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Santa Rosa Hard Money and Investor Loans

Out here the county regulates the landlord harder than the county seat does.

USA Mortgage funds investors across Sonoma County. Wildfire history shapes every insurance quote here. Only Santa Rosa is growing in this county. Business-purpose loans only, terms set in underwriting.

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

Second Mortgage

Second mortgage on a Santa Rosa rental, first lien kept.

Second mortgages on Santa Rosa and Sonoma County investment property, $50K to $1M, up to 80% CLTV. Business purpose only. Subject to underwriting.

$1M
max loan
80%
max CLTV
660
min FICO
3-4 weeks
to close

Typical terms, subject to underwriting and market conditions. Investment property and business purpose only. Not a commitment to lend.

The county regulates harder than the city

Unincorporated Sonoma County's Ordinance 6496 makes just cause protection start on day one of a lease and lets a tenant raise a nonpayment defense twice a year before a default counts as at-fault cause. Santa Rosa itself has no local ordinance and runs on the statewide Tenant Protection Act alone, so the same rental behaves differently depending on which side of the city line it sits.

Exit taxes depend on which city line you're in

Santa Rosa and Petaluma each stack a $2.00 per $1,000 city transfer tax on top of Sonoma County's $1.10, with no exemption for assumed loans on the city portion. The other six cities on our list charge only the county rate, so an identical exit prices differently by which city line it sits inside, not by the property.

The fire maps moved, and the premium followed

Cal Fire's 2025 remap cut the City of Santa Rosa's very high hazard acreage while the unincorporated county's very high acreage rose sharply. A parcel's insurance quote now depends on which side of a map line drawn in 2025 it falls on, and that line can move again.

Loan programs in Santa Rosa

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

Second Mortgage in Santa RosaFix and Flip in Santa RosaRental / DSCR in Santa RosaGround-Up Construction in Santa RosaCRE Bridge in Santa RosaTransactional Funding in Santa RosaBank Statement / No-Doc in Santa RosaConventional Investment in Santa RosaPortfolio Loans in Santa RosaCRE Permanent in Santa RosaSBA Financing in Santa Rosa

Santa Rosa lending questions

Do you lend in Santa Rosa and across Sonoma County?
Yes. We fund investors across Sonoma County, including Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Windsor, Healdsburg, Sonoma, Sebastopol, and Cotati. We lend in most states with our own capital. We are headquartered in Bee Cave, Texas, and every loan is business-purpose only, on investment property, and terms are subject to underwriting. Apply now.
How does Sonoma County's tenant protection ordinance differ from Santa Rosa's own rules?
The county goes further than the city, which is the reverse of the usual pattern. Santa Rosa has no local rent or just-cause ordinance of its own: a 2016 rent stabilization measure was repealed by voters at referendum in 2017, so the statewide Tenant Protection Act is the only floor inside city limits. Unincorporated Sonoma County adopted its own Residential Tenancy Protections Ordinance in September 2024, which starts just-cause protection on day one of occupancy, lets a tenant raise a nonpayment defense up to two times a year before a default becomes at-fault cause, and sets relocation pay on a no-fault move at the greater of actual rent or HUD Fair Market Rent. The ordinance removed only the affordable-housing exemption from the state law, not the single-family exemption. Talk to your attorney about the rules for your specific parcel. See the DSCR program. Subject to underwriting.
Why do exit costs vary so much between cities in Sonoma County?
Because two of the eight cities we serve stack a second transfer tax and six do not. Sonoma County charges $0.55 per $500 of price ($1.10 per $1,000) on every transfer. Santa Rosa and Petaluma each add their own $2.00 per $1,000 city tax on top, with no exemption for assumed loans on that city portion. On an $815,000 Santa Rosa exit that is roughly $2,527 total against about $897 in a city like Healdsburg or Windsor that levies no city tax at all (815,000 x 0.0031 versus 815,000 x 0.0011, county rate only). Property tax rates vary by city too: the most common total ad valorem rate ranges from about 1.12% in the City of Sonoma to about 1.19% in Cloverdale. Talk to your CPA about the numbers on your specific parcel. See portfolio loans. Subject to underwriting.
Is Sonoma County a growing market right now?
No, and the exception is worth knowing. Sonoma County's population fell from 484,764 to 484,022 between January 2025 and January 2026, a 0.15% decline, and the unincorporated area and most of the county's cities lost residents over that period. Santa Rosa was the one jurisdiction with meaningful growth, from 178,786 to 179,798, up 0.57%. This is a high-basis, constrained-supply market, where the case for lending rests on entitlement, insurability, and repositioning existing stock rather than on population growth. See the fix and flip program. Subject to underwriting.
Why does a direct lender matter in a market like Sonoma County?
Because the biggest risk to your deal here shows up in the insurance quote, not the appraisal, and that changes fast. This county burned three times in four years, the Tubbs, Kincade, and Glass fires, and Cal Fire's 2025 hazard-zone remap raised the very high hazard acreage in the unincorporated county while cutting it inside Santa Rosa city limits. A file that stalls in a correspondent queue can miss a quote that changes underneath it. We fund with our own capital and underwrite the deal ourselves, so a Sonoma County file gets a decision from the people who actually looked at it. See the CRE bridge program. Subject to underwriting.
Serving Santa Rosa and nearby
Santa RosaPetalumaRohnert ParkWindsorHealdsburgSonomaSebastopolCotati
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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 2026-08-28.

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