Hard money and private lending in Fort Lauderdale — when the deal can’t wait for a committee.

Where private money fits

• Fix-and-flip — acquisition plus rehab budget, priced on after-repair value
• Bridge situations — buy the next property before the last one sells
• Speed-critical purchases — auctions, estate deals, ten-day closings
• Properties banks won't touch yet — condition issues that vanish with renovation
• Fund-level capital — James also works with hedge funds and private lenders placing capital into Florida real estate

Priced honestly, structured with the exit first

Private money costs more — double-digit rates and points are normal — and pretending otherwise is how investors get hurt. Used correctly, it's a cost of doing the deal, carried briefly, repaid by a planned exit. James underwrites the exit before the entry: if the numbers only work in the optimistic column, he'll say so. When they do work, the long-term takeout — usually a DSCR refinance — is mapped on day one, so the bridge is a bridge and not a pier.

The math, worked honestly

Take a representative flip: a $500,000 acquisition at 75% LTV. The loan is $375,000; at a 10.5% rate the interest-only carry is about $3,280 a month, and two points cost $7,500 at closing — the calculator above runs your own numbers. Hold it six months and the financing cost is roughly $27,000 all-in. That number belongs in the deal spreadsheet next to purchase, rehab, taxes, insurance, utilities and selling costs — and the project only works if the spread survives all of them plus a contingency for the month the permit sits on a desk. James has watched two decades of flips: the profitable ones budgeted the carry; the painful ones "figured the rehab would be done by then."

What the lender actually underwrites — and what you should

• As-is and after-repair value. The loan sizes off the property, so the comps carry the file. Bring real ones — the lender's reviewer will.
• The budget and the crew. A scoped rehab budget from a contractor who's done this before, not a per-square-foot guess. Rehab-inclusive loans fund in draws against completed work.
• The exit, in writing. Sale: comps and days-on-market for the finished product. Refinance: the projected rent and DSCR — James runs the takeout qualification before the bridge closes, so you're never holding a finished rental that can't refinance.
• Your skin and your track record. Cash in the deal and completed projects both price the loan down. First deal? Expect more equity required and say so up front — it's fine, everyone has a first.

Red flags James screens out early

Deals where the profit only exists at an aspirational ARV; budgets with no contingency; exits that depend on a market condition holding for a year; and borrowers stacking a bridge on top of maxed personal credit. A quarter of the value of a good private-money broker is the deals he talks you out of. The renovation-loan route is sometimes the better instrument for owner-occupants doing the same project math with cheaper money and slower timelines — worth one conversation before committing to either.