Raw Land Loans

Farm, ranch, and acreage financing for investors

Rural land in Texas is mostly financed by Farm Credit lenders and local banks, and they are good at what they do. What they are set up for is the agricultural operator: someone farming or running cattle, documenting income from the land, borrowing against an operation. If you are buying acreage as an investment, that underwriting does not describe you, and the answer is often no for reasons that have nothing to do with the deal.

We read acreage as an asset. Co-founder Kody Fain spent six years in commercial and agricultural banking before Cedar Top, so the collateral conversation here is not a stretch for us. We fund farm land, ranch land, undeveloped land, and lots across Texas, on non-owner-occupied investment property.

Two things decide most land files. The first is leverage: you can borrow up to 65% of market value, which is lower than what we lend on an improved property, because land is slower to move if the exit does not go to plan. The second is legal access. A parcel without recorded access is hard for anyone to support, and it is the single most common reason a land deal we like still does not work. Check that before you go under contract.

Land also carries differently than a flip. There is no rent and usually no rehab draw to time, so your holding cost is interest plus taxes, and your exit is a sale, a build, or a refinance. Run the carry over the months you actually expect to hold it in the hard money loan calculator, and if the plan is to build on it, see new construction, which is how most of our land borrowers eventually take the next step.

We are especially active on acreage in the counties around Fort Worth and out the I-20 corridor: Parker, Palo Pinto, Young, Eastland, and Brown counties among them. For what a file looks like start to finish, read raw land loan requirements in Texas.