HouseMax Funding Review: California Bond Order May 14, 2026 and 66 Loans in Three Securitizations

What we could and could not verify

Aggregator pages disagree on where HouseMax is based (three different Austin street addresses) and on its NMLS number. We used none of them. What we used are documents we saved: three DFPI PDFs and the DFPI action page, the Texas entity record as mirrored by OpenCorporates (a third-party copy of the state file; the date fields are behind a login), SEC filings, the lender's own pages and two federal lists. Two checks we could not run: CourtListener's search was down for us and its API needs a login, so this page makes no statement about litigation either way; and NMLS Consumer Access requires a CAPTCHA, so we did not read the NMLS license history. The lender's footer says "NMLS ID# 2262692", and its California page says "NMLS ID# 2262692CE"; we did not verify either against NMLS.

The California order, in the order of events

The DFPI action page for HouseMax Funding, LLC lists three documents: the Desist and Refrain Order, a Notice of Intention and an Order Withdrawing Notice of Intention. We downloaded all three.

What this does and does not mean. The order says that CFL licensees are "required to maintain a surety bond in the minimum amount of $25,000.00" and finds that HouseMax "has yet to replace or reinstate its surety bond". It does not allege that HouseMax misled a borrower, mishandled money or made a bad loan, and it does not claim any harm to a California borrower. The order frames the lapse as a licence condition that was not met, not as a finding of harm to a borrower.

Two limits on how far to read it. First, the withdrawal of the Notice of Intention is not a finding that the bond was restored: the withdrawal says only "good cause appearing", and the Desist and Refrain Order says it stays in force until a further order, which the DFPI page does not list. We therefore cannot say, from the documents, whether HouseMax now holds a valid bond. Second, the Notice of Intention incorporates an accusation, and that accusation is not in the PDF DFPI publishes, so we do not know whether it rested on the bond alone. A borrower in California (or lending against California property) can ask HouseMax for proof of its current surety bond and look the license up on the DFPI site.

HouseMax markets to California investors. Its page "Hard Money Loan California" on housemaxfunding.com says "HouseMax is California's go-to source for fast funding" and was live on November 10, 2026.

The company

The Texas record shows HouseMax Funding, LLC as a domestic limited liability company, company number 0802735151, status "In Existence", registered office 3711 S Mopac Expy Ste 375, Austin 78746, the same suite that appears on the DFPI order. The record lists trading names Coolhaus Realty, LLC (June 2, 2017 to October 18, 2017) and HouseMax Funding, LLC since October 18, 2017, and its latest Public Information Report as of December 31, 2024. A separate Texas company, HouseMax Funding Fund I LLC (number 0803822495, registered office 5900 Balcones Dr, Austin), has a Public Information Report for December 31, 2025. We found no Form D for it or for any HouseMax entity, so we cannot say whether it raises outside investor money; the name is the only link to the lender that we could document.

The securitization record: Saluda Grade

Saluda Grade Mortgage Funding LLC (CIK 0001831646) files Form ABS-15G exhibits that list, for each note trust, the originators of the loans and any asset that was the subject of a repurchase demand. HouseMax appears under three spellings (HouseMax Funding LLC, Housemax Funding, LLC and Housemax). This is the same securitizer we cover in our Loan Ranger Capital review and Builders Capital review.

Reading it carefully. The three trusts hold 66 HouseMax loans with a combined balance of $86,483,407.95 (our arithmetic). Average balance per HouseMax loan is about $1.37 million in 2024-RTL4, $1.08 million in 2024-RTL5 and $1.41 million in 2025-NPL2 (our arithmetic). The lender's home page says "HouseMax is unable to provide funding for loan amounts below $85,000", so these averages show only which loans a lender chooses to sell into a securitization, not what a typical borrower gets. The one demand in 2024-RTL4 ($177,000), the ten in 2024-RTL5 ($1,294,000) and the one in 2025-NPL2 ($101,000) are against other originators. The repurchase columns record demands under a deal's representations and warranties; a zero means that none was reported in these exhibits, not that every loan performed. The series name 2025-NPL2 suggests a pool of non-performing loans, and the exhibit does not say what status the HouseMax loans had; we did not read that trust's offering documents and draw no conclusion from the name.

Other securitization filings that name HouseMax

HouseMax also appears in the text of four other securitization exhibits. We did not count loans in these, so they are evidence of use, not of volume.

What a borrower pays: three loans in a Reg A filing

Small borrowers rarely see another borrower's terms. Tirios Propco Series LLC, a Regulation A issuer that buys single-family rental homes, discloses in Note 7 of its audited Form 1-K for 2025 (filed May 1, 2026) three HouseMax loans. They show a pattern a flipper or rental investor can compare with a term sheet: a 12-month interest-only bridge in 2023, then a long-term refinance in May 2024.

Our arithmetic checks the filing: $212,693 at 9.99% is $1,770.7 a month in interest, which matches the $1,771 reported, and $224,000 at 7.00% over 30 years is a payment of $1,490.28. The "debt issuance costs" are not itemized in the note, so we do not know how much was lender fee and how much was third-party cost. Three loans to one borrower are a sample of three, made in 2023 and 2024 with loan sizes of $161,000 to $224,000: they are not a rate sheet for today.

What HouseMax says about itself

The lender's website is the only source for current pricing, so it is quoted as claims ("the lender says"), read on November 10, 2026.

The two pages disagree on term and on typical credit score, which is common when pages are written at different times; the written term sheet is the document that counts. We did not test the 6,000-loan or Forbes claims. The 66 securitized loans and the Tirios loans are the only HouseMax originations we could count from public filings.

HMDA, Form D and complaints

We searched the FFIEC HMDA filer lists for 2024 (4,927 institutions) and 2025 (4,791) for a name containing "HouseMax" and found none, so there is no public HMDA loan count for it; a lender that makes only business-purpose loans may fall outside HMDA, and we did not test why it does not report. An SEC full-text search for "housemax" limited to Form D returns nothing, and the 41 hits for "housemax funding" across all forms are exhibits filed by other issuers (Tirios Propco, Saluda Grade, Grove III and similar). The CFPB consumer complaint database returns no complaint for the search term "housemax". We did not test whether the database covers business-purpose lenders, so zero complaints there is weak evidence either way. For comparison, see how CV3 Financial Services and the lenders in our California hard money list look in the same kinds of records.

What a reader can do with this

• Ask for proof of HouseMax's current California surety bond and for its license status on the DFPI site if the property or the borrower is in California; the May 2026 order is the only dated regulatory action we found, and the documents do not show it was lifted.
• Ask for the written term sheet before paying an application fee and compare it with the website: rate, points, draw fee, extension fee and prepayment terms. Our hard money loan rates page lists what the market charges.
• Ask who services the loan and whether it may be sold into a securitization such as a Saluda Grade trust; 66 HouseMax loans already have been, which matters for any later modification or payoff request.
• If you are a Texas rental investor, compare its DSCR program with other lenders; see our Texas DSCR loan guide.
• Get at least two other quotes. The lenders below are the ones we compare most often.

FAQ

Sources, read November 10, 2026: California DFPI action page for HouseMax Funding, LLC and its three PDFs (Desist and Refrain Order, Notice of Intention and Order Withdrawing Notice of Intention, all license 60DBO-160607); Texas entity records 0802735151 and 0803822495 via OpenCorporates; Saluda Grade Mortgage Funding LLC Form ABS-15G accessions 0001999371-24-014745, 0001999371-25-001352 and 0001999371-26-002718; Grove III 2024-1 Depositor LLC accession 0001999371-24-002760; Toorak Depositor, LLC accession 0001213900-22-002605; NYMT Loan Financing, LLC accession 0001104659-24-061097; HOF 2024-RRTL2 Depositor LLC accession 0001999371-24-009112; Tirios Propco Series LLC Form 1-K accession 0001477932-26-002704; housemaxfunding.com home page and California page; FFIEC HMDA filer lists 2024 and 2025; SEC EDGAR full-text search; CFPB consumer complaint database. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.