Hard Money Loans in Texas 2026: Rates, Usury Limit, Lenders

What Texas investors paid in 2025: 9.99% on 4,672 loans

The federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) record shows what Texas investors signed for short-term loans: each reporting lender lists every loan it originates with its note rate, amount, term, loan-to-value ratio, purpose, county and metro area, and the FFIEC publishes the loan-level file. We took the cached Texas files for 2024 and 2025 (the FFIEC Data Browser downloads of October 5, 2026, the same files behind our Texas DSCR page) and computed everything below from them (our arithmetic; the script hm_tx.py and its output are in the data folder). The national picture is on our hard money loan rates page; this page is about what is different in Texas. Florida's version is here and California's here.

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 Texas had 359,353 conventional originations, 51,389 on investment property and 35,521 of those for a business purpose. The short-term group is 5,081 loans before any exclusion, which is the Texas count on our national hard money lenders page, at a 9.9% median.

This page uses 4,672 of them. EMPORIUM TPO LLC reported 409 Texas loans with a 30-month term, a 7.25% median rate, a 75% median loan-to-value, and all through brokers; the pattern looks like 30-year loans entered as 30, not hard money, and the lender filed none in 2024. Leaving them out moves the Texas median from 9.9% to 9.99% and Kiavi's share from 20.8% (1,057 of 5,081, our arithmetic) to 22.6%. The Florida comparison applies the same rule to Florida's file (170 loans; its median goes from 10.45% to 10.49%). We also treat the 6 loans reported at a 0% rate as missing a rate.

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 109 lenders in our Texas group, 61 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 leaves out loans “designed to be replaced by separate permanent financing”, but its official interpretation says a short flip loan “is not temporary financing under § 1003.3(c)(3) merely because its term is short.” The data leans toward flips.
• No points, no fees, no prepayment terms. Origination charges are reported as a number on 0% of these loans and the prepayment-penalty term on 0%. A hard money quote is the note rate plus points, and HMDA shows only the first half. That matters in Texas, because Texas tests the whole price against the usury ceiling (next section).
• No homestead field. HMDA records occupancy as investment property; it cannot tell a rental from a former home.

Texas short-term investor loans, 2024 vs 2025

Texas short-term (36 months or less) business-purpose investor loans in HMDA

Texas grew faster than it got cheaper. Loan count rose 14.5% and dollars 21.9%, the median rate fell 0.51 points and the median loan grew by $20,000 (our arithmetic). The short-term premium over Texas's 30-year DSCR-type median (7.25%) was 2.74 points. The Texas median was 0.50 points below Florida's on the same definition, but the gap is about lender mix, not a Texas discount: Kiavi, the largest lender in both states, had a 9.99% median in Texas and 10.5% in Florida on the same definition. Purchase loans fell from 73.8% to 63.8% of the group while refinances and “other purpose” rose, and the share of entity borrowers fell from 86.9% to 76.6%.

The Texas usury ceiling for a business loan: 18% in practice, 28% at most

Texas is the state where a hard money borrower should read the statute, because the number that applies changes every week and points count toward it. The default is low: the general maximum is 10% a year “except as otherwise provided by law” (Texas Finance Code 302.001(b)). Chapter 303 supplies the other law. A creditor may charge up to a weekly ceiling that is twice the 26-week Treasury bill auction rate, rounded to the nearest one-quarter of one percent (303.002, 303.003), and 303.009 puts a floor and a cap on that computed number.

Texas interest-rate rules that apply to a business-purpose loan secured by real estate (statute text saved October 10, 2026)

Two readings matter. First, the 28% is a cap, not the rate you will meet. For a business or investment loan the ceiling is the computed weekly figure, never below 18% and never above 28%. Twice the Treasury bill auction rate would have to exceed 18%, meaning a bill rate of roughly 9% or more (our arithmetic), before the ceiling moves, and the Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner lists 18.00% for the week of October 5 to 11, 2026 and for October's monthly ceiling. In practice the Texas limit for these loans today is 18%. The ceilings are optional, and the statute says a contract “may provide for a rate or amount allowed by other applicable law,” so this page maps the main rule, not every exception. Second, Texas tests the whole price. Interest is “compensation for the use, forbearance, or detention of money,” and for a real-estate loan all of it is spread over the stated term. A hard money loan with points and a short term can be priced above its note rate by a lot.

What points do to a Texas hard money loan

To show the effect we solved for the annual rate that discounts an interest-only loan's payments to the cash the borrower actually receives after points (the actuarial method named in 306.004; our arithmetic, an illustration; whether a given fee counts as interest is a legal question). The note rates are the Texas 2025 median (9.99%) and 11.99%, the 90th percentile of the group.

Actuarial annual rate of an interest-only Texas loan with points (our arithmetic)

At the median note rate, the points that bring a 12-month loan to 18.00% are 7.28, and for a 6-month loan 3.8; at an 11.99% note rate the figures are 5.46 and 2.85. A 3-month loan at 9.99% reaches 18% with 1.94 points. On the $235,000 median loan one point is $2,350 and four points are $9,400, so a 6-month, 4-point loan is where a Texas file can get close to the line. The statute gives the lender a way out when it overshoots: if the loan is paid early and the interest received exceeds the maximum for the period, the lender must refund or credit the excess (306.004(b)), and a lender that does so “is not subject to any of the penalties” (306.004(c)).

What the loan record shows against that line

No Texas loan in the 2025 file had a note rate above 18%; the highest was 15.125%, and one loan was above 15%. In 2024 one loan was reported at 18.99% and 7 were above 15%. A note rate leaves out points, so this is a floor on the price, not a test of any loan, and HMDA does not say whether a given loan was exempt, entered wrongly or lawful under another rule. Priced above 10%: 2,129 loans, 46.3% of the 2025 group. Priced at 12% or more: 375 loans.

The “usury savings clause”

A savings clause is a loan-document term that says the lender never means to take more than the lawful maximum and will refund any excess. We searched the saved text of Finance Code chapters 301, 302, 303, 305 and 306 for the word “savings”: the only hit is “savings association” in 303.017. The statute does not create the clause; what it provides is the spreading rule, the refund on early payment (306.004), the accidental-error exception (305.101), the 60-day correction (305.103, 305.006(c)) and an exclusive-penalties rule (“Common law penalties do not apply,” 305.007). Whether a particular clause protects a particular lender or helps a particular borrower is a question for a court; read the clause in your documents and ask a Texas lawyer.

Homestead: why a Texas hard money lender will not take your home

The Texas Constitution protects a family or single adult's homestead “from forced sale, for the payment of all debts” except a list, and it adds the sentence hard money lenders take literally: “No mortgage, trust deed, or other lien on the homestead shall ever be valid unless it secures a debt described by this section” (Article 16, Section 50(a), (c)). The list covers purchase money, taxes, owelty of partition, refinances of those, certain home improvements, a reverse mortgage, and the home-equity loan in subsection (a)(6). Our Texas DSCR page summarizes the (a)(6) cash-out conditions for a rental refinance. Here is the same list read from the other side: set a typical short-term investor loan against what (a)(6) demands.

A typical Texas hard money loan against the home-equity requirements of Article 16, Section 50(a)(6)

The point is structural: an investor loan can fail several of these tests at once, so a lender that lends against a house the borrower lives in would risk an invalid lien. That is why hard money underwriting asks one question first, whether the property is, or ever was, the borrower's home. Three rules decide how far that goes.

• Renting out a home does not end its status. Property Code 41.003 says “Temporary renting of a homestead does not change its homestead character if the homestead claimant has not acquired another homestead.” A house you moved out of, rent for a year and now want to refinance can still be a homestead until you have another one. Our DSCR page flags the same case, a house lived in last year and rented now.
• The size of a homestead is statutory. An urban homestead is up to 10 acres in one or more contiguous lots with improvements, a rural family homestead up to 200 acres and a single adult's up to 100 (Property Code 41.002).
• Sham sales do not work. Section 50(c) also says that “All pretended sales of the homestead involving any condition of defeasance shall be void,” so a deed into an LLC that carries a right to undo it does not take a home out of the rule. Property Code 41.0022 lets an individual convey a parcel that is not an urban homestead to an entity only if the deed is recorded 30 days before the lien, the individual does not live on it, and it is not contiguous to the parcel where the individual lives.

For a purchase of a house you will live in, the purchase-money exception in Section 50(a)(1) exists, but that is a different loan from an investor bridge. A rental purchase through an LLC is not a homestead question on its face; a title attorney decides the exceptions. This is analysis of public text, not legal advice.

Foreclosure in Texas: the first Tuesday, 21 days, no judge

If a Texas hard money borrower defaults, the lender usually does not need a court. A deed of trust with a power of sale is enforced under Property Code 51.002, and the rules are short enough to print.

Texas non-judicial foreclosure rules in Property Code 51.002 and 51.003 (text saved October 10, 2026)

On the calendar, the timeline is tight. October 10, 2026 is a Saturday. The next first-Tuesday sale is November 3, 2026, and a notice given on October 13 is the last that counts 21 days; one given on October 14 counts 20 (our arithmetic). Dates for the following sales:

First-Tuesday sale dates and the last notice date for each (our arithmetic)

Three consequences for a borrower. The 20-day cure notice is written for residences. The default notice in Texas Property Code section 51.002(d) applies by its terms to property used as the debtor's residence, so on an investment property the statutory floor is the 21-day notice of sale; a loan agreement can add its own notice, so read yours. A balloon that is not repaid on the due date is a default with a calendar attached: the lender chooses the first Tuesday that falls 21 days after it gives notice. A guarantor is not out of reach after the sale. The lender can sue within two years for the shortfall, and the offset for fair market value is a right you have to ask the court for. California runs a slower, statute-driven sequence; see our California page. This is a reading of public text, not legal advice.

Who has to be licensed in Texas: OCCC, SML or neither

The usual question is “does a Texas hard money lender need a license?” and the Texas answer starts with the borrower's purpose. Two agencies regulate lending to consumers, and both define their territory by consumer use.

Texas lending licenses and why a business-purpose loan is usually outside them (text saved October 10, 2026)

On the text we saved, a loan made primarily for business or investment purposes is not a “residential mortgage loan” and is not “extended primarily for personal, family, or household use,” so a company that makes only those loans may hold no OCCC or SML license. We found no Texas statute in these chapters that creates a separate license for investor-property lenders. Three cautions. First, the test is the loan's purpose, not the lender's marketing: a loan on a home you will live in is a consumer loan whatever the paperwork says, and the homestead rules above then apply. Second, a licensed lender is easy to check: the OCCC has a licensee search and the NMLS has a consumer access site (we did not query them for this page). Third, other laws can apply to the same lender; this page does not decide any lender's status. Ask a lender what kind of loan it says it is making and under which license, if any.

Who made the loans: Texas lenders in the 2025 HMDA file

Top 10 short-term investor lenders in Texas by 2025 loans (names as filed with HMDA, 4,672-loan group)

The top 3 lenders made 40.1% of the loans and the top 10 made 67.1%; 61 of the 109 lenders filed fewer than 10. Kiavi Funding made 1,057 loans (22.6%) at a 9.99% median, down from 10.69% on 940 loans in 2024. RF Renovo Management Company (436 loans) and Easy Street Capital (382) followed. Medians run from 9.75% (RF Renovo and Temple View Capital Funding) to 11.65% (212 Loans, LLC), and American Heritage Lending is the outlier at 14.25%, the highest median among lenders with 100 or more loans, on 146 loans (2024: 37 loans at 10.999%). Rain City Capital's 238 loans are mostly outside the big metro areas (131 of them sit in the area with no metro code). RCN Capital made 80 Texas loans at a 10.545% median, Lima One Capital 60 at 10.45% and Visio Lending and Investor Mortgage Finance filed none in this group. The 409 EMPORIUM TPO loans excluded above would have ranked third by count.

Texas banks and credit unions: the cheap end

Texas has a feature the Florida and California files do not: a large block of loans from banks and credit unions at rates under 8%. After the exclusion, 426 short-term loans were under 8%, and 12 lenders with at least 25 loans had a median note rate under 8.5%, together 508 loans (eleven banks and one credit union).

Texas banks and credit unions with a median short-term note rate under 8.5% and at least 25 loans (2025)

These are banks and one credit union, with longer terms (Prosperity Bank's median is 18 months on a $945,000 median loan, Alliance Credit Union's 36 months on $115,000) and medians of 7.5% to 8.25%, about two points under the statewide 9.99%. No points are visible in the file, and HMDA does not say why these borrowers chose a bank. Our hard money loan rates page shows the same bank gap nationally.

Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Fort Worth and Austin

HMDA assigns each loan a metropolitan statistical area or division code (derived_msa-md; 99999 means no metro area). The Census Bureau's 2023 delineation puts Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington in two divisions, Dallas-Plano-Irving (19124) and Fort Worth-Arlington-Grapevine (23104), so Dallas and Fort Worth are two rows here. Houston is 26420, San Antonio-New Braunfels 41700 and Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 12420.

Texas short-term investor loans by metro area, 2025 (HMDA)

Four readings.

• Houston is the pricey, flat market. Its 10.46% median is the highest of the five, 0.56 points above the Dallas division's 9.9%. 212 Loans, LLC (11.65% median statewide) made 114 of Houston's 852 loans; without them Houston's median is 10.19%, still the highest. Kiavi's own Houston median was 10.45% on 206 loans, against 9.65% in the Dallas division and Austin. Houston was also the only one of the five areas where the count did not grow (860 to 852, down 0.9%); the Dallas division grew 26.1%, Fort Worth 30.6%, Austin 24.9% and San Antonio 15.9%.
• Houston investors mostly buy and hold. Houston had 4,135 DSCR-type loans in 2025 against 852 short-term ones, so short-term loans were 17.1% of the two groups combined, against 30.1% in the Dallas division, 31.8% in San Antonio, 30.7% in Fort Worth and 37.3% in Austin (our arithmetic).
• Dallas plus Fort Worth is the real center. The two divisions made 1,624 loans, 34.8% of the Texas total, against 18.2% for Houston. Kiavi led in both (268 and 181 loans, 24.3% and 34.7% of the areas) with RF Renovo second (193 and 68) and Easy Street third.
• Size follows house prices. The median loan was $395,000 in Austin (property value $595,000), $315,000 in the Dallas division, $235,000 in Houston and $195,000 in San Antonio ($275,000). San Antonio's lenders were Kiavi (155 loans, 29.9% of the area), RF Renovo (84) and Easy Street (38). The five areas together made 71.8% of the loans; 28.2% sit elsewhere, including 627 loans in places with no metro code.

Top Texas counties by 2025 short-term investor loans (HMDA)

The county column reads “NA” for 446 loans, shown in its own row; all 446 are coded to the area with no metro code, and the file does not say why the county is missing. A foreclosure sale of a property in any of these counties is held at that county's courthouse on the first Tuesday of the month.

What a Texas investor can do with this

1. Place any quote on the distribution. A note rate at or below 9.25% was in the cheapest quarter of Texas short-term loans in 2025; at or above 10.99% it was in the costliest quarter. On a $235,000 loan that is $1,811.46 against $2,152.21 a month of interest, $4,089 a year (our arithmetic). Use 2025 as a range, not a target.
2. Convert points to a rate and test it against 18%. Texas spreads all interest over the term. A short loan with several points can go over the ceiling even when the note rate looks tame: 4 points on a 6-month loan at 9.99% was 18.43% in our illustration. Ask for the full price in writing, and see our hard money loan calculator and fix-and-flip calculator.
3. Ask the homestead question before you apply. If the property is or was your home, tell the lender; it will ask anyway. Remember that temporary renting does not end homestead status.
4. Read the default clause and the guaranty. Texas lets the lender sell at the next first Tuesday after 21 days' notice and sue for the deficiency for two years. If you personally guarantee the note, know the fair-market-value offset and its deadlines.
5. Check the lender. Look at what the lender says it is (OCCC, SML, bank, or neither), ask who funds the loan and, for a fund, who the investors are. A missing license is not by itself a red flag in Texas for a business loan, but a lender that cannot explain its status is.
6. Price a bank or credit union too. The Texas file shows a block of bank and credit union loans with medians of 7.5% to 8.25%. Ask one for a quote and compare the total cost, points and terms with the non-bank median.
7. Plan the exit. If you are refinancing into a long-term rental loan, our Texas DSCR page has the 30-year record (7.25% median in 2025), and the BRRRR method explains why the bridge should be as short as the rehab allows. The full picture of rental financing is in our investment property loans guide.

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 Texas record (1,057 loans, 9.99% median) is in the lender table. Kiavi's loan is the investor bridge and fix-and-flip product this page covers, and Kiavi is the largest lender in the Texas group. Easy Street Capital and RCN Capital, also in the box, do not pay us, and each appears in the tables above with its own record.

FAQ

Loan-level data: FFIEC/CFPB HMDA Data Browser, Texas and Florida originated conventional loans for 2024 and 2025, downloaded October 5, 2026 (request URLs in the data file; our scripts hm_tx.py and tx_law_math.py and their output are in sources/); definitions from the FFIEC public LAR field list; coverage rules from 12 CFR 1003.3 (eCFR) and its Supplement I interpretations; lender names from the FFIEC filer lists; county names from the Census Bureau 2020 county list; metro names from the Census Bureau July 2023 delineation file; Texas Constitution Article 16, Section 50; Texas Finance Code chapters 156, 180, 301, 302, 303, 305, 306 and 342; Texas Property Code chapters 41 and 51, all from the Texas Legislature's statutes site, read October 10, 2026; the weekly ceiling from the Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner interest rate page, read October 10, 2026. All percentiles, medians, shares, payment figures, actuarial rates and calendar dates are our arithmetic. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal, tax or lending advice, and not a loan offer.