Private money lenders are not hard to find. Search for private money lenders in San Diego, or anywhere else, and you get pages of names. The hard part is telling a lender that will fund your deal on the date it promised from a name that will collect a fee and shop your file around. Here is how we would go about it from your side of the table: who the lenders are, where to find them, how to check them and what they will ask you for.
One boundary first. Private money in this post means business purpose loans on investment property: a flip, a rental, a bridge on a building you do not live in. A loan on the home you live in is a consumer loan with its own rules, and ours go through the owner occupied program. If you are behind on the loan on your own home, talk to a HUD-approved housing counselor before you talk to any lender.
The four kinds of private money lender
“Private money” covers four different businesses. They look alike online and behave differently when you need a decision. Hard money and private money are two names for the same short-term loan secured by real estate, a point we cover in hard money vs private money. What matters here is who you are dealing with.
Direct lenders. A direct lender lends its own capital or a fund’s capital, underwrites the file in house and makes the credit decision itself. When it says yes, the money is already there. Its timeline depends on its own people and on the third parties every loan needs: title, escrow and a valuation.
Brokers. A broker arranges loans. It takes your file to lenders it knows and is paid for placing it. A good broker earns that fee on a deal that does not fit a standard program. The approval is not the broker’s to give, though, and the timeline depends on a lender you have not met yet.
Individual private investors. People and families who put their savings to work as the lender on a single loan, secured by a recorded deed of trust on the property. Borrowers usually reach this money through a licensed broker or lender who arranges, documents and services the loan. The investor’s side of that arrangement is in trust deed investing 101.
Online platforms. Websites that take your application and fund it, sometimes with capital pooled from many investors. They can be efficient on a standard deal. Ask who actually funds the loan, who services it and who you call when something slips.
| Kind | Who decides | Whose money | The question to ask |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct lender | The lender, in house | Its own or its fund’s | How many days from a complete file to funding? |
| Broker | The lender it places you with | That lender’s | Which lender, and when does it commit? |
| Individual investor | The investor, usually through a broker | The investor’s | Is the money committed or still being raised? |
| Online platform | The platform or its capital partner | The platform’s or its investors’ | Who funds and who services the loan? |
Why direct lender or broker matters
Three things change with the answer: who decides, who funds and how fast.
Say a seller gives you ten days to close. A direct lender can underwrite the property, issue terms and commit to the date, because the decision and the capital sit in the same building. A broker can introduce you to someone who might, and the clock keeps running while that lender looks at the file for the first time. On an ordinary deal with a long escrow, that gap may not matter. On a short one, it decides whether you keep the property and your deposit.
Neither model is dishonest, and many lenders work both ways: they fund what fits their own programs and place the rest with other lenders. That is fine as long as you know which one is happening on your file. So ask two plain questions in the first conversation: whose money funds this loan, and who signs the approval? A lender that answers both in a sentence is telling you how it operates. Our full list of questions is in how to choose a hard money lender.
Where to find private money lenders
Lenders that publish their terms. A search turns up plenty of names. Filter for the ones that publish rates, leverage, loan sizes, terms, a minimum credit score and a license number. A lender that publishes its numbers expects to be held to them, and you can rule it in or out before you send a single bank statement.
Investor-focused real estate agents. Agents who represent investors see which lenders close on time and which ones cost a client an escrow. Ask who their last few investor buyers used, and how it went.
Escrow and title officers. They watch private loans close every week, and they see the ones that stall. Ask which lenders deliver documents and funds on schedule.
The public record. A private loan is recorded against the property, so the lenders active in a neighborhood leave a trail. In San Diego County the Assessor/Recorder/County Clerk keeps those records, but since December 9, 2024 its online official record search no longer takes parcel numbers; that search now happens at the county’s in-person kiosks. A title officer can usually tell you faster who is recording loans on investor purchases near you.
Investor meetups. Local real estate investor associations and meetups put you in a room with people who borrowed recently. Ask who funded on time and who changed terms late. That is worth more than any ad.
Brokers, for the unusual deal. If your property is one few lenders touch, a broker with real lender relationships can be the fastest route. Just know you are paying for an introduction, not an approval.
How to vet a private money lender
Check the license. Ask for the company’s NMLS number and look it up on NMLS Consumer Access, a free public site for confirming that a lending company or loan officer is authorized to do business in your state. In California, two state regulators are worth checking as well. The Department of Real Estate licenses real estate brokers, and state law counts soliciting borrowers or lenders for, negotiating or servicing loans secured by real property, for others and for compensation, as broker activity (Business and Professions Code section 10131). Its public license lookup searches by name, company or license number. The Department of Financial Protection and Innovation licenses finance lenders and brokers under the California Financing Law, and its list of the entities it regulates is searchable. Ask which license the lender works under, then confirm it yourself. A lender that will not give you a license number has answered the question.
Read the published terms. Rates, leverage caps, loan sizes, terms, minimum credit score, property types and occupancy. If your deal does not fit the published box, ask before you apply.
Get every cost in writing. Before you pay anything beyond a third-party cost such as an appraisal, you should have the terms on paper: a term sheet or a Letter of Intent showing the amount, the rate, the points, the lender’s fees, the term, the extension terms, any prepayment terms and the conditions to close. Compare the total over the months you expect to hold the loan, not the rate alone.
Read verified reviews. Reviews from borrowers who finished a project tell you how a lender behaves when a contractor walks off or an appraisal comes in low. Look at how problems were handled, not just how fast the first closing went.
Watch for red flags. As general advice, slow down or walk away when you see any of these:
- Pressure to sign or send money today.
- Fees demanded before you have any written terms.
- A lender that will not say whose money funds the loan or who approves it.
- Terms that change at the closing table with no reason tied to the property or the valuation.
- A license number that is missing, or that does not match the name on the documents.
- Wire instructions that arrive or change by email. Confirm them by phone, on a number you already had.
What a private lender will ask you for
Private lenders underwrite the deal first and you second. Expect five questions, and have the answers ready before the first call.
The property. The address, the type, the condition, the purchase contract or the payoff on a refinance, and a scope of work and budget if you are renovating. Programs are written for specific property types and for investment property, so say up front what it is and that you will not live in it.
The equity. The leverage cap decides how much cash you bring. Our bridge program lends up to 75% of value on residential property and 70% on commercial. Our fix and flip program lends up to 85% of the purchase and 100% of the rehab, within 75% of the after-repair value, and our rental DSCR loans go up to 80% LTV. The rest, plus closing costs, is yours.
The exit. How the loan gets repaid: a sale supported by comparable sales, or a refinance into a long-term loan the property will actually qualify for.
A credit floor. Credit is a minimum, not the whole decision: 650 on our bridge program, 620 on fix and flip and rental DSCR loans, 600 on ground-up construction.
Documents. Our fix and flip and construction programs list three: an application, a schedule of real estate owned and proof of funds. Bring entity documents too if you buy in an LLC.
What private money costs
Three parts make the price: the rate, the points and the fees. Our published rates run from 9.00% to 13.00% on bridge loans and 9.99% to 12.00% on fix and flip, and blanket loans start from 8.99%. Points are quoted per deal on the Letter of Intent, because they move with the leverage, the property and the exit. Third-party costs (the appraisal, title, escrow and recording) sit on top. Rates are subject to change and every loan is subject to underwriting.
As an illustration only, interest-only on a $400,000 bridge loan is $3,000 a month at 9.00% and about $4,333 at 13.00%. With no prepayment penalty on our bridge and fix and flip programs, you pay for the months you hold the loan and no more. How each part moves is in hard money loan rates in California.
How Loan Goat works
We are a direct lender. We fund with in-house private capital and represent Innovative Capital REIT, a $100,000,000 bridge lender. When a file does not fit that capital, we place it with one of the lenders in our network. Our office is at 3030 El Cajon Blvd in North Park, San Diego, and our license is public: Loan Goat Inc., company NMLS 1416824, branch NMLS 2554618. The record so far: 1.3K+ closed loans since 2022, $1.5B+ loans funded across 46 states, and a 5.0 Google rating with 150+ reviews.
The process is four steps: complete the application, submit the required documentation, sign the Letter of Intent, then we process and close, in 5 to 7 days once the file is complete and as fast as 3 days on a clean file. California and Arizona are our home markets and we lend nationwide. Our page on private money loans in San Diego covers local lending, and the borrow page sets out what we need from you.
Shortlist, check, then move
Pick two or three lenders, check each license, put the written terms side by side and decide. Hard money rewards speed, and a week spent shopping can cost you the property. If you have a deal now, send it through a loan request or call (619) 617-2797, and we will tell you plainly whether it fits our programs, another lender’s or neither.
