Minnesota Hard Money and DSCR Loans 2026: 473 Loans, 9.95% Median

What the 2025 federal record shows for Minnesota investors

Most Minnesota hard money pages list lenders that advertise. The federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) file lists applications that were decided, with the note rate on loans that were made. We used the FFIEC and CFPB loan-level data for 2025 and took the Minnesota first-lien rows: 91,616 originated loans and 14,095 denied applications. Of the originated loans, 6,634 were on investment property and 3,457 of those were marked as made for a business or commercial purpose.

HMDA has no “hard money” field. We use the proxy of our other state pages (Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Indiana use it too; for a bigger market see Texas): conventional, first lien, closed-end, 1-4 units, investment property, business purpose, no debt-to-income ratio, not a reverse mortgage. That leaves 1,698 loans in the base group. Of those, 558 had a term of 360 months or more (rental and DSCR loans), 477 a term of 36 months or less, and 663 a term between 37 and 359 months, or no usable term, that we leave out of both groups. We set aside 4 short-term entries with a 30-month term, all from one lender (Emporium TPO LLC); that looks like a 30-year loan keyed in months, and the other state pages do the same. That leaves 473 short-term loans. For denials we apply the same filters to applications with action taken 3 and a term of 360 months or more (201) or 36 months or less (50).

A caution on names: we classed a lender as a bank only if its filed name contains bank, credit union, savings, FCU, national association or trust co, and we did not merge any filers. Choice Financial Group, which made 7 short-term loans at a 7.5% median, is counted with the non-banks by that rule although the name suggests a bank holding company.

Minnesota business-purpose investor loans, 2025 (HMDA, our filter)

Most short-term loans are one-house purchases. By purpose, 431 were purchases (91.1%), 23 refinances, 13 home improvement loans, 5 cash-out refinances and 1 “other”; 441 were on one-unit properties and 32 on two to four units. The median loan-to-value on the 425 loans that report it was 72.28%. Loan size barely moves the median: 51 loans of $100,000 to $149,999 and 191 of $150,000 to $249,999 and 178 of $250,000 to $499,999 all had a 9.95% median, and the 34 loans of $500,000 or more 11.0%. The 19 loans under $100,000 had a 7.6% median, and 16 of them came from banks. Entities paid a median 9.95% and the 24 other borrowers 7.375%. Points, fees and prepayment terms for business-purpose loans are not in HMDA, so use our hard money loan calculator to turn a quote into a total cost. Our national rate page covers the whole market. The public file rounds each loan amount to the midpoint of a $10,000 band, so a reported $235,000 is a loan between $230,000 and $239,999.

The top of the range is not thin. Of the 468 loans with a reported rate, 370 (79.1%) are above 8%, 208 (44.4%) above 10%, 87 (18.6%) above 11% and 31 (6.6%) above 12%. A quote above 11% was in roughly the top fifth of Minnesota note rates in 2025, though HMDA does not show points.

Minnesota is a non-bank market, and one lender writes almost half of it

In Oklahoma banks make two thirds of the short-term loans; in Minnesota the 2025 federal file shows the reverse. The three largest lenders are all non-banks, they made 318 of the 473 loans (67.2%) and 64.3% of the dollars, and the top ten lenders made 81.8%. Fifteen other non-bank lenders made 47 loans between them.

Largest non-bank short-term lenders in Minnesota, 2025 (HMDA, names from the FFIEC 2025 filer list)

Kiavi’s 218 loans are 46.1% of the state’s short-term loans and 59.7% of the 365 non-bank loans; we report it as a count, not as a verdict. All 218 went to entities, all have a 12-month term, and all carry the interest-only and balloon flags; 215 are purchases and 3 are refinances. Its median rate, 9.95%, is 2.65 points above the bank median of 7.3%, and 108 of its loans are above 10% and 26 above 12%, up to 13.74%. Kiavi’s loans are concentrated in the Twin Cities: 95 in Hennepin County, 42 in Ramsey, 19 in Anoka, 17 in Dakota and 10 in Washington, 183 of the 218. Excluding Kiavi, the other 147 non-bank loans have a 10.5% median (middle half 10.0% to 11.0%), so Kiavi is the lowest-priced of the three large non-banks by median.

RF Renovo made 68 loans, 67 of them for 12 months and one for 18, all interest-only with a balloon and all to entities; its highest rate is 12.0%. CCM Finance made 32, all 12-month, with the highest median of the three (11.5%) and the largest median loan ($310,000). The Renovo Financial review, LendingOne review and Lima One Capital review cover names that appear here or in the box below. Lenders under HMDA’s reporting thresholds do not appear, so every count is a floor.

Kiavi pays us a referral fee when a loan closes through its button below. It belongs in a Minnesota box because the 2025 federal file shows it as the state’s largest short-term investor lender and its fifth-largest maker of 30-year investor loans. Visio Lending and Lima One Capital pay us nothing. The data also says what the button cannot: in Minnesota, the median bank quote was 2.65 points below the median Kiavi quote on the loans in this file, so get a bank number before you compare.

Banks: 22.8% of the loans, at a 7.3% median

We classed a lender as a bank by the name rule above. On that rule 108 of 473 short-term loans (22.8%) and 22.2% of the dollars came from 25 banks.

Minnesota short-term investor loans, banks against other lenders, 2025 (HMDA, our name rule)

The gap is not a mix effect. The two groups lend similar amounts, and on the 12-month term they differ by 3.0 percentage points. Banks also make the shorter and longer terms: of the 65 loans with a 6-, 9-, 24- or 36-month term, 56 are bank loans (the 6-month term is 16 of 19, the 36-month 18 of 21). HMDA does not show points, draw schedules, speed of closing or borrower track record, and banks may lend to borrowers and collateral that private lenders turn away or the reverse. What the file does show is the price a bank accepted on the same kind of loan.

Largest banks making Minnesota short-term investor loans, 2025 (HMDA, names from the FFIEC 2025 filer list)

No Minnesota bank is large in this market: the biggest, Frandsen Bank & Trust, made 15 loans, and 25 banks reported at least one. North Shore Bank of Commerce is the notable low price, 12 loans at a 5.235% median (all 12 in St. Louis County); HMDA does not say why. The 9-month term has an equally low median (5.287%) because 16 of its 18 loans are bank loans. Our portfolio loans page shows how a bank that keeps loans on its books prices them nationally.

County by county: the Twin Cities, Duluth and the rest

HMDA reports a county, not a city, so we cannot isolate Minneapolis or St. Paul. Hennepin County is the closest public unit for Minneapolis and Ramsey County for St. Paul. We broke out Anoka, Dakota, Washington and Scott counties in the metro, St. Louis County (Duluth) and Olmsted County (Rochester), and grouped everything else.

Minnesota short-term investor loans by area, 2025 (HMDA, our arithmetic)

Hennepin and Ramsey together hold 244 of the 473 loans (51.6%), and the six metro counties we broke out 338 (71.5%), of which Kiavi made 188. In every metro county the market is non-bank: banks made 16 of 170 Hennepin loans, 7 of 74 in Ramsey, 1 of 34 in Anoka and none of 17 in Washington County. Outside the metro it flips. St. Louis County, where banks made 22 of 26 loans, has a 6.625% median, and in the rest of the state banks made 48 of 103 loans at a 7.5% median against 9.5% for the 55 other loans. Olmsted County has only five loans, so its $915,000 median loan describes a handful of deals.

The same split inside each area, 2025 (HMDA, our arithmetic)

In every area with more than one bank loan, banks are about 2.0 to 4.4 points below other lenders. The difference between Hennepin County (10.5%) and the rest of the state (8.5%) comes from who lends, not from banks pricing higher in the cities.

DSCR-type loans in Minnesota: the exit

Searches for Minnesota hard money and Minnesota DSCR loans are two steps of one plan: the short-term loan to buy and renovate, then a 30-year rental loan to refinance it (see the BRRRR method). The same filters with a term of 360 months or more give 558 loans, 32.9% of the 1,698-loan base group, against 27.9% for short-term loans. The market is wider and less concentrated: 72 lenders, the top five making 37.6% and the top ten 53.6%, and banks made only 47 loans (8.4%) at a 6.75% median against 7.499% for the 511 other loans. So the bank that lends short-term in Minnesota mostly does not lend the 30-year DSCR loan.

Largest lenders of Minnesota DSCR-type loans, 2025 (HMDA, our filters)

Within the DSCR-type group, 275 loans were purchases (49.3%), 177 cash-out refinances (31.7%), 85 refinances (15.2%), 17 home improvement loans and 4 “other”. 428 were on one-unit properties (76.7%) and 130 on two to four units. Of the 556 loans with a reported rate, 142 (25.5%) were under 7%, 331 (59.5%) at or below 7.5%, 91 (16.4%) above 8% and 2 above 10%; the highest is 10.75%. Fourteen of the 43 short-term lenders also reported DSCR-type loans, among them Kiavi (27 DSCR-type loans, a 7.0% median), RF Renovo (11), BPL Mortgage, CV3 Financial Services, LendingOne and Lima One. Kiavi’s DSCR-type loans are all to entities and priced under its short-term loans: 7.0% against 9.95%. The reviews on this site cover several of these names: HomeXpress, Angel Oak, OCMBC and Kiavi. Our DSCR lender ranking uses the same filter nationally, our DSCR requirements guide reads the underwriting side, and the Illinois and Wisconsin pages show the neighbouring states.

Minnesota DSCR-type loans by area, 2025 (HMDA, our arithmetic)

DSCR-type rates vary less by place than short-term rates: area medians run from 7.0% (St. Louis County) to 7.625% (Ramsey County). Hennepin and Ramsey hold 261 of the 558 loans (46.8%). Size does matter: the 18 loans under $100,000 had an 8.062% median, the 264 loans of $150,000 to $249,999 and the 184 of $250,000 to $499,999 both 7.375%.

One in four DSCR applications was denied

The 2025 file also lists the applications lenders turned down. Under the same filters with a term of 360 months or more, Minnesota lenders decided 759 applications: 558 loans and 201 denials, a denial rate of 26.5%. Our denial-rate page puts Minnesota at 26.3% (201 of 763 decisions) on its own, slightly looser filter, against 23.2% nationally, and shows it among the higher states. Short-term applications were denied far less often: 50 against 473 loans, 9.6%.

One filer bends the count. A second filer named RCN Capital, LLC (legal entity identifier ending JW67) reports 6 Minnesota denials, all with the reason coded “exempt”; without it the state’s rate is 25.9% (195 denials), our arithmetic. So the lender matters as much as the state.

Minnesota DSCR-type denials by first reason given, 2025 (HMDA, our arithmetic)

Reasons are the lender’s coding and tell little by themselves: collateral leads, but United Wholesale Mortgage coded it on 16 of its 33 denials and HomeXpress on 5 of 24 (it used credit history on 19). What the loan was for matters more. The denial rate was 18.6% on purchases (275 loans, 63 denials), 32.4% on cash-out refinances (177 and 85) and 32.0% on refinances (85 and 40). By area it was 25.1% in Hennepin County (188 and 63), 22.3% in Ramsey (73 and 21) and 28.3% in the rest of the state (297 and 117).

Denial rates of the largest Minnesota DSCR-type lenders, 2025 (HMDA, lenders with 20 or more decisions)

Of 79 lenders with a DSCR-type decision in Minnesota, 41 denied at least one application. Four lenders with 10 or more loans denied none: The Loan Store (19 loans), RF Renovo (11), HomeTown Bank (11) and Centricity Credit Union (10). A low rate is not proof of an easy lender, because lenders see different applicants and some screen before an application is filed, and Kiavi’s 4 denials sit beside 11 short-term denials out of 229 short-term decisions (4.8%). The table is narrower in use: a Minnesota investor denied by one lender is not unusual, and the denial rates among the largest lenders run from 2.9% to 81.8%, so ask each lender for its own minimums before you apply. See our DSCR requirements guide for the usual minimums.

What the gap between the products costs on one loan (our arithmetic)

Minnesota law: what the statutes we read say

We read four Minnesota Statutes sections on the Revisor of Statutes site on October 31, 2026. We quote them and do not interpret how a court would apply them to your loan; that is a question for a Minnesota attorney.

Interest ceiling and the $100,000 line (section 334.01). Subdivision 1 says that no person shall “directly or indirectly take or receive” more than “$8 on $100 for one year” for the loan or forbearance of money, and that interest is $6 on $100 “unless a different rate is contracted for in writing.” The same subdivision says that a provision “providing for an increase of the rate of interest after maturity” shall “work a forfeiture of the entire interest,” with exceptions for notes that bear no interest before maturity and for agreements that extend the maturity date. Subdivision 2, headed “Contracts of $100,000 or more,” says that “no limitation on the rate or amount of interest, points, finance charges, fees, or other charges applies” to a loan made under a written contract signed by the debtor “in the amount of $100,000 or more,” except as stated in sections 58.137 and 47.20, subdivision 4a. The 2025 first special session amended subdivision 2 (1Sp2025 c 4 art 2 s 10).

What the federal file adds: 454 of the 473 short-term loans (96.0%) and 540 of the 558 DSCR-type loans (96.8%) are at or above $100,000 in the public file’s band midpoints, so the written-contract exemption in subdivision 2 reaches most of them (our arithmetic). The 19 short-term loans under $100,000 include 6 with a reported rate above 8% (12.0%, 9.0% twice and 8.5% three times, the last three from banks or a credit union), and 9 of the 18 DSCR-type loans under $100,000 are above 8%. HMDA does not show whether any of those were exempt for other reasons, and we did not read the other sections the statute refers to. Our page on extension and default interest covers how those terms work in practice.

Licensing (sections 58.04 and 58.02). Section 58.04, subdivision 1 says that no person shall “act as a residential mortgage originator, or make residential mortgage loans without first obtaining a license from the commissioner,” with exemptions that include a financial institution and “a person who is not in the business of making residential mortgage loans and who makes no more than three such loans, with its own funds, during any 12-month period.” Section 58.02 defines residential real estate as real property in Minnesota on which a dwelling is or will be built “whether or not the owner occupies the real property.” We did not read how the Commerce Department treats a loan to an entity for a rental or a flip. Ask any lender for its Minnesota license number or the exemption it relies on.

Foreclosure (section 580.23). After a foreclosure sale, subdivision 1 lets the mortgagor redeem “within six months after such sale,” and subdivision 2 lists cases with 12 months (for example mortgages executed before certain dates and land over 10 acres). A shorter or longer period in your own mortgage is a question for counsel. This is analysis of public documents, not legal advice.

What a Minnesota investor can do with this

1. Get a bank number first, then compare. Banks made 22.8% of Minnesota’s short-term investor loans in 2025 at a 7.3% median, and 89 of their 104 loans with a rate were at or below 8%. They were small: the largest made 15 loans. Ask the ones already lending in your county, such as Frandsen Bank & Trust, First Bank & Trust and First Western Bank & Trust, and the Duluth-area lenders in St. Louis County. Ask about draws, term (18 of the 21 loans with a 36-month term were bank loans) and speed, which HMDA does not show.
2. Place a non-bank quote on its own distribution. For the 365 non-bank loans the middle half was 9.5% to 11.0%; Kiavi’s was 9.0% to 11.185%. A quote above 11% was in roughly the top fifth of all Minnesota short-term loans.
3. Compare like with like. On the 12-month term banks were at 7.5% and others at 10.5%. If a bank offers 36 months, the 21 loans of that term had a 7.0% median.
4. Plan the refinance. If a DSCR loan replaces the flip loan, the market median was 7.375%; 59.5% of reported rates were at or below 7.5%. Banks rarely make this loan (47 of 558), so the exit usually means a different lender. Run the numbers in our fix and flip calculator.
5. Know the refinance odds. DSCR-type refinances were denied at about 32% in Minnesota in 2025, against 18.6% for purchases; ask the lender for its minimums before you apply.
6. Ask for the license and the legal terms in writing. The $100,000 line in section 334.01 matters for a small loan, and a license number or exemption is a fair request.

FAQ

Loan data: FFIEC/CFPB HMDA 2025 loan-level data, Minnesota originated and denied first-lien rows from the Data Browser API (saved in the sources folder), the FFIEC 2025 filer list for lender names and the FFIEC LAR data-field definitions; county names from the Census Bureau 2020 county code file. Law: Minnesota Statutes 2026, sections 334.01, 58.02, 58.04 and 580.23, Office of the Revisor of Statutes, read on October 31, 2026. All counts, shares, medians, percentiles, denial rates and interest figures are our arithmetic. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal, tax or lending advice, and not a loan offer.