Do I need past flips to get a fix-and-flip loan?
No. There is no minimum number of past deals. Experience can affect terms. A first-time investor sends a fix-and-flip deal through the same form as an experienced one, and “None yet” is an accepted answer to deals closed. Illinois Lender reads a first deal on its merits, the same way it reads any flip.
No minimum isn't the same as no review: a first deal is read as closely as any other. The rest of this page is about making its merits easy to see.
How can experience affect terms?
At Illinois Lender, experience is one input into pricing and structure, alongside the property, the leverage, and the rehab. A first-time flipper may see different terms than a seasoned investor would on a similar deal, and how different depends on the whole file. Whatever the terms are, they come in writing on a term sheet, subject to underwriting, before you commit.
Tell us the experience you do have. Deals closed go on the form. Related background, such as work in the trades or managing rentals, can go in the notes for the reviewer to weigh.
Presenting your first deal
A first flip is read on the same things as any flip, and the fix-and-flip loan page lists them. A sound price, a realistic budget, and a clear exit make a stronger first deal than a bigger project with no room for surprises.
How you present the deal changes the questions that come back, and on a first deal those questions are useful in themselves: they show what a lender needs to see. Four things do most of the work.
An itemized scope of work
List the work room by room or trade by trade, with a cost for each line and a contingency for surprises. An itemized rehab budget shows you've walked the property and priced the job, and it's what rehab draws are planned around. If your budget is still a rough estimate, send it anyway and itemize what you can; the reply will be more specific for it.
Who is doing the work
Say who is doing the work: a general contractor, individual trades, or you. If you have a written bid, mention it in the notes. If you're managing the trades yourself, say which parts you're handling.
An after-repair value with support
Your after-repair value is an estimate, so show where it comes from: recent sales of comparable finished properties nearby. A value with comparable sales behind it is easier to review than a single number.
An exit with a backup
Say whether you plan to sell or refinance into a rental loan, and what you would do if the first plan stalls. A flip that would also work as a rental has a second exit, and that is worth saying.
Mistakes that stall a first flip
These are general patterns in first deals, not Illinois Lender rules, but each one tends to turn a first answer into “not yet”:
- A rehab budget that is one total with no line items, or has no contingency
- An after-repair value with no comparable sales behind it
- An exit described as “sell” with no sense of who buys a finished property there
- No cash set aside to carry the project until the sale
- Sending the deal late, after the contract dates that mattered have passed