Hard Money Lenders Connecticut: 831 Loans, 12% Rule, Fees (2025)

What the 2025 federal record shows for Connecticut investors

Most Connecticut hard money pages are lender marketing or directories. The federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) file lists loans that were made, with the note rate. We used the FFIEC and CFPB Data Browser file of Connecticut originations for 2025 and kept the conventional ones: 64,996 loans. Of those, 6,527 were on investment property, and 5,358 of them 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: first lien, 1-4 units, closed-end, investment property, business purpose, no debt-to-income ratio, which leaves 4,705 loans in the base group. Of those, 2,440 had a term of 360 months or more (rental and DSCR loans) and 883 had a term of 36 months or less. We set aside 52 short-term entries with a 30-month term, all from one lender (Emporium TPO) whose median rate (7.25%) looks like a 30-year loan keyed in the wrong unit, which leaves 831. Our national rate page is the place for the national picture; other cuts of the same file that also count buildings of five or more units give 929 loans, which is why a different count may appear elsewhere.

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

Thirty-four of the 831 short-term loans report no interest rate (30 of them from one lender, CCG Fund 1, LLC), so the rate statistics use 797. Most are one-house purchases: 711 purchases (85.6%), 39 home improvement loans, 33 “other”, 26 rate-and-term refinances and 22 cash-out refinances; 674 were on one-unit properties and 157 on two to four units. Of the 831, 784 (94.3%) went to entities, and the median rate was 10.49% for entities and 10.5% for natural persons. The median loan-to-value on the 761 loans that report it was 65.88%. The loan size sets the price little: loans reported at less than $150,000 had a median of 10.495% (24 loans), $150,000 to $249,999 10.5% (257), $250,000 to $399,999 10.495% (346), $400,000 to $749,999 10.34% (134) and $750,000 or more 10.405% (70). The public file rounds each loan amount to the midpoint of a $10,000 band, so a reported $295,000 is a loan between $290,000 and $299,999. 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.

For scale, interest on a $295,000 loan at the 10.49% median is $15,472.75 for six months and $30,945.50 for twelve (our arithmetic), before points and fees.

Who made the loans, and why the sample is thin

Largest lenders of Connecticut short-term investor loans, 2025 (HMDA, names from the FFIEC 2025 filer list)

Twenty-eight lenders reported at least one loan, and the ten largest made 90.5%. RCN Capital appears twice in the federal filer list with two legal entity identifiers (203 loans and 55 loans); counted as one lender, the top three are 76.1% of the 831, and counted by identifier they are 65.3%. Either way the median of the whole group is close to the median of the three (10.5%): the other 24 lenders, with 199 loans, have a median of 10.25%. All 258 RCN loans carry no county code in the file, which matters for the regional table below. Easy Street Capital made 14 of the state's 16 six-month loans (14 of its own 18). Banks and credit unions (by our name rule, which is not an official classification) made 11 loans, 1.3%, at a median of 8.0%, so a local bank that will lend on an investor flip is a rare and cheaper option; ask it. The table is the reported record, not a recommendation; our reviews cover RCN Capital, Kiavi, Loan Funder and Easy Street Capital.

The record also leaves out lenders that do not report to HMDA. Sachem Capital, a Connecticut lender that files with the SEC, is not on the FFIEC 2025 filer list we used, so its loans are not in the counts; what it says it charges is on our public hard money lender page and in our Sachem Capital review. A small private lender below the reporting thresholds is likewise invisible here, which is why this page is a floor and a benchmark, not a census of every Connecticut hard money loan. Our national hard money lender comparison covers how the lender types differ; for neighboring markets see New York and New Jersey.

Kiavi pays us a referral fee when a loan closes through its button below. It belongs in a Connecticut box because the 2025 federal file shows it as the state's second-largest short-term investor lender. Visio Lending, a rental lender whose affiliate Investor Mortgage Finance LLC (our label from earlier pages) reports 41 Connecticut 30-year loans and no short-term ones, and Lima One Capital, which reports none in our Connecticut group, pay us nothing.

The loans above 12%

Of the 831 short-term loans, 28 (3.4%) carry a note rate above 12%: 15 from Kiavi, 4 from ABL RPC Residential Credit Acquisition, 3 from American Heritage Lending, 2 from Velocity Commercial Capital, 1 from Loan Funder, 1 from RCN Capital and 2 from other lenders. Twenty-three of the 28 went to entities and 11 were reported at $245,000 or less. The highest rate in the file is 15.125%, below the 17.52% ceiling in Sec. 37-9(4)(A) for 2025 (below), and 557 loans are above 10%. HMDA shows neither the lien position nor the borrower's legal form for the purpose of the statute, and we do not claim any loan is unlawful.

Where in Connecticut

The 2025 HMDA file codes Connecticut loans by planning region (codes 09110 to 09190), not by the old eight counties (09001 to 09015). We relabelled the codes with the Census Bureau's 2023 geographic code list, which names the nine planning regions at the county level.

Short-term investor loans by planning region, 2025 (HMDA)

For 269 loans (32.4%) the file has no region code; 258 of them are RCN Capital's. The regions are therefore a view of the other 562 loans. Capitol, South Central and Naugatuck Valley hold 358 of the 562 (63.7%), and Western Connecticut stands out for its $615,000 median loan, about twice the state's. The regions with 10 or fewer loans (Northeastern Connecticut and Northwest Hills) are too small for any rate comparison. The planning regions replace counties and do not match them, and the file gives no town.

DSCR-type loans in Connecticut: the other half of the market

A Connecticut investor who buys with a short-term loan usually plans a 30-year rental loan next (see the BRRRR method). The same filters with a term of 360 months or more give 2,440 loans, 51.9% of the 4,705 base loans, against 17.7% for short-term loans.

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

This market is wider: 102 lenders reported at least one such loan, the top five made 32.7% and the top ten 50.7%. Only 799 of the 2,440 (32.7%) went to entities, so most were made to people, and the median rate was 7.374% for entities and 7.375% for natural persons. The purpose split shows the refinance role: 1,035 purchases, 1,015 cash-out refinances, 235 rate-and-term refinances, 139 “other” and 16 home improvement. Our DSCR lender ranking compares lenders nationally.

Connecticut's interest law, read against the product

Chapter 673 of the General Statutes sets the ceiling and then lists who is outside it. Section 37-4 says that no person shall “charge, demand, accept or make any agreement to receive” interest “at a rate greater than twelve per cent per annum,” a violation is punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000 or imprisonment of not more than six months or both (37-7), and “no action shall be brought to recover principal or interest, or any part thereof, on any loan prohibited by sections 37-4, 37-5 and 37-6” (37-8). Section 37-6 adds that a lender may not charge a borrower the expense of inquiry or of negotiating a loan unless “the total of such charges and of the interest agreed upon is, during any one year, twelve per cent of the loan or less.”

Section 37-9 then says the provisions of 37-4, 37-5 and 37-6 “shall not affect” nine kinds of loan. Three bear on a hard money loan.

Connecticut provisions that bear on a hard money loan (statute text saved October 24, 2026)

The deposit index is not a market rate: it is an average of savings and money market rates that the Banking Commissioner sets each year under Sec. 36a-26. The Department of Banking published 0.49% for calendar year 2026, and its list gives 0.52% for 2025, 0.55% for 2024 and 0.27% for 2023. We did not find the text of Sec. 36a-26 on the legislature's site (we looked in chapters 664 to 669), so the index figures rest on the Department's page, not on the statute.

What follows from the text: the headline 12% is a consumer-style ceiling in practice for a mortgage-secured investor loan, and the question for a given loan is which exemption it fits. A first-lien loan on an investment house above $5,000 fits 37-9(3) on its face; an unsecured or small loan would have to fit 37-9(4). Worked example (our arithmetic): on a $295,000 twelve-month loan, 12% is $35,400 of interest and the 10.49% median is $30,945.50; on a $250,000 loan the 17.52% ceiling in (4)(A) would be $43,800 a year. The highest rate in the 2025 data, 15.125%, is below 17.52%. The chapter text we read is the “current” version; its own note refers readers to the 2026 Supplement for acts of the 2025 sessions, which we could not open, and the history line of 37-9 ends with Public Act 16-65, so confirm the current text before you rely on it.

Licensing: Connecticut's mortgage law turns on the consumer

Chapter 668 says that “no person shall engage in the business of making residential mortgage loans or act as a mortgage broker in this state unless such person has first obtained a license” (36a-486(a)). The definition decides who is covered. A “residential mortgage loan” is “any loan, including a shared appreciation agreement, primarily for personal, family or household use” secured by a mortgage or deed of trust on a dwelling or on residential real estate where a dwelling is or will be built (36a-485(27)), and a “mortgage lender” is a person “engaged in the business of making residential mortgage loans” with its own funds or through a warehouse or similar agreement (36a-485(19)).

On the text, a loan to an LLC to buy and renovate a house for sale or rent is not “primarily for personal, family or household use,” so a lender that makes only such loans is not making residential mortgage loans as defined. Exemptions in 36a-487 also cover federally insured banks and credit unions (36a-487(a)(1)) and “persons making five or fewer residential mortgage loans within any period of twelve consecutive months” (36a-487(b)(1)). We read the definitions and the licence and exemption sections only, found no Banking Department guidance on investor loans to save, and nothing here says a particular lender is or is not licensed: check the lender in the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System before you sign, and see our private money lender page on who funds the loan.

The conveyance tax on a flip: the seller pays

Connecticut taxes the sale, not the loan. Chapter 223 imposes on each deed for consideration of $2,000 or more a tax of “three-quarters of one per cent” payable to the state and “one-fourth of one per cent” that becomes municipal revenue (12-494(a)); it is “payable by the person conveying the property upon the recording” of the deed (12-495). Property used for any purpose other than residential, except unimproved land, pays the state part at one and one-quarter per cent (12-494(b)(1)). For a residential estate with consideration of $800,000 or more, the state part is 0.75% up to $800,000 and, on and after July 1, 2020, 1.25% on the part from $800,000 up to $2,500,000 and 2.25% above (12-494(b)(2)). A targeted investment community or a municipality with designated manufacturing plants may add up to one-fourth of one per cent (12-494(c)). Deeds that “secure a debt or other obligation” are exempt (12-498(a)(2)), and we found no tax on the mortgage itself in chapter 223, so the paper tax falls on the exit, not on the loan; recording fees at the town clerk are a separate matter we did not read.

Example flip: sell at $420,000, or at $900,000 for a larger house (our arithmetic from Sec. 12-494 and 12-495)

For scale, $4,200 is 27.1% of the six-month interest on a $295,000 loan at the median rate ($15,472.75), and it is a cost of the exit that depends on the resale price, not on the loan (our arithmetic). The statute makes the person conveying the payer, so price it into the resale; a buyer who plans to flip it will pay it again as the seller. Whether a property is “residential” for 12-494(b) is a question of use at the time of the conveyance; ask the closing attorney about a mixed-use building.

Foreclosure: strict foreclosure and law days

Connecticut foreclosures are judicial. A foreclosing plaintiff can be awarded strict foreclosure, in which title moves to the holder after a period set by the court, or the court can order a sale: Sec. 49-24 says liens and mortgages may be foreclosed “by a decree of sale instead of a strict foreclosure at the discretion of the court.” Several rules decide what that costs a lender and a borrower:

Connecticut foreclosure provisions an investor should know (statute text saved October 24, 2026)

The statute text we saved does not give the length of the law days or a typical time to judgment; the court sets the period for redemption, and we have no source for how long Connecticut foreclosures took in 2025, so we give none. We did not read the residential foreclosure mediation sections in chapter 846, which are written for homeowners rather than investors. The rules above matter to a borrower in one way: a hard money lender that can end the borrower's interest on a short schedule has less reason to extend a loan, so read the extension and default terms in the note (see our extension and default interest page).

What a Connecticut investor can do with this

1. Place the quote on the distribution. A note rate at or below 9.99% was in the cheapest quarter of Connecticut short-term loans in 2025; at or above 10.99% in the costliest. The 25th to 75th range is narrow (one percentage point), because three lenders set it: a quote far above 11.94% is in the top tenth.
2. Compare more than three lenders. The 24 lenders other than RCN, Kiavi and Loan Funder made 199 loans at a 10.25% median, and the banks 11 loans at 8.0%; ask a local bank and a small private lender for a quote and compare it with the three national names.
3. Read the purpose language and the lien. A first-lien loan to an LLC for a flip fits both 37-9(3) and the licensing definition on the text; a second lien or a personal loan is a question for a Connecticut attorney.
4. Price the exit. A $420,000 sale pays $4,200 of conveyance tax from the seller's proceeds; model it with our fix and flip calculator and the hard money loan calculator.
5. Plan the refinance. If a DSCR loan replaces the flip loan, the rental market is wider (102 lenders, median 7.375%); our DSCR lender ranking lists them.
6. Check the lender's licence. Look up any non-bank lender in NMLS and ask which exemption it relies on.

FAQ

Loan data: FFIEC/CFPB HMDA Data Browser, Connecticut originated loans for 2025, downloaded October 24, 2026 (script hmda_ct.py in the data folder, cross-checked against our national file), conventional loans only, and the FFIEC 2025 filer list; planning region names from the Census Bureau's 2023 geographic codes. Statutes: Connecticut General Statutes Sec. 37-4 to 37-9, 36a-485 to 36a-487, 49-7, 49-14, 49-15, 49-19, 49-22, 49-24, 12-494, 12-495 and 12-498, from the General Assembly website (cga.ct.gov, chapters 673, 668, 846 and 223, current chapters read October 24, 2026); deposit index: Connecticut Department of Banking (portal.ct.gov), read October 24, 2026. All counts, shares, medians and tax figures are our arithmetic. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal, tax or lending advice, and not a loan offer.