Frequently asked questions
The Questions Investors Actually Ask.
58 straight answers on borrowing against Connecticut investment property and investing in the loans we write. Search it, or browse by topic.
Searches every question and answer on this page. Nothing here is a quote or a commitment to lend.
58 questions across 8 topics
Borrowing
Loan Programs
Two programs, one direct lender: short-term bridge capital for the work you are about to do, and 30-year rental loans against the rent a property already collects.
It comes down to what happens to the property next. Buying something to renovate and resell points to a fix and flip bridge loan — short-term, interest-only money sized against the purchase price and the rehab budget. Buying or refinancing something to hold and rent points to a DSCR rental loan, a 30-year note that qualifies on the rent the property collects.
If the plan is to renovate and then keep it, most borrowers use both in sequence.
A short-term, asset-based loan that funds both the purchase and the renovation of a non-owner-occupied property, then is repaid when you sell or refinance. It is interest-only for the term, and interest accrues only on what you have actually drawn — so an undrawn rehab budget is not costing you anything.
We underwrite the project and the collateral rather than your personal income.
A 30-year rental loan qualified on the property's own cash flow. DSCR stands for debt service coverage ratio — the gross monthly rent divided by the PITIA payment, meaning principal, interest, taxes, insurance and any association dues.
If the rent covers the payment, the property carries the file, and your tax returns never enter it.
Non-owner-occupied residential investment property, on both programs:
- Single-family rentals
- 2–4 unit residential
- Condominiums, townhomes and planned unit developments
- 5–8 unit multifamily, on a separate DSCR grid
- Portfolios of 2 to 20 doors under one blanket note
Bridge loans run against non-owner-occupied 1–4 unit, condo and townhome collateral.
We are not a consumer lender. We do not originate loans on primary residences or second homes, and we do not write junior liens — every Riva loan sits in first position. Everything we do is business-purpose credit secured by non-owner-occupied real estate and closed in an entity.
If a deal falls outside that, you will hear so the same day, usually with the reason.
Yes — it is the most common way our two programs meet, and it is the whole BRRRR sequence with one lender. Renovate on the bridge loan, get the property leased, then take it out with a 30-year DSCR note.
Because both loans are ours, that refinance is treated as a rate-and-term with no seasoning requirement, so you are not waiting six months for the long-term note, and the diligence carries straight over.
Yes. Two to twenty properties can go under a single blanket note, qualified on the pool's combined coverage rather than property by property — typically at up to 75% LTV with a DSCR of 1.20x measured across the whole pool.
A release provision lets you sell one door without retiring the note. Portfolio loans are written from $250,000 to $5,000,000.
Borrowing
Qualifying & Eligibility
We underwrite the property first. What we look at, what we do not, and where the thresholds actually sit.
On the bridge side there is no fixed floor — experience and credit shape your pricing and your leverage rather than your eligibility, and first-time flippers are welcome. Rental loans do carry minimums that move with the scenario: typically 660 on a purchase or a rate-and-term refinance, 680 on a cash-out or a portfolio loan, and 700 on 5–8 unit multifamily.
Neither program asks for tax returns, W-2s or pay stubs.
Our floor is 0.75x on a purchase or a rate-and-term refinance, which means we will lend below break-even and let the equity do the work the rent cannot — at lower leverage, with a stronger credit profile and more reserves.
Cash-out refinances typically start at 1.00x, and portfolio and 5–8 unit loans at 1.20x. Above 1.25x you are into our best pricing.
No. We underwrite the deal, the scope of work and your liquidity, so a realistic budget on a sound property beats a long résumé on a thin one.
Experience does affect your pricing and how much leverage we extend, but it is not an eligibility gate. First-time flippers close with us regularly.
No. These are business-purpose, asset-based loans, so there are no tax returns, W-2s, pay stubs or employment verifications, and we do not calculate a debt-to-income ratio.
We do pull credit and verify liquidity, because both speak to whether the loan gets paid. Your personal income never enters the file.
Yes, and most of our borrowers do. Every Riva loan is business-purpose credit closed in an LLC or a corporation, so the note and mortgage are written in the entity's name from the start.
There is no transfer after closing and no due-on-sale clause to work around.
Yes. The loan is made to your entity and carries a personal guarantee from the principals behind it. That is standard for business-purpose real estate credit.
It is not a substitute for the collateral, though — we still size every loan to the property first, and the equity between our loan and the property's value is what absorbs a bad outcome.
It depends on the program. On a rental loan we typically look for around six months of PITIA in reserves.
On a bridge loan you will bring roughly 15% of the purchase price plus closing costs and an interest reserve. Because the rehab budget is reimbursed through draws, you carry each stage of work until it is finished and inspected — so plan your liquidity around the largest single draw rather than the total budget.
Yes. If the unit is occupied we use the signed lease; if it is vacant we use the appraiser's Form 1007 market rent. Where both exist we take the lower of the two, so an above-market lease will not inflate the ratio.
A vacant property with credible market rent can still qualify.
Borrowing
Rates, Terms & Costs
Where our pricing starts, what moves it, and how leverage is actually calculated on each program.
Bridge loans start from 9.99% interest-only, and rental loans from 6.50% on a 30-year note. Those are starting points offered to the most qualified borrowers rather than quotes.
Your actual rate depends on the property, the leverage, your credit and experience, and the market it sits in. Send us the deal and you will have indicative pricing the same day, with no credit pull to get it.
A short list, and none of it is your job title:
- The property, its condition, and our valuation of it
- Where the loan lands against each leverage test
- Your credit profile and your liquidity
- Your track record with projects like this one
- The market the property sits in
We will tell you which of these is binding on your deal rather than handing you a number without a reason.
Bridge loans carry 1 to 2 points of origination depending on the deal. Beyond that you have the ordinary third-party costs of a closing — appraisal, title, insurance, and the attorney conducting it — plus an interest reserve on a bridge loan.
There is no fee to apply and no cost to get a quote, and every line item is set out in writing on your term sheet before you commit to anything.
Up to 85% of the purchase price plus 100% of your approved renovation budget, capped at 75% of the after-repair value. We advance whichever of those two tests produces the smaller number.
On a deal with a heavy rehab budget the ARV cap is usually what sets the final loan amount. Bridge loans run from $100,000 to $3,000,000.
ARV is the after-repair value — what the property should be worth once the renovation is finished. Capping total proceeds at 75% of it leaves real equity between the loan and the resale price.
That cushion protects you from an over-levered project as much as it protects us, and it is the test that most often decides the final number on a rehab-heavy deal.
Up to 80% LTV on a purchase or a rate-and-term refinance, 75% on a cash-out or a portfolio loan, and 70% on 5–8 unit multifamily. Rental loans run from $100,000 to $5,000,000.
The coverage ratio moves alongside the leverage — the more you pull out, the more cushion we need to see in the rent.
Not on a bridge loan — sell the day the punch list is finished if you can. Rental loans carry a five-year step-down as standard: 5% in year one, declining a point a year to 1% in year five, and nothing after that.
Shorter structures are available, and the penalty can be bought down to zero in exchange for a higher rate. You choose that trade at pricing rather than discovering it at closing.
On a bridge loan, plan on roughly 15% of the purchase price plus closing costs and an interest reserve; the renovation budget is financed in full but reimbursed through draws.
On a rental loan it is the down payment implied by your LTV, plus closing costs and reserves. We will put a cash-to-close figure in front of you before you sign anything.
Borrowing
Applying & Documents
A short list, and a shorter list of things we will never ask you for.
Send us the property and the plan. For a bridge loan that means the address, the purchase price, the rehab budget and your ARV. For a rental loan, the address, the rent, and the taxes and insurance.
You will get indicative terms back the same day, usually within a couple of hours. Quotes are free and there is no fee to apply.
No. Pricing a deal costs you nothing and touches nothing — we run the numbers off the property and the plan.
A credit pull happens later, once you decide to move forward and we open a file.
Enough to underwrite the project and the collateral:
- Entity documents for the LLC or corporation
- The purchase contract
- A line-item scope of work for the renovation
- Bank statements showing liquidity
- An insurance binder
- A track record of previous projects, if you have one
No tax returns, no W-2s, no pay stubs.
The file is built around the property rather than around you:
- A signed lease, or the appraiser's Form 1007 market rent if the unit is vacant
- A full interior appraisal
- Hazard and flood insurance binders
- Entity documents for the LLC or LP
- A credit pull
- Roughly six months of PITIA in reserves
If the rent covers the payment, most of the file is already written.
Personal tax returns, W-2s, pay stubs, employment verification, or a debt-to-income ratio. We do not underwrite your personal income in any form.
That is the practical difference between an asset-based lender and a conventional one, and it is why a file moves here in a straight line — there is no personal income to reconcile along the way.
Not in the consumer-mortgage sense, because we are not underwriting your personal income in the first place. What you get instead is a priced term sheet once we have reviewed the deal, and a proof-of-funds letter to attach to an offer — which is what a seller or an auction house actually wants to see.
There is no credit pull to reach that point and no fee to apply.
Yes. Once we issue priced terms we can put a proof-of-funds letter in your hands to attach to an offer, so you compete alongside the cash buyers rather than losing to them.
A self-serve estimator is in development. In the meantime the deal sizer on our fix and flip page shows exactly how we size a bridge loan against both leverage tests, and a person will run full pricing for you the same day.
Nothing about the answer changes — only who runs the numbers.
Borrowing
Timelines & Closing
How fast things actually move, how draws work, and what closing in Connecticut involves.
Indicative terms come back the same day, often within a couple of hours, and our average approval time runs about 48 hours once a file is open.
If a deal does not work you will hear that the same day too, with the reason and with what would have to change. A fast no is worth more than a slow maybe.
Our fastest bridge closing to date was seven days, and that pace is available when title, insurance and entity documents are ready to go. Two weeks is more typical for a first loan with us, because the entity and the track record are new to our file.
We will give you an honest closing date up front rather than an optimistic one you have to renegotiate with a seller later.
Your approved rehab budget is held in escrow at closing and released against completed work:
- Finish a milestone on the schedule
- Send the request with photos and invoices
- We inspect to confirm it matches the scope we underwrote
- Funds are released, typically within 24 to 48 hours
Repeat until the budget is spent. The final draw releases when the project is complete, and interest is charged only on what you have drawn.
For a Connecticut closing, yes — it has to be conducted by an attorney admitted in Connecticut, and that holds for a business-purpose loan on investment property just as it does for anything else. Buying in an LLC does not take the transaction outside it.
You choose the firm and we work with whichever one you bring. Retain them at contract rather than at clear-to-close: title examination is the longest task on the critical path, and it cannot start until someone is engaged to order it.
It is a transfer tax Connecticut charges on the sale of real property, assessed at both the state and the municipal level, and it is customarily the seller's cost.
For an investor it matters most on the exit rather than the purchase — it is a line item in the flip's profit, so it belongs in the model before you make the offer.
Talk to us before you are late rather than after. Extensions are available for a fee, and if you decide to keep the property instead of selling it, the loan can be refinanced into a Riva DSCR rental loan.
Because we service our own paper, that conversation is with the people who wrote the loan rather than with a servicer who has never seen the file.
We do. Pricing, underwriting, servicing and workouts all live under one roof, so the payoff call reaches the people who approved the file.
Nothing is handed to a servicer who has never read it, and the terms you close on are the terms you live with.
Investing
Investing In Notes
First-lien positions in individual loans we originate, underwrite and service ourselves.
The loan itself — a borrower's written promise to repay, secured by a mortgage recorded against a specific property. Buying one puts you in the lender's seat on that loan.
You own the debt, you hold the first lien, and the borrower's equity sits underneath you. You are not buying the house, and you are not buying shares in a company that owns houses.
$25,000 to start, on terms that typically run 6 to 24 months. The loan pays off when the property sells or refinances, and nothing rolls automatically — your principal comes back and you decide what to do next.
There is no fee to see the pipeline and no obligation to fund anything you are shown.
Not for an individual note. A whole note assigned to you is a loan you own directly, and we place those with individual investors whether or not they meet the SEC thresholds.
We still ask, because the answer tells us which structures are open to you — interests in the Riva Real Estate Credit Fund are offered to accredited investors only.
Monthly, by ACH, out of the payment the borrower makes to us. Our loans are interest-only, so the monthly payment is interest and your principal stays outstanding until the loan pays off at sale or refinance.
You get a statement each month and a Form 1099-INT each January.
Yes, and a good number of our note investors do. The custodian holds the note and the lien in the account's name and the interest is paid back into the account, so the tax treatment follows the account rather than you.
You will need a custodian who handles real estate debt, and the paperwork adds about a week before funding — tell us on the first call so the documents are drawn correctly the first time. We do not give tax advice; ask your accountant whether the account is the right home for it.
The same team that underwrote the loan works it out, with your lien in front. A missed payment starts with a phone call rather than a filing, and from there the options are the ones a first lien gives you — forbearance, a modification, a payoff, a deed in lieu, or foreclosure if it comes to that.
The equity cushion is what buys the time to choose well rather than fast. Riva has taken no principal losses to date; that is a record rather than a guarantee, and a note can lose money.
It is not, and you should plan on that. A note runs its term and pays off when the property sells or refinances — that is the scheduled liquidity event, and it is the only one. There is no public market for the paper and no redemption window.
We can sometimes place a note with another investor if your circumstances change, but nobody is obliged to buy it and we will not promise a price. Investors who may need the money moving stagger their maturities instead.
Investing
The Credit Fund
One allocation into a portfolio of first-lien loans, offered to accredited investors through the fund's offering documents.
Accredited investors only, as defined under Regulation D of the Securities Act. In practice that generally means individual income above $200,000 — or $300,000 jointly — for the last two years, or a net worth over $1 million excluding your primary residence. Certain professional licences and entity thresholds also qualify.
Accreditation is verified before any subscription is accepted. If you are not accredited, individual notes are still open to you.
$50,000, into a Delaware limited partnership.
The summary on our fund page is for discussion only — the private placement memorandum, the limited partnership agreement and the subscription documents govern in every case and control in the event of any conflict.
Concentration and choice. A note is one borrower, one property and one lien that you picked yourself after reading the whole file. The fund is a single allocation spread across the whole book — performing first-lien loans we originate, plus discounted notes our workout team resolves — with the diversification arithmetic already done.
Notes are open to all investors; the fund is accredited-only.
Monthly. Borrowers pay interest on their loans, the fund nets out expenses, and what remains is distributed to limited partners.
You can take distributions in cash by ACH or reinvest them to compound your position — you choose at subscription and can change it later.
Not on demand. Your commitment is locked for an initial twelve months, after which redemptions are processed quarterly on 90 days' written notice.
The underlying loans have real durations, and the lockup exists so the fund is never forced to sell a good loan at a bad price to fund a withdrawal. Treat it as an illiquid allocation.
An annual management fee of 1.5% of assets, plus 20% of profits above the preferred return — so the performance piece is earned only after investors have received their preferred return first.
Full fee detail, including how fund expenses are allocated, is set out in the offering documents. Riva's principals invest their own money in the fund on the same terms as every other limited partner.
Enough to see what you own:
- A monthly statement with your capital balance, distributions and fund-level performance
- A periodic portfolio letter covering what we originated, what paid off, and anything on the watch list
- Annual audited financials, prepared by an independent firm
- A Schedule K-1 for your tax filing
Net asset value is calculated by a third-party fund administrator on a set schedule.
About Riva
Working With Riva
Who you are dealing with, where we lend, and how to reach a person.
A direct lender. We price, underwrite, fund and service every loan ourselves, off our own balance sheet and through our credit fund.
Nothing gets shopped to a third party, and there is no credit committee three states away deciding what a Connecticut duplex is worth.
Connecticut is home. Our office is on the Boston Post Road in Old Saybrook, and we lend across the shoreline, Middlesex and New London counties, Hartford, New Haven and Fairfield County.
Beyond that we lend across the Northeast — Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine — and a strong sponsor with the right collateral gets a look further afield. Availability varies by state and property type, so ask us about yours.
Ask us about your state before you build a timeline around it. Availability varies by state and by property type, and what we write is business-purpose credit secured by non-owner-occupied real estate rather than consumer mortgage lending.
Send us the address and you will hear the same day whether we can write the loan where the property sits — and if we are not the right lender for it, you will hear that too, usually with the reason.
No. We are not a consumer lender and we do not originate loans on primary residences or second homes.
Everything we write is business-purpose credit secured by non-owner-occupied investment property and closed in an entity. If you are buying a place to live in, a conventional mortgage lender is the right call.
The people who price and underwrite the loans. There is no call centre and no gatekeeper — the person who picks up is the person who can price your deal and, on a good day, say yes to it.
That is also who you reach after closing, because we keep the servicing.
Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm Eastern, at (860) 303-7968 or info@rivalending.com. We reply within one business day and usually the same day.
If you would rather write it all down first, the contact form routes to the same desk. Our office is at 455 Boston Post Rd, Old Saybrook, CT 06475.
Riva Lending originates business-purpose loans secured by non-owner-occupied real estate; we are not a consumer lender and we do not originate loans on primary residences or second homes. Nothing on this page is a quote, an offer, or a commitment to lend. All loans are subject to credit approval, underwriting, valuation, title review, and execution of definitive loan documents. Rates, points, leverage, and terms vary by borrower credit, experience, liquidity, loan-to-cost, loan-to-ARV, property type, and market, and are subject to change without notice. Availability varies by state and property type. Figures shown are illustrative; advertised rates reflect the lowest rates offered to the most qualified borrowers. This page is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Individual notes are offered solely through the loan file and assignment documents for that specific loan. Interests in the Riva Real Estate Credit Fund are offered exclusively to accredited investors through the fund's private placement memorandum and involve risk, including possible loss of principal. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Riva Lending does not provide investment, legal, or tax advice; consult your own advisors.
Still have questions
If It Isn't Here, Ask Us.
Send an address and a plan and you will have real terms the same day — or just call and talk it through. A person answers, and they can say yes. There is no fee to ask and no credit pull to get a number.
Talk To An Underwriter
455 Boston Post Rd
Old Saybrook, CT 06475
Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm EST