Hard Money Lenders North Carolina: 2,756 Loans, Law (2025)
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Quick Answer
As of October 23, 2026, the federal loan-level record for 2025 shows 2,756 short-term business-purpose investor loans in North Carolina, with a median note rate of 10.24%, a middle half between 9.5% and 10.99%, and a median loan of $225,000 (our arithmetic from HMDA data). Kiavi made 1,050 of them (38.1%); Anchor Loans made 269 at a 9.0% median, the lowest among the six largest lenders. 91.2% went to entities, and only 137 (5.0%) came from lenders with a bank or credit union name. North Carolina's own rules barely constrain the product: a written contract above $25,000 may carry “Any rate agreed upon by the parties” (G.S. 24-1.1(a)(2)), and an “exempt loan,” which includes any loan to a borrower that is not a natural person, has no usury defense (G.S. 24-9). Only 3 of the 2,756 loans were $25,000 or less. The state mortgage licence covers loans to natural persons “primarily for personal, family, or household use,” not a loan to your LLC for a flip. Foreclosure is by power of sale before the clerk of court, with a 10-day upset-bid period instead of court confirmation, and the seller pays a deed excise tax of $1 per $500: $610 on a $305,000 resale. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal, tax or lending advice.
Key Takeaways
- Price (HMDA 2025, North Carolina, conventional first-lien, 1-4 unit investment property, business purpose, no debt-to-income ratio, term 36 months or less, 50 entries with a 30-month term set aside): 2,756 loans, median note rate 10.24%, 25th to 75th percentile 9.5% to 10.99%, 10th to 90th 8.75% to 11.5%, highest 15.125%. Median loan $225,000; median loan-to-value 69.945%.
- Who: Kiavi Funding 1,050 loans (10.25% median), Anchor Loans 269 (9.0%), Easy Street Capital 175 (9.9%), Lima One Capital 162 (10.675%), Loan Funder 139 (10.99%). 61 lenders reported at least one loan and the top 10 made 80.3%.
- Where: Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia (North Carolina counties) 735 loans (26.7%), but 728 loans (26.4%) were outside any metropolitan statistical area. Mecklenburg County had 389 loans at a 9.95% median and $305,000 median loan; the Triad (Greensboro-High Point plus Winston-Salem) had 249 loans at a $165,000 median loan.
- Interest law: G.S. 24-1 sets a legal rate of 8%, but G.S. 24-1.1(a)(2) lets the parties agree to any rate where the principal is more than $25,000, and G.S. 24-9(b) says “A claim or defense of usury is prohibited in an exempt loan transaction.” 776 of the 2,756 loans were $300,000 or more and 1,814 went to entities under $300,000; 166 went to natural persons under $300,000 and need the business-purpose limb of the exemption.
- Licensing: Article 19B of Chapter 53 defines a residential mortgage loan as one made “to a natural person or persons primarily for personal, family, or household use.” An investor loan to an LLC is outside that definition on the text; we found no regulator guidance to save.
- Foreclosure: power of sale before the clerk of court (G.S. 45-21.16): notice of hearing at least 10 days before, four findings, notice of sale posted 20 days and published for two successive weeks, then upset bids of at least 5% and $750 within 10 days (45-21.27). No confirmation hearing is required (45-21.29A).
- Deed tax: G.S. 105-228.30(a) levies $1 on each $500 of consideration, paid by the transferor. On the $305,000 median property value of the purchase loans that is $610, 5.3% of the $11,520 of interest on six months of the median loan (our arithmetic).
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North Carolina hard money and private lender loans: 2025 HMDA short-term investor loans, lenders, counties and metro areas, North Carolina General Statutes on interest, licensing, foreclosure and the deed excise tax, and our flip arithmetic
268 rows: North Carolina 2025 HMDA business-purpose investor loans (short-term loans, rates, terms, loan sizes, lenders, counties, metro areas), the General Statutes provisions cited from ncleg.gov, and our arithmetic for the deed excise tax and loan interest on a flip. One source per row.
What the 2025 federal record shows for North Carolina investors
Hard money pages for North Carolina mostly list lenders that advertise: a national platform page, a regional directory, a few local firms. The federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) file lists loans that were made, with the note rate. We used the FFIEC and CFPB file of North Carolina conventional originations for 2025: 210,054 loans. Of those, 23,317 were on investment property, and 16,816 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 15,048 loans. Of those, 4,791 had a term of 360 months or more (rental and DSCR loans; see our DSCR loan North Carolina page) and 2,806 had a term of 36 months or less. We set aside 50 short-term entries with a 30-month term, 48 of them from one lender whose median rate (7.188%) looks like a 30-year loan keyed in the wrong unit, which leaves 2,756. Our national rate page counts all 2,806, so its North Carolina total is larger; the median is 10.2% either way.
North Carolina short-term business-purpose investor loans, 2025 (HMDA, our filter)
| Measure | Short-term loans (36 months or less) | 30-year loans (for comparison) |
|---|---|---|
| Loans | 2,756 | 4,791 |
| Loans with a nonzero reported rate | 2,744 | 4,775 |
| Median note rate | 10.24% | 7.25% |
| 25th to 75th percentile | 9.5% to 10.99% | 6.875% to 7.75% |
| 10th to 90th percentile | 8.75% to 11.5% | 6.58% to 8.25% |
| Highest note rate | 15.125% | 11.99% |
| Median loan | $225,000 | $195,000 |
The loans are mostly purchases of single-family houses. The median loan-to-value on the 2,568 loans that report it was 69.945%. By purpose, 2,011 (73%) were purchases, 284 rate-and-term refinances, 234 “other,” 121 home improvement loans and 106 cash-out refinances; 2,627 (95.3%) were on one-unit properties. 2,387 were submitted directly to the lender and 369 through a broker or correspondent. Of the 2,806 loans before we set the 30-month entries aside, 2,012 had a 12-month term, 194 had 6 months, 126 had 24 months, 113 had 18 months and 108 had 19 months. 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 note rate is a floor: 1,420 loans (51.5%) were above 10%, 81 above 12%, 2 above 15% and none above 16%.
Who made the loans: Kiavi, then Anchor and a long tail
Largest lenders of North Carolina short-term investor loans, 2025 (HMDA, names from the FFIEC 2025 filer list)
| Lender | Short-term loans | Median note rate | Median loan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kiavi Funding, Inc. | 1,050 | 10.25% | $195,000 |
| Anchor Loans LP | 269 | 9.0% | $205,000 |
| Easy Street Capital LLC | 175 | 9.9% | $215,000 |
| Lima One Capital, LLC | 162 | 10.675% | $235,000 |
| Loan Funder LLC | 139 | 10.99% | $245,000 |
| RF Renovo Management Company, LLC | 111 | 9.75% | $205,000 |
| Temple View Capital Funding LP | 103 | 11.0% | $445,000 |
| RCN Capital, LLC (filer ID ending 1D02) | 81 | 10.49% | $185,000 |
| Dominion Financial Services, LLC | 62 | 11.0% | $255,000 |
| RPE Home, Inc | 60 | 11.225% | $195,000 |
| CV3 Financial Services, LLC | 59 | 10.99% | $305,000 |
| Rain City Capital, LLC | 47 | 10.5% | $195,000 |
| LendingOne LLC | 47 | 9.75% | $275,000 |
Sixty-one lenders reported at least one loan, and the ten largest filer IDs made 80.3% of them. Kiavi alone made 38.1%, a smaller share than in Ohio (47.7%); 947 of its 1,050 loans (90.2%) had a 12-month term. The 1,706 loans from all other lenders had a median rate of 10.0% and a median loan of $235,000, so outside Kiavi the rate is lower and the loans larger. RCN Capital also files under a second ID with 26 loans at a 10.74% median, so it made 107 in all. Banks are nearly absent: 137 of the 2,756 loans (5.0%) came from lenders whose name reads as a bank, savings association or credit union (our name rule, not an official classification). The table is the reported record, not a recommendation of any lender; each lender's own review is linked where we have one: Kiavi, Anchor Loans, Easy Street Capital, Lima One Capital, RCN Capital, LendingOne.
Anchor Loans is the notable second name. All 269 of its North Carolina loans went to entities, 260 had a 12-month term and 261 came directly to the lender. Its 9.0% median is about 1.2 points under the statewide median, and the same lender's national median in our rate page is 9.5%. Whether that reflects the borrower, the property or the points is not in HMDA. If you have received robocalls from a lender named Anchor, see Anchor Lending robocalls versus Anchor Loans for which company is which.
Kiavi pays us a referral fee when a loan closes through its button below. It belongs in a North Carolina box because the 2025 federal file shows it as the state's largest short-term investor lender. Lima One Capital (162 short-term North Carolina loans) and Visio Lending, a rental lender whose affiliate Investor Mortgage Finance LLC (our label from earlier pages) reports 168 North Carolina 30-year loans and no short-term ones, pay us nothing.
Where in North Carolina: Charlotte, the Triangle, the Triad and everywhere else
We combine the loan counts with the Office of Management and Budget metropolitan delineation of July 2023, published by the Census Bureau, which assigns each county to a metro area. HMDA reports the metro code for each loan.
Short-term investor loans by metro area, 2025 (HMDA, OMB delineation July 2023)
| Metro area | Short-term loans | Share | Median note rate | Median loan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia (North Carolina counties) | 735 | 26.7% | 10.0% | $255,000 |
| Outside any metropolitan statistical area | 728 | 26.4% | 9.99% | $195,000 |
| Fayetteville | 225 | 8.2% | 10.7% | $185,000 |
| Raleigh-Cary | 183 | 6.6% | 10.49% | $295,000 |
| Greensboro-High Point | 136 | 4.9% | 10.5% | $165,000 |
| Durham-Chapel Hill | 130 | 4.7% | 10.24% | $295,000 |
| Wilmington | 118 | 4.3% | 10.45% | $310,000 |
| Winston-Salem | 113 | 4.1% | 10.0% | $175,000 |
Read the table as three markets. Charlotte's 735 loans are a quarter of the state (299 of them Kiavi's). The Triangle, Raleigh-Cary plus Durham-Chapel Hill, had 313 loans (11.4%) at a $295,000 median loan, and the Triad, Greensboro-High Point plus Winston-Salem, had 249 (9.0%) at $165,000; both had a 10.45% median rate (our arithmetic). Third, and easy to miss, 728 loans (26.4%) were outside any metro area, as many as in Charlotte, in smaller cities and rural counties. The county view shows where.
Short-term investor loans by county, 2025 (HMDA; 90 of 100 counties had at least one)
| County | Short-term loans | Share | Median note rate | Median loan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mecklenburg (Charlotte) | 389 | 14.1% | 9.95% | $305,000 |
| Cumberland (Fayetteville) | 155 | 5.6% | 10.2% | $165,000 |
| Wake (Raleigh) | 129 | 4.7% | 10.35% | $325,000 |
| Gaston | 119 | 4.3% | 10.25% | $185,000 |
| Guilford (Greensboro) | 102 | 3.7% | 10.5% | $165,000 |
| Durham | 97 | 3.5% | 10.25% | $285,000 |
| Moore | 83 | 3.0% | 11.0% | $435,000 |
| Forsyth (Winston-Salem) | 70 | 2.5% | 10.0% | $165,000 |
| Hoke | 70 | 2.5% | 10.7% | $235,000 |
| Cabarrus | 60 | 2.2% | 10.35% | $205,000 |
| Brunswick | 56 | 2.0% | 10.495% | $325,000 |
| Catawba | 54 | 2.0% | 10.49% | $190,000 |
Mecklenburg County had the lowest median rate among the large counties (9.95%) and the Cumberland, Guilford and Forsyth loans were the smallest (a median of $165,000). Moore County, with 83 loans at a median of 11.0% and $435,000, is the most expensive of the twelve by both measures. The data cannot say why a county differs, and 90 counties is an upper bound on investor activity, not a map of where deals are good. For the rent side of the same markets see our DSCR loan North Carolina page.
North Carolina's interest law, read against the loan sizes
The chapter on interest is short, and its default is not what many guides say. G.S. 24-1 is titled “Legal rate is eight percent,” and the legal rate of interest is eight percent where no contract sets another. But for a written contract, G.S. 24-1.1(a) splits on size: where the principal is $25,000 or less, the rate may not exceed one set by the Commissioner of Banks each month (six-month Treasury bill plus six percent, or 16%, whichever is greater); where it is more than $25,000, the contract may carry “Any rate agreed upon by the parties.” On top of that, G.S. 24-9 defines an “exempt loan.”
North Carolina provisions that decide whether a hard money loan has a rate cap (statute text read October 23, 2026)
| Provision | What the text says | What it means for a short-term investor loan |
|---|---|---|
| G.S. 24-1.1(a)(2) | Where the principal amount is more than $25,000, “Any rate agreed upon by the parties” | 2,753 of the 2,756 loans were above $25,000; the cap for smaller loans is the Commissioner's monthly rate, 16% or more |
| G.S. 24-9(a)(3) | An exempt loan is one where the loan amount is $300,000 or more; or the borrower is a person other than a natural person; or a natural person obtains it primarily for a purpose other than a personal, family, or household purpose | 776 loans were $300,000 or more; 91.2% went to entities; a natural person flipping a house for profit fits the third limb, guided by the Truth In Lending Act standards |
| G.S. 24-9(b) | In an exempt loan the borrower may agree to “interest at any rate and fees and other charges in any amount,” and “A claim or defense of usury is prohibited” | No usury defense and no fee cap in an exempt loan; read the note |
| G.S. 24-8(a) | For a loan under $300,000, a lender may not require consideration beyond the interest and fees allowed by Chapter 24 or Chapter 53 | Reaches a non-exempt loan only; G.S. 24-9(b) overrides it for an exempt one |
| G.S. 24-10.1(b) | Late charge on a loan governed by 24-1.1 or 24-1.1A: 4% of the payment past due, and not before the payment is 15 days late (30 days if interest is paid in advance) | Applies to loans governed by those sections; 24-9(b) lets an exempt-loan borrower agree to other charges |
| G.S. 24-1.1A(b)(1) | No prepayment fee on a home loan of $150,000 or less to a natural person for household purposes, secured by the borrower's principal dwelling | A flip or rental is not the borrower's principal dwelling; the ban does not reach it |
Put the HMDA sizes against the text. Only 3 of 2,756 loans were $25,000 or less, and 65 were between $25,000 and $99,999. 776 (28.2%) were $300,000 or more, exempt by size alone. Of the 1,980 loans under $300,000, 1,814 went to entities, which are exempt as borrowers that are “a person other than a natural person.” The remaining 166 went to natural persons; HMDA marks them as business-purpose, and G.S. 24-9(a)(3)c. exempts a loan a natural person obtains primarily for a purpose other than a personal, family or household one. The data cannot say how a court would classify any single loan, and our reading is not legal advice. The practical point is the one our DSCR loan page makes for 30-year loans: for a business-purpose borrower the protection is the contract, not the statute. The highest note rate in the 2025 file was 15.125%, none exceeded 16%, and 81 loans were above 12%.
G.S. 24-2.1(a) says a loan is made in North Carolina if “the lender offers or agrees in this State to lend to a borrower who is a resident of this State.” For a borrower who is not a resident, subsection (d) lets the parties elect the law of the contract's situs or of the borrower's residence. An out-of-state investor buying a Charlotte flip with an out-of-state lender may therefore sign a note that elects another law.
Licensing: the mortgage act turns on a natural person and a household purpose
North Carolina's mortgage licensing statute is Article 19B of Chapter 53, “The Secure and Fair Enforcement Mortgage Licensing Act” (G.S. 53-244.010 and following; the older Article 19A was repealed in 2009). G.S. 53-244.040(a) says no person may engage in the mortgage business or act as a mortgage loan originator with respect to any dwelling located in the State without a licence, and a “dwelling” is a residential structure of one to four units. The scope turns on a definition: G.S. 53-244.030(30) says a residential mortgage loan is a loan made or represented to be made “to a natural person or persons primarily for personal, family, or household use” and secured by a dwelling or by land on which a dwelling is or will be built. “Engaging in the mortgage business” includes, under G.S. 53-244.030(11)b., making or funding residential mortgage loans for compensation or gain.
What follows from the text: a loan to an LLC to buy and renovate a house for sale or rent is not made to a natural person and is not for household use, so it is not a “residential mortgage loan,” and a lender that makes only such loans would not be engaging in the mortgage business as the Article defines it. A loan to you personally for a house you will live in, or a mixed-purpose loan, is different. We did not read the Commissioner of Banks' rules or any advisory letter on investor loans, found none to save, and Article 19B has other provisions, such as the prohibited acts in G.S. 53-244.111, that we did not analyse. Check any lender's licences in the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System before you sign, and see our private money lender page on who funds the loan.
Foreclosure: power of sale before the clerk, then upset bids
North Carolina is a power-of-sale state: a deed of trust with a power of sale is foreclosed under Article 2A of Chapter 45 before the clerk of superior court, not by a lawsuit (G.S. 45-21.2 keeps court foreclosure available but says the Article does not apply to it). For an investor-borrower the steps that matter are the hearing, the notice and the upset bid.
North Carolina power-of-sale foreclosure (statute text read October 23, 2026)
| Step | What the text says | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Hearing notice | Notice of hearing before the clerk is served not less than 10 days before the hearing | 45-21.16(a) |
| Findings | To authorize foreclosure the clerk must find a valid debt of which the party foreclosing is the holder, default, right to foreclose under the instrument, and notice to those entitled to notice | 45-21.16(c)(7)d. and (d) |
| Notice of sale | Posted at least 20 days before the sale, and published once a week for at least two successive weeks in a newspaper qualified for legal advertising in the county | 45-21.17(1) |
| Deposit at sale | If the instrument is silent, the highest bidder may be required to deposit up to the greater of 5% of the bid or $750 | 45-21.10(b) |
| Upset bid | A raised bid at least 5% above the reported price, and not less than $750 more, with a deposit of 5% (minimum $750), by the close of business on the tenth day | 45-21.27(a) |
| Confirmation | No confirmation of the sale is required; if no upset bid is filed in time, the rights of the parties become fixed | 45-21.29A |
The consequence for a flipper on either side of the sale: there is no confirmation hearing, but every report of sale opens a 10-day window in which anyone may raise the bid, and each upset bid opens a new 10 days, so a foreclosure purchase is not final on the day of the auction. Owner-occupied homes get an additional clerk inquiry about efforts to resolve the default (G.S. 45-21.16C), which by its text is aimed at a principal residence, not an investment property. We did not save a statewide count of North Carolina foreclosure cases from the court system, so we give none.
What the state charges to sell: the deed excise tax
North Carolina has no county-by-county conveyance fee schedule like Ohio's. G.S. 105-228.30(a) levies an excise tax “on each instrument by which any interest in real property is conveyed to another person” at “one dollar ($1.00) on each five hundred dollars ($500.00) or fractional part thereof of the consideration or value,” and says the transferor pays it to the register of deeds before recording. That is 0.2% of price, rounded up to the next $500. The seller pays by statute; a contract can allocate it differently.
Example flip: resale price and the state excise tax (our arithmetic from G.S. 105-228.30(a))
| Resale price | Excise tax (transferor) | Share of price |
|---|---|---|
| $150,000 | $300 | 0.20% |
| $225,000 | $450 | 0.20% |
| $305,000 | $610 | 0.20% |
| $500,000 | $1,000 | 0.20% |
For scale, six months of interest on a $225,000 interest-only loan at the 10.24% median is $11,520 (our arithmetic), before points and fees. The $305,000 row uses the median property value of the 1,960 short-term purchase loans that report one, so the tax is about 5.3% of that interest. Next to the interest, the tax is a small line. Run the rest in our fix and flip calculator, and see the BRRRR method for the refinance exit; 4,791 North Carolina 30-year investor loans in 2025 had a 7.25% median.
What a North Carolina investor can do with this
- Place the quote on the distribution. A note rate at or below 9.5% was in the cheapest quarter of North Carolina short-term loans in 2025; at or above 10.99% in the costliest. Anchor Loans' median was 9.0% and Temple View's 11.0%.
- Do not count on a usury defense. On the text, a loan above $25,000 to an entity, or to a person for business, carries whatever rate and fees the note says. Ask for the points, the default rate, the late charge and any prepayment clause in writing.
- Check who you are borrowing from. The loan to your LLC is outside the mortgage licensing act on its text, so the licence check in the NMLS is a diligence step, not a guarantee. Ask who funds the loan.
- Price the exit. The state deed tax is $1 per $500, so a $305,000 resale costs $610; ask your closing attorney who pays and whether any local charge applies.
- Know the sale rules. A power-of-sale foreclosure has a clerk's hearing, 20 days of posting and a 10-day upset-bid period; a guaranty is a separate question.
- Compare lenders. Read our hard money lender comparison, best fix-and-flip lenders, the extension and default interest page and Georgia hard money loans for a neighbouring state.
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FAQ
Loan data: FFIEC/CFPB HMDA Data Browser, North Carolina originated conventional loans for 2025, downloaded October 23, 2026 (script hmda_nc.py in the data folder), and the FFIEC 2025 filer list. Metro areas: OMB delineation of July 2023 (List 1) published by the Census Bureau. Statutes: North Carolina General Statutes 24-1, 24-1.1, 24-1.1A, 24-2.1, 24-8, 24-9, 24-10.1, Chapter 53 Article 19B, Chapter 45 Article 2A and 105-228.30, from ncleg.gov through the Internet Archive (the legislature's site blocked our automated reader), read October 23, 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.
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