Fix and Flip in San Jose

Bigger than almost anywhere else we lend. As of July 2026 the San Jose metro carried a mid-tier single-family home value of $1,709,383, the highest of the 895 metros Zillow tracks a value for, ahead of San Francisco at $1,228,529. The metro median list price that same month was $1,346,944, with the typical listing on the market 40 days and about 31% of active inventory already carrying a price cut. Days on market also swing hard by season, from 23 in February to 55 in December, so a 6-month fix and flip loan that matures into November or December is exiting into the slowest stretch of the year. Size the loan and the listing date together. Run the numbers on the fix and flip calculator before you bid.

The garage conversion is the standard San Jose value-add, and the city has a fee table built for it. The FY 2026-27 Building Division fee schedule explicitly covers "residential garages, unfinished basements and garage/basement/attic conversions" under its addition-or-alteration tables: roughly $3,080 for a project up to 750 sq ft, $4,892 up to 2,250 sq ft, and $7,180 above that, in combined issuance, plan review and inspection fees. Credit card payment on any permit carries a 2.66% surcharge, and any fee bill of $100,000 or more must be paid by check or wire. Build the permit line into the rehab budget before you close, not after the first draw. Our guide on estimating a rehab budget covers how we size that number.

Yes, and it is the line most out-of-area rehabbers miss. San Jose's Building and Structure Construction Tax (SJMC 4.46.050) taxes an alteration, remodel or repair on "twenty percent of the valuation established above or the construction bid cost, whichever is higher." On a flip with a $250,000 hard-cost rehab bid, that means the tax is computed on the full $250,000 bid, not on a nominal 20% valuation, which works out to roughly $3,850 at the residential Building and Structure rate alone. A parallel city tax (the Commercial, Residential, Mobile Home Park Construction Tax) may apply on top of that; confirm the combined figure with the Building Division before you bid a deal on it. Talk to your CPA about how the tax lands on your own return.

Meaningfully higher than the rest of the county, with no owner exemption for an investor. A San Jose purchase is reassessed to the purchase price at close, and the city runs 204 distinct tax rate areas ranging from 1.14310% to 1.31220% of assessed value before a small water district add-on, driven mostly by which school and community college bonds stack on the parcel. On the city's mid-tier home value of $1,391,204, that works out to roughly $16,900 a year at the city's median tax rate area and about $18,300 at its highest, plus a supplemental tax bill triggered by the change of ownership itself. There is no homestead exemption on an investment purchase. On exit, San Jose is one of only three cities in Santa Clara County that charge a city transfer tax on top of the county's $1.10 per $1,000: the combined rate is $4.40 per $1,000 under Measure E's $2.3 million threshold, so a $1.4 million sale pays roughly $6,160 in transfer taxes, against about $1,540 for the identical sale in Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Milpitas or Campbell. Get an actual tax bill and a title company's transfer tax worksheet for the specific parcel, and talk to your CPA about your own numbers.

Get a quote on the specific address before you bid, not after. No primary source publishes a Santa Clara County average homeowners premium or FAIR Plan policy count, so we do not quote one. What is confirmed: San Jose updated its Local Responsibility Area fire hazard severity zone map for public review in 2025, and under state law the city can expand those zones but never shrink them. The exposure in this metro sits at the edges, the east foothills toward Alum Rock, the southern hills toward Almaden and Santa Teresa, and the Santa Cruz Mountains side of Los Gatos and Saratoga, not the valley floor. Statewide, California's FAIR Plan has grown fast and writes only basic named-peril fire coverage, so a FAIR Plan policy still needs a companion policy for liability and other perils. Check the parcel's zone on the City's fire hazard finder and price a real quote into the deal before you close.

Only with your eyes open on the tenant, and it can gate your rehab timeline. San Jose's Tenant Protection Ordinance covers any "Unpermitted Unit," defined as space rented as a home without city authorization, and it gives that tenant just cause eviction protection starting on the first day of tenancy, with no qualifying period. Ending the unpermitted use to do the rehab is itself a listed just cause and requires paying relocation assistance. That converts a garage-conversion flip with a tenant already in place into a relocation and timeline problem before the first permit is even pulled. Underwrite the vacancy and relocation cost, or the delay, before you bid.

About 10% of the purchase, plus closing costs and the city's fee stack. We fund up to 90% of the purchase price and up to 100% of the rehab budget, capped to ARV, on a 6-month interest-only term. On a $1,400,000 San Jose purchase that is up to $1,260,000 from us and $140,000 from you (1,400,000 x 90% = 1,260,000), with rehab drawn against the schedule instead of paid up front. Budget the permit fees and the construction tax on top of that, since both land before the first draw. Subject to underwriting.

We lend from $100,000 to $5,000,000. The floor almost never binds here. The metro's mid-tier single-family value of $1,709,383 is the highest of the 895 metros Zillow tracks a value for, so a routine San Jose flip runs jumbo-sized and the $5,000,000 ceiling is the number to watch. At up to 90% of purchase, a purchase around $5,500,000 already presses that cap before rehab is counted (5,500,000 x 90% = 4,950,000). Send us the address and the rehab budget and we will size it. Subject to underwriting.

Yes. First-time flippers are welcome, and there is no minimum credit score on this program. We do run credit, but on an asset-based loan it carries far less weight than it would at a bank, and there is no hard pull to start. Weaker credit usually shows up as lower leverage rather than a decline. What matters more on a first San Jose deal is that the budget is honest, because the city permit fees and the construction tax on the rehab are the lines first-timers here miss most often. Subject to underwriting.