Most lenders are deliberately vague about who they will fund. It keeps the phone ringing. I'd rather be straight with you, because a clear 'no' today saves us both a wasted week.
So here it is. There is one number that is a hard floor and there are two lanes past it. Know which lane you're in before you apply and you'll submit the right deal to the right place instead of getting a soft decline you can't decode.
TL;DR
- FICO 660 is the universal floor. Below it, the answer is no on both lanes, no exceptions. There is a path back and it is worth taking.
- Above 660, two lanes decide who we fund. Lane A is our own Connecticut fund. Lane B is funded through our hedge fund relationships, for everyone else.
- Lane A is for experienced Connecticut operators with a real track record. It's our investor capital and it stays in-state.
- Lane B is for out-of-state investors and newer investors. It's funded through our hedge fund relationships, where a strong credit profile carries more of the weight.
- Out-of-state or new does not mean no. It means a different lane. The worst outcome is not getting routed to the right one.
The one number that is a floor
A 660 credit score is the minimum to get in the door. On either lane. No exceptions.
I am telling you that up front because it is the fastest filter and because a lot of lenders bury it. If your score is under 660 today, no honest flip lender is funding your deal this month and anyone who says otherwise is selling you something.
Why 660 and not lower. A flip loan is a bet on you finishing a project and getting out clean. Credit is not the whole picture, but below 660 the odds of a rough project climb enough that the loan stops making sense for you as much as for us. We are not doing you a favor by funding a deal you're likely to get stuck in.
If you're under the line, that is not a permanent no. It's a 'not yet'. Pull your report, find the two or three things dragging the score and fix them. Pay down the revolving balances that are choking your utilization. Clear the small collection that is doing outsized damage. A lot of investors move from a 640 to a 680 in a few months once they know exactly what to work on. Come back when you're over the line and we will talk about the deal.
Lane A: our Connecticut fund
Lane A is our own capital, lent out of the Capital Preservation Fund and it stays in Connecticut.
This lane is for experienced Connecticut operators. Real track record, vetted, someone who has done this before and can show it. When we lend Lane A money, our investors are on the other side of that loan, so we lend it to operators we can stand behind.
The terms are the core Clark St offer. Up to $2M per deal, up to 90% of the purchase and 100% of the rehab, draws in 24 hours or less, closed in under 30 days, on a 12-month term. The rate reflects your experience and the risk in the specific project. A proven operator on a clean deal gets our best pricing, because that is exactly the risk our fund is built to take.
If you're an experienced Connecticut flipper, Lane A is your lane. Submit the deal.
Lane B: our hedge fund relationships
Lane B is for the borrowers Lane A is not built for. Out-of-state investors. Newer investors without the Connecticut track record yet.
Here the capital comes through our hedge fund relationships rather than our own fund's money. That changes what carries the deal. Without the in-state operator relationship and the follow-on responsibility that comes with our own capital, a strong credit profile does more of the work. These partners can fund a newer borrower or an out-of-state deal that our own fund would pass on, as long as the FICO and the deal hold up.
This is the part most people get wrong about a debt fund. They assume out-of-state or newer means an automatic 'no', so they never ask. It's not a no. It's Lane B. Same 660 floor, different source of capital, different underwriting weight.
Why we split it this way
The split is not bureaucracy. It's transparency about where our money can go.
Our fund exists to protect our investors' capital while lending against Connecticut flips we understand deeply. That discipline is the whole product. It means we say no to plenty of deals that are perfectly fundable somewhere else, because they are not the right risk for our fund.
Rather than turn those borrowers away, we built a second lane so we can still help. Lane A when it is our capital and our kind of deal. Lane B when it is not, but the deal still deserves to get funded. You get routed to the money that actually fits, instead of a dead end.
Package the deal, not just the credit
The 660 gets you through the gate. It does not size the loan. Once you're in, the deal itself has to hold up, the after-repair value, the rehab budget, the exit. We break down everything a lender weighs after the credit check in what a lender actually underwrites when you ask them to fund your flip. Read that before you submit and you will present a fundable deal instead of a fuzzy one.
Find your lane
If you're an experienced Connecticut operator, submit your deal at clarkst.com/submit-your-deal and we will underwrite it out of our fund.
If you're out-of-state or newer to this, start at clarkst.com/borrow. Tell us the deal and where you are in your career and we'll point you to the right lane. Either way, you will get a straight answer, not a runaround.
About Ed Mathews
Ed is the founder of Clark St Capital, Clark St Homes and Elevista. He started investing in 2011 after analyzing deal after deal and making zero offers, until a mentor handed him a pen and made him sign his first contract. Since then, Clark St has operated across single-family, multifamily and land development, with Ed also invested as a limited partner in funds and large multifamily projects. Ed also spent more than two decades in Silicon Valley building systems for global companies. He hosts the Real Estate Underground podcast, with new episodes every Tuesday at 12pm.
