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San Francisco Hard Money and Investor Loans

One certificate of occupancy date decides what you can charge, and when.

USA Mortgage funds investors across the San Francisco Bay Area. Transfer tax turns on your price, not your rate. Rent regulation shifts by city, and sometimes by block. Business-purpose loans only, terms set in underwriting.

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You hear the decision from the people who underwrote your deal.

The transfer tax cliffs can outweigh a year of rate spread

San Francisco's transfer tax applies to the entire sale price once a threshold is crossed, not just the amount above it. Crossing $10,000,000 adds $325,000 in tax, and crossing $5,000,000 adds $75,000, both larger than a full year of a 100 basis point rate difference on the same loan.

One date, not the neighborhood, decides a rental's rent cap

San Francisco's rent control line sits at June 13, 1979: multi-unit properties with a certificate of occupancy on or before that date fall under the annual increase cap, while newer units are exempt from the cap but still carry just-cause eviction protections. Pull the certificate of occupancy date before you underwrite a rent roll.

A mandatory seismic retrofit can also be the path to more units

Pre-1978 wood-frame buildings of five or more residential units and two or more stories over a basement fall under San Francisco's mandatory soft-story retrofit program. The same seismic upgrade also qualifies a building for unlimited accessory dwelling units under San Francisco's ADU rules, so a required capital cost and a density opportunity land on the same building at the same time.

Loan programs in San Francisco

Acquisition through exit, all funded or arranged by one lender.

Fix and Flip in San FranciscoRental / DSCR in San FranciscoGround-Up Construction in San FranciscoCRE Bridge in San FranciscoTransactional Funding in San FranciscoBank Statement / No-Doc in San FranciscoConventional Investment in San FranciscoPortfolio Loans in San FranciscoCRE Permanent in San FranciscoSBA Financing in San Francisco

San Francisco lending questions

Do you lend across the whole Bay Area, not just the city of San Francisco?
Yes, across the metro. We fund deals in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Hayward, Richmond, Concord, Daly City, and San Rafael, spanning San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, and Marin counties. USA Mortgage is a direct, business-purpose lender funding deals with our own capital in most states. Every loan is business-purpose only and terms are subject to underwriting. Financing across several of those cities at once? See San Francisco portfolio loan terms. See how we lend across California or talk to us.
How does San Francisco's transfer tax actually work, and why does it matter to my underwriting?
It is tiered on the entire price, not just the amount above each threshold, and the cliffs are steep. The City and County of San Francisco charges 0.50% to 6.00% depending on the whole consideration, applied to the full price once a threshold is crossed: a sale at $9,999,999 owes $225,000 while $10,000,000 owes $550,000, a $325,000 jump for one dollar of price. The rate also reaches transfers of legal entities that own San Francisco property and leaseholds of 35 years or more, so buying the LLC instead of the building does not avoid it. Cities outside San Francisco proper set their own transfer tax rates, so do not assume this schedule applies anywhere else in the metro. See CRE bridge loans. Subject to underwriting.
Does San Francisco have rent control on my rental property?
It depends on one date: whether the unit's certificate of occupancy is on or before June 13, 1979. Multi-unit properties built by that date fall under the local rent cap, currently a 1.6% annual increase limit through February 2027; single-family homes sit outside it. Newer units are exempt from the price cap but not from just-cause eviction protections, which have applied since 2020. A single-family home can escape the statewide AB 1482 cap too, but only if title is not held by a corporation, REIT, or an LLC with a corporate member. Talk to your attorney or CPA before setting a rent increase or serving a notice. See the DSCR program. Subject to underwriting.
Can I underwrite a San Francisco purchase off the seller's tax bill?
No. Every sale resets the assessed value to your purchase price, not the seller's. San Francisco's secured property tax rate for FY 2025-26 is 1.18268325%, so a purchase closing between January and May triggers two supplemental bills outside the normal December and April cycle, mailed within 60 days of the assessment notice; a June-through-December close triggers one. An impound account set from the seller's prior bill will come up short, worst on properties the seller held longest. Talk to your CPA about your specific parcel. See portfolio loans. Subject to underwriting.
Can I buy a San Francisco property and run it as a short-term rental?
Not as an investor. Certified hosts must live in the unit at least 275 nights a year, must have slept there at least 60 consecutive nights before applying, and may register only one unit even if they own an entire building; ADUs cannot be short-term rented at all. Violations carry penalties of at least $484 per day per unit. That closes off the whole-home nightly-rate model most out-of-state investors expect from a coastal metro. See the DSCR program. Subject to underwriting.
What credit score do I need to borrow on a San Francisco investment property?
It depends on the program, and on our asset-based loans there is no minimum score at all. Fix and flip, bridge, and construction loans are underwritten on the property and the equity, so credit carries far less weight than at a bank, and weaker credit is usually offset with lower leverage rather than a decline. Our DSCR and bank statement programs start at 640, conventional investment starts at 580, and transactional funding has no credit check at all. There is no hard credit pull to start. See where you fit. Subject to underwriting.
How much do I need to put down on a San Francisco investment property?
Between roughly 10% and 25%, depending on the program. A fix and flip runs to 90% of the purchase price, so a $800,000 buy is up to $720,000 from us and $80,000 from you (800,000 x 90% = 720,000). DSCR, bank statement, and conventional investment run to 80% LTV, so the same $800,000 purchase is $640,000 from us and $160,000 from you (800,000 x 80% = 640,000). A commercial bridge runs to 75% LTV. Add the transfer tax and a first-year property tax reset to whatever number you land on, because both are cash at or near closing here. Apply now. Subject to underwriting.
What is the smallest loan you will write in San Francisco?
$100,000 on most of our residential investor programs. Fix and flip, DSCR, and bank statement loans all start there. SBA starts at $350,000, and a blanket portfolio loan starts at $500,000 across five or more properties. Those floors are rarely the binding constraint in this metro, where entry prices sit well above most of the country, so the practical question is usually the ceiling and the leverage rather than the minimum. See how we lend across California. Subject to underwriting.
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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 2026-08-21.

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