Private Money
Loans from individuals — often people the borrower knows, or investors seeking yield — rather than from banks or hard money lending companies. Terms, rates, and security are whatever the two parties negotiate, which makes private money more flexible and more relationship-dependent than institutional lending.
Related terms
Hard Money Loan
A short-term loan from a private lending company, secured by the property and underwritten mainly on the asset’s value — often its ARV — rather than the borrower’s income. Rates and fees run well above conventional mortgages, but closings are fast and condition requirements are loose, which is why flippers and BRRRR investors use them as bridge financing.
Seller Financing
A sale in which the seller acts as the lender: the buyer takes ownership and pays the seller in installments under negotiated terms instead of — or alongside — a bank loan. It can open deals that conventional financing would not reach, and the terms are set by the contract the parties sign.