Hard Money Lenders in Des Moines, IA | Fix & Flip Loans | Capital Kings LLC
Broker, not a lender

Hard Money Lenders inDes Moines, Iowa

Fix and flip, DSCR rental and new construction financing for Des Moines investors. We do not lend our own money, we shop your deal across a 400+ lender network and come back with real terms you can compare on total cost.

Get a term sheet →Price a Des Moines deal

Prefer to talk it through? Call or text Micah at (281) 636-5682.

Reviewed by Micah Foster, Founder & Mortgage Broker · September 2026
How we work

What you get working with us

400+
Lenders we shop your deal across
7 to 10
Days to close, typical
100%
Of rehab funded, released in draws
9.00%
Rates from, in Iowa
Run the numbers

Price a Des Moines deal right now

Prefilled with a realistic Des Moines deal. Change any number and it reprices instantly on the lanes licensed in Iowa, using the same engine behind our term sheets.

Enter your numbers to see the program, loan size and cash to close.
Get a real term sheet →Same math as our term sheet. No credit pull, nothing saved.
The market

Financing a deal in Des Moines

Des Moines is a steady, insurance-and-banking town where a flip is usually a 1920s to 1950s brick or frame house with a basement, sold to a first-time buyer who works downtown or in the suburbs. Prices here don’t swing hard in either direction, which is good for planning and bad for anyone hoping appreciation bails out a thin buy. Iowa is also a state where every lane we can price wants a track record, so this page is written for investors who already have a couple of finished projects behind them.

What decides a Des Moines deal is the basement and the neighborhood line. Almost every older house on the north and east sides sits over a block or clay-tile foundation that has seen decades of freeze and thaw, and a wet or bowed wall can swallow the budget you meant for the kitchen. Get a foundation contractor through before you close. The second thing is geography: Beaverdale brick sells to a different buyer than Capitol East frame, and a finished house priced off the wrong side of I-235 or the Des Moines River sits. Buy under the block, fix the dry basement first, and finish to what the street already supports.

A real term sheet

What a Des Moines deal looks like on paper

Des Moines example: $138,000 purchase, $50,000 rehab, $260,000 after repair value, 730 credit, 4 to 10 flips completed. The engine puts that borrower on the 5% Down, 3+ Flips program at 11.00%. Picture a 1940s story-and-a-half near Beaverdale: new roof, a kitchen, a bath added upstairs, basement waterproofing and a panel. Every number below is what the instant term sheet prints for that deal, so the picture cannot contradict the page.

Loan amount$181,100
Cash to close$19,657
Proof of funds to show$43,118
Where the $19,657 goes
  • Down payment (5%)You$6,900
  • Origination (2%)Lender$3,622
  • Doc prepLender$749
  • Broker fee (1%)Broker$2,000
  • Title and closingTitle$3,231
  • Prepaid interest (15 days)Lender$819
  • Property insuranceInsurer$1,786
  • AppraisalAppraiser$550

Interest while you rehab: $1,202 a month on the $131,100 funded at closing, $1,660 once every draw is out. Proof of funds is cash to close plus $13,500 of rehab reserve and $9,961 of interest reserve. Sample borrower, sample address; the sheet is issued by the same engine as the borrower’s instant term sheet.

Programs

What we can fund in Des Moines

ProgramDown paymentMin creditExperienceRateOriginationMax loanTermClose
Experienced Investor Rate115%680+2+ completed flips9.00%0.75%75% of ARV12-24 months7-14 days
5% Down, 3+ Flips25%600+3+ completed flips11.00% to 12.00%2%75% of ARV12 months7-14 days
5% Down, 5+ Flips35%660+5+ completed flips9.99% to 10.99%2%75% of ARV9-24 months10-14 days
  1. Rate and origination are the program floor; two completed projects in the last 36 months preferred.
  2. Origination steps down with experience: 1.5% at 5+ deals, 1% at 8+.
  3. Rate is set per file from 9.99%; origination about 2% plus a $995 processing fee.

Origination has a $2,000 minimum on every program and the broker fee is 1% with a $2,000 minimum. These are the numbers the instant term sheet uses as of September 2026. Strong credit, cash and a track record can price lower through specific lenders in the network.

Market read

What the Des Moines comps say

Redfin puts the Des Moines median sale price at $227,000 for the three months ending August 2026, about 3% above a year earlier, with homes selling in around 24 days. Zillow’s home value index for the city is $210,572, flat over the year. The east and south side pockets sit well under that: Zillow puts Capitol East at $143,766, Capitol Park at $149,762 and Indianola Hills at $182,416, while Sherman Hill runs $302,118.

Median sale price, Des Moines (Redfin, 3 months to Aug 2026)$227,000
Days on market, Des Moines (Redfin)24
Zillow home value index, Des Moines (Aug 2026)$210,572
Zillow home value index, Capitol East$143,766
Zillow home value index, Indianola Hills$182,416
Zillow home value index, Sherman Hill$302,118

Sources: Redfin, Des Moines housing market · Zillow, Des Moines home values · City of Des Moines, rental inspections · City of Des Moines, levee improvements and FEMA rating

Underwriting

How a Des Moines file actually gets priced

Appraisers in Polk County comp tightly by neighborhood, and the city’s named neighborhoods are small, so we set the ARV on closed sales inside the same neighborhood from the last 90 days whenever the count allows. A Beaverdale comp won’t carry a Highland Park house two miles east. We look at finished square footage carefully, because appraisers here give a finished basement a fraction of the value of above-grade space, and a flip that counts the lower level at full price will miss. For Iowa files the lender also wants proof of your completed projects, so have addresses, HUDs or settlement statements, and photos ready.

The rivers are the known risk. The Des Moines and Raccoon both flooded in 1993 and again in 2008, when a levee failure put water through the Birdland area north of downtown, and the city has been rebuilding the levee system since. Northeast neighborhoods along Fourmile Creek flash-flooded in July 2024. Pull the flood map on anything low near a creek. Every house not lived in by its owner needs a city rental certificate and an inspection through Neighborhood Inspections, which matters if your exit turns into a hold. Iowa sits in a high-radon region, so a mitigation system is a cheap line to budget, and hail replaces roofs here often enough to make the roof age a question on every file.

The exit

Who buys your finished Des Moines deal

The finished Des Moines house mostly goes to a first-time buyer on an FHA or conventional loan, often someone moving up from an apartment downtown or coming in from Minneapolis or Chicago for a lower cost of living. That buyer shops Beaverdale, Drake and the south side, and they compare your house to suburban new construction in Ankeny, Waukee and Altoona, so the finish needs to feel clean and dry, not flashy. Rental demand is steady, so a DSCR refinance is a real fallback when a south side or east side house rents well. Prices move slowly, so plan the exit on today’s comps, not on next year.

After you apply

Your whole loan, in one portal

Apply once and the whole Des Moines loan lives in the borrower portal: the term sheet you can accept and sign in the browser, where the loan stands, one place for documents, and the list of what the lender is still waiting on. These are real screens from the portal.

Capital Kings borrower portal: Welcome to your file
Welcome to your fileSign in and the term sheet is waiting, with every fee and who it goes to.
Capital Kings borrower portal: Where the loan stands
Where the loan standsApplication, appraisal, title, underwriting, clear to close.
Capital Kings borrower portal: Run the deal again
Run the deal againThe analyzer priced off your real numbers, before and after the appraisal.
Capital Kings borrower portal: What the lender still needs
What the lender still needsEvery open condition, what clears it, and who it is waiting on.
What happens after you apply →Tour the borrower portal
Loan products

What we fund in Des Moines

Fix & Flip

Purchase plus 100% of rehab, released in draws. The core product in Des Moines.

From 9.00% · as little as 5% down · 2+ flips

DSCR Rental

Qualifies on the property’s rent, not your W-2. The usual exit when a flip becomes a hold, and the long-term financing on a BRRRR.

30-year · no income docs

New Construction

Ground-up for builders and infill developers, with a draw schedule matched to the build timeline.

Land + build financing
Coverage

Where we lend in Des Moines

We broker deals across the whole Des Moines market. These are the submarkets investors ask us about most:

Beaverdale and Merle Hay (50310)Drake and Sherman Hill (50311 / 50314)Highland Park and Oak Park (50313)Capitol East and Capitol Park (50316)East Side and Fairmont Park (50317)South Side, Indianola Hills and Fort Des Moines (50315)
Process

From deal to funded

01

Send the deal

Address, purchase price, rehab budget and your ARV. Three minutes, no credit pull.

02

We shop it

Your scenario goes to the lenders in our network that actually fit it and are licensed in Iowa, not all 400 at once.

03

Real terms back

Rate, origination, leverage and cash to close side by side, so you can compare on total cost.

04

Close

7 to 10 days typical. We stay on title and the lender through funding.

Questions

Des Moines hard money FAQ

Do you lend hard money in Des Moines?
Yes. Capital Kings is a broker, not a direct lender, so we shop your Des Moines scenario across a 400+ lender network and bring back real terms instead of one lender’s rate sheet. The programs on this page are the ones whose lenders are licensed in Iowa, and the numbers come from the same engine that prices our instant term sheet.
Which fix and flip programs apply in Des Moines?
As of September 2026: Experienced Investor Rate (15% down, from 9.00%, 2+ completed flips); 5% Down, 3+ Flips (5% down, from 11.00%, 3+ completed flips); 5% Down, 5+ Flips (5% down, from 9.99%, 5+ completed flips). Rehab is funded 100 percent in draws on every one of them, and we shop the file against the rest of the network before anything is signed.
How fast can a Des Moines hard money loan close?
Most Des Moines fix and flip files close in 7 to 10 business days. Clean files with title opened and the appraisal ordered early can close in as few as 5. The delays we see are almost never the lender, they are title issues and slow document returns on the borrower side.
How much do I need to bring to close on a Des Moines flip?
The worked example on this page is a $138,000 Des Moines purchase with a $50,000 rehab and a $260,000 after repair value at 730 credit, 4 to 10 flips completed: $6,900 down (5%) and $19,657 total cash to close, with $43,118 of proof of funds to show the lender. Rehab is funded 100 percent through draws in every case. Run your own numbers in the calculator above, or send us the deal and we will price it.
Do you fund the rehab budget in Des Moines?
Yes, 100 percent of the rehab is funded, but it is a holdback released in draws rather than cash at closing. You pay for each phase, request a draw, an inspector verifies the work, and the lender reimburses. That means you need working capital to float the first phase, which is the single most common thing new investors miss on their first deal.
What credit score do I need for a Des Moines fix and flip loan?
The lowest credit floor among the Des Moines programs is 600. The best pricing needs 700 or higher, and it improves again at 740. Credit matters less here than on a conventional loan because the deal carries the file, but it moves your rate and your leverage, so know where you stand before you make offers. Note that every priced Des Moines lane wants at least 2 completed flips; a first flip is placed per file.
Can I refinance a Des Moines flip into a rental loan?
Yes. That is the BRRRR exit, and it is the most common way a Des Moines flip becomes a hold. A DSCR loan qualifies on the property’s rental income rather than your W-2, so once the rehab is done and it is leased, you refinance out of the short-term hard money loan into 30-year financing. Worth deciding before you start, because it changes what finish level makes sense.
Can I get a hard money loan on my first flip in Des Moines?
Not on a priced program today. The Iowa lanes we can quote all want completed flips, the lowest of them two, which is why the example on this page assumes an investor with four to ten finished deals. If this is your first project, send it anyway with your background, a partner’s experience or a contractor’s track record, and we’ll tell you honestly whether it can be placed by hand or whether a partner structure makes more sense.
Does a finished basement count toward my Des Moines ARV?
Only partly. Appraisers here value below-grade space at a fraction of the main floors, even when it’s nicely finished, and many older Des Moines basements are too low or too damp to count as living area at all. Spend there to keep it dry and usable, not to push the ARV. Put the money into the kitchen, baths and a second bathroom above grade, which is what the buyer and the appraisal both reward.
Who you are working with
Micah Foster
Founder & Mortgage Broker
Micah Foster
Micah brokers Non-QM and hard money loans for real estate investors across 37 states from his base in Texas. He founded Capital Kings to give investors a broker who shops the market on their behalf instead of pitching one lender product.
Send Micah your Des Moines deal →
Keep reading

Before you sign anything

Broker
Direct hard money lender vs broker: the honest breakdown
Read article →
Hard Money
Points, fees & rate: how to compare hard money lenders
Read article →
Draws
How construction draws and the rehab holdback actually work
Read article →
Loan Cost
Dutch vs standard interest: what it really costs you
Read article →
Hard money in Cedar Rapids →Hard money in Kansas City →All Iowa coverage →

Ready to fund your Des Moines deal?

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