Ask a hard money lender what their rate is and watch what happens. Most will tell you "it depends on the deal" and route you to an application. Some will quote a range so wide it's meaningless — "9% to 14%, 1 to 5 points." A few will quote you a number, and then quietly hand you a term sheet at closing with a different one. We don't run any of those plays. Here's exactly how Harvey Capital Funding prices a loan, why our menu has three rows instead of a black box, and how to compare us to a lender who won't show you the same numbers.
Why Most Lenders Hide The Number
It's not because pricing is genuinely complex. A hard money loan has four levers: term, points, interest rate, and flat fees. That's it. Any lender can show you their grid in 30 seconds.
The reason they don't is that opacity is profitable. If you don't know what the market price is, you can't tell when you're being marked up. Lenders who quote ranges are protecting their ability to charge the higher end to anyone who doesn't push back. Lenders who quote a "rate" but bury origination fees, processing fees, document prep fees, wire fees, and inspection fees in the term sheet are doing the same thing — moving the cost into a place you're less likely to compare.
We think that's a bad way to run a business. So we built the opposite.
The HCF Rate Sheet
Three options. Same loan-to-purchase, same loan-to-value cap, same fee structure. The borrower picks based on how long the project actually takes:
| Option | Term | Points | Rate | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sprint | 3 months | 1 pt | 13% | Quick cosmetic flips, light scope |
| Standard | 6 months | 3 pts | 12% | Typical fix-and-flip — our default |
| Extended | 9 months | 5 pts | 11% | Heavy rehab, BRRRR, complex permits |
Every loan also gets:
- $995 flat fee at closing (no junk fees stacked on top)
- Up to 100% renovation financing, paid in draws against completed work
- Two 90-day extensions available at 2 points each, if the project runs long
- No prepayment penalty — pay it off the day you close on the flip, no extra charge
- Up to 70% LTV cap on the as-repaired value
That's the whole menu. There is no fourth option we're hiding for "qualified" borrowers.
Why Three Options Instead of One
Different projects have different honest timelines. A cosmetic flip in a working-class Richmond neighborhood — paint, floors, bath refresh, list — is a 90-day job. A full gut on a 1920s Fan District row house with permits, structural work, and a custom kitchen is not. Pricing both at the same rate punishes the fast borrower and underprices the slow one.
The menu does two things at once:
- Yields HCF the same return regardless of which option the borrower picks. Sprint at 1 point and 13% over 3 months produces the same gross yield to us as Extended at 5 points and 11% over 9 months. We don't care which one you pick — we built it so we don't have to.
- Forces the borrower to be honest about timeline. If you tell us it's a 3-month flip and it actually takes 7 months, you'll pay an extension fee that costs more than if you had picked Standard at the start. The menu self-polices.
That's not a trick. It's a feature. We'd rather a borrower pick the right product up front than have us guess for them.
What "Dutch Interest" Means and Why It Matters
This is the part most lenders don't explain because it sounds worse than it is — until you do the math.
HCF charges Dutch interest, which means the borrower pays interest on the full committed loan amount from day one, including the renovation holdback, whether or not it's been drawn yet.
Here's why this is actually fairer than the alternative:
- A $200K loan with $50K reno held back means the lender has reserved $250K of capital for the borrower. That capital can't be deployed elsewhere. Charging interest only on the drawn portion would force the lender to either price the loan higher up front to cover the unused reserve, or stop offering reno holdbacks at all.
- Dutch interest keeps the headline rate honest. A 12% Dutch loan and a 14% non-Dutch loan with the same draw schedule end up at almost the same total cost — but only one of them tells you the real number on the rate sheet.
On a typical 6-month, $200K Standard loan with a $50K reno budget drawn evenly, the Dutch math costs the borrower roughly an extra 1.5–2 percentage points of effective annualized interest versus a non-Dutch alternative. We disclose it in plain English at the term sheet, in the loan agreement, and on this page. No surprises.
A Real $250K Flip, Every Fee on the Table
Here's the math on a Standard 6-month loan against a $250K purchase with a $50K renovation budget. Assume HCF lends 95% of purchase plus 100% of reno — that's $237,500 at closing plus a $50K reno reserve, total $287,500 committed.
| Cost | Amount |
|---|---|
| 3 points on $287,500 commitment | $8,625 |
| Flat closing fee | $995 |
| Dutch interest at 12% on $287,500 for 6 months | $17,250 |
| Total cost of capital over 6 months | $26,870 |
That's it. No origination fee on top of points. No document prep. No "processing." No "underwriting." No wire fee. No inspection fee for the draws. The number on the term sheet is the number you pay.
Compare that to a competitor quoting "12% and 2 points" on the same deal. By the time they're done — origination 1%, processing $1,500, document prep $750, wire $50, three draw inspections at $250 each — you're paying more than HCF, except you didn't see it until closing.
How to Compare Us to Anyone Else
When you're shopping a hard money loan, ignore the headline rate and ask three questions:
- What's the all-in cost in dollars over the life of the loan? Make the lender add up every fee, every point, and every dollar of interest at the projected payoff date. If they can't or won't, that's the answer.
- Is the interest Dutch or non-Dutch? Both are legitimate. Just know which one you're being quoted, and adjust the rate comparison accordingly.
- What does the term sheet look like at closing versus the LOI? Ask up front: "Are there any fees on the closing term sheet that won't be on the initial quote?" Get the answer in writing.
If a lender's number gets bigger between the first conversation and the closing table, that's not a hard money loan — that's a hard money trap.
Why We Publish All of This
We could charge more if we kept the menu hidden. We're not going to. Borrowers who do real volume in Central VA talk to each other, and a lender that needs opacity to win deals isn't a lender we want to be. The rate sheet on this page is the rate sheet. If you want to run the numbers on a specific deal, our calculator at harveycapitalfunding.com/investor-calculators takes you through it line by line, or fill out Discuss My Deal and we'll send you a real term sheet — same numbers as this article — within 24 hours.