The Quick Read: Experience works as a tier that sets how much of the project cost a hard money lender will fund, not as a gate that decides whether you qualify, because the property, the rehab plan, and the exit still carry the file. Lenders count completed projects, usually inside a look-back window, and place each borrower in a bucket. The bucket moves the leverage and the terms. It does not change the short, interest-only structure of the loan.
- Across Lendmire’s wholesale network, single-family flip leverage runs 85% of project cost with fewer than 2 completed projects, 90% at 2 or more, and 93% at 5 or more, each tier capped at 75% of after-repair value.
- The top tier is reserved for experienced investors, and every figure varies by lender, property, and experience.
- A first-time investor can still qualify at the lower tier, subject to credit and the strength of the deal.
- Experience does not override the after-repair value cap, the credit floor, or the exit plan.
What Does Experience Mean to a Hard Money Underwriter?
To an underwriter, experience means documented, completed projects similar to the one you are proposing. A hard money loan is a short-term loan secured by the property and made by a private lender, which is why the lender cares so much about whether the work gets finished and sold.
What this loan actually costs to carry.
Hard money is sized against the project and priced by time. Enter the deal and see how much the program will lend, the cash required at closing, the carry while you hold it, and what is left at the exit.
Leverage tiers on the current program: 85% with fewer than 2, 90% with 2 or more, 93% with 5 or more completed projects — every tier capped at 75% of after-repair value. Loan amounts up to $5,000,000, larger by exception; terms of 6 to 18 months, interest-only, no prepayment penalty. The rehab portion funds in draws against completed work, not at closing.
Program parameters shown update from Lendmire’s centralized guideline source. Rate, points, and months are editable assumptions, not quoted terms.
Cost cap sets the loan · positive spread
Illustrative estimate only — not a quote, Loan Estimate, approval, or commitment to lend. Rate, points, and months are editable assumptions. Hard money is business-purpose financing for real estate investors, not a consumer mortgage. Leverage on the current program tops out at 93% of project cost for investors with a documented track record, capped at 75% of after-repair value, with rehab funding up to 100% of the documented budget released in draws; actual terms vary by lender, borrower experience, property, and exit. Lendmire is a mortgage broker, not a lender.
Lenders usually measure experience in three ways.
- Completion. A project counts when it is finished and sold or otherwise exited, not when it is merely started.
- Similarity. A single-family cosmetic rehab says more about your next single-family rehab than a ground-up build does.
- Recency. Many lenders look back over a set window of months, so a project from many years ago may count for less.
Definitions differ by lender. Some count only sold flips, and others give credit for rentals or other projects. Ask any lender for its written definition before you assume your résumé fits.
Where Does Experience Sit Among the Lender’s Questions?
Experience is the fourth question, not the first. A hard money file is underwritten asset-first: the property, the plan, the exit, and then the borrower.
| Factor | What the lender is really asking | How experience changes it |
|---|---|---|
| Property | Is it eligible and sellable? | Does not change it |
| Rehab plan | Is the scope realistic? | Raises or lowers scrutiny |
| Exit | Will it sell or refinance? | Adds comfort on execution |
| Borrower | Can this person finish? | Sets the leverage tier |
A strong record cannot rescue a weak property or an inflated value. A thin record can be offset by a strong deal, although the offset usually shows up as lower leverage rather than a flat decline.
How Underwriting Treats Experience, Step by Step
The process follows the same order on most files.
1. The borrower is placed in a tier. The lender counts completed projects in its look-back window and assigns a bucket.
2. The tier sets maximum leverage. Fewer completed projects mean the borrower brings more cash to closing.
3. Credit and reserves are checked. Credit can qualify the borrower, and it can also shape which tier terms apply.
4. Documents are requested. These usually include a track-record schedule, a personal financial statement, the scope of work and budget, and entity documents.
5. Experience is verified. Lenders ask for addresses and purchase and sale records, so overstated claims tend to surface.
Notice that the tier is assigned in step 1 and sets the leverage in step 2, before credit, documents, and verification are reviewed. That order is why experience changes how much you fund yourself rather than whether the lender looks at the file.
What Counts and What Doesn’t
Treatment varies by lender, but these patterns are common.
| Experience type | Typical treatment |
|---|---|
| Your own completed flips | Strongest credit toward a tier |
| Flips done with an experienced partner | Often counts, if the partner is on the loan |
| Contractor or builder background | Helps the plan, rarely counts as projects |
| Landlord with no flips | Shows ownership, not rehab execution |
| No projects yet | Lowest tier, with a stronger deal needed |
A partner can bring the track record. If the experienced partner signs on the loan and takes part in the project, some lenders will place the file in a higher bucket. Others still ask who is managing the rehab day to day.
Experience on a single-family flip does not always carry over to other property types. A lender may treat ground-up construction as a separate track with its own project count.
What Changes by Tier
The tiers below describe what Lendmire arranges through its network for single-family fix-and-flip loans on non-owner-occupied investment property. They are typical ranges that vary by lender, property, and experience, and nothing here is a commitment to lend.
| Completed projects | Leverage on a flip |
|---|---|
| Fewer than 2 | 85% of project cost |
| 2 or more | 90% of project cost |
| 5 or more | 93% of project cost |
Every tier is capped at 75% of after-repair value, and the cap is where many deals actually bind. Up to 100% of the rehab budget can be released in draws against completed work. That figure describes how the renovation funds are paid out, not a purchase loan-to-value.
There is no true 100% purchase program. Bridge purchases without a rehab run up to 80% of the purchase price. A 620 credit score is the typical minimum, with additional conditions below 660, and first-time investors can qualify at the lower leverage tier. Terms vary by lender guidelines, property type, leverage, credit profile, and full file review.
Worked Example: Same Flip, Two Borrowers
Picture one single-family flip with one purchase price, one scope of work, and one projected after-repair value. Two borrowers apply, and the only difference is their track record. The comparison below is illustrative, and every figure varies by lender.
| Item | First-time borrower | Borrower with 5+ projects |
|---|---|---|
| Experience tier | Fewer than 2 | 5 or more |
| Leverage on project cost | 85% | 93% |
| After-repair value cap | 75% | 75% |
| Cash brought to closing | Higher | Lower |
| Property, plan, exit | Same review | Same review |
Two things stay fixed. The property gets the same inspection of comps and scope, and the 75% after-repair value cap binds both loans. If the deal is priced too tightly, the cap can hold back even the 93% tier, so a veteran flipper can still bring meaningful cash to a thin deal.
Experience mostly changes the first number in that table. The deal decides the rest.
Documenting Your Experience
A lender can only credit what it can verify. A clean track-record package usually includes the items below.
- A schedule of completed projects with addresses, dates, purchase prices, and sale prices.
- Settlement statements or closing records for each sale. The CFPB explains that a HUD-1 settlement statement itemizes the costs and proceeds of a closing, which is why lenders use it to confirm a prior flip.
- Before-and-after photos and the original scope of work.
- A note on who managed the project and who did the work.
- Entity documents for any LLC that held the property.
- A personal financial statement.
Present a short, accurate list instead of a long, stretched one. Overstating completed projects is one of the fastest ways to lose a lender’s trust, and settlement records make it easy to check. A borrower with one or two projects who documents them cleanly often reads better than one with a vague list of many.
First-Timer Playbook: Offsetting a Thin Record
A first flip is reviewable at the lower tier on many files, but the lender will want more comfort elsewhere.
- A tight scope. A cosmetic rehab on a single-family home is easier to underwrite than a structural one. Large scopes on a first deal draw extra questions about budget and timeline.
- A named contractor. Show who is doing the work, their history, and a written bid.
- Solid comps. The after-repair value cap makes the resale estimate the center of the file.
- Cash and reserves. More cash at closing and visible reserves reduce the lender’s risk.
- A partner with a record. An experienced co-borrower can help, if the lender counts partner credit.
- A clear exit. Say whether you will sell or refinance, and show why it works.
Single-family homes are among the easier flips to underwrite, since comparable sales are plentiful and the scope is familiar. That helps a first-timer, though it does not remove the leverage gap between tiers. Lendmire’s piece Can a Single-Family Fix-and-Flip Get Approved for Hard Money? covers the approval side in more depth.
Where the General Rule Breaks
The rule that experience tiers rather than gates has real exceptions.
- Some lenders require prior flips. Certain institutional funds will not lend to a first-time flipper at all, so a claim that no experience is needed does not hold everywhere.
- Look-back windows differ. A project that counts at one lender may sit outside another lender’s window.
- Counting rules differ. Some lenders count only sold flips, while others credit rentals, and a few weigh the size of the project.
- Scope changes the picture. A very large rehab can push a borrower down a tier even with a decent history.
- Property type matters. Single-family experience may not transfer to ground-up construction or multi-unit work.
This is where a broker’s view across many lenders helps. A borrower who sits just under one lender’s threshold can sometimes fit another lender’s definition better, and that comparison costs nothing to run.
What Experience Cannot Fix
No tier overrides the deal-level limits.
- The after-repair value cap. Every tier stops at 75% of after-repair value.
- The credit floor. A strong record does not erase a score below the minimum.
- A weak exit. If the resale price is inflated or the margin is thin, the file struggles at any tier.
- Eligibility. The program covers non-owner-occupied residential property of 1 to 4 units, and it does not cover commercial, land, or owner-occupied homes.
- Reserves and entity rules. These apply regardless of how many flips you have done.
The loan term does not change either. Terms run 6 to 18 months, interest-only, with no prepayment penalty on the program, and those terms vary by lender. The short runway means the exit is the real test, whatever your tier.
How to Move Up a Tier
Moving from the first tier to the second takes completed projects, not time alone. At two completed projects, the next bucket opens, and at five the top tier does. Lenders generally want to see sold flips, so the sequence matters more than the count.
A practical path looks like this:
1. Finish a first flip and keep the full settlement record.
2. Start the second project soon enough to stay inside the look-back window.
3. Keep the scopes similar, so each project strengthens the next one.
4. Build the track-record schedule as you go, not after the fact.
Many investors also plan the exit before the purchase. Once a property is stabilized and rented, some refinance out of hard money into long-term rental financing, and Lendmire arranges that path through select lenders. That lender reviews the property’s rent coverage against its full monthly obligation, not your flip résumé. Clearing 1.00 on coverage also does not mean positive cash flow, since repairs, vacancy, and management sit outside the calculation. Lendmire’s complete DSCR loans guide explains how that rental loan is reviewed.
Key Terms Defined
Loan-to-cost: the share of the total project cost, meaning purchase plus rehab, that the lender will fund.
After-repair value (ARV): the estimated value of the property once the renovation is finished, used to cap the loan.
Experience tier: the bucket a lender assigns based on completed projects, which sets the maximum leverage.
Look-back window: the period over which a lender counts your completed projects.
Draw: a release of rehab funds after a portion of the work has been completed.
Track-record schedule: a list of your completed projects with addresses, dates, and sale records.
Checking Your Own File
Before you apply, count your completed single-family projects, gather the settlement records, and write a scope you can defend. Then compare your numbers against the tiers above.
If you are buying, rehabbing or refinancing an investment property on a short timeline and want to see how the numbers work, Lendmire can help you compare hard money options based on the project, the exit plan, leverage, and your goals. The brokerage arranges these loans through select lenders in its wholesale network across 41 markets, including Washington, D.C., subject to lender guidelines and credit approval. An illustrative calculator on the site can help you test a scenario, though it is an estimate and not a quote.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need experience to get a hard money flip loan?
Often you do not, but your experience sets how much you fund yourself. Across the network, a borrower with fewer than 2 completed projects can qualify at the lower tier, subject to credit and the deal. Some lenders do require prior flips, so the answer varies by lender.
What counts as a completed project?
Most lenders count a finished project that sold or otherwise exited, with records to prove it. Definitions differ on whether rentals count and how far back the window runs. Ask the lender for its written definition and send settlement statements to support each project.
Does contractor experience count as flipping experience?
Usually it helps the plan but does not count toward a tier. A contractor background shows you can manage a scope and a budget, which lowers execution risk. Tier credit generally comes from owning, renovating, and selling properties.
How many deals move me to a higher tier?
On the network’s single-family flip program, the tiers step up at 2 completed projects and again at 5. Those thresholds, and the leverage attached to them, vary by lender, property, and experience, so confirm them for your file.
Does experience replace credit?
No. A 620 credit score is the typical minimum, with additional conditions below 660, and a strong record does not erase that floor. Credit and experience work together, and the property still has to meet the 75% after-repair value cap. Exact terms depend on the lender’s guidelines, property type, leverage, and a full review of the borrower’s file.
For current guidelines and terms, see Lendmire’s hard money fix-and-flip loan requirements page.
About Lendmire
Lendmire is a non-QM mortgage brokerage (NMLS# 2371349) arranging DSCR investor loans in 41 markets, including Washington, D.C., through wholesale and investor-lending channels. DSCR loans are evaluated by the lender on rental income rather than personal income, subject to lender guidelines — a fit for LLC-owned portfolios, self-employed investors, and operators scaling beyond conventional loan caps. Recognized as a Scotsman Guide Top Mortgage Workplace in 2025 and 2026.
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References
1. CFPB: What Is a HUD-1 Settlement Statement?
This article is part of Lendmire’s hard money loan program — full qualification details, guidelines, and scenarios live on the program page.
Related reading: Can a Flip Close on Hard Money Without a Full Checklist? · Hard Money Loan to Cost Limits for a Fix and Flip · Hard Money vs Private Money for a First Flip With No Experience
Brandon Miller
Founder & CEO, Mortgage Loan Originator, Lendmire LLC
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Disclosures. The information presented in this article is general market commentary, not financial, legal, or tax advice. Lendmire is a mortgage brokerage (NMLS# 2371349) — not a direct lender or depository institution — and loan placement is subject to lender underwriting. Nothing in this content represents a commitment to lend. Loan terms, pricing, and program availability vary based on borrower qualifications, property characteristics, and state of subject property, and are subject to change at any time. Lendmire complies with Equal Housing Opportunity requirements. Consumer access: nmlsconsumeraccess.org.