If you are trying to build, the wrong first click wastes weeks. A spec house, a raw tract, a four-lot plat, and a stalled vertical are four different loans. Jaken Finance Group funds all of those on qualified investor files. The job here is to send you to the facility that matches the dirt in front of you — then to apply.
Construction and bridge pricing on qualified files: 8.99%–13.5% interest-only. Land-only files typically sit at 50%–65% of as-is value. Close targets 10–14 business days when the package is complete. Rental takeout after certificate of occupancy uses DSCR at 5.75%–10.5%.
Start here — match the loan to the collateral
| What you actually have | Facility | Go next |
|---|---|---|
| One lot, house plans, sell or rent at CO | Spec or first ground-up | Spec home construction loans · No-experience ground-up |
| Acreage, no recorded lots | Land bridge | Vacant land loans |
| Four to forty lots, streets, utilities | Subdivision phases | Subdivision financing · A&D loans |
| Scrape, lot split, or leftover grid lot | Infill lot path | Infill lot development financing |
| 5–20 unit garden or stacked rental, not HUD | Multifamily construction | Multifamily construction loans |
| Purpose-built rentals, not MLS sales | Build-to-rent | BTR programs |
| $1 million-plus spec, luxury teardown, or jumbo construction | Jumbo / luxury new construction | Jumbo hard money · Luxury new construction |
| Build already started, budget broken | Mid-construction refinance | Mid-construction refinance |
If two rows both feel true, pick the earlier phase. We can sequence later. We cannot pretend unplatted acreage is a house loan.
Match the loan to what you are building
The table above is the phase. This table is the product. A fourplex still in the dirt is not a rehab file. An ADU is not a spec SFR with a bonus room.
| What you are building | Product | Go next |
|---|---|---|
| One house to sell or rent at CO | Spec or first ground-up | Spec home construction loans · No-experience ground-up |
| Condo building or conversion to sell or hold units | Condo construction | Condo construction loans |
| Attached townhome row, shared walls, short phase | Townhome construction | Townhome construction loans |
| Duplex, triplex, or fourplex from dirt | 2–4 construction | Duplex, triplex, and fourplex construction |
| 5–9 unit missing-middle building | Small multifamily construction | Small multifamily construction |
| 10–20 unit garden or stacked rental, not HUD | Multifamily construction | Multifamily construction loans |
| Scrape, lot split, leftover grid lot | Infill lot path | Infill lot development financing |
| Coach house, garage conversion, backyard cottage | ADU construction | ADU construction loans |
| 4–20 homes on one entitled pad, shared drive or HOA | Small community build | Community build construction loans |
If the dirt is still acreage, ignore this table and stay on land or subdivision. Product type does not turn a hearing calendar into a house loan.
One spec house
This is the most common “I want to build” file. You control a legal lot. Plans exist or are in permit. A GC will build one dwelling. Exit is a retail sale or a rental refinance.
Use spec home construction loans when you already think like a builder: draw schedule, carry to CO, sell-out or lease-up. Use ground-up construction with no experience when this is your first vertical and the GC, budget, and comps have to carry the file. Builder communities and BTR pods sit on spec home and build-to-rent financing.
Do not bring a subdivision absorption study to a one-lot spec. Do not bring a house ARV to a tract that is still acreage.
Worked spec (illustrative). Infill lot $95,000. Vertical budget $310,000. As-completed comps $485,000. Interest-only construction in the 8.99%–13.5% band with inspection draws. Contingency 10%–15% of hard cost. Exit: sell, or DSCR if you hold.
First ground-up without a builder resume
Banks want a stack of prior COs. We underwrite this build: sealed plans, line-item budget, licensed GC bids, land basis, and a sell or refi path. Liquidity still matters. “Trust me” does not.
If the GC is TBD, stop. Hire the contractor before you ask for money. If the budget has no contingency, we will add it or pass. If as-completed comps are stick-built sales from a different product, rebuild the set.
Chicago and DC have local construction pages when the jurisdiction is the risk: new construction loans Chicago and new construction loans Washington DC. Those do not replace the national choice above. They add permit and tax texture.
Vacant land — before any house exists
No structure. No rent. No ARV in the house sense. Leverage is 50%–65% of as-is land on typical files. The exit must be a build plan, a lot split, or a sale of entitled dirt. Vacant land loans own that box.
A rendering of twelve houses is not land value. It is a wish. If your real plan is to plat and install streets, skip ahead to subdivision. If you only need to close the dirt and finish hearings, stay on land.
Small subdivision — lots, not houses
Four to forty lots. You create legal parcels, pay for streets and pipes, then sell lots, build, or JV with a builder. That is a different business than one spec.
Read the subdivision development guide for sequence, absorption, and failure modes. Price the file on subdivision development financing. Entitlement hearings have their own diligence page. Bonding and horizontal costs have theirs.
We will not max house-level LTC on unrecorded acreage. Land stays land until the plat records and lots can be released.
Build-to-rent instead of MLS
If the houses are inventory you intend to hold, takeout is rent, not a buyer’s mortgage. That changes reserves, management, and the permanent loan. Use build-to-rent programs and spec home financing. Do not underwrite a BTR pod as twelve unrelated specs with no lease-up plan.
A two-home rental pair on released lots can still start as vertical construction, then DSCR after occupancy. Say the hold path in the first package.
Stalled mid-build
The original lender is done. The GC walked. Costs blew the remaining draws. If as-is and as-completed value still support a stack, mid-construction refinance is the rescue — not a brand-new land loan.
Bring the original budget, change orders, remaining scope, lien search, and inspector status. We cannot refinance a mess we cannot see.
What we pass, regardless of label
Owner-occupied houses. Park-pad chattel marketed as a “build.” Master-planned amenity communities with a clubhouse rendering, no civil path, and no sponsor cash. A small entitled pod of houses is a different file — that belongs on community build construction. Files that use in-town house comps to value raw fringe acreage. Requests to close in seven days when the plat is not even in for comment.
Passing early is cheaper than funding the wrong phase.
What to send with the first email
Name the row in the table above. Then attach the package that matches it.
Spec / ground-up: plans, budget, GC bid, lot deed or contract, as-completed comps, entity and liquidity.
Land: survey, zoning, environmental flags, hearing calendar, purchase or option, carry through the slow hearing.
Subdivision: civil set or staff comments, bond estimate, lot product, builder interest or self-build plan. See entitlement diligence and horizontal bonding.
Stalled vertical: remaining work, liens, as-is photos, original loan terms, CO path.
New construction application · Submit scenario · Get approved · (833) 264-7776
How leverage is supposed to feel
Land is conservative because it cannot be rented. Horizontal is a construction draw because inspectors can see pipe and stone. Houses are as-completed value with a GC. Mixing those three into one “development loan” with no budgets is how files stall for a month in review.
Interest reserve follows the slow calendar. Hearings continue. Clay sites lose weeks. A six-month flip reserve on a fourteen-month entitlement is how sponsors call in a panic at day 200.
Second example — picking wrong, then right
A sponsor sent a 14-lot sketch and asked for 80% of “retail house value” on 22 acres with no plat, no perc, and no builder letter. That is a pass as a house loan.
The financeable version was a land bridge at 50%–65% while perc and a four-lot by-right split were confirmed. Horizontal would wait for a sealed estimate. Houses would wait for lot release. Same sponsor. Different product. That file can be quoted.
Related construction reading
- Property types: condo · townhome · 2–4 construction · 5–9 missing middle · ADU · community builds
- Guide to construction loans
- Mid-construction refinance
- Ground-up vs fix-and-flip
- Construction vs bridge
- New construction investment property
- State spec examples: Illinois · Florida · Georgia
- City construction: Chicago · Washington DC
- Collar Illinois plats: Will, Kane, and McHenry small-plat financing
Luxury one-off builds are a different buyer pool: luxury new construction loans.
Luxury, ADU, and commercial vertical — nearby, not the same
A Georgetown or Naperville luxury spec is still one house, but the buyer pool and budget language differ. Use luxury new construction when that is the product. Do not put a production-builder absorption study on a one-off custom.
ADUs and coach houses are construction, but the zoning overlay is the risk. Use ADU construction loans for the national product. Ohio, Chicago, and DC have local notes when the ordinance is the file. Do not hide an ADU inside a “spec SFR” label if the city treats it as a second dwelling.
A duplex, triplex, or fourplex built from dirt is residential construction — 2–4 unit construction loans. Five to nine doors is small multifamily construction. A storage conversion or a pad of shops is not this residential box. Point those files at commercial by asset class and say so in the first sentence.
Who should send the file
Investors can apply direct. Loan officers and agents already have ground-up partner guides. GCs and civil engineers should send the same package we listed above, plus their license and a one-page remaining-work summary if the job is underway.
If you are a land broker sitting on a tract under option, do not send a rendering and a max-leverage ask. Send the zoning note and the hearing calendar. We will tell you whether it is land, subdivision, or a pass.
Sequence when you will do more than one phase
Close land only when hearings are the next twelve months of work. Do not pay construction points on dirt that cannot take a shovel.
Open horizontal only when construction plans are bidable. A preliminary plat without quantities is not bidable.
Open vertical only on released lots. A builder contract that closes “when the street is done” is not a released lot.
We can keep one relationship across those steps. We still need three budgets.
Interest, draws, and inspections in plain terms
Interest-only accrues on money that has been drawn, not on a fantasy full commitment you never used. That is why a slow land file and a fast spec file do not cost the same even at the same rate band.
Draws fund after a third-party inspection on vertical and horizontal work. Plan days, not hours, between inspection and wire. Do not schedule subs on the hope that a photo from a phone replaces an inspector.
Contingency is not optional color. 10%–15% of hard cost is the default. Winter climates and first-time GCs should think toward the high end.
Documents that look complete but are not
A site plan is not construction plans. A GC text thread is not a bid. A Zillow estimate is not an as-completed comp. A “will serve” without a date is not capacity. We see all four in the same PDF dump.
Put documents in the order of the table at the top. Label the phase in the filename. Incomplete is fine if it is honest. Misleading is a pass.
What “qualified” means on construction
Track record can be flips. It can be one prior spec. It can be a strong GC and a sponsor with cash. It cannot be a max-leverage request with no plans. Personal guaranty is typical. Entity vesting should match the lot owner.
We finance business-purpose investment property only. If you intend to live in the house, this is the wrong lender.
Statewide vs local pages
This page is national. Illinois spec texture lives on spec home construction loans Illinois. Indiana, Georgia, Florida, Colorado, North Carolina, and DC have matching spec pages. Use them when the permit office is the risk. Use this page when you still do not know which product you are in.
Apply when the phase is honest
The fastest construction files we see are not the prettiest. They are the ones that say “this is land” or “this is one house” or “this is a bonded street” in the first sentence. Pick the row. Send the matching stack. Use newbuild for vertical. Use submit scenario if you are still between land and lots. For a large vertical package, download the large new development loan checklist.
Photos that help, photos that waste time
Send a street view of access, a photo of the existing curb cut, and a photo of any creek or pond. Do not send fifty interior mood-board images of a house that is not permitted. Underwriting is trying to see risk, not staging.
If the build is underway, date-stamp photos of the last completed trade. A week-old photo of framing does not prove dry-in. A photo of standing water in the excavation proves a drainage problem we will ask about anyway.
A simple test before you apply
Can you describe the collateral in one sentence? “One entitled lot with plans.” “Twenty-two acres, hearings not started.” “Nine recorded lots, binder down, lights open.” “Eight townhomes on one pad, HOA not formed.” “Vertical 60% complete, GC lien, remaining drywall.” If you cannot, you are not ready to pick a facility.
When you can, apply. New construction application · Submit scenario · (833) 264-7776
Investor construction examples are nationwide illustrations. Rates, terms, and conditions apply only to qualified borrowers and may change without notice. Jaken Finance Group finances business-purpose investment property, not owner-occupied housing.