Hard Money Lender San Francisco
Commercial Real Estate Loans
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Commercial Real Estate Loans in San Francisco, CA

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About Commercial Real Estate Loans

San Francisco's commercial real estate market operates under regulatory and economic conditions that make conventional lending genuinely inadequate for opportunistic investors. Multifamily buildings subject to the SF Rent Ordinance are underwritten by traditional banks using in-place rents that may be fifty percent below market — producing DSCR ratios that trigger declines even when the underlying real estate is exceptional. Mixed-use buildings with ground-floor retail and upstairs apartments simultaneously trigger residential rent control for the residential units and market-rate commercial lease analysis for the ground floor, a hybrid that most conventional underwriting systems cannot process. Office-to-residential conversion projects targeting buildings in SOMA or the Tenderloin require construction draws timed to SF Planning permit cycles that no conventional construction lender will accommodate. Hard Money Lender San Francisco closes commercial real estate loans in two to four weeks. We lend from $500,000 to $20 million on multifamily, office, retail, industrial, hospitality, and mixed-use assets. Our underwriting is asset-based: we evaluate property cash flow potential, collateral value, and business plan feasibility, not rigid borrower debt-to-income criteria. We have financed multifamily buildings with DSCR ratios below 1.0x at acquisition where the investor's value-add plan was credible, commercial buildings with significant vacancy where our LTV was set conservatively against stabilized value, and specialty commercial assets that no national lender would touch. San Francisco's tech-economy investor base — Stripe, OpenAI, and Databricks early employees and founders deploying equity into real estate — increasingly treats commercial real estate as an institutional asset class within their personal portfolios. These borrowers want execution certainty, not mortgage-department bureaucracy. Our commercial program delivers.

Hard Money Lender San Francisco provides commercial real estate loans for Bay Area sponsors who need quick, decisive execution without conventional bank delay.

We structure each loan around collateral profile, timeline, and exit strategy to support your business plan from acquisition through disposition or refinance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you finance rent-controlled multifamily buildings in San Francisco?

Yes, rent-controlled multifamily is a core part of our commercial lending portfolio. We underwrite using current in-place rents to establish current NOI, then model realistic turnover scenarios under Costa-Hawkins vacancy decontrol to project the trajectory toward market rents. For buildings with significant below-market rent exposure, we lend at more conservative LTV ratios — typically 60–65% rather than 70–75% — to reflect the discounted current income. Investors with demonstrated experience managing SF rent-controlled buildings, including compliance with the annual allowable increase calculation and Just Cause Eviction requirements, qualify for our most competitive commercial terms.

What DSCR requirements do you apply to San Francisco commercial loans?

Our minimum DSCR requirements are more flexible than conventional standards and are applied to stabilized projected NOI, not just current income, for transitional assets. For stabilized multifamily we typically target 1.15–1.25x on current income. For value-add acquisitions with below-market in-place rents, we underwrite the stabilized NOI based on conservative turnover assumptions and apply our LTV cap against completed value rather than requiring current DSCR to meet threshold. For retail and office properties with vacancy, we may require an interest reserve funded at close to carry the property through lease-up before income coverage is established.

Can you fund commercial acquisitions in the Bayview-Hunters Point revitalization zone?

Yes, Bayview is a specialty market for us. We understand the community benefits agreements that apply to many Bayview commercial projects, the environmental review requirements from prior industrial use on some parcels, and the coordination with the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development that affects certain development and repositioning projects. Bayview offers some of the last below-$400/square-foot commercial acquisition opportunities in San Francisco; investors who understand the regulatory complexity and have the patient capital to see through it are building the strongest long-term positions in the city.

How do you handle mixed-use properties with both rent-controlled residential and market-rate commercial?

We analyze each component separately and blend the income streams for overall underwriting. Residential units subject to rent control are underwritten on current in-place rents with realistic turnover modeling. Ground-floor commercial space is underwritten on current lease terms or market comparable lease rates if vacant. We do not apply a single cap rate to the blended income — we use residential multifamily valuation methodology for the residential component and commercial income capitalization for the ground floor, then aggregate for total collateral value. This approach typically produces a higher appraised value than blended underwriting, which benefits the borrower's LTV.

What is your commercial loan closing timeline?

We target two to four weeks for commercial closings, depending on property complexity and documentation availability. Stabilized multifamily with clean rent rolls and recent operating statements can close in twelve to fourteen days. Value-add acquisitions requiring detailed scope-of-work review and third-party environmental reports typically take three to four weeks. We issue term sheets within forty-eight hours of receiving basic property financials, and our commercial underwriting team does not pass files between departments — the same team that reviews the initial submission sees the deal through to close.

Available Throughout the Bay Area

San FranciscoOaklandBerkeleyDaly CityAlamedaSan MateoRedwood CityHaywardSan LeandroFremontMountain ViewSunnyvale
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