Versus the whole field. The useful way to review a lender is against the other places an investor could take the same deal, so that’s how this one is organized. Loan Mountain Capital is a builder-founded, balance-sheet direct hard money lender for investors who flip or build.

Its loans run from $100,000 to $5,000,000, and the company holds each one itself. It can fund in 48 states, and its focus falls on the Midwest, Texas, and the Southeast, with Houston, San Antonio, and Raleigh among its named cities.

Everything below comes from what the company puts in writing about itself; nobody at this publication has borrowed from it. The review walks the alternatives one at a time and closes on who the company fits.

Versus a conventional lender. A conventional loan is cheaper on paper and useless for most of what Loan Mountain funds. It won’t lend on a house that needs a rehab budget before it’s habitable, won’t fund ground-up residential construction for an investor on a short timeline, and won’t close in days.

Loan Mountain’s loans are business-purpose only, interest-only, and short: 6 to 18 months for fix and flip, 9 to 18 for new construction. The rental product is the exception, running up to 30 years for investors who want to hold.

The borrower pays a higher rate for a loan that’s underwritten on the project and closes on the deal’s schedule.

Versus a national operator that sells its loans. This is the comparison Loan Mountain built its pitch around. Many large national lenders originate a loan and then move it to a fund or the secondary market, and the company’s position is that this is where slow draws and slow closings come from.

Loan Mountain services what it originates, with one team from closing to payoff. It credits that structure for its 24-hour closings, its same-day draws, and its ability to write fix and flip and new construction loans without a third-party appraisal or inspection.

Versus a small local private lender. The other end of the market is the individual funding a few deals a year with limited capital. Loan Mountain, whose founders came from home building and real estate investing, says it keeps people on the ground in its lending markets and builds relationships through local investor events and meetups.

In Texas that means Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, and most of the state, though not far West Texas (Midland). In the Southeast it’s North Carolina statewide from Charlotte and Raleigh through Asheville, and Georgia, where the Atlanta metro is by far its biggest market.

Tennessee centers on Nashville, and Florida, South Carolina, Virginia, and Alabama are active as well. In the Midwest it’s Indianapolis, South Bend, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland, with Michigan also active, and the company counts Colorado, Maryland, and New York among its current markets too.

A local private lender knows one of those metros. Loan Mountain’s claim is that it knows the subs, the comps, and the city permitting timelines in all of them. Its stated ambition runs past this list, to every one of the 48 states open to it.

Versus other direct hard money lenders. Here the comparison comes down to what a loan costs, how much of the project it covers, and how fast it funds. Loan Mountain puts numbers on all three on its own site.

By the numbers

• Interest rates: 7.99 percent to 10.99 percent on fix and flip loans, 7.99 percent to 11.99 percent on new construction. Rental loan rates move with the market. The company’s own caveat is that the low end of each range is reserved for the strongest borrowers and projects.
• Leverage: as much as 100 percent of project cost (90 to 95 percent is typical), plus coverage of up to the full rehab or construction budget.
• Points: typically 1 percent, within ranges of 0 to 1.99 percent (fix and flip) and 0 to 2.99 percent (new construction).
• Prepayment penalty: none on any product, and interest accrues only on funds drawn.
• Speed: instant term sheets, closings as fast as 24 hours, and construction draws that fund the same day through a photo-based app.
• Extensions: typically 3 to 6 months when a project runs long, with some structures carrying no extension cost.
• Footprint: 48 states, with named metros including Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte, Raleigh, Indianapolis, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland.
• Track record: 4,500-plus projects funded and 2,500-plus investors served, by Loan Mountain Capital’s own count.
• Reviews: a 5.0 rating on Google.

Versus the lender that says yes to everything. Some lenders will approve any project where their own capital is protected. Loan Mountain says it asks a second question, whether the borrower will make money, and turns down deals where the answer looks like no, even when the loan itself is safe.

That’s a stated policy rather than something an outside reviewer can verify. It does fit the company’s stated preference for heavier value-add rehabs, the kind that need a framing crew and city approvals, over cosmetic flips.

Which deals fall outside Loan Mountain’s terms?

The exclusions are the company’s own. It doesn’t lend on owner-occupied homes, commercial property, or multifamily above 10 units, and it won’t fund land-only purchases, land development, second liens or mezzanine debt, cannabis-related property, or projects that need horizontal infrastructure.

Subdivision construction typically caps at 10 homes at once, and a manufactured home is eligible only with a fixed foundation.

Loan amounts stop at both ends: nothing under $100,000 and nothing over $5,000,000. The company also lists the markets it avoids: Memphis, Baltimore, St. Louis, the Dakotas, Texas east of Houston or Dallas (Beaumont, Tyler), far West Texas (Lubbock, Midland), and extremely rural property anywhere.

What experience and credit does Loan Mountain require?

Complete beginners are turned down. The company requires some real estate experience, though it will work with someone whose experience comes from the trades, from contracting, or from selling houses rather than from a completed flip. The minimum credit score is 670.

Down payments vary with experience and the property, so a borrower on their first deal and a borrower on their tenth won’t see the same terms. Its ideal borrower, per the company, has one to ten completed projects, often self-performing as general contractor, on deals where the finished house is worth roughly half again what was borrowed.

Is Loan Mountain Capital the right fit?

Loan Mountain rules out a builder in the Dakotas, a buyer of a 12-unit apartment building, an owner-occupant, and anyone whose deal sits under $100,000, and those exclusions come straight from its own terms.

Against every alternative on this list, the case for Loan Mountain rests on carrying cost: interest charged only on what’s been drawn, no prepayment penalty, and a draw desk that answers the same day. An experienced residential investor or small builder makes that comparison whether the job is in San Antonio or Columbus.

It specializes in exactly the deal it describes, the value-add flip or ground-up build by someone who’s done it before.