Hard Money Lenders Virginia: 1,721 Loans, Law and Fees (2025)

What the 2025 federal record shows for Virginia investors

Virginia 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 Data Browser file of Virginia originations for 2025 and kept the conventional ones: 144,486 loans. Of those, 14,159 were on investment property, and 9,598 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 8,619 loans in the base group. Of those, 3,054 had a term of 360 months or more (rental and DSCR loans) and 1,750 had a term of 36 months or less. We set aside 29 short-term entries with a 30-month term, all from one lender whose median rate (7.25%) looks like a 30-year loan keyed in the wrong unit, which leaves 1,721. Our national rate page counts all 1,750 for Virginia; the median is 9.95% either way.

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

Most are one-house purchases. The median loan-to-value on the 1,651 loans that report it was 70%. By purpose, 1,291 were purchases (75.0%), 182 rate-and-term refinances, 155 home improvement loans, 68 “other” and 25 cash-out refinances; 1,662 were on one-unit properties and 59 on two to four units. Of the 1,750 short-term loans, 1,192 had a 12-month term, 200 a 6-month term, 101 a 9-month term and 47 a 24-month term. The loan size sets the price little: loans of $100,000 to $199,999 had a median note rate of 10.25% (604 loans), loans of $200,000 to $399,999 10.0% (786) and loans of $400,000 or more 9.5% (280); only the 39 loans of $50,000 to $99,999 stand out, at 11.5%. 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 $235,000 is a loan between $230,000 and $239,999.

Who made the loans, and one Virginia cluster

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

Fifty-five lenders reported at least one loan, and the ten largest made 81.4% of them. Kiavi alone made 43.2%, and 714 of its 743 loans have a 12-month term. By our name rule, 278 of the 1,721 loans (16.2%) came from lenders whose name reads as a bank, savings association or credit union (not an official classification); their median note rate was 7.5%, against 10.45% for all other lenders (our arithmetic). The bank-like group is led by TowneBank, which made 134 loans, 133 of them to entities; in Ohio the same group was 3.4% of loans, so a Virginia borrower who can use a local bank has a much cheaper option than in most states we measure. The table is the reported record, not a recommendation; our reviews cover Kiavi, Lima One Capital and Anchor Loans.

Kiavi pays us a referral fee when a loan closes through its button below. It belongs in a Virginia box because the 2025 federal file shows it as the state's largest short-term investor lender. Lima One Capital (98 short-term Virginia loans) and Visio Lending, a rental lender whose affiliate Investor Mortgage Finance LLC (our label from earlier pages) reports 112 Virginia 30-year loans and no short-term ones, pay us nothing.

The 6-month, 13.5% cluster

Strategic Funding, LP made 114 short-term loans in Virginia, 6.6% of the 1,721. Every one has a 6-month term, a reported purpose of home improvement, a note rate of exactly 13.5%, an entity borrower and no sale to another institution in 2025. The median loan was $155,000. The loans sit in smaller cities: 24 in Danville (72.7% of the 33 short-term loans there), 16 in Lynchburg (44.4% of 36), 9 in Pittsylvania County (90.0% of 10), 8 in Petersburg (21.1% of 38) and 10 in Richmond (7.1% of 140).

Strategic Funding, LP against the rest of the Virginia short-term record, 2025 (HMDA, our arithmetic)

All 155 home improvement loans in the short-term group include these 114, so this one lender is 73.5% of that purpose. HMDA does not say what the product is, and we draw no conclusion about the lender. What the data does show is that the top of Virginia's range, 13.5%, is a specific product in specific places, not the price of a typical flip loan: for a $155,000 six-month loan the difference between 13.5% and the 9.95% median is about $2,750 of interest (our arithmetic). The other 62 loans above 12% came from other lenders, up to 13.99%.

Where in Virginia

Virginia's independent cities sit outside any county, and HMDA reports them as localities of their own. In the short-term group, 1,029 loans (59.8%) were in places whose Census name ends in “city”, so a county-only view misses most of the activity.

Short-term investor loans by locality, 2025 (HMDA)

One hundred localities had at least one loan; the five largest had 596 of the 1,721 (34.6%). Norfolk, Richmond and Virginia Beach lead, and Fairfax County is the only large locality where the median loan ($735,000) is far above the state's $235,000.

DSCR-type loans in Virginia: the other half of the cluster

Searches for Virginia hard money and Virginia DSCR loans are two steps of the same 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 3,054 loans, which is 35.4% of the 8,619 base loans, against 20.3% for short-term loans.

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

The market is spread out: 124 lenders reported at least one such loan, the top five made 26.4% and the top ten 44.0%. Banks and credit unions (by our name rule) made 60 loans, 2.0%. Only 964 (31.6%) went to entities, so most Virginia 30-year investor loans in this group were made to people, unlike the short-term group. The purpose split shows the refinance role: 1,297 purchases, 1,176 cash-out refinances, 493 rate-and-term refinances, 38 home improvement and 50 other. The median note rate was 7.25% for entities and for natural persons alike. Four localities have a 7.125% median: Richmond city (228 loans, median $225,000), Henrico County (187, $235,000), Fairfax County (185, $365,000) and Virginia Beach city (172, $225,000); Roanoke city had 167 at 7.18% and a median loan of $145,000. The sibling lists are in our DSCR lender ranking, DSCR rates and DSCR requirements; our North Carolina DSCR page covers the neighboring state. Lender names here follow the federal filer list.

Virginia's interest law, read against the product

Chapter 3 of Title 6.2 sets the ceiling and then lists who can exceed it. Section 6.2-303(A) says that, except as otherwise permitted by law, “no contract shall be made for the payment of interest on a loan at a rate that exceeds 12 percent per year.” A contract made in violation is void, and no one may collect “any principal, interest, fees, or other charges” on it (6.2-303(F)). If a court finds a contract usurious, “judgment shall be rendered only for the principal sum” (6.2-304), and a borrower who paid excess interest may sue within two years of the last scheduled payment or the payoff for the excess, twice the interest paid in the previous two years, costs and attorney fees (6.2-305(A)).

Virginia provisions that bear on a hard money loan (statute text saved October 23, 2026)

Of the 1,721 short-term loans, 176 (10.2%) carry a note rate above 12%, 165 of them to entities and 11 to people; 1,479 are above 8% and 815 above 10%. We do not claim any loan is unlawful, and HMDA shows neither the lien position nor the borrower's legal form for the purpose of the statute. What the sections show is that the headline 12% is a consumer ceiling in practice for this product, and that the exemptions turn on purpose and size. Because 6.2-317(A) defines investment as non-personal, an individual who signs for a flip loan in their own name is inside it as well.

Licensing: Virginia's mortgage law turns on the consumer

The Mortgage Lender and Broker Act (chapter 16 of Title 6.2) says that “no person shall engage in business as a mortgage lender or a mortgage broker, or hold himself out to the general public to be a mortgage lender or a mortgage broker, unless such person has first obtained a license” (6.2-1601(A)). The definitions decide who is covered. A “mortgage loan” is “a loan made to an individual, the proceeds of which are to be used primarily for personal, family or household purposes,” secured by a mortgage or deed of trust on one- to four-family residential property in Virginia (6.2-1600); the same definition excludes loans secured by property used for a commercial purpose. A “mortgage lender” is a person who originates or makes mortgage loans.

What follows from the text: a loan to an LLC to buy and renovate a house for sale or rent is not made “to an individual” for a personal purpose, so a lender that makes only such loans is not a “mortgage lender” as defined. Exemptions in 6.2-1602 also cover lenders that make three or fewer mortgage loans in 12 consecutive months, banks, savings institutions and credit unions, and sellers who finance part of the price of their own property. The history line of 6.2-1600 lists a 2026 amendment (chapter 773 of the 2026 acts) that we did not read, so confirm the current text. We found no guidance from the State Corporation Commission 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 recordation tax on a flip, and the 3-year rule

Virginia taxes the paper in three places, and a flip touches all three. The state recordation tax on a deed is “25 cents on every $100 or fraction thereof” of the consideration or the value of the property, whichever is greater, where value means the most recent property tax assessment (58.1-801(A)). The tax on a deed of trust is 25 cents on every $100 of the amount secured (58.1-803(A)(1)). A deed of trust “the purpose of which is to secure the refinancing of an existing debt” that already paid the tax is taxed at 18 cents per $100 on the first $10 million (58.1-803(E)(1)). On a sale, the grantor pays an additional 50 cents for each $500 of consideration or value, exclusive of liens, unless the parties agree that the grantee pays (58.1-802(A)). A city or county may add a recordation tax equal to one-third of the state tax (58.1-814); we did not compile which localities do. In localities that belong to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, a regional WMATA capital fee of $0.10 per $100 applies to a sale (58.1-802.3), and 58.1-802.4 describes a regional congestion relief fee of $0.10 per $100 in a qualifying planning district; its text on the state website carries a contingent-expiration note, so ask your closing attorney which fees apply to your parcel.

Example flip: buy at $300,000 with a $235,000 loan, sell at $420,000, then compare a refinance exit (our arithmetic from the Code of Virginia, state taxes only)

For scale, six months of interest on $235,000 at the 9.95% median is $11,691.25 (our arithmetic), before points and fees. The state tax on the purchase deed and the deed of trust together is $1,337.50, or 11.4% of that interest; the seller's grantor tax is 3.6%. The statute does not name who pays the recordation tax on a deed, so the contract allocates it. The refinance saving is the Virginia-specific point for the BRRRR exit: on $300,000 the lower rate saves $210, provided the new deed of trust is a refinancing under 58.1-803(E) and the earlier tax was paid.

Section 58.1-804 adds a rule for construction loans. A “construction loan deed of trust” is one that states it secures a loan for real estate construction and falls due on demand or within three years; a permanent-loan deed of trust recorded within three years of it, by the same borrowers on substantially the same real estate, pays no new tax unless it secures more than the construction loan, in which case the extra is taxed (58.1-804(C)). A rehab loan that does not say it is for construction does not fit the definition on its face, so the wording of the deed of trust matters.

Foreclosure: a trustee sale with a short clock

Virginia deeds of trust are enforced by a trustee's sale, not by a court sale. For a deed of trust that does not set the advertising, the trustee advertises once a week for four successive weeks (five different days if the property is in a city or a county next to one), and the sale takes place no earlier than eight days after the first advertisement and no more than 30 days after the last (55.1-322(A)). The trustee or the secured party must also give written notice of the time, date and place to the owner and to subordinate lienholders; a lienholder is covered only if its deed of trust was recorded at least 30 days before the sale, or 75 days for owner-occupied residential real estate (55.1-321(A)). A failure of the advertisement makes the sale voidable on petition (55.1-322(E)), while a failure of the notice “shall not affect the validity of the sale” (55.1-321(C)). We did not read the sections on the trustee's deed, post-sale rights or deficiency, and we have no source for how many sales Virginia had in 2025, so we give none.

What a Virginia investor can do with this

1. Place the quote on the distribution. A note rate at or below 9.05% was in the cheapest quarter of Virginia short-term loans in 2025; at or above 10.99% in the costliest. A quote of 13.5% is the Strategic Funding level, not the typical one.
2. Price a local bank first. Banks and credit unions made 16.2% of the short-term loans at a 7.5% median; points and draw rules are not in HMDA, so ask.
3. Read the loan's purpose language. On the text, the licence law is a consumer law and the usury exemption is for business or investment loans of $5,000 or more; a loan to an LLC for a flip fits both.
4. Check the lien position. A first deed of trust is enforceable as agreed (6.2-325); a second on residential property has its own limits (6.2-327).
5. Price the paper. State taxes on a $300,000 purchase with a $235,000 loan are $1,337.50 before any local add-on; ask the closing attorney about the grantor tax and any regional fee on the exit.
6. Plan the refinance. If a DSCR loan replaces the flip loan, a deed of trust that refinances a taxed debt pays 18 cents per $100. Run the rest in our fix and flip calculator, and compare lenders on our hard money lender comparison and the extension and default interest page.

FAQ

Loan data: FFIEC/CFPB HMDA Data Browser, Virginia originated loans for 2025, downloaded October 23, 2026 (script hmda_va.py and the extracted loan rows in the data folder), conventional loans only, and the FFIEC 2025 filer list; locality names from the Census Bureau 2020 county list. Statutes: Code of Virginia 6.2-303, 6.2-304, 6.2-305, 6.2-316, 6.2-317, 6.2-325, 6.2-326, 6.2-327, 6.2-1600, 6.2-1601, 6.2-1602, 6.2-1603, 55.1-320, 55.1-321, 55.1-322, 58.1-801, 58.1-802, 58.1-802.3, 58.1-802.4, 58.1-803, 58.1-804 and 58.1-814, from the Virginia Legislative Information System (law.lis.virginia.gov), 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.