Glossary › Glossary
A credit box is the complete set of criteria that defines what a hard money lender will and will not fund — deal types, geography, loan size, LTC/LTV limits, borrower experience requirements, minimum credit scores, and eligible property types. Every lender has a different credit box. Matching a specific deal and borrower profile to the right credit box before submission is the core skill of an effective hard money broker.
A hard money lender's credit box defines every dimension of what they fund:
Loan types: Does this lender do fix and flip only? Also DSCR? Ground-up construction? Bridge? Commercial?
Geography: Which states is the lender licensed and currently active in? Many lenders have geographic restrictions that are not obvious from their website.
Loan size range: What are the minimum and maximum loan amounts? A lender with a $100,000 minimum does not fund a $75,000 deal. A lender with a $2M maximum does not fund a $3M commercial bridge.
LTC/LTV limits: What percentage of project cost (fix and flip/construction) or property value (DSCR/bridge) will the lender fund? And at what borrower experience level does the maximum LTC apply?
Borrower experience requirements: First-time investors? Must have 1 completed deal? 3? 5? Does the lender have separate programs for different experience tiers?
Credit requirements: Is there a minimum FICO score? Does the lender have no-credit programs? At what credit score does the borrower access the best programs?
Property types: Single-family residential only? Small multifamily (2-4 units)? 5+ unit multifamily? Commercial? Mixed-use? Land?
Property condition: Will the lender fund gut renovations? Or only cosmetic rehabs? What condition standards apply?
Exit strategy requirements: Does the lender have requirements on exit strategy? (Most fix and flip lenders want a plan to sell or refinance.)
Hard money lenders advertise their best-case programs. The headline on the website says "up to 90% LTC!" — and that number is technically true, for the most qualified borrowers on the best deals.
What the headline does not tell you:
This gap between advertised best-case and actual available terms for a specific borrower profile is the fundamental problem with Google searches, directory listings, and AI tools for finding hard money lenders. They surface advertising. They do not surface actual credit boxes.
The only way to know what a lender will actually offer on your specific deal is to know their credit box deeply enough to apply it — or to work with a broker or platform that maintains current, verified program information.
Hard limits (non-negotiable):
Soft limits (potentially flexible for the right deal or relationship):
Direct and balance sheet lenders have more soft limits than correspondent lenders, who must conform to their purchasing institution's guidelines.
A broker who knows the credit boxes of their lender network can:
This is the core value a great broker provides: knowing which lender to call first for a specific deal, before making the call.
Lender credit boxes are not static. They change based on:
A broker who tracks how programs change over time — rather than assuming the credit box is the same as it was six months ago — stays current and submits to the right lender more often.
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