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North Carolina Hard Money and Investor Loans
North Carolina runs on clerk hearings, upset bids, and attorney closings.
USA Mortgage funds investors across North Carolina. This page is about the rules you close under here: how a power of sale actually runs, what the state charges to record a conveyance, why an attorney sits at your closing, and how county revaluation moves your carry. For what a specific market is doing, go to the metro page. Business-purpose loans only, and every structure is set in underwriting.
We decide in house, so you get a term sheet the same day.
We lend on North Carolina rules
Clerk hearings, upset bids, and attorney closings change how a deal runs here, and we underwrite to them.
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 North Carolina
Acquisition through exit, all funded or arranged by one lender.
Fix and Flip in North CarolinaRental / DSCR in North CarolinaGround-Up Construction in North CarolinaCRE Bridge in North CarolinaTransactional Funding in North CarolinaBank Statement / No-Doc in North CarolinaConventional Investment in North CarolinaPortfolio Loans in North CarolinaCRE Permanent in North CarolinaSBA Financing in North Carolina
North Carolina lending questions
Do you lend across all of North Carolina?
Yes, statewide, on business-purpose loans only. The law on this page is the same in every county. What is not the same is the local layer, and North Carolina spreads out in two directions. The Piedmont metros sit hundreds of miles inland, in the standard insurance market, and pay only the state conveyance tax. The far northeastern coastal counties are the outlier: seven of them add a local land transfer tax, and the coastal wind pool writes only in eligible coastal counties. Then the county property tax calendars diverge, because Mecklenburg revalued effective January 1, 2023 on a four-year cycle and Wake revalued effective January 1, 2024 and then shortened its own cycle. For what a market is actually doing, read the metro page: Charlotte, Raleigh, or Greensboro.
Does a business-purpose lender need a mortgage license in North Carolina?
The North Carolina SAFE Act does not reach a business-purpose loan to an entity, by its own definition. NCGS 53-244.030(30) defines a "residential mortgage loan" as a loan "made to one or more individuals primarily for personal, family, or household use" secured by a dwelling in this state. There are two gates in that sentence and a loan like ours fails both: the borrower is an LLC or a corporation rather than one or more individuals, and the purpose is business rather than personal, family, or household. The licensing trigger in NCGS 53-244.040 attaches to engaging in the mortgage business or acting as a mortgage loan originator, both defined around residential mortgage loans. Purpose is a facts-and-circumstances test, so we document it, and we do not lend on owner-occupied homes. The Commissioner of Banks has not published guidance on this point that we could locate, so this reading rests on the statutory text. Ask your own counsel about your structure.
How does foreclosure actually work in North Carolina?
Power of sale, but through the clerk of superior court, and the sale is not final at the hammer. Before a power of sale runs, NCGS 45-21.16 requires a hearing before the clerk of superior court, on notice served at least 10 days out, where the clerk must find a valid debt held by the party foreclosing, default, a right to foreclose under the instrument, and notice to those entitled to it. Notice of sale under NCGS 45-21.17 is posted at the courthouse at least 20 days ahead, published once a week for two successive weeks, and mailed at least 20 days ahead. Then comes the part that surprises out-of-state investors: under NCGS 45-21.27 any person may file an upset bid within 10 days of the report of sale, raising the price by the greater of 5% or $750, and each upset bid restarts the 10-day clock. Secondary practice sources put filing to sale at roughly 60 to 90 days, and first missed payment to completed sale in the 4 to 9 month range, which are practice ranges rather than statute. Every party to a North Carolina deal should underwrite that calendar.
What does North Carolina charge to transfer and record property?
Very little, by national standards. The state excise tax on conveyances under NCGS 105-228.30 is one dollar per $500 of consideration, which is 0.2%, and the statute puts it on the transferor, payable to the register of deeds before recording. On a $400,000 sale that is $800 (400,000 divided by 500 = 800, times $1). Recording is a flat fee under NCGS 161-10: $64 for the first 35 pages of a deed of trust plus $4 per additional page, and $26 for the first 15 pages of a deed plus $4 per page after. There is no mortgage tax or intangibles tax on the note, so financing a North Carolina purchase does not carry the doc-stamp cost some states charge. The exception is seven far-northeastern coastal counties, Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Pasquotank, Perquimans, and Washington, which add a local land transfer tax of $1 per $100 under 1980s local acts. None of them touches the Charlotte, Raleigh, or Greensboro markets.
Why does an attorney close my North Carolina deal instead of a title company?
Because the State Bar reads the unauthorized-practice statutes that way. Authorized Practice Advisory Opinion 2002-1 says a non-attorney may not handle a residential real estate closing in North Carolina: no title opinions, no explaining the legal status of title, no advice on how to take title, no drafting legal documents. A non-lawyer may present and identify documents, direct where to sign, and receive and disburse closing funds, and the attorney does not have to be physically present, but a licensed North Carolina attorney has to be responsible for the closing. The practical version for an investor: every purchase and every refinance runs through a closing attorney's trust account, not a title company escrow desk. The opinion addresses residential transactions, and we are not going to extrapolate it to commercial closings. Line up your closing attorney early and ask them how they handle investor volume.
Is there a usury cap on a North Carolina investment loan?
Not on an exempt loan, and a business-purpose entity loan is exempt twice over. NCGS 24-9 exempts a loan from Chapter 24's rate and fee limitations if any one of three things is true: the loan amount is $300,000 or more, the borrower is a person other than a natural person, or a natural person borrows primarily for a purpose other than a personal, family, or household purpose. An LLC borrowing for a rental or a rehab clears the second and third on its own. Even outside 24-9, NCGS 24-1.1 lets parties contract for any rate agreed upon above $25,000 of principal, and sets a published ceiling only at or below that. The reason to cite 24-9 anyway is that it lifts Chapter 24's fee limitations too, not just the rate ceiling. None of this means consumer protections were waived. These simply are not consumer loans, and we do not make consumer loans.
How does North Carolina property tax hit my carry?
It moves in steps, not in a smooth line, and the step can be large. NCGS 105-286 requires counties to reappraise all real property at least every eight years on a staggered statewide schedule, with counties above 75,000 population forced to advance a reappraisal if their sales-assessment ratio drifts below 0.85 or above 1.15, and any county free to adopt a shorter cycle. Between revaluations assessed values are frozen, so market appreciation is not captured until the next one, effective burden drifts down late in a cycle, and then jumps. Mecklenburg revalued effective January 1, 2023 on a four-year cycle with the next in 2027. Wake revalued effective January 1, 2024, with the next in 2027 and a two-year cycle starting 2029. There is no homestead cap and no investor surcharge here; all real property is taxed at one local rate. Underwrite the reval, not the seller's current bill. Rates and local stacks belong to the metro pages: Charlotte and Raleigh.
What does North Carolina tax my rental income and my entity?
A flat individual rate, a falling corporate rate, and for most investors no franchise tax at all. The individual income tax is flat and stepping down on a statutory schedule: 4.75% in 2023, 4.5% in 2024, 4.25% in 2025, and 3.99% in 2026. Further cuts below that depend on revenue triggers we have not verified, so do not plan past 2026 off this page. The corporate rate is phasing out on its own schedule, 2.0% for 2026 and 2027, then 1.0%, 0.5%, and zero from 2030. Franchise tax is $1.50 per $1,000 of net worth with a $200 minimum, but an LLC taxed as a partnership or a disregarded entity, the standard investor vehicle, does not pay North Carolina franchise tax unless it elects corporate treatment. Confirm all of it with your North Carolina CPA before you set up the structure.
What credit score do I need to borrow in North Carolina?
It depends on the program, and on several of them there is no minimum. Our asset-based loans, meaning fix and flip, commercial bridge, and ground up construction, carry no minimum score. We pull credit, but it weighs far less than it would at a bank, and weak 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 North Carolina file. Subject to underwriting.
What is the smallest loan you will write in North Carolina?
$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. Worth noting on the small end: a loan of $300,000 or more is exempt from Chapter 24 on size alone under NCGS 24-9, while a smaller entity loan is exempt on the borrower and the purpose instead. Subject to underwriting.
How much do I have to put down on a North Carolina 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 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 0.2% state excise tax on your exit, since North Carolina puts it on the transferor. Subject to underwriting.
Serving North Carolina and nearby
CharlotteRaleighGreensboroDurhamWinston-SalemFayettevilleWilmingtonAsheville
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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 2026-08-12.
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