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Georgia Hard Money and Investor Loans
Georgia closes through an attorney and taxes the note, not the deed.
USA Mortgage funds investors across Georgia. This is a security deed state: legal title sits with the lender, foreclosure runs non-judicially on the first Tuesday, and every closing goes through a Georgia attorney rather than an escrow desk. Business-purpose loans only, and every structure is set in underwriting.
We decide in house, so you get a term sheet the same day.
Built for Georgia's closing rules
Every Georgia closing runs through an attorney, in person. We work to that calendar instead of fighting it.
Direct lender, no broker
We underwrite and fund in-house. No middle layer slowing down your close.
Every investor strategy
Flips, rentals, new construction, bridge, and portfolio loans, all under one roof.
Loan programs in Georgia
Acquisition through exit, all funded or arranged by one lender.
Georgia lending questions
Do you lend across all of Georgia?
Yes, statewide. Metro Atlanta is our deepest Georgia market, and the state law below is the same in every county. Georgia is a security deed state: under O.C.G.A. 44-14-60 a deed to secure debt passes title to the lender until the debt is fully paid, and it "shall not be held to be a mortgage." Say security deed here, not mortgage. What changes at the county line is the millage stack, the legal organ that carries a foreclosure advertisement, and the superior court clerk you record with. Market conditions live on the metro pages, not on this one. Every loan is business-purpose only, on investment property, and terms are subject to underwriting. See loan programs or talk to us.
Who actually closes a real estate loan in Georgia?
A Georgia attorney, and that is a Supreme Court of Georgia holding rather than a local custom. In re UPL Advisory Opinion 2003-2 approved the State Bar committee's position that preparing and facilitating the execution of a deed of conveyance by a non-attorney is the unauthorized practice of law, that the work cannot be delegated to a non-lawyer, and that a Georgia attorney must be physically present at the closing. Telephone supervision of a non-lawyer closer was treated as insufficient, and the opinion aimed at witness-only closings run by signing agents. So there is no "our title company runs escrow" path in Georgia. The attorney holds and disburses the money, which is why you pick the firm before you go under contract rather than after. Georgia also has no remote online notarization for its own notaries, pandemic-era authority having lapsed in 2022, so do not build a Georgia file around signing remotely. Confirm the current position with your closing attorney.
What does Georgia charge me on the purchase itself?
Very little. The transfer tax here is 0.10 percent. O.C.G.A. 48-6-1 sets it at $1.00 for the first $1,000 of consideration and 10 cents for each additional $100, once consideration passes $100. On a $400,000 purchase that is $400 ($1 on the first $1,000, plus 3,990 additional $100 units x $0.10 = $399). Payment to the superior court clerk, with the actual consideration disclosed on the prescribed form, is a prerequisite to recording under 48-6-4, and no statute assigns the cost to a particular party. Two exemptions matter to an investor: the security deed itself is never transfer-taxed under 48-6-2(a)(1), and neither is the deed from the debtor to the first transferee at a foreclosure sale under 48-6-2(a)(7.1). Custom in Georgia puts the transfer tax on the seller, but custom is negotiable and it is not a rule.
What is the Georgia intangible recording tax, and will my loan pay it?
It is a tax on the note, and the answer turns on one line: 62 months. O.C.G.A. 48-6-61 charges $1.50 for each $500 or fraction of the face amount of a note secured by Georgia real property, which is $3.00 per $1,000, about 0.30 percent. But under 48-6-60(3), as amended by HB 586 effective July 1, 2025, a note is long-term and taxable only if any part of principal falls due more than 62 months from the date of the note or the security instrument. So a 12 to 24 month flip, construction, bridge or transactional note pays zero, a 5-year balloon on 30-year amortization pays zero, and a true 30-year note is taxable: on a $400,000 note that is $1,200 (400,000 / 500 = 800 units x $1.50 = $1,200). The cap is $25,000 on a single note. The county collects from the holder, who may pass the amount on to the borrower but may not treat it as part of the finance charge. Ask your closing attorney to price it on your actual term.
Does Georgia cap the rate on an investor loan?
Georgia's usury structure is tiered by loan amount, not by borrower type. Under O.C.G.A. 7-4-2(a)(1)(A) the legal rate is 7 percent simple where no written contract sets one, and the parties may contract for any rate and any manner of repayment or prepayment where the principal is more than $3,000 and less than $250,000, except as Code Section 7-4-18 provides. At $250,000 or more, 7-4-2(a)(1)(B) lets the parties set any rate and charges by written contract. Separately, 7-4-2(a)(3) says amounts paid as an origination fee or discount points on a loan secured by real estate are not interest and are not counted in calculating it. Do not read any of that as "Georgia has no usury limit": O.C.G.A. 7-4-18 makes taking more than 5 percent per month, by any contrivance, a misdemeanor, and says nothing in 7-4-2 modifies it. Every loan we write sits well inside these rules. Your Georgia counsel should review the note.
Should I take title to a Georgia investment property in an LLC?
Talk to your attorney, but know why the question is sharper in Georgia than elsewhere. Georgia's mortgage licensing law keys on the borrower's legal form, not the loan's purpose. O.C.G.A. 7-1-1000(21) defines a mortgage loan as credit made to a natural person secured by an interest in one-to-four family residential property in Georgia, with no purpose limiter, and the exemptions in 7-1-1001(a) contain nothing for business purpose, investor property, or non-owner-occupied collateral. So the same 1-4 family investment deal sits inside that definition when the borrower is an individual and outside it when the borrower is an entity, and loans on 5-plus unit multifamily, commercial property or raw land sit outside regardless. That is one more reason Georgia investor deals are usually papered to an LLC. There is also a $10 GRMA per-loan fee under 7-1-1011, paid by the borrower at closing on loans inside the same definition. Raise the titling question before you go under contract.
How do Georgia property taxes work on an investment property?
Everything is assessed at 40 percent of fair market value, and the sale price caps next year. O.C.G.A. 48-5-7(a) taxes all real property on 40 percent of fair market value at the local millage, so the effective rate is millage x 0.40: ten mills on a $500,000 property is $2,000 (500,000 x 0.40 x 0.010 = 2,000). The best line in the code for a buyer is 48-5-2(3): the amount of the most recent arm's length sale is the maximum allowable fair market value for the next taxable year, and 48-5-2(.1) counts a distress, short, bank or public auction sale as arm's length. Buy at auction for $180,000 and the assessor may not value above $180,000 for that next year, though the cap runs one taxable year, not forever. Your annual notice of assessment must be mailed no later than July 1, and 48-5-306 gives you 45 days from the notice date to appeal in writing or lose the right. Millage rates belong to the county, so check the Atlanta page or ask us about the county your deal sits in.
What credit score do I need to borrow in Georgia?
It depends entirely on the program. On our asset-based loans, meaning fix and flip, bridge, and ground up construction, there is no minimum score. We run credit, but it carries far less weight than it would at a bank, and weaker credit is usually answered with lower leverage rather than a decline. DSCR and bank statement loans start at 640, conventional investment starts at 580, and transactional funding runs with no credit check at all. There is no hard pull to open a Georgia file. Subject to underwriting.
What is the smallest loan you will write in Georgia?
$100,000 on most residential programs. Fix and flip, DSCR, and bank statement loans all start there. Portfolio loans start at $500,000 across five or more properties, and SBA starts at $350,000. At the top, fix and flip and construction run to $5,000,000, DSCR and bank statement to $3,000,000, and commercial bridge to $10,000,000. Georgia has real inventory under the floor outside the metro counties, so check the number before you tie up a contract. Subject to underwriting.
How much do I have to put down on a Georgia deal?
Anywhere from nothing to 30%, depending on the program. Fix and flip funds up to 90% of purchase plus up to 100% of rehab, so on a $400,000 Georgia purchase that is $360,000 from us and $40,000 from you (400,000 x 90% = 360,000). DSCR and conventional investment run up to 80% LTV, commercial bridge up to 75%, construction up to 70% of value and 85% of cost, and SBA finances up to 90%. Transactional funding covers up to 100% of the A-to-B purchase. Budget the Georgia closing separately: the attorney's fee, the 0.10 percent transfer tax, and the intangible recording tax if your note runs past 62 months. Subject to underwriting.
Serving Georgia and nearby
AtlantaSavannahAugustaColumbusMaconAthensMariettaAlpharetta
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About the local figures on this page
Local rules move. Every tax rate, fee, ordinance and market figure here comes from a primary source and carries the date we read it, and we correct them as the rules change. Where a number is mid-change or we could not verify it, we say so rather than guess. Before you commit a budget, confirm anything that drives it with the city or county, and talk to your attorney or CPA on questions of law or tax.
Published by USA Mortgage Funding, LLC, NMLS #152588. Researched from primary sources by our team, drafted with AI assistance, and every figure checked against its source before publishing. Where an answer rests on a public record, that record is linked under it. Figures read on 2026-08-23.
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