Private Money Lenders: Who They Are in Federal Records, the State Laws That Apply and How to Check One (2026)

What “private money lender” means in the record

Lender websites define a private money lender as anyone who is not a bank. The federal record lets you be more precise, and it splits the market into three different kinds of lender:

1. National non-bank lenders (Kiavi, Loan Funder, RF Renovo, Easy Street, RCN, Lima One and a few dozen more). They are licensed companies, report to HMDA and make most of the loans.
2. Pooled lending funds. Some lenders are funds that raise money from investors under an SEC exemption and lend it out. A few are big enough to report to HMDA.
3. Individuals and small shops. A local investor lending their own money, or a small fund making a dozen loans a year, never appears in HMDA. This is the group most “private money lender near me” searches turn up, and the one with the least public information.

We used the same loan group as our hard money loan rates page: originated, conventional, first-lien, closed-end loans on 1-4 unit investment property, made for a business or commercial purpose, with no debt-to-income ratio and a term of 36 months or less. That page covers the rates. This one covers who lends. The difference in method: there, lenders with fewer than 10 loans were left unclassified; here we looked up the federal agency code of every one of the 658 lenders in the FFIEC institution records. Agency code 7 is the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which the 2025 filing guide describes as “indicating a non-depository institution”; lenders filing with the CFPB (code 9) were split by name, as on the rates page.

US short-term investor loans by lender type, 2025 and 2024

Almost nine in ten lenders in the file (580 of 658) are banks and credit unions, yet they made about one loan in six. The non-bank group grew from 67 lenders in 2024 to 77 in 2025, and its share of loans from 81.3% to 83.9%. Classifying every lender moves the non-bank share from the 83.8% on our rates page to 83.9%, and the bank and credit union share from 14.3% to 16.1%: almost all of the small lenders the rates page left unclassified turn out to be banks and credit unions (365 of the 388 lenders with 1 to 9 loans).

How concentrated the market is

2025 short-term investor lenders by number of loans made in the year

Concentration of short-term investor lending

Kiavi Funding alone made 19,477 loans in 2025, 28.5% of the total. The lenders a borrower meets online are, in loan terms, the market. The long tail is real but small: 283 lenders made between one and four of these loans in 2025. Most of them are banks that do a few investor loans a year for local customers, and 22 lenders with fewer than 10 loans were non-banks. RCN Capital files under two legal entity identifiers, so a lender count can overstate the number of companies slightly.

Who holds your loan after closing

What happened to 2025 short-term investor loans in the year they were made (purchaser type reported to HMDA)

This is the practical difference between a bank and a private lender. A bank lends its own deposits and almost always keeps the loan. A non-bank private lender usually sells it: in 2025, about four in five non-bank loans were sold within the year (our arithmetic: 100% minus 17.4% kept). If your flip runs long, the party deciding on an extension may be a securitization trust or a fund, not the company that quoted you. Ask who will service the loan and what the extension terms are before you sign, not after.

When the lender is a fund

Four lenders in the 2025 file have “Fund” in their filed name: Center Street Lending Fund VIII SPE LLC (1,229 loans), CCG Fund 1, LLC (223), Arixa Enhanced Income Fund, LP (95) and Arixa Secured Income Fund, LLC (21), 1,568 loans in all and 2.3% of the total (our arithmetic). Behind them is investor money raised privately, and that money leaves a public trace: a Form D notice filed with the SEC.

Form D filings of lending funds (as filed)

The two Arixa funds are lenders a borrower can find in HMDA; nothing in this table suggests any problem with them. The third line shows the limit of the check: Pacific Private Money Fund I filed an ordinary-looking Form D in 2025, and the SEC complaint filed in 2026 concerned two of the group's funds (the release does not name which). A Form D tells you a fund exists and how much it says it raised. It is a notice, not an audit.

The law: who needs a license, and what can they charge?

Two federal definitions explain why many private lenders do not look like mortgage companies. The SAFE Act, which created national mortgage-originator licensing, defines a residential mortgage loan as one “primarily for personal, family, or household use” secured by a dwelling (12 U.S.C. 5102). Regulation Z, which carries the federal disclosure rules, exempts “An extension of credit primarily for a business, commercial or agricultural purpose” (12 CFR 1026.3(a)(1)). A loan to your LLC to flip a house is business-purpose credit, so licensing comes from state law, and state laws differ. The table covers four of the largest states for investor lending in the record (California, Florida, Texas and New York) and three Western states whose lending statutes reach business-purpose loans (Arizona, Nevada and Oregon).

State licensing and rate rules for business-purpose real estate lenders (from the statute text)

Read the table with three cautions. First, these are the main licensing statutes, not every rule: securities law, real estate broker law and local rules can also apply, and courts interpret all of them. Second, the HMDA columns count only reporting lenders, so Nevada's 12 lenders are the large ones, not everyone lending in Nevada. Third, the rate rules change with loan size and borrower type. In New York, “No corporation shall interpose the defense of usury” (New York General Obligations Law section 5-521), except for a defense of criminal usury, and Florida counts fees that are in the nature of interest by spreading them over the stated term (Florida Statutes section 687.03(3)). Our Florida hard money page works through that calculation.

What the table means for a borrower: in Arizona, Nevada and Oregon, a company that advertises loans on your 1-4 unit flip and is not a bank should be able to show you a state license, because the statutes reach business-purpose lending and the exemptions are written for people lending their own money on their own account. In Texas and New York, a lender making only business-purpose loans may legitimately have no mortgage license, so a missing license is not a red flag by itself there; the usury limits are what protect you. In California, ask whether the lender holds a finance lender license or is lending through a licensed real estate broker, since either route is lawful.

What NMLS Consumer Access shows, and what it does not

NMLS Consumer Access is the free public lookup built by state regulators. The Conference of State Bank Supervisors describes it as a service to confirm that a company or professional “is authorized to conduct business in their state.” The NMLS document that introduced it lists what a company record contains: the NMLS unique ID, license numbers, license names and license status by state, entity name and address, other and prior business names, the registered agent and website, and the company's legal status. Two limits from the same document matter for private money:

• It “shows only licenses that are in a "reportable" status”; an application still under review is not shown.
• It covers companies “licensed and registered through NMLS”. A lender that holds no state license because its state does not require one for business-purpose loans has no record to find. That absence is not evidence of fraud, and a record is not evidence of good conduct.

So use it this way: in a state whose statute requires the license (Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, California), a missing record is a reason to stop. In other states, check the company's legal name in its state of formation and in the state where your property is, and look for its HMDA filing, as described in the checklist below. Our DSCR lender legitimacy check lists the NMLS IDs that 20 lenders print about themselves.

What can go wrong: borrowing from a private lender vs investing in one

Most of the public enforcement record about “private money” is about the other side of the business: people who invested in a lending fund. They matter to a borrower too, because a lender that is really a failing fund can stop funding draws halfway through your rehab.

SEC actions involving private real estate lending funds (allegations as described in the SEC releases)

The Pacific Private Money case shows how far the damage can run. In the SEC's press release, the associate director of its San Francisco office said: “Despite total outstanding investments in the two private funds of almost $121 million, by February 2026 the total recoverable assets of those funds were estimated to be less than $17 million.” The 2026 allegations are not findings; the defendants consented to judgments without admitting them.

The borrower-side risk looks different: the lender that takes a deposit and never funds. In a federal case in the Northern District of New York, the court summarized a borrower's allegation that it “paid Prime Capital $15,902,250 in April 2023 as an interest credit account ("ICA") payment to secure a loan for $79,511,250”, about 20% of the loan (our arithmetic), and that the loan was never advanced. In its March 19, 2024 decision the court wrote: “As of the date of this decision, Plaintiff's ICA deposit has not been located.” A legitimate lender charges an application or appraisal fee and takes interest reserves out of the loan at closing; it does not need a large wire from you before it has funded anything.

Borrowing from vs investing in a private lender

Checklist before you sign with a private money lender

Each item cites the source behind it.

1. Match the license to the property's state. In Arizona, Nevada and Oregon the lending statutes reach business-purpose loans on 1-4 unit property (Arizona Revised Statutes sections 6-941 and 6-943; Nevada Revised Statutes sections 645B.0127 and 645B.900; Oregon Revised Statutes sections 86A.100 and 86A.103). In California, ask for the finance lender license number or the real estate broker license (California Financial Code sections 22100 and 22057).
2. Look the company up, knowing what the lookup can miss. NMLS Consumer Access shows licenses in a reportable status only (NMLS, Information about NMLS Consumer Access). For business-purpose lending, the federal licensing definition is limited to loans for “personal, family, or household use” (12 U.S.C. 5102), so no record is normal in some states.
3. Find the lender in HMDA if it says it is large. A non-bank lender that originated 25 or more closed-end mortgage loans in each of the two prior years and has an office in a metro area must report (12 CFR 1003.2(g)(2)). The FFIEC publishes the list of filers; a lender claiming hundreds of loans a year that never appears is worth a question.
4. Never wire a large pre-funding deposit. The Prime Capital deposit, alleged at $15,902,250 against a $79,511,250 loan, had not been located when the court ruled (Northern District of New York, No. 1:24-cv-55, decision of March 19, 2024). Pay fees through title or escrow at closing.
5. Ask who will hold and service the loan. Non-bank lenders sold 48.3% of their 2025 short-term investor loans to private securitizers within the year (HMDA purchaser type). Get extension and default terms in writing before closing.
6. Turn points into a rate and test it against the state limit. Florida spreads fees in the nature of interest over the stated term (Florida Statutes section 687.03(3)); New York counts amounts paid to the lender for making the loan as interest (New York Banking Law section 14-a(2)); Texas caps business-purpose credit at 28% a year (Texas Finance Code section 303.009(c)).
7. If the lender is a fund, read its Form D. It shows the amount sold, number of investors and minimum investment, as for Arixa Secured Income Fund, LLC ($276,527,651, 942 investors, September 8, 2026). It is a notice, not an audit, as the 2025 Pacific Private Money Fund I filing shows.
8. If someone asks you to invest in their lending fund, read the SEC cases first. All five cases above involved funds that promised returns from real estate loans (SEC Litigation Releases 26627, 24020, 25375, 21482 and 22263).

What a borrower can do with this

Start with the lenders that report: the 77 non-bank lenders in HMDA made 83.9% of the 2025 loans, and their rates are on our hard money loan rates page, lender by lender. If a local bank lends on investment property where you buy, ask it too; banks kept 98.2% of their loans, so the bank that approves you is the one you deal with later. If you are dealing with an individual or a small fund, run the checklist above, close through title or escrow and read the extension and default clauses twice. For a flip that will become a rental, plan the refinance from day one; our bridge loan page covers the investor bridge and its alternatives, and the best fix-and-flip lenders of 2026 compares the large lenders from their filings and rating-agency data.

Kiavi pays us a referral fee when a loan closes through its button in the box below. Kiavi Funding is the largest lender in the 2025 record (19,477 short-term loans) and files HMDA as a non-depository institution (agency code 7), so it is one of the 77 non-bank lenders discussed above. Visio Lending, also in the box, makes 30-year rental loans, the refinance step after a flip, not short-term loans.

FAQ

Loan-level data: FFIEC/CFPB HMDA Data Browser, nationwide originated conventional loans for 2024 and 2025 (request URLs in the data file), filtered to the same short-term investor group as our hard money rates page; lender agency codes from the FFIEC public institutions API, read October 7, 2026; agency-code definitions from the FFIEC 2025 HMDA Filing Instructions Guide; purchaser-type codes from the FFIEC public LAR data fields; coverage rules from 12 CFR 1003.2 and 1003.3 (eCFR). Federal definitions: 12 U.S.C. 5102 and 12 CFR 1026.3 (Cornell LII). State statutes as published on October 7, 2026: California Financial Code sections 22002, 22009, 22050, 22057 and 22100, California Business and Professions Code section 10131 and California Civil Code section 1916.1; Arizona Revised Statutes sections 6-901, 6-902, 6-941, 6-942, 6-943, 6-971, 6-972 and 44-1201 (azleg.gov); Nevada Revised Statutes sections 99.050, 645B.0127, 645B.015 and 645B.900; Oregon Revised Statutes sections 82.010, 82.025, 86A.100, 86A.103 and 86A.106; Florida Statutes sections 494.001, 494.00115, 687.02, 687.03 and 687.071 (leg.state.fl.us); Texas Finance Code sections 156.202, 157.002, 180.002, 303.009, 306.001 and 306.002; New York Banking Law sections 14-a and 590, General Obligations Law sections 5-501 and 5-521 and Penal Law section 190.40. NMLS, Information about NMLS Consumer Access, and the CSBS NMLS page. SEC Litigation Releases 26627, 24020, 25375, 21482 and 22263 and SEC Press Release 2026-82; Memorandum-Decision and Order, Compass-Charlotte 1031, LLC v. Prime Capital Ventures, LLC, Northern District of New York No. 1:24-cv-55 (March 19, 2024, govinfo.gov); SEC Form D filings 0001213900-26-098064, 0001213900-26-098062 and 0001581800-25-000003. All counts, shares, averages and concentration measures are our arithmetic. This is analysis of public documents and the law, not legal, tax or investment advice, and not a loan offer.