Hard Money Loans Georgia 2026: Rates, Law and Lenders (HMDA)
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Quick Answer
As of October 11, 2026, the federal loan-level record shows that Georgia investors who took a short-term hard-money-type loan in 2025 paid a median note rate of 10.25%, with the middle half between 9.5% and 11.24%. That is 2,844 loans totaling $848,730,000 in the federal HMDA data (our arithmetic): median loan $215,000, a 12-month term on 68.7%, interest-only payments on 87.9% and a balloon at maturity on 95.4%. Georgia law sets almost no price limit on these loans: above $3,000 the parties may set the rate by written contract, and at $250,000 or more in any form, so the 16% simple-interest ceiling applies only to loans of $3,000 or less, and the criminal line is a rate above 5% per month. Origination fees and discount points on a real-estate loan are not counted as interest at all. Three Georgia rules shape the product: a lender can foreclose without a court after written notice at least 30 days before the sale, at an auction held on the first Tuesday of a month; a deficiency claim then needs a court order confirming the sale within 30 days; and the Georgia intangible recording tax of $1.50 per $500 applies only to notes with principal due more than 62 months out, so a 6-month flip loan pays none of it while a 30-year rental refinance does.
Key Takeaways
- Georgia 2025: 2,844 short-term no-DTI investor loans for $848,730,000, 2.1% fewer loans and 1.9% more dollars than the 2,905 loans and $832,735,000 of 2024. The median note rate fell from 10.9% to 10.25%, 3.00 points above the 7.25% median of Georgia's 5,728 DSCR-type (30-year) loans (our arithmetic).
- O.C.G.A. 7-4-2: where the principal is more than $3,000 but less than $250,000 the parties may set any rate in a written contract, expressed as simple interest; at $250,000 or more, in any form; 16% simple interest applies only when the principal is $3,000 or less. Origination fees and discount points on a real-estate loan “shall not be considered interest,” and “Unless stipulated in the contract, there shall be no prepayment penalty.” The criminal line (7-4-18) is a rate above 5 percent per month.
- Licensing turns on who the borrower is, not on why: a Georgia “mortgage loan” is a loan “made to a natural person” secured by one-to-four family residential property, and the Georgia Residential Mortgage Act exempts a natural person lending their own funds, or five or fewer loans a year, but not a company making five or fewer. A lender that lends only to LLCs sits outside the definition; a lender that lends to individuals on houses has to be licensed or exempt (our reading of the text, not legal advice).
- Power of sale: written notice to the debtor no later than 30 days before the sale (44-14-162.2), a waiver of that notice signed with the security deed is not valid (44-14-162.3), the sale is advertised weekly for four weeks and held at the courthouse on the first Tuesday between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. (9-13-140, 9-13-161), and a deficiency needs a court confirmation reported within 30 days (44-14-161). A notice mailed December 11, 2026 reaches the February 2, 2027 sale, 53 days later (our arithmetic).
- The intangible recording tax is $1.50 per $500 or fraction of the face amount, capped at $25,000 a note, and since July 1, 2025 it applies only when any part of the principal falls due more than 62 months from the note date (it was three years before). A 6-month flip note pays $0; the same $215,000 as a 30-year note would pay $645, and the $205,000 median DSCR-type loan $615 (our arithmetic).
- Kiavi Funding made 1,010 of the 2,844 loans (35.5%) at a 10.95% median, above the state median; the top 3 lenders made 48.5% and the top 10 made 70.7%. Atlanta and Marietta metro divisions together made 1,664 loans (58.5%). Lenders with bank or credit-union words in their names made 12.9% of the loans at a 7.62% median against 10.5% for the others (name heuristic).
CSV · 282 rows
Georgia short-term (hard money, fix-and-flip, bridge) investor loans in federal HMDA data, 2024-2025, with the Georgia statutes cited
282 rows: Georgia short-term investor loan counts, dollars, note-rate percentiles, terms, loan size, lenders, metro areas, counties, bank lenders, the Georgia Code provisions cited, and our arithmetic for a 6-month flip. One source per row.
What Georgia investors paid in 2025: 10.25% on 2,844 loans
The federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) record shows what Georgia investors signed for short-term loans: each reporting lender lists every loan it originates with its note rate, amount, term, purpose, county and metro area, and the FFIEC publishes the loan-level file. We downloaded the Georgia originated conventional loans for 2024 and 2025 from the FFIEC Data Browser on October 11, 2026 and computed everything below from them (our arithmetic; the script hm_ga.py and its output are in the data folder). The national picture is on our hard money loan rates page and the lender ranking on hard money lenders; Texas is here and Florida here. This page is about what is different in Georgia, which is mostly the law.
How we found the loans, and one lender we left out
HMDA has no “hard money” field, so we built a proxy from fields that exist: originated, conventional, first lien, closed-end, not a reverse mortgage, investment property of 1 to 4 units, a business or commercial purpose, no debt-to-income ratio, and a loan term of 36 months or less. In 2025 Georgia had 167,566 conventional originations, 22,733 on investment property and 14,957 of those for a business purpose. The short-term group is 2,911 loans before any exclusion, which is the Georgia count on our national pages.
This page uses 2,844 of them. EMPORIUM TPO LLC reported 67 Georgia loans with a 30-month term, a median rate of 6.99% and no 12-month terms; the pattern looks like 30-year loans entered as 30, not hard money, so we leave them out, as our Texas page does. The effect is small: the Georgia median moves from 10.24% to 10.25%.
What HMDA does not cover
- Small lenders do not report. A closed-end loan is excluded “if the financial institution originated fewer than 25 closed-end mortgage loans in either of the two preceding calendar years” (12 CFR 1003.3(c)(11)). Of the 66 lenders in our Georgia group, 33 filed fewer than 10 short-term loans, and a local private fund making a couple of dozen loans a year is invisible.
- Some bridge loans are excluded. Regulation C lists “Temporary financing” among the transactions that are not reported (12 CFR 1003.3(c)(3)), so some bridge loans are missing; how a given lender treats a flip loan is its own call.
- No points, no fees, no prepayment terms. The origination-charge field is empty on all 2,844 loans and the prepayment-penalty term on all of them. A hard money quote is the note rate plus points, and HMDA shows only the first half.
- No borrower name. HMDA does not identify the borrower, and neither does this page. It does record that 87.4% of the 2025 borrowers were entities (LLCs, corporations, trusts), which matters for the license test below.
Georgia short-term investor loans, 2024 vs 2025
Georgia short-term (36 months or less) business-purpose investor loans in HMDA
| Measure | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Short-term loans | 2,905 | 2,844 |
| Dollars lent | $832,735,000 | $848,730,000 |
| Note rate, 10th percentile | 8.5% | 8% |
| Note rate, 25th percentile | 9.99% | 9.5% |
| Note rate, median | 10.9% | 10.25% |
| Note rate, 75th percentile | 11.5% | 11.24% |
| Note rate, 90th percentile | 11.999% | 11.99% |
| Note rate, highest reported | 15.625% | 15.375% |
| Georgia DSCR-type (30-year) median, for comparison | 7.625% | 7.25% |
| Median loan amount | $215,000 | $215,000 |
| Loan amount, 25th percentile | $155,000 | $165,000 |
| Loan amount, 75th percentile | $305,000 | $315,000 |
| Median property value | $315,000 | $315,000 |
| Loans over $500,000 | 9.1% | 10.1% |
| Term of exactly 12 months | 64.7% | 68.7% |
| Term under 12 months | 11.5% | 12.2% |
| Home purchase | 70.5% | 71.1% |
| Rate-and-term refinance | 12.3% | 12% |
| Cash-out refinance | 1.8% | 2% |
| Home improvement | 3.6% | 5.5% |
| Other purpose | 11.9% | 9.3% |
| Interest-only payments | 87.4% | 87.9% |
| Balloon payment | 98.9% | 95.4% |
| Borrower is an entity (LLC, corporation, trust) | 91.3% | 87.4% |
| Top 10 lenders' share of loans | 78.6% | 70.7% |
Georgia did not grow in 2025, it got cheaper: the count was 2.1% lower, the dollars 1.9% higher and the median rate 0.65 points lower (our arithmetic). The short-term premium over the 30-year DSCR-type median was 3.00 points, and the 10.25% median is a range, not a quote: on the $215,000 median loan, interest-only, 9.5% is $1,702.08 a month and 11.24% is $2,013.83 (our arithmetic). Concentration fell too, from 78.6% to 70.7% for the top 10, as Loan Funder went from 233 to 165 loans and Lima One Capital from 203 to 85. Our DSCR loan Georgia page covers the long-term exit.
Georgia interest law: no ceiling for most investor loans, and points are not interest
Georgia is the opposite of a state like Texas, where a weekly ceiling and the points test decide whether a short loan is legal. The Georgia rule sits in O.C.G.A. 7-4-2, and its structure is by loan size.
Georgia interest-rate rules that apply to a loan secured by real estate (statute text, 2025 Code of Georgia, saved October 11, 2026)
| Question | What the statute says | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Rate with no written contract | The legal rate of interest is 7 percent per annum simple interest where the rate is not established by written contract | 7-4-2(a)(1)(A) |
| Principal more than $3,000, less than $250,000 | The parties may establish by written contract any rate of interest, expressed in simple interest terms as of the date of the evidence of the indebtedness | 7-4-2(a)(1)(A) |
| Principal $250,000 or more | The parties may establish by written contract any rate of interest, expressed in simple interest terms or otherwise, and charges | 7-4-2(a)(1)(B) |
| Principal $3,000 or less | The rate shall not exceed 16 percent per annum simple interest, unless the loan is made pursuant to another law | 7-4-2(a)(2) |
| Origination fee and discount points | On a loan secured by an interest in real estate they shall not be considered interest, and are not taken into consideration in the calculation of interest | 7-4-2(a)(3) |
| Prepayment penalty | Unless stipulated in the contract, there shall be no prepayment penalty | 7-4-2(b)(2) |
| Variable or equity-participation rates | Not prohibited: interest may be computed at a variable rate, on a negative amortization basis, or on an equity participation or appreciation basis | 7-4-2(a)(1)(C) |
| Criminal usury | A rate of interest greater than 5 percent per month, charged directly or indirectly, is a misdemeanor; the section is cumulative of the usury laws | 7-4-18(a)-(b) |
| Which definition of interest applies to the criminal line | 7-4-18 has its own definition of interest that prevails over the one in 7-4-2(a)(3), according to an annotation citing the Eleventh Circuit | 7-4-18 annotations |
Two readings matter. First, the 16% is for small loans, not for hard money. A typical hard money loan is $165,000 to $315,000 (the middle half of 2025), so the contract rate is whatever the parties wrote, expressed as simple interest for loans under $250,000. The 10.25% median is a market result, not a legal limit: no 2025 loan in the file was above 15.375%. Second, the points test of other states does not exist here for real-estate loans. Because origination fees and discount points “shall not be considered interest,” a Georgia borrower cannot argue that four points on a six-month loan pushed the effective rate over a ceiling, as a Texas borrower can. The protection is the criminal line, 5 percent per month or 60 percent a year as simple interest (our arithmetic), whose own definition of interest, per the annotation, is not the 7-4-2 one. Whether a given fee counts under that definition is a question for a court, and this page does not decide it.
The prepayment sentence matters more than the rate to a flipper. The default is no penalty, but the statute lets the contract stipulate one, and HMDA shows the prepayment-penalty field empty on all 2,844 loans. Ask for the extension fee, the default rate and any minimum-interest clause in writing; Georgia will enforce what the contract says.
Does a Georgia hard money lender need a license? It depends on who borrows
Georgia licenses mortgage brokers, mortgage lenders and loan originators through the Department of Banking and Finance under the Georgia Residential Mortgage Act, using the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System. The text says it is “prohibited for any person to transact business in this state directly or indirectly as a mortgage broker, a mortgage lender, or a mortgage loan originator” unless licensed or exempt (7-1-1002(a)). What triggers it is the definition of a mortgage loan, and Georgia's differs from Texas's.
Georgia Residential Mortgage Act: the definitions and exemptions that decide who needs a license (statute text, 2025 Code of Georgia, saved October 11, 2026)
| Question | What the statute says | Section |
|---|---|---|
| What is a “mortgage lender” | Any person who directly or indirectly makes, originates, underwrites, holds, or purchases mortgage loans, or who services them | 7-1-1000(20) |
| What is a “mortgage loan” | A loan or agreement to extend credit made to a natural person, secured by a deed to secure debt or similar instrument on one-to-four family residential property located in Georgia | 7-1-1000(21) |
| What is a “residential mortgage loan” | A loan primarily for personal, family, or household use secured by a dwelling or residential real estate | 7-1-1000(30) |
| Banks and credit unions | Federally insured banks, savings institutions and credit unions, and their wholly owned subsidiaries, need no license | 7-1-1001(a)(1)-(2) |
| Natural person lending own money | A natural person, estate or trust making a mortgage loan with his or her own funds for his or her own investment is exempt | 7-1-1001(a)(8) |
| Five or fewer loans | A natural person who makes five or fewer mortgage loans in any one calendar year is exempt; a person other than a natural person making five or fewer is not exempt | 7-1-1001(a)(16) |
| Investor buying loans | A person who purchases mortgage loans solely as an investment and is not in the business of brokering, making, purchasing or servicing them is exempt | 7-1-1001(a)(15) |
| Buying from an unlicensed lender | It is prohibited to purchase, sell or transfer mortgage loans from or to a lender that is neither licensed nor exempt | 7-1-1002(b) |
Read together, the text gives a different answer from the “business purpose” shortcut. A lender whose borrowers are all LLCs and corporations makes no “mortgage loan” as defined, because the definition requires a natural person, and 87.4% of the 2025 Georgia short-term borrowers in HMDA were entities. But the definition has no personal-use test (that test is in the narrower “residential mortgage loan”), so a non-bank lending to an individual flipper on a one-to-four family house is, on the words, making a mortgage loan, and has to be licensed or fit an exemption. The exemption for small lenders is for natural persons only: a company that makes five or fewer loans a year is not exempt. This is our reading of the statute, not legal advice and not a finding about any lender. The practical check is free: search the lender's name and NMLS number at NMLS Consumer Access and ask which Georgia basis it relies on. We did not count Georgia licensees for this page.
Foreclosure in Georgia: 30 days' notice, the first Tuesday, and confirmation before a deficiency
Georgia foreclosure on a deed to secure debt is non-judicial: the lender sells under the power of sale in the instrument, without a judge, but the statute sets the notice, the advertisement and the day.
Georgia power-of-sale foreclosure: the steps in the statute (2025 Code of Georgia, saved October 11, 2026)
| Step | What the statute says | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Notice to the debtor | In writing, by registered or certified mail or statutory overnight delivery, no later than 30 days before the date of the proposed foreclosure; it must name who has full authority to negotiate, amend and modify all terms | 44-14-162.2(a) |
| When notice is “given” | On the official postmark day or the day it is received for delivery by a commercial delivery firm | 44-14-162.2(a) |
| Waiver of the notice | No waiver or release of the notice requirement is valid when made in or contemporaneously with the security instrument | 44-14-162.3 |
| Does the notice apply to investment property | The 2012 amendment deleted the former limit to property used as the debtor's dwelling, per the code annotation | 44-14-162.3 annotations |
| Advertisement | Weekly for four weeks in the legal organ of the county, one insertion in each of the four weeks immediately preceding the sale | 9-13-140(a), 9-13-141 |
| Day and place | At the courthouse of the county, at public outcry, on the first Tuesday of the month between 10:00 A. M. and 4:00 P. M.; the sale moves to the following Wednesday if the first Tuesday is New Year's Day or Independence Day | 9-13-161(a), 44-14-162(a) |
| Deed under power | Filed with the clerk of the superior court within 90 days of the sale; a $500 late penalty applies if it is 30 days late after that | 44-14-160(a)-(b) |
| Deficiency | No deficiency judgment unless the foreclosing party reports the sale to the superior court judge for confirmation within 30 days after the sale and obtains an order | 44-14-161(a) |
| Confirmation hearing | The court requires evidence of the true market value and does not confirm unless satisfied the property brought its true market value; the debtor gets notice at least five days before the hearing | 44-14-161(b)-(c) |
Two things set Georgia apart from the first-Tuesday states. The notice runs 30 days from mailing, not 21 days, and a borrower cannot sign it away in the loan documents. And the first Tuesday is a statute for sales “taken under execution,” which 44-14-162(a) applies to power-of-sale sales through the words “in the usual manner of the sheriff's sales”; the foreclosure notice requirement is the separate 30-day rule. For an investor who guarantees the note, the confirmation rule is the one to read: a lender that sells for less than the debt cannot sue for the shortfall unless the court finds the price was the property's true market value.
The first-Tuesday calendar and the last notice date for each sale (our arithmetic)
| Sale date (first Tuesday) | Latest date the 30-day notice can be given | Weekday of that date |
|---|---|---|
| November 3, 2026 | October 4, 2026 | Sunday |
| December 1, 2026 | November 1, 2026 | Sunday |
| January 5, 2027 | December 6, 2026 | Sunday |
| February 2, 2027 | January 3, 2027 | Sunday |
| March 2, 2027 | January 31, 2027 | Sunday |
Every first Tuesday is the same weekday, so the 30-day count always lands on a Sunday. The counting rule (the statute says “no later than 30 days before”) is our arithmetic; a lender's attorney will count conservatively.
The Georgia intangible tax: $0 on a 6-month flip, $615 on a median DSCR exit
The intangible recording tax is the Georgia cost most hard money pages get wrong, because the rule changed on July 1, 2025. The statute imposes “an intangible recording tax at the rate of $1.50 for each $500.00 or fraction thereof of the face amount of the note,” and the Department of Revenue states a maximum of $25,000 on any single note. It applies to a “long-term note secured by real estate,” and that term now means a note when “any part of the principal of the note falls due more than 62 months from the date of the note.” Before HB 586 (2025) the line was three years; the Department's Informational Bulletin 2025-02, issued June 27, 2025, says the new definition applies to every note and security instrument presented for recording on or after July 1, 2025, even if it is dated earlier. A note due within 62 months “will not be subject to the intangible recording tax.”
For a hard money borrower that means the tax does not apply to the loan this page is about. For the long-term loan that takes the flip out, it does. The holder may pass the tax to the borrower, and the statute says it is not treated as part of the finance charge.
Intangible recording tax on Georgia notes (our arithmetic from the statute rate: $1.50 per $500 or fraction)
| Note | Term | Tax |
|---|---|---|
| $215,000 hard money loan (2025 median), 6 or 12 months | Due within 62 months | $0 |
| $215,000 as a note with principal due after more than 62 months | Over 62 months | $645 |
| $205,000 DSCR-type loan (2025 median), 30 years | 360 months | $615 |
| $235,000 | Over 62 months | $705 |
| $500,000 | Over 62 months | $1,500 |
| Face amount at which the $25,000 cap is reached | Over 62 months | $8,333,333.33 |
The $645 and $615 figures round up each $500 or fraction: $215,000 is 430 units at $1.50, and $205,000 is 410 units (our arithmetic). The cap is irrelevant to a house flipper; it is reached only on a note of roughly $8.33 million.
What Georgia's tax and foreclosure timing add to a 6-month flip
We put the Georgia rules on the median loan: $215,000 at the 10.25% median rate, interest-only for 6 months. The points are our assumption (2 points), not a HMDA figure; HMDA does not report points on these loans.
A $215,000 Georgia flip loan for 6 months at 10.25%: what the Georgia rules add (our arithmetic)
| Item | Georgia rule | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Interest, 6 months, interest-only | Contract rate, no ceiling at this size (7-4-2) | $11,018.75 |
| Interest if the rate were 9.5% (25th percentile) | Same | $10,212.50 |
| Interest if the rate were 11.24% (75th percentile) | Same | $12,083.00 |
| Points, if 2 | Not interest, not tested against any rate limit (7-4-2(a)(3)) | $4,300 |
| Intangible recording tax on the flip note | Note due within 62 months: not subject | $0 |
| Intangible tax on the DSCR-type exit at the same $215,000 | $1.50 per $500 or fraction, over 62 months | $645 |
| Interest per day on the loan | $215,000 x 10.25% / 365 | $60.38 |
| If the borrower defaults and notice is mailed December 11, 2026 | Earliest first-Tuesday sale 30 days later: February 2, 2027, 53 days after mailing | $3,199.97 of interest at the note rate |
Read the last row as a floor on delay, not a forecast: it assumes the notice is mailed the day of default, the advertisement runs in the four weeks before the sale, no one bids a higher price and no borrower or bankruptcy filing intervenes. It uses the note rate, not a default rate, which the contract may raise. The intangible tax, by contrast, is a saving for the flipper that most Georgia summaries still describe as a cost, because they quote the three-year rule.
Who made the loans: Georgia lenders in the 2025 HMDA file
Top 10 short-term investor lenders in Georgia by 2025 loans (names as filed with HMDA)
| Lender | Loans | Share | Median rate | Median loan | 12-month terms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kiavi Funding, Inc. | 1,010 | 35.5% | 10.95% | $215,000 | 91.8% |
| Easy Street Capital, LLC | 205 | 7.2% | 9.9% | $215,000 | 8.3% |
| Loan Funder LLC | 165 | 5.8% | 10.5% | $195,000 | 99.4% |
| LendingOne, LLC | 127 | 4.5% | 9.74% | $255,000 | 82.7% |
| United Bank | 92 | 3.2% | 7.875% | $110,000 | 16.3% |
| CV3 Financial Services, LLC | 87 | 3.1% | 10.99% | $405,000 | 87.4% |
| RCN Capital, LLC | 87 | 3.1% | 10.74% | $195,000 | 88.5% |
| Lima One Capital, LLC | 85 | 3% | 10.45% | $245,000 | 0% |
| Temple View Capital Funding, LP | 82 | 2.9% | 10.438% | $470,000 | 51.2% |
| Anchor Loans, LP | 71 | 2.5% | 9.75% | $255,000 | 98.6% |
One lender sets the tone: Kiavi made more than a third of the loans, its median rate was 0.7 points above the state's, and in the two Atlanta metro divisions its median was 11%. Kiavi's own website lists Georgia among the states where its bridge loans are originated and funded by Kiavi Funding, LLC (read October 11, 2026; that is the company's statement, not a finding). Kiavi is a referral partner of this site; its place in the table is its count, not our choice. Easy Street and Lima One show a different structure: Easy Street's loans are mostly not 12-month, Lima One's none are. Compare like terms before comparing rates; see our Kiavi review, Easy Street review and Kiavi vs Lima One.
Georgia banks and credit unions: the cheap end
Lenders with bank or credit-union words in their names made 368 loans, 12.9% of the group, with a median rate of 7.62% against 10.5% for all other lenders (name heuristic; our arithmetic). The largest were United Bank (92 loans, 7.875% median), Colony Bank (56, 7.99%), Renasant Bank (48, 7.5%), PrimeSouth Bank (37, 7.5%), Queensborough National Bank & Trust Company (35, 7.5%), PeoplesSouth Bank (22, 7.5%) and Synovus Bank (16, 7.16%). These are not like-for-like prices: Colony Bank's median loan was $65,000 and United Bank's $110,000, and only 16.3% of United Bank's and 1.8% of Colony Bank's loans had 12-month terms, so the products differ. It is still a reason to ask a community bank for a quote before signing a 10% note.
Atlanta and the rest of Georgia
Georgia short-term investor loans by metro area, 2025
| Area | Loans | Share | Median rate | Median loan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta (division) | 1,320 | 46.4% | 10.5% | $235,000 |
| Marietta (division) | 344 | 12.1% | 10.25% | $305,000 |
| Outside any metro area | 511 | 18% | 10.14% | $195,000 |
| Columbus | 123 | 4.3% | 10.49% | $135,000 |
| Augusta-Richmond County | 109 | 3.8% | 9.9% | $145,000 |
| Savannah | 96 | 3.4% | 9.75% | $205,000 |
| Macon-Bibb County | 89 | 3.1% | 10.25% | $135,000 |
| Rome | 45 | 1.6% | 10.95% | $185,000 |
The Atlanta and Marietta divisions together made 1,664 loans, 58.5% of the state (60.4% in 2024), so the statewide median is largely an Atlanta number. The biggest counties are in the table below; a foreclosure sale on any of them is held at that county's courthouse on the first Tuesday.
Largest Georgia counties for short-term investor loans, 2025
| County | Loans | Median rate | Median loan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fulton County | 445 | 10.99% | $255,000 |
| DeKalb County | 340 | 10.5% | $245,000 |
| Cobb County | 215 | 10.2% | $315,000 |
| Muscogee County | 121 | 10.49% | $135,000 |
| Gwinnett County | 119 | 10.1% | $285,000 |
| Clayton County | 112 | 10.5% | $185,000 |
| Chatham County | 86 | 9.95% | $210,000 |
| Richmond County | 77 | 10.2% | $125,000 |
| Bibb County | 70 | 10.5% | $135,000 |
The file leaves the county blank (“NA”) for 260 loans. Fulton County, the core of Atlanta, had the highest median rate of the large counties (10.95%) and Chatham County (Savannah) the lowest (9.74%); the middle band of Georgia counties sits within a point of each other, so choosing a lender matters more than choosing a county.
What a Georgia investor can do with this
- Place any quote on the distribution. A note rate at or below 9.5% was in the cheapest quarter of Georgia short-term loans in 2025; at or above 11.24% it was in the costliest. On the $215,000 median loan that is $1,702.08 against $2,013.83 a month of interest (our arithmetic). Use 2025 as a range, not a target.
- Do not budget the intangible tax on the flip, and do budget it on the exit. A note due within 62 months is not subject; a 30-year DSCR loan at the median is $615. Ask the title attorney to confirm which note is presented for recording, since the tax is determined “from the face of the security instrument.”
- Ask for the points, extension fee, default rate and prepayment terms in writing. Georgia does not test points against a ceiling and allows a contract to stipulate a prepayment penalty. The price you agree to is the price you pay; see our hard money loan calculator and fix-and-flip calculator.
- Check the lender's status. Search the lender at NMLS Consumer Access and ask whether it relies on a Georgia license or an exemption. A lender that lends only to entities may have none; one that lends to individuals on houses should have a basis.
- Read the default clause and any guaranty. Georgia lets the lender sell on the first Tuesday after 30 days' notice, but a deficiency claim needs court confirmation of true market value within 30 days of the sale. If you guarantee the note, know that rule before you sign.
- Price a community bank too. The Georgia file shows seven banks with medians of 7.16% to 7.99%. Compare total cost, points and term with the non-bank median.
- Plan the exit. The BRRRR method explains why the bridge should be as short as the rehab allows, and our DSCR loan Georgia page has the 30-year record (7.25% median in 2025).
Kiavi pays us a referral fee when a loan closes through its button in the box below. The HMDA figures above are the same either way, and Kiavi's own 2025 Georgia record (1,010 loans, 10.95% median) is in the lender table. Visio Lending and Lima One Capital, also in the box, do not pay us; Lima One appears in the lender table with its own record.
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This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.
FAQ
Loan-level data: FFIEC/CFPB HMDA Data Browser, Georgia originated conventional loans for 2024 and 2025, downloaded October 11, 2026 (request URLs in the data file; our scripts hm_ga.py and flip_arith.py and their output are in sources/); definitions from the FFIEC public LAR field list and 12 CFR 1003.3 (eCFR); lender names from the FFIEC 2025 filer list and, for three lenders missing from it, the GLEIF register; county names from the Census Bureau 2020 county list. Georgia law: Official Code of Georgia Annotated, 2025 edition as published by Justia, sections 7-1-1000, 7-1-1001, 7-1-1002, 7-4-2, 7-4-18, 9-13-140, 9-13-141, 9-13-161, 44-14-160, 44-14-161, 44-14-162, 44-14-162.2, 44-14-162.3, 48-6-60 and 48-6-61, read October 11, 2026 (Justia is not the official publisher; check the current Official Code). Intangible recording tax: Georgia Department of Revenue, Intangible Recording Tax page and Informational Bulletin 2025-02 (June 27, 2025). Kiavi: the company's States We Lend In page, read October 11, 2026. HMDA has no points or fees on these loans.
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