Hard Money Lenders Ohio: 2,701 Loans, Law and County Fees (2025)
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Quick Answer
As of October 22, 2026, the federal loan-level record for 2025 shows 2,701 short-term business-purpose investor loans in Ohio, with a median note rate of 10.49%, a middle half between 9.95% and 11.24%, and a median loan of $145,000 (our arithmetic from HMDA data). Kiavi made 1,289 of them (47.7%); 91.7% went to entities, not people; only 93 (3.4%) came from lenders with a bank or credit union name. Ohio's own rules shape the product. The default interest ceiling is 8% a year (R.C. 1343.01(A)), but a note above $100,000 is exempt, and 473 of the 2,701 loans (17.5%) were below that size, 449 of them with a note rate above 8%; a business-loan exemption in (B)(6) is the other route. Ohio's mortgage registration law covers only loans “primarily for personal, family, or household use.” Foreclosure is a court-ordered sale with three disinterested appraisers and a floor of two-thirds of the appraised value. The county, not the state, taxes the sale: 62 of 88 counties charge the $3.00 maximum permissive fee on top of a $1.00 mandatory one, so a $150,000 resale costs the seller $600 in Cuyahoga County and $450 in Franklin County. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal, tax or lending advice.
Key Takeaways
- Price (HMDA 2025, Ohio, conventional first-lien, 1-4 unit investment property, business purpose, no debt-to-income ratio, term 36 months or less, 35 entries with a 30-month term set aside): 2,701 loans, median note rate 10.49%, 25th to 75th percentile 9.95% to 11.24%, 10th to 90th 8.75% to 11.99%, highest 14.99%. Median loan $145,000; median loan-to-value 69.88%.
- Who: Kiavi Funding 1,289 loans (10.49% median), RF Renovo Management 309 (10.25%), Loan Funder 215 (10.75%), RCN Capital 244 under two filer IDs, Rain City Capital 109 (11.0%). 43 lenders reported at least one loan.
- An Ohio-only cluster: in Mahoning County, Kiavi made 140 of the county's 153 short-term loans, and 130 of those had a 24-month term with a median note rate of 8.75% and a median loan of $45,000. Kiavi's 58 other 24-month loans in the state had a median rate of 10.5% and a median loan of $185,000.
- Law: R.C. 1343.01(A) sets 8% a year; (B)(1) frees a note whose original principal “exceeds one hundred thousand dollars”; (B)(4) caps a mortgage-secured loan that fits no other exemption at 8 percentage points over a Federal Reserve district discount rate; (B)(6) frees a business loan to a business association or partnership. R.C. 1343.011 limits discount points to 2% and early-repayment penalties to 1% on a lien on property with two or fewer residential units.
- Licensing: a “residential mortgage loan” under R.C. 1322.01 is one made primarily for personal, family, or household use, and Ohio requires a certificate of registration to originate, broker or service five or more of them in 12 months (1322.01(LL), 1322.07(A)(1)).
- Foreclosure: Ohio courts order the sale (R.C. 2323.07); residential appraisers have 21 calendar days; no tract sells for less than two-thirds of the appraised value (2329.20); the debtor may redeem until the court confirms the sale (2329.33).
- Fees: the County Auditors Association's table for calendar year 2024 lists 235,726 conveyances and $224,078,024 of conveyance fees in 88 counties; 62 counties charge the $3.00 maximum permissive fee, 21 charge $2.00, 2 charge $2.50 and 3 charge $1.00 (our arithmetic from the table).
CSV · 341 rows
Ohio hard money and private lender loans: 2025 HMDA short-term investor loans, lenders and counties, Ohio Revised Code interest, licensing, foreclosure and valuation provisions, county conveyance fees for 88 counties, and our flip arithmetic
341 rows: Ohio 2025 HMDA business-purpose investor loans (short-term and 30-year, rates, terms, loan sizes, lenders, counties, Mahoning County), the Ohio Revised Code sections cited, the County Auditors Association conveyance fee table for 88 counties, and our flip arithmetic. One source per row.
What the 2025 federal record shows for Ohio investors
Ohio hard money pages usually 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 Data Browser file of Ohio conventional originations for 2025: 224,557 loans. Of those, 23,596 were on investment property, and 17,952 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 16,452 loans. Of those, 8,904 had a term of 360 months or more (rental and DSCR loans; see our DSCR loan Ohio page) and 2,736 had a term of 36 months or less. We set aside 35 short-term entries with a 30-month term, 31 of them from one lender whose median rate (7.375%) looks like a 30-year loan keyed in the wrong unit, which leaves 2,701. Our national rate page counts all 2,736, so its Ohio total is larger; the median is 10.49% either way.
Ohio short-term business-purpose investor loans, 2025 (HMDA, our filter)
| Measure | Short-term loans (36 months or less) | 30-year loans (for comparison) |
|---|---|---|
| Loans | 2,701 | 8,904 |
| Loans with a nonzero reported rate | 2,673 | 8,883 |
| Median note rate | 10.49% | 7.625% |
| 25th to 75th percentile | 9.95% to 11.24% | 7.25% to 8.125% |
| 10th to 90th percentile | 8.75% to 11.99% | 6.875% to 9.0% |
| Highest note rate | 14.99% | 15.0% |
| Median loan | $145,000 | $125,000 |
The loans are small and mostly purchases. The median loan-to-value on the 2,485 loans that report it was 69.88%. By purpose, 2,299 were purchases, 107 rate-and-term refinances, 86 home improvement loans, 33 cash-out refinances and 176 “other.” The term is 12 months on 2,224 of the 2,736 short-term loans, 24 months on 234 and 6 months on 101. 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 every loan amount to the midpoint of a $10,000 band (all 224,557 Ohio amounts end in $5,000), so a reported $95,000 is a loan between $90,000 and $99,999.
Who made the loans, and one Ohio cluster
Largest lenders of Ohio 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. | 1,289 | 10.49% | $155,000 |
| RF Renovo Management Company, LLC | 309 | 10.25% | $145,000 |
| Loan Funder LLC | 215 | 10.75% | $125,000 |
| RCN Capital, LLC (filer ID ending 1D02) | 186 | 10.67% | $125,000 |
| Rain City Capital, LLC | 109 | 11.0% | $115,000 |
| CV3 Financial Services, LLC | 60 | 10.99% | $195,000 |
| RPE Home, Inc | 60 | 11.15% | $155,000 |
| RCN Capital, LLC (filer ID ending 9W67) | 58 | 10.94% | $135,000 |
| Easy Street Capital LLC | 53 | 9.9% | $165,000 |
| LendingOne LLC | 50 | 9.99% | $95,000 |
| Genesis Capital, LLC | 36 | 8.25% | $170,000 |
| Lima One Capital, LLC | 27 | 10.6% | $135,000 |
Forty-three lenders reported at least one loan, and the ten largest filer IDs made 88.4% of them. Kiavi alone made 47.7%. Banks are nearly absent from this product: 93 of the 2,701 loans (3.4%) 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, RCN Capital, Easy Street Capital, LendingOne, Lima One Capital.
Kiavi pays us a referral fee when a loan closes through its button below. It belongs in an Ohio box because the 2025 federal file shows it as the state's largest short-term investor lender. Lima One Capital (27 short-term Ohio loans) and Visio Lending, a rental lender whose affiliate Investor Mortgage Finance LLC (our label from earlier pages) reports 43 Ohio 30-year loans and no short-term ones, pay us nothing.
The Mahoning County cluster
Ohio's lowest-priced short-term loans are concentrated in one county. Mahoning County (Youngstown) had 153 short-term loans in 2025, with a median note rate of 8.75% and a median loan of $45,000, against 10.49% and $145,000 statewide. Kiavi made 140 of the 153 (91.5%), and 130 of Kiavi's Mahoning loans had a 24-month term.
Kiavi 24-month short-term loans in Ohio, 2025 (HMDA, our arithmetic)
| Group | Loans | Median note rate | Median loan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kiavi 24-month loans in Mahoning County | 130 | 8.75% | $45,000 |
| Kiavi 24-month loans elsewhere in Ohio | 58 | 10.5% | $185,000 |
| All lenders except Kiavi, all terms, Ohio | 1,412 | 10.5% | not computed |
| Mahoning County, lenders other than Kiavi | 13 | not computed | not computed |
HMDA does not say why. We do not know whether this is a distinct product, a portfolio buyer or a program, and Kiavi's published terms do not describe one, so we draw no conclusion about the lender. What the data does show is that an Ohio median rate of 10.49% hides a cluster of small, cheaper loans in one county, and that a quote for a $45,000 Youngstown house should be compared with those loans, not with the statewide figure. Across the size bands the rate barely moves: loans of $50,000 to $99,999 had a median of 10.5% and loans of $300,000 or more 10.49%; only the 105 loans under $50,000 are cheaper, at 8.75%.
Where in Ohio, and what the county charges to sell
The sources we read show no Ohio state-level transfer tax; each county charges its own conveyance fee, shown county by county in the table below. We combine the loan counts with the County Auditors Association of Ohio's table (which reproduces the Ohio Department of Taxation's Table PC-1).
Short-term investor loans by county, 2025 (HMDA) and conveyance fee (CY 2024)
| County | Short-term loans | Median note rate | Median loan | Permissive fee per $1,000 | Total fee per $1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cuyahoga | 517 | 10.75% | $145,000 | $3.00 | $4.00 |
| Franklin | 402 | 10.49% | $185,000 | $2.00 | $3.00 |
| Hamilton | 197 | 10.49% | $175,000 | $2.00 | $3.00 |
| Summit | 158 | 10.49% | $115,000 | $3.00 | $4.00 |
| Mahoning | 153 | 8.75% | $45,000 | $3.00 | $4.00 |
| Lucas | 92 | 10.45% | $115,000 | $3.00 | $4.00 |
| Montgomery | 85 | 10.5% | $135,000 | $2.00 | $3.00 |
| Butler | 79 | 10.45% | $155,000 | $2.00 | $3.00 |
| Stark | 50 | 10.49% | $130,000 | $3.00 | $4.00 |
| Lake | 42 | 10.25% | $165,000 | $3.00 | $4.00 |
| Lorain | 39 | 10.5% | $145,000 | $3.00 | $4.00 |
The eight largest counties had 1,683 of the 2,701 loans (62.3%), and 71 counties had at least one. Cuyahoga (Cleveland) alone had 19.1%, with the highest median rate among the big counties, 10.75%; Franklin (Columbus) had 14.9% and the largest median loan, $185,000; Hamilton (Cincinnati) had 7.3%. The counties are not uniform on the fee: the Association's text says 62 of 88 are at the $3.00 maximum permissive fee, and our count of the 88 rows is 62 at $3.00, 21 at $2.00, 2 at $2.50 and 3 at $1.00. Greene County is one of the three at $1.00, so its total is $2.00 per $1,000.
Ohio's interest law, read against the loan sizes
Chapter 1343 is short. Division (A) lets the parties to a note agree on interest “at any rate not exceeding eight per cent per annum payable annually, except as authorized in division (B).” Division (B) then lists when a party “may agree to pay a rate of interest in excess” of that. Four of its cases bear on a hard money loan.
Ohio exemptions from the 8% ceiling that a hard money loan can meet (statute text saved October 22, 2026)
| Division | What the text says | What it means for a short-term investor loan |
|---|---|---|
| 1343.01(B)(1) | The original principal “exceeds one hundred thousand dollars” | Size alone frees a loan above $100,000; 2,228 of the 2,701 loans were above that size |
| 1343.01(B)(4) | A loan secured by a mortgage or land installment contract that fits no other exemption may not exceed 8 percentage points over the discount rate on ninety-day commercial paper at the Federal Reserve Bank in the fourth federal reserve district | A ceiling, not a free pass; we did not compute it because the series the text names is not one we could source |
| 1343.01(B)(5) | The instrument is “payable on demand or in one installment” and not secured by household goods | A balloon note could fit; whether a monthly interest-only note does is a question for an Ohio attorney |
| 1343.01(B)(6) | A business loan to a business association or partnership, a sole proprietor, joint venturers, tenants in common, a limited partnership or a trustee | “Business” means an enterprise “carried on for the purpose of investment or profit”; the section does not define “business association,” so whether it reaches your LLC is a legal question |
The size exemption leaves a gap that Ohio's cheap housing makes large. Of the 2,701 loans, 473 (17.5%) were below $100,000 as reported, and 449 of those had a note rate above 8%. Of the 449, 409 were made to entities and 40 to people. The entity loans may fit (B)(6) or (B)(5); a loan to a natural person fits (B)(6) only if the borrower is, for example, a sole proprietor running a business, and otherwise needs another division. The data cannot say which. We also do not claim any loan is unlawful: HMDA shows neither the borrower's legal form nor the note's structure, and our reading of the text is not legal advice.
The remaining statute rows are in our DSCR loan Ohio page, which reads the same chapter against 30-year loans. Here the new point is the second section.
Points and early repayment: 1343.011
Section 1343.011 defines a “residential mortgage” by size alone: a lien on Ohio real property “containing two or fewer residential units.” Division (B) says that, except for certain federally backed loans, a residential mortgage lender may not receive from a seller or buyer discount points “in excess of two per cent” of the original principal. Division (C)(1) allows a prepayment or refinancing penalty of no more than 1% of the original principal in the first five years, and none afterwards. Division (C)(2)(a) bars any penalty on a first-lien residential mortgage of less than $75,000 made or arranged by a mortgage broker, loan officer or nonbank mortgage lender as defined in section 1345.01; the amount is adjusted each January for inflation.
Of the 2,701 loans, 2,608 (96.6%) were on one- or two-unit properties, and 166 were below $75,000 as reported (165 of them on one- or two-unit properties). The text of the section does not mention occupancy or purpose, so it may reach a house you will flip. We did not find a court decision or regulator guidance applying it to a business-purpose loan, and the section borrows definitions we did not reproduce. Ask the lender in writing how the points and any prepayment charge square with 1343.011, and show the answer to an Ohio attorney if the loan is large.
Licensing: Ohio's mortgage law turns on purpose, not on who lives there
Ohio's Residential Mortgage Lending Act (chapter 1322) defines a residential mortgage loan as one that “is primarily for personal, family, or household use” and is secured by a mortgage on a dwelling or on residential real estate (1322.01(II)). “Residential real estate” is any real property with a dwelling on it or planned within two years (1322.01(JJ)), with no owner-occupancy requirement, so the test is the purpose of the loan. A person may not transact business as a mortgage lender, mortgage servicer or mortgage broker in Ohio without a certificate of registration from the superintendent of financial institutions (1322.07(A)(1)), and “transaction of business” means originating, brokering or servicing five or more residential mortgage loans in a 12-month period (1322.01(LL)). Banks, savings banks, trust companies, savings and loan associations and credit unions are outside the chapter (1322.04(A)). Individual loan originators need their own licence (1322.07(B)(1)).
The Mortgage Loan Act (sections 1321.51 to 1321.60) is the second statute. A registrant under it “may make loans, other than a residential mortgage loan as defined in section 1322.01” (1321.52(A)(1)), may charge up to 21% a year on the unpaid balance (1321.57(A)) and, with listed exceptions, may not charge broker or placement fees (1321.57(G)(1)).
What follows from the text: a loan to an LLC to buy and renovate a house for sale or rent is for a business purpose, so it is not a “residential mortgage loan,” and a lender that makes only such loans would not need the chapter 1322 registration for them. We did not find a requirement in chapters 1321 or 1322 for a lender that makes only business-purpose loans, but we did not read the whole Revised Code and found no guidance from the Division of Financial Institutions to save. A loan to you personally for a house you will live in, or a mixed-purpose loan, is different. 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: a court-ordered sale with a floor
Ohio forecloses by court action. When a mortgage is foreclosed, “a sale of the property” is ordered by the court (R.C. 2323.07), and the sale follows the execution sections in chapter 2329. For an investor the steps that matter are the appraisal, the floor and the redemption right.
Ohio sale after foreclosure judgment (statute text saved October 22, 2026)
| Step | What the text says | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Appraisal | The sheriff calls three disinterested freeholders; for residential property they return an estimate within 21 calendar days of the order of appraisal | 2329.17(A) and (B) |
| Late appraisal | If they miss the deadline, the appraised value is the county auditor's most recent appraised value, unless the court allows a separate appraisal for good cause | 2329.17(C)(2) |
| Floor on the price | No tract is sold for less than two-thirds of the appraised value | 2329.20 |
| Notice | Written notice to the debtor and parties; public notice once a week for at least three consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county | 2329.26(A) |
| Confirmation | The court confirms the sale within 30 days of the return of the writ, unless it stays confirmation; the buyer pays the balance within 30 days of confirmation | 2329.31(A) and (B) |
| Redemption | The debtor may redeem at any time before confirmation by depositing the judgment, costs and 8% interest on the purchase money | 2329.33 |
The county auditor enters twice: as the fallback appraisal in a sheriff's sale and as the officer who values the parcel for tax. Under R.C. 5713.03 the auditor determines “the true value” of each parcel and may consider the sale price of an arm's-length sale to be the true value; under 5715.01(B) the taxable value is a percent of true value “shall not exceed thirty-five per cent.” Counties go through a sexennial reappraisal, with a check by the tax commissioner in the third calendar year after it (5715.24). In practice, a flip bought at a distressed price can sit on an old auditor value, and our property tax appeal page explains how to contest one. We did not save a statewide count of Ohio foreclosure cases from the court system, and news reports of the 2025 total are not primary, so we give none.
What a county fee adds to a flip
The conveyance fee is a seller's cost. The mandatory fee is $1 per $1,000 of value, “one dollar, or ten cents for each one hundred dollars,” whichever is greater (R.C. 319.54(G)(3)); counties may add a real property transfer tax of up to 30 cents per $100, “levied upon the grantor” (322.02(A)); and “value” includes the amount of any liens (322.01(A)). By statute the seller pays, so a flipper bears it at the exit; the contract can allocate it differently.
Example flip: sell at $150,000; fee at the CY 2024 county rate (our arithmetic from R.C. 319.54 and 322.02 and the CCAO table)
| County | Total fee per $1,000 | Fee on $150,000 | Share of price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cuyahoga, Summit, Mahoning, Lucas, Stark, Lake, Lorain | $4.00 | $600 | 0.40% |
| Franklin, Hamilton, Montgomery, Butler | $3.00 | $450 | 0.30% |
| Greene | $2.00 | $300 | 0.20% |
For scale, six months of interest on a $120,000 interest-only loan at the 10.49% median is $6,294 (our arithmetic), before points and fees; the county fee is 4.8% to 9.5% of that. The table is for a typical Ohio resale, not a bid: the Association's table shows an average conveyed value of $278,705 across the state (our arithmetic: mandatory-fee revenue times 1,000, divided by conveyances), $242,628 in Cuyahoga, $422,882 in Franklin and $181,824 in Mahoning, for all property types. Next to the interest, the county fee is a small line. Run the rest in our fix and flip calculator, and see the BRRRR method for the refinance exit; 8,904 Ohio 30-year investor loans in 2025 had a 7.625% median.
What an Ohio investor can do with this
- Place the quote on the distribution. A note rate at or below 9.95% was in the cheapest quarter of Ohio short-term loans in 2025; at or above 11.24% in the costliest. In Mahoning County the median was 8.75%.
- Check the loan size against 1343.01. Below $100,000 the size exemption is not available. Ask which division the lender relies on and whether it is a business loan to your entity.
- Ask about points and prepayment in writing. On a one- or two-unit property, 1343.011 may limit points to 2% and a prepayment charge to 1% in the first five years.
- Price the exit in your county. The fee is $300 to $600 on a $150,000 sale in the counties above; check the fee in yours in the CCAO table, and ask your title company who pays.
- Know the sale rules. A court sells the property after judgment, at no less than two-thirds of the appraised value, and you can redeem until confirmation. A guaranty is a separate question.
- Know the lender. Ask who funds the loan, and read our hard money lender comparison and the extension and default interest page.
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FAQ
Loan data: FFIEC/CFPB HMDA Data Browser, Ohio originated conventional loans for 2025, downloaded October 6, 2026 (script hmda_oh.py in the data folder), and the FFIEC 2025 filer list. Statutes: Ohio Revised Code 319.54, 322.01, 322.02, 1321.51, 1321.52, 1321.57, 1322.01, 1322.04, 1322.07, 1343.01, 1343.011, 2323.07, 2329.17, 2329.20, 2329.26, 2329.31, 2329.33, 5713.03, 5715.01 and 5715.24, from codes.ohio.gov through the Internet Archive (the state site was unreachable from our network), read October 22, 2026. Conveyance fees: County Auditors Association of Ohio, County Real Property Conveyance Fee Data, CY 2024 (June 2026), from the Ohio Department of Taxation, Table PC-1. All counts, shares, medians and fee 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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