Hard Money Lenders Illinois: 2,322 Loans, Cook County, Law (2025)

What the 2025 federal record shows for Illinois investors

Illinois hard money pages mostly list lenders that advertise. The federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) file lists loans that were made, with the note rate. We used the FFIEC and CFPB loan-level file for 2025 and took the Illinois rows: 22,250 conventional originations on investment property, 14,876 of them marked as made for a business or commercial purpose.

HMDA has no “hard money” field. We use the proxy of our other state pages (Virginia and Ohio use it too): first lien, 1-4 units, closed-end, investment property, business purpose, no debt-to-income ratio, which leaves 12,711 loans in the base group. Of those, 4,628 had a term of 360 months or more (rental and DSCR loans) and 2,410 a term of 36 months or less. We set aside 88 short-term entries with a 30-month term, 86 of them from one lender whose median rate (7.5%) looks like a 30-year loan keyed in the wrong unit, which leaves 2,322. Our national rate page counts all 2,410 for Illinois; the median is 9.99% either way.

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

Most are one-house purchases. The median loan-to-value on the 2,155 loans that report it was 68.16%. By purpose, 1,905 were purchases (82.0%), 160 rate-and-term refinances, 156 home improvement loans, 93 cash-out refinances and 8 “other”; 1,918 were on one-unit properties and 404 on two to four units. Of the 2,410 short-term loans, 1,847 had a 12-month term, 156 a 36-month term, 53 an 18-month term, 51 a 6-month term and 41 a 24-month term. Loan size sets the price little above $100,000: 894 loans of $100,000 to $199,999 had a median note rate of 10.24%, 872 loans of $200,000 to $399,999 10.24% and 334 loans of $400,000 or more 9.99%; the 222 loans under $100,000 stand out at 7.5%. Entities paid a median 10.128% and natural persons 7.925%, a gap that probably follows the lender mix, since the banks lend to people more often. 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. The public file rounds each loan amount to the midpoint of a $10,000 band, so a reported $205,000 is a loan between $200,000 and $209,999.

The top of the range is thin: 1,838 of the 2,322 loans (79.2%) are above 8%, 1,107 above 10%, 49 above 12% and 4 above 15%. Of the 49 above 12%, 17 came from ABL RPC Residential Credit Acquisition LLC, 7 from Loan Funder, 7 from RCN Capital and 5 from CV3 Financial Services. A quote above 12% was in the top 2.1% of Illinois note rates in 2025, though HMDA does not show points.

Cook County, the collar and downstate

HMDA reports a county, not a city, so we cannot isolate Chicago. Cook County is the closest public unit, and the five collar counties (DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will) are the rest of the metro. The file shows one more group: 163 short-term loans with no county. They are lenders whose public rows leave out the location (RCN Capital 148, Anchor Loans 13), so every Cook and collar figure below is a floor.

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

The split is a story about who lends. Of the 1,227 Cook loans, 114 (9.3%) came from lenders whose name reads as a bank (median 7.5%) and 1,113 from all others, at a median 10.5%. Outside Cook the same name rule gives 413 of 1,095 loans (37.7%). A downstate investor can often get a community bank at 7% to 8.5%; a Chicago investor mostly cannot, and the market there is concentrated: 32 lenders reported a Cook loan, the top three made 64.0% and the top ten 88.1%. DuPage County had 139 loans at a $335,000 median, Madison County 109 at 7.25% and $115,000, Will County 101, Lake County 91, Kane County 80 and Sangamon County 67 at 7.0%. In Cook, 296 of the 1,227 loans (24.1%) were on two to four unit buildings, the typical Chicago two-flat or three-flat, and 1,021 were purchases. Property tax is the other Cook County cost to run before the loan: see our Cook County property tax appeal page and the Illinois DSCR page, which uses the same filter for the 30-year side.

Who made the loans

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

Sixty-six lenders reported at least one loan. The single largest, Loan Funder, made 22.3% and did 377 of its 517 loans in Cook County (72.9%); the top three made half. Every loan from Loan Funder, Renovo, Kiavi and RCN went to an entity, and 319 of Renovo's 334 had a 12-month term. The banks are different: Carrollton Bank's 112 loans are mostly 36-month terms (78) at a 7.0% median and $100,000, with none in Cook; Bank of Springfield's 68 include 35 with an 11-month term; CNB Bank & Trust made 32 Cook loans with a $480,000 median at 7.5%. The bank-like group made 527 loans (22.7%) at a 7.25% median, against 10.49% for the rest (our arithmetic). The table is the reported record, not a recommendation; our reviews cover Loan Funder, Renovo Financial, Kiavi and RCN Capital, and the national hard money lender comparison ranks the whole market. 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 an Illinois box because the 2025 federal file shows it as the state's third-largest short-term investor lender, with 187 of its loans in Cook County. Visio Lending and Lima One Capital pay us nothing.

DSCR-type loans in Illinois: the exit

Searches for Illinois hard money and Illinois 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 4,628 loans, 36.4% of the 12,711 base loans, against 18.3% for short-term loans. The market is wider: 117 lenders, the top five 42.8% and the top ten 57.7%.

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

The same lenders that dominate the short-term table appear here: Loan Funder, Renovo, Kiavi, BPL and RCN, so a borrower can often stay with one lender for both loans. Banks and credit unions made 70 of the 4,628 loans (1.5%), against 22.7% of the short-term loans, so the cheap local-bank option disappears at the refinance. By purpose, 1,917 were purchases, 1,917 cash-out refinances and 632 rate-and-term refinances. The spread between the two products is large: a 9.99% short-term median against 7.5% is 2.49 points, or $5,602.50 a year of interest on $225,000 (our arithmetic). The full DSCR picture is on our Illinois DSCR page, the DSCR lender ranking and DSCR requirements.

Illinois interest law, read against the product

Section 4 of the Interest Act sets a default, then lists exceptions. In written contracts the parties may agree to “an annual percentage rate of 9%, or any less sum”, and the subsection then says it is lawful to charge, contract for and receive “any rate or amount of interest or compensation, except as otherwise provided in the Predatory Loan Prevention Act, with respect to the following transactions.” The list includes loans that fit a hard money loan in three different ways.

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

Of the 2,322 short-term loans, 1,838 carry a note rate above 8%, 1,107 above 10% and 49 above 12%, and 87.1% went to entities. We do not claim any loan is unlawful. HMDA shows neither the lien position nor the borrower's legal form for the purpose of the statute, and we did not read the Predatory Loan Prevention Act that the passage cites. What the text shows is that Illinois does not cap the price of a business or mortgage-secured loan, and that the live question for a borrower is the prepayment clause: the text of 4(2)(a) does not define “residential real estate”, and the foreclosure article defines it by principal-residence occupancy (below). A flip loan to your own name on a house you will not live in is a question for an Illinois attorney before you sign.

Licensing and the Cook County database: a consumer rule

The Residential Mortgage License Act says that no person “shall engage in the business of brokering, funding, originating, servicing or purchasing of residential mortgage loans without first obtaining a license” (205 ILCS 635/1-3(a)), and then that the licensing provisions “shall not apply to any entity engaged solely in commercial mortgage lending”. A residential mortgage loan is “any loan primarily for personal, family, or household use that is secured by a mortgage, deed of trust, or other equivalent consensual security interest on a dwelling” (1-4(f)). Another exemption covers a person who makes loans “with his or her own funds for his or her or its own investment without intent to make, acquire, or resell more than 3 residential mortgage loans in any one calendar year” (1-4(d)(1.8)). On the text, a loan to buy and renovate a house for sale or rent is not primarily for personal, family or household use. Our Illinois DSCR page quotes the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation's own notice on private lenders and investment property; this page adds the statute text it could not read.

The predatory lending database is the Cook County rule most readers have heard of. Section 70(a-5) of 765 ILCS 77 establishes the program “within Cook County” from July 1, 2008 and expands it to “Kane, Peoria, and Will counties” from July 1, 2010. It borrows the licensing act's definition (“Mortgage loan” means that term as defined in 1-4(f)), asks the broker or originator to submit the file “within 10 business days after taking a mortgage application”, and says that if the closing agent fails to attach the required certificate of compliance or exemption “then the mortgage is not recordable” (70(g)). Because the definition is the consumer one, an investor loan sits outside the counseling rules on the text, but whether a certificate of exemption is needed to record is a question for the title company: ask it for the file requirement before the closing date. We found no statistics on how many Illinois investor loans use a certificate and give none.

Foreclosure and redemption: why the building matters

Illinois forecloses through a court, and the length of the borrower's right to redeem depends on what kind of building it is. “Residential real estate” in the foreclosure article means property improved with a single family residence, residential condominium units or a building of six or fewer families, where a unit “is occupied as a principal residence” by the mortgagor, spouse or descendants (735 ILCS 5/15-1219). For a mortgage on that kind of property, the redemption period ends on the later of 7 months from service or 3 months from the judgment of foreclosure. In all other foreclosures, which includes a rental or flip property with no owner living in it, the periods are 6 months and 3 months (15-1603(b)(1) and (2)). Two shortcuts exist: 60 days from judgment if the court finds the value is under 90% of the debt and the mortgagee waives any deficiency, and 30 days if the court finds the property abandoned (15-1603(b)(3) and (4)). The judicial sale is advertised for “at least 3 consecutive calendar weeks”, the first notice not more than 45 days and the last not less than 7 days before the sale (15-1507(c)(2)).

Example redemption clock on a $225,000 loan at the Cook County median 10.49% (our arithmetic, hypothetical dates)

For scale, six months of interest on $225,000 at the 10.49% Cook median is $11,801.25 before points and fees (our arithmetic). The point for a borrower is not to plan for a default: the 6-month floor is one reason lenders price short-term loans above 9% when the law allows it. We did not read the sections on confirmation of the sale, possession or deficiency, and have no source for how many Illinois foreclosures involved investor loans in 2025, so we give none.

What an Illinois investor can do with this

1. Place the quote on the distribution. A note rate at or below 9.113% was in the cheapest quarter of Illinois short-term loans in 2025; at or above 10.99% in the costliest. In Cook the middle half was 9.99% to 10.99%.
2. Price a bank first, if you buy outside Cook. Banks and credit unions made 22.7% of the short-term loans at a 7.25% median; in Cook only 9.3%. Points and draw rules are not in HMDA, so ask.
3. Read the prepayment clause. The Interest Act bars a prepayment charge above 8% on a mortgage-secured loan on residential real estate, with exceptions for corporate and business loans; ask counsel how your loan is classified.
4. Ask the title company which certificate the file needs if the property is in Cook, Kane, Peoria or Will county. The database definition follows the consumer one, but the closing agent attaches the certificate.
5. Know the clock. On an investor property the redemption period is the later of 6 months from service or 3 months from judgment. Lenders price that, and so should your reserve.
6. Plan the refinance. If a DSCR loan replaces the flip loan, the market median was 7.5%. Run the rest in our fix and flip calculator and the extension and default interest page.

FAQ

Loan data: FFIEC/CFPB HMDA 2025 loan-level national file, Illinois rows (script hmda_il.py and the extracted loan rows in the sources folder), conventional loans only, and the FFIEC 2025 filer list; county names from the Census Bureau county FIPS codes. Statutes: 815 ILCS 205/4, 205 ILCS 635/1-3 and 1-4, 765 ILCS 77/70, and 735 ILCS 5/15-1219, 15-1507 and 15-1603, from the Illinois General Assembly Compiled Statutes (ilga.gov), read October 24, 2026 through the Internet Archive copy. All counts, shares, medians and interest figures are our arithmetic. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal, tax or lending advice, and not a loan offer.