Constitution Lending
Learn what interest rates and LTV you qualify for using our automated pricer.
Constitution Lending lends to borrowers located in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and countless other real estate markets.
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