Hard Money Lenders Utah: 171 Loans, Salt Lake County, Law (2025)

What the 2025 federal record shows for Utah investors

Utah 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 data for 2025 and took the Utah rows: 78,209 conventional originations, 5,739 of them on investment property and 3,925 of those marked as made for a business or commercial purpose.

HMDA has no “hard money” field. We use the proxy of our other state pages (Illinois, Virginia and Ohio use it too): first lien, 1-4 units, closed-end, investment property, business purpose, no debt-to-income ratio, which leaves 3,273 loans in the base group. Of those, 774 had a term of 360 months or more (rental and DSCR loans) and 183 a term of 36 months or less. We set aside 12 short-term entries with a 30-month term, all 12 from one lender (Emporium TPO LLC) with a median rate of 7.25%, which looks like a 30-year loan keyed in the wrong unit; the other state pages do the same. That leaves 171. We counted from the raw API file, and the investment-property count (5,739) matches our copy of the national file.

Utah is a small hard money market in this record: 171 loans, against 2,322 in Illinois, so a median here rests on a few lenders and moves if one of them is missing. Percentiles below are exact for the file, but read them as a description of 2025, not as a stable price list.

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

Most are one-house purchases. The median loan-to-value on the 161 loans that report it was 70.0%. By purpose, 117 were purchases (68.4%), 34 rate-and-term refinances, 14 cash-out refinances, 4 “other” and 2 home improvement loans; 156 were on one-unit properties and 15 on two to four units. Of the 183 short-term loans before the set-aside, 111 had a 12-month term, 22 a 19-month term, 9 a 13-month term, 9 a 24-month term, 7 an 18-month term and 3 a 36-month term. Loan size sets the price a little: 7 loans under $250,000 had a median note rate of 8.5%, 64 loans of $250,000 to $499,999 9.25%, 47 loans of $500,000 to $999,999 9.5% and 53 loans of $1,000,000 or more 9.7%. Entities paid a median 10.25% and natural persons 9.25%, a gap that follows the lender mix: the largest lender coded all 90 of its borrowers as natural persons. 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 $595,000 is a loan between $590,000 and $599,999.

The top of the range is thin: 147 of the 171 loans (86.0%) are above 8%, 57 above 10%, 18 above 11% and 1 above 12%. Of the 18 above 11%, 7 came from Lima One Capital, 4 from CV3 Financial Services and 3 from Dominion Financial Services. The single loan above 12% was a Lima One loan at 12.55%. A quote above 11% was in roughly the top tenth of Utah note rates in 2025, though HMDA does not show points.

Salt Lake County, the Wasatch Front and the resort counties

HMDA reports a county, not a city, so we cannot isolate Salt Lake City. Salt Lake County is the closest public unit. We grouped the rest in four blocks: the three Wasatch Front counties with the next most loans (Utah, Davis and Weber), the resort counties of Summit and Wasatch, Washington County in the south of the state, and everything else. One loan carries no county.

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

The split is a story about who lends. Salt Lake County is concentrated: seven lenders reported a loan there, Conventus Lending made 47 of the 64 (73.4%) and the top three 90.6%. Of the 64, 55 were on one-unit properties, 9 on two to four units and 50 were purchases; three came from banks. Utah County and Wasatch County each had 22 loans, Washington County 16, Davis County 11, Weber County 10 and Summit County 6. The resort counties are a different product: 28 loans at a $2,430,000 median, 89.3% to entities, with Lima One Capital making 16 of Wasatch County’s 22 loans. A $2.4 million median is not a flip-loan price; it is a reminder that the 12-month to 24-month loans in this file include larger projects, and that a county median can describe one lender’s book. Our DSCR lender ranking uses the same filter for the 30-year side.

Who made the loans

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

Nineteen lenders reported at least one loan. The single largest, Conventus Lending, made 52.6%, the top three 77.2% and the top ten 93.6%. Conventus made 89 of its 90 loans with a 12-month term at note rates between 7.99% and 11.99% (middle half 8.75% to 9.5%), 78 of them purchases and 80 on one-unit properties, and reported every borrower as a natural person. Lima One Capital reported all 35 to entities, 22 with a 19-month term, 9 with 13 months and 4 with 24 months, and 16 of them in Wasatch County. The banks lend less often and cheaper: State Bank of Southern Utah’s 5 loans had a 7.9% median, Glacier Bank’s 4 a 7.125% median and Cache Valley Bank’s 4 an 8.0% median. The bank-like group made 19 loans (11.1%) at a 7.9% median, against 9.5% for the other 152 (our arithmetic). The table is the reported record, not a recommendation; our reviews cover Conventus Lending, Lima One Capital, Dominion Financial Services, CV3 Financial Services, Easy Street Capital and Temple View 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.

Several names that dominate other states are missing here. No loan from Kiavi, Visio or Loan Funder appears in Utah in the 2025 file under our filter (Kiavi and Visio’s reporting entity have no conventional Utah originations of any kind in it), and RCN Capital has one. That does not prove they do not lend in Utah, only that they reported no Utah loan; ask each lender whether it lends in your county before you apply.

Kiavi pays us a referral fee when a loan closes through its button below. We show it because it is the lender we have a contract with, not because the Utah record favours it: the 2025 federal file shows no Kiavi loan in Utah, and the state’s second-largest short-term lender is Lima One Capital, with 35. Visio Lending and Lima One Capital pay us nothing.

DSCR-type loans in Utah: the exit

Searches for Utah hard money and Utah 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 774 loans, 23.6% of the 3,273 base loans, against 5.2% for short-term loans. The market is far wider: 69 lenders, the top five 33.5% and the top ten 52.2%.

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

Unlike Illinois, the lenders that make the 30-year loan are not the ones that make the short-term loan: none of these eight appears among the 19 short-term lenders, so a Utah investor refinancing out of a flip loan will usually change lenders. Banks and credit unions made 37 of the 774 loans (4.8%), against 11.1% of the short-term loans. By purpose, 386 were purchases, 261 cash-out refinances, 120 rate-and-term refinances and 7 home improvement loans. Only 53 of the 774 went to entities (6.8%), against 39.2% of the short-term loans, so the 30-year market is mostly individuals. The spread between the two products is large: a 9.5% short-term median against 7.25% is 2.25 points, or $13,387.50 a year of interest on $595,000, the short-term median loan (our arithmetic). Read the requirements in our DSCR requirements guide.

Utah interest law, read against the product

Utah has no usury ceiling in the text we read. Section 15-1-1 says the parties to a lawful written, verbal or implied contract “may agree upon any rate of interest for the contract, including a contract for services, a loan or forbearance of any money, goods, or services”. It sets a legal rate of 10% a year only when the parties “expressly specify” no different rate. The text names no borrower type, no loan size and no collateral, so on its face it covers a hard money loan whoever the borrower is. We read the current version (effective May 14, 2019).

Utah provisions that bear on the price of a hard money loan (statute text saved October 26, 2026)

Of the 171 short-term loans, 147 carry a note rate above 8%, 57 above 10%, 18 above 11% and 1 above 12%, and 39.2% went to entities. We do not claim any loan is lawful or unlawful. HMDA shows neither the borrower’s legal form for the purpose of the statute nor the points, and we read only the sections in the table: not the rest of the Utah Code, federal law on high-cost mortgages or the rules on disclosure. What the text shows is that these sections do not cap the price of a loan to a business or a first-lien loan on a dwelling, and that the live questions for a borrower are the fees and the prepayment clause in the note, not the rate. A flip loan to your own name on a house you will not live in is a question for a Utah attorney before you sign.

Licensing: a different test than Illinois

In Illinois the licensing act defines a mortgage loan as one “primarily for personal, family, or household use”, which puts a business-purpose flip loan outside it on the text. Utah does not use that test. The Utah Residential Mortgage Practices and Licensing Act defines a “residential mortgage loan” as an extension of credit secured by a mortgage, deed of trust or consensual security interest that “is on a dwelling located in the state”, and a “dwelling” as “a residential structure attached to real property that contains one to four family units”, a condominium, cooperative unit, manufactured home or house “if used as a residence” (61-2c-102). The chapter “applies to a closed-end residential mortgage loan secured by a first lien or equivalent security interest on a dwelling”, and “does not apply to a transaction covered by Title 70C” (61-2c-105(1)). A person “may not transact the business of residential mortgage loans without first obtaining a license under this chapter”, in the version effective October 1, 2026 (61-2c-201(1)(a)).

Utah licensing provisions read for a hard money loan (statute text saved October 26, 2026)

We do not reach a conclusion on how the Division applies these provisions to a business-purpose loan: the definition has no purpose test, but the “dwelling” definition says “if used as a residence”, and the chapter carves out transactions covered by the consumer code, which itself lists first-lien dwelling loans as outside it (70C-1-202(2)(b)). The text is not settled on its face, and we found no ruling or guidance to cite. The practical point for a borrower is to ask the lender for its Utah license number or the exemption it relies on, and check it with the state regulator before you sign. We did not read the conduct rules in 61-2c-301 for this page.

Foreclosure: the trust deed, the three months and the court route

Utah loans on real property are usually secured by a trust deed, not a mortgage. A trust deed lets the lender use a power of sale outside court: “at the option of the beneficiary, a trust deed may be foreclosed in the manner provided by law for the foreclosure of mortgages on real property”, and “the power of sale may be exercised by the trustee without express provision for it in the trust deed” (57-1-23). The trustee must be a Utah State Bar member, a depository institution, an insurer, a trust corporation, a title insurer with a Utah office or one of a few federal entities (57-1-21(1)(a)).

The non-judicial steps are timed by statute. The trustee first records a notice of default; the sale cannot be held until “not less than three months has elapsed” from that recording, and only after those three months does the trustee give notice of sale (57-1-24). The trustor, or a subordinate lienholder, can reinstate by paying the amount then due “at any time within three months of the filing for record of notice of default” (57-1-31(1)(a)). The notice of sale is published “at least once a week for three consecutive weeks”, the last at least 10 days and not more than 30 days before the sale, run on the public notice website “for 30 days before the date the sale is scheduled” (57-1-25(1)(a)), and posted “at least 20 days before” the sale on the property and at the county recorder (57-1-25(1)(b)). When the loan’s stated purpose is to finance residential rental property, notice to the tenants is also required (57-1-25(1)(c)). We did not read Section 45-1-101, which the text cites for the website notice. A sale postponed longer than 45 days must be re-noticed (57-1-27(2)).

After the sale, the trustee’s deed conveys the property “without right of redemption” (57-1-28(3)), so a borrower’s last chance to keep the property is the three-month reinstatement window or a payoff before the sale. The lender bids with a credit for the unpaid principal, accrued interest, advances and costs of sale (57-1-28(1)(b)). If the sale does not cover the debt, an action for the balance must start “within three months after any sale”, and the court “may not render judgment for more than the amount by which the amount of the indebtedness with interest, costs, and expenses of sale, including trustee’s and attorney’s fees, exceeds the fair market value of the property as of the date of the sale” (57-1-32).

Example earliest trustee’s sale on a $595,000 loan at the 9.5% median (our arithmetic, hypothetical dates)

For scale, three months of interest on $595,000 at the 9.5% median is $14,131.25 and four months $18,841.67, before points, fees and default interest (our arithmetic). The point for a borrower is not to plan for a default: the three-month floor is why a lender can move to a sale in about four months, and why the reinstatement window is short. The judicial route is the lender’s option. There is only one action to recover a debt “secured solely by mortgage upon real estate” (78B-6-901(1)), a deficiency is docketed after the sale (78B-6-902), and a sale under a judgment of foreclosure is “subject to redemption as in case of sales under executions generally” (78B-6-906(1)). Rule 69C of the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure sets that period at 180 days and the redemption price at the sale price plus six percent, but we could read only a secondary copy of the rule, so the 180 days and 6% are not verified against the court’s own text. We did not read the rules on possession or the sections after 57-1-32, and have no source for how many Utah foreclosures involved investor loans in 2025, so we give none.

What a Utah investor can do with this

1. Place the quote on the distribution. A note rate at or below 8.75% was in the cheapest quarter of Utah short-term loans in 2025; at or above 10.47% in the costliest. In Salt Lake County the middle half was 8.5% to 10.5%. The sample is 171 loans, so treat the edges as soft.
2. Price a bank, if you can. Banks and credit unions made 11.1% of the short-term loans at a 7.9% median, with lender median loans from $285,000 to $1,645,000. Points and draw rules are not in HMDA, so ask.
3. Ask the lender for its license or exemption. Utah defines a residential mortgage loan without a personal-use test and exempts only a lender that is not in the business; ask which one applies.
4. Read the fees, not the rate. The Utah text leaves the rate to the contract, so the points, the prepayment clause and the default rate are what the note decides.
5. Know the clock. The sale cannot be held until three months after the notice of default, the reinstatement window is those three months, and there is no redemption after a trustee’s sale. Lenders price that, and so should your reserve.
6. Plan the refinance. If a DSCR loan replaces the flip loan, the market median was 7.25%, from lenders that mostly differ from the short-term ones. 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 data, Utah rows from the Data Browser API (script hmda_ut.py and the raw file in the sources folder), conventional originations only, and the FFIEC 2025 filer list; county names from the Census Bureau county FIPS codes. Statutes: Utah Code 15-1-1, 70C-1-201 and 70C-1-202, 61-2c-102, 61-2c-105 and 61-2c-201, 57-1-21, 57-1-23 to 57-1-32 and 78B-6-901, 78B-6-902 and 78B-6-906, from the Utah State Legislature (le.utah.gov), read October 26, 2026. Utah Rule of Civil Procedure 69C is quoted from a secondary copy and is not verified against the court’s own site. 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.