Raw and infill land
Land loans on dirt
before anyone else looks
We fund raw and infill lots for one to four units before a permit is pulled, for investors and builders, with our own capital, and the person who reads your file is the person who decides.
Start ApplicationWhat we lend on
Dirt is the whole product, not an exception
Most lenders treat land as the deal they take when they have to. It is the one we built the business around, which changes what we need from you before we can move.
- Raw lots with nothing on them, held for a build or a resale.
- Infill parcels inside an existing street grid, including teardown lots.
- Lots carrying an aging manufactured home that has to come off before anything else happens.
- Parcels that need clearing, grading or a demolition before a shovel is worth buying.
- One to four units, non owner occupied, business purpose certified at closing.
The borrower is an investor or a builder, including an LLC, buying a lot to build one to four units to sell or rent. That is the buyer many bank and credit union lot loans are not written for, because they are built around a home the buyer will live in, with personal use rules, acreage caps and membership. The lot loan vs land loan vs construction loan guide sorts out which of the three a plan needs, and hard money land loans in Florida sets out what private land money costs where we lend.
What a land file needs
Four things, and none of them is a permit
A bank asks for a permit set because a permit is how it convinces itself the plan is real. We test the plan directly, which is faster and considerably harder to fake.
The parcel
Size, shape, topography, and anything standing on it that has to come off. A lot with a slope problem and a lot with a demolition problem are two different loans.
Access and utilities
Legal access, not a path people have always used, and how far power, water and sewer actually run. Distance to a connection is often the number that decides a deal.
Entitlement as it stands
What the zoning permits today, not what it would permit after a hearing. If the plan depends on a variance, that is a fact about the loan, not a detail.
The exit
Build, sell or refinance, specific enough to be tested. A lender that does not ask how the loan gets paid back is not underwriting, it is hoping.
Each of the four has its own guide: what replaces a permit in a land file, the perc test, septic and well questions to settle before closing, and how fast a land loan can close once title and the survey are ordered.
Why this is hard to find
Land is not a bad loan, it is the wrong shape for a bank
Vacant land produces no income, cannot be insured as an improved property, and has thin appraisal comparables because no two lots are alike. Held against regulatory capital, that is expensive, so the product quietly disappears from a bank menu long before anyone tells a borrower why.
Our capital is our own, which means we can hold what a bank cannot and decide in the same week rather than in the same quarter. It also means we are honest about the price of that: a loan a bank will happily write is a loan you should take to a bank.
How it works
Bought now, repaid by the build
A land loan pays for the lot and is repaid by an event, not by thirty years of payments. Here that event is the ground up construction loan: a pre-approval for it is part of the land file, and once the plans, permits and builder are settled it pays off the land loan and funds the build. Buying land with a construction loan explains why the lot usually comes first.
What it costs depends on the lot and the plan, and the market for it is published. Land loan rates compares banks, credit unions and private lenders, and how much down on a land loan explains why two buyers put down different amounts on the same lot. If the seller will carry the note, owner financing versus a land loan weighs the two, and if you already own the land, refinancing land covers what that takes.
Questions we get
Land loans, answered
- Can you finance raw land with no permits and no plans?
- Yes. A permit set is what a bank asks for because a permit is how a bank convinces itself the plan is real. We underwrite the parcel and the exit instead: what the lot is, what can be built on it, and how the loan gets paid back. Entrusted Capital funds raw and infill lots for one to four units before a permit is pulled, with no plans and no insurance required to fund.
- How do land loans work?
- A land loan finances a lot or acreage with no house on it. It runs shorter than a home mortgage and is repaid by an event: a construction loan once the plans and permits are in hand, a sale, or a longer loan. The lender underwrites the parcel, its access, utilities and zoning, and the plan for it. Entrusted Capital funds the lot with its own capital, and a pre-approval for the ground up construction refinance that repays it is part of the file.
- What do you need to qualify for a land loan?
- On the land: the parcel itself, including size, shape, topography and anything on it that has to come off; legal access and how far utilities actually run; and what the zoning permits today rather than after a rezoning. On the plan: an exit specific enough to be tested, meaning build, sell or refinance. On the borrower: the credit, cash and entity documents the lender asks for. A bank weighs the borrower more heavily; a private lender weighs the land and the exit.
- What credit score do you need for a land loan?
- There is no single minimum. Banks and credit unions that publish one for lot loans commonly set it in the high 600s to low 700s, and they check debt to income as well. A private lender making a business purpose land loan to an investor reads the parcel and the exit first, so the score matters less than the lot and the plan, though it is still reviewed. Entrusted Capital quotes on a soft pull, which does not affect a score.
- How much down payment do you need for a land loan?
- Published bank and credit union lot loans commonly ask 20 to 30 percent down, and raw land around 30 to 35 percent or more, in line with the 65 percent loan to value limit federal guidelines set for banks on raw land. Private lenders publish a wide spread of advance rates, so a private land loan is sized file by file. Entrusted Capital sizes every loan against cost, as-is value and after-completed value, and the smallest of the three sets it.
- Can an LLC get a loan for land?
- Yes, from a business purpose lender. Many bank and credit union lot loans are written for a person who will build a home and live in it, and some limit the land to personal use, so an LLC buying lots to build and sell or rent usually fits a private lender better. Business purpose loans are commonly made to the entity with a personal guaranty from its principal. Entrusted Capital lends for business purposes only, on non owner occupied property.
- Why do banks turn down land loans?
- Raw land produces no income, cannot be insured as an improved property, and has thin appraisal comparables, so it is expensive for a regulated bank to hold against capital. The loan is not bad; it is simply the wrong shape for that balance sheet. A private lender funding from its own book can price and hold what a bank cannot.
- Does a land loan become a construction loan?
- That is the usual path. The lot is bought first, and vertical construction is financed separately once the plan, the budget and the builder are settled. Buying the dirt with a lender that also does the construction side means the second loan is underwritten by people who have already read the file.
- Will shopping a land loan cost me credit score?
- Not with us. Entrusted Capital quotes on a soft pull, which does not affect a score, and a hard pull happens once, after a borrower has decided to proceed. Calling four lenders in a week should not cost points.
- Are these consumer loans?
- No. Every loan is for business purposes, secured by non owner occupied property, and business purpose is certified at closing. We do not lend on a primary residence.
What usually comes next
After the dirt
Ground up construction
Vertical from a funded lot through certificate of occupancy, draw by draw against work actually finished.
Manufactured home swaps
Clear an aging home off the lot and set a new one, funded as a single loan rather than three.
Transactional funding
Same day capital for the A to B leg, so the second closing never waits on the first.
Where we lend
Lending on Florida dirt
From the blog
- Can you refinance land? How land refinance loans workRefinancing a land loan, a cash out refinance on vacant land, land equity loans, rolling a lot into a construction loan or a mortgage, what lenders check, and what a Florida land refinance costs at closing.
11 min
- Hard money land loans in Florida: what they cost and when they beat a bankWhat Florida private lenders charge on raw and infill lots in 2026, what they check, the Florida taxes and usury rules that ride on the loan, and when a hard money land loan beats a bank or credit union lot loan.
12 min
- What are land loan rates in 2026, and what do investors actually pay?What banks, credit unions, farm credit lenders, sellers and private lenders charge for land in October 2026, why land costs more than a house, and how to work out a payment and compare two offers by hand.
12 min
- Lot loan vs land loan vs construction loan: which one do you need?Plain definitions of raw land, improved land and a lot, what each loan funds and is underwritten on, the published market terms, what ends each one, and which fits a hold, a build or a resale.
12 min
- How fast can a land loan actually close?Seven to fourteen days is normal and the lender is almost never the reason it takes longer. Here is what the long pole really is.
12 min
- Owner financing versus a land loanSeller carry looks cheaper and is sometimes the wrong instrument. The deciding question is not the rate, it is what happens at the end of the term.
13 min
- Buying land with an old mobile home on itA pre-1976 trailer on an otherwise good parcel scares off most financing. That is exactly why these lots trade below the dirt next door, and how the deal gets funded.
14 min
- Perc test, septic and well: what a land buyer needs before closingA failed perc test can take a parcel from buildable to unbuildable in an afternoon. Here is what each test costs, when it has to happen, and which of them a lender will actually ask for.
14 min
- How much do you need down on a land loan?Most land deals need 25 to 50 percent down. What moves you inside that range is not your credit score, and the number is set by three ceilings rather than one.
13 min
- Can you finance raw land with no permits and no plans?The short answer is yes. The longer answer is about what replaces a permit set inside an underwriter file.
12 min
- Replacing a manufactured home on its own lot: how the financing worksDemolition, site work and a new home funded as one loan rather than three, and the places these deals usually stall.
12 min
- Mobile home removal cost: what it takes to clear an old home off a lotWhat actually drives the number, the costs people forget, and why the removal is usually the cheap part.
12 min
- Can you buy land with a construction loan, or do you need two loans?Both work. One of them loses you the lot while the paperwork comes together.
11 min
- Loan to cost, loan to as-is, loan to after-completed: which one sets your numberThree limits, one loan amount, and why the smallest of them is the only one that matters to you.
12 min
- Construction loan draw schedules: how draws are actually releasedA sample draw schedule for a new house, then how inspection, percentage complete and paperwork decide when each draw funds.
12 min
- Soft pull or hard pull: what shopping a loan really costs your scoreWhy quoting on a soft pull matters when you are calling four lenders in a week.
11 min
Bring us the lot
before anyone else will look at it
Five questions, a soft pull, and a document checklist built from your answers. Start it on a phone from the parcel if you want.