At Cetan Funds, we’re more than just a lender. We’re a partner in your success, offering tools and knowledge that help you move faster, work smarter, and close with certainty. Our experienced team understands how important speed, clarity, and dependable financing are for real estate investors, especially when you’re working against the clock.
Whether you’re flipping your first property or aiming to streamline loan management and due diligence, these essential tools – sourced from our website and trusted organizations – are built to give you a real edge in this growing market.
Hard Money Loan Calculators#
Cetan Funds offers free calculators to help you make informed decisions by estimating construction costs, interest-only payments, and the maximum price someone should be willing to pay for a residential investment property. Here’s a list of the calculators available:
- Rule-of-Thumb Rehab Estimator: Cetan Funds’ Rule-of-Thumb Rehab Estimator provides rough cost estimates for renovating single-family homes based on their extensive experience in Oregon and Washington markets. It’s a helpful tool for getting ballpark figures but should only be used for informational purposes, as actual costs vary widely by location and project specifics.
- Cetan Interest-Only Payment Calculator: Use this tool to estimate your interest-only payments based on a given loan amount. It’s designed for general planning purposes. If you’re applying for a loan and need precise figures tailored to your situation, contact your loan officer.
- Maximum Allowable Offer Calculator: The Maximum Allowable Offer (MAO) formula helps investors determine the highest price for a residential property, like a fix-and-flip, while aiming for substantial returns. This popular tool uses your projected After-Repair Value (ARV), rehab budget, and risk tolerance to guide smart buying decisions.
Ready to crunch the numbers with confidence? Try our free calculators now to estimate rehab costs, set smart offer limits, and plan your next investment with precision.
High-Impact Networking & Educational Resources#
Stay informed and connected with resources to support your growth as a real estate investor. These organizations and resources can help you navigate the hard money lending landscape – from educational events to networking opportunities – with confidence!
Organizations & Networking#
- American Association of Private Lenders (AAPL): The American Association of Private Lenders (AAPL) provides essential national resources for hard money lenders and real estate investors, including industry-standard certification, compliance tools, market insights, and a robust professional network. With education programs like the CPLA and regular events, AAPL helps investors stay informed and connected.
- Central Oregon Rental Owners Association (COROA): Serving Crook, Deschutes, Jefferson, and Klamath Counties, COROA provides education, networking, and advocacy for rental owners.
- Northwest Real Estate Investors Association (NWREIA): Serving Oregon and Southwest Washington, NWREIA is a chapter of the National Real Estate Investors Association. They offer education, networking, and resources for new and experienced investors.
- The Oregon Real Estate Investors Association (ORREIA): This local REIA offers a strong network for connecting with fellow investors and lenders while learning how to use hard money effectively. With workshops, meetings, and member perks, they provide practical education and support to help grow your real estate business.
- Oregon Rental Housing Association (ORHA): This association focuses on the interests of smaller rental owners and operators. They advocate for landlords’ rights and offer training and resources.
- Real Estate Promo: A valuable marketing and networking platform that helps real estate investors and developers increase deal visibility and build relationships within the real estate investing community.
- Women Real Estate Investors of Oregon (WREIO): A community focused on supporting and empowering women in real estate investment across Oregon.
- Meetup.com: Search for real estate investor meetups in your city.
- Chamber of Commerce Events: Networking with local professionals and developers. Check your local Chamber of Commerce for events near you.
- Social Media/Facebook Groups: Several valuable networking groups gather on social platforms, especially Facebook, such as Investor Lab (which hosts a quarterly meeting in Portland), PDX REI Group, REVIN (in Vancouver), Willamette Valley Real Estate Investors, Salem Real Estate Investors, and many more.
Educational Resources for Real Estate Investors & Hard Money Borrowers#
- Cetan Funds Articles: The Cetan Funds Articles page features expert insights and practical guidance to help you make informed real estate investment decisions. It’s a trusted resource on market trends, strategies, and hard money lending insights.
- Cetan Funds Projects: The Cetan Funds Projects page highlights our past investments and success stories, demonstrating how our financing solutions have enabled clients to achieve their real estate goals. It provides insight into the tangible impact of hard money lending.
- BiggerPockets: A comprehensive online platform that empowers real estate investors at all levels to learn proven strategies, analyze deals with confidence, and build valuable connections through tools, forums, podcasts, and expert-driven content.
- Udemy and Coursera: These both offer beginner courses on real estate investing basics.
- REtipster: This is an educational platform and content hub for real estate investors that offers practical tips and tutorials for flipping, wholesaling, and rental investing.
Strategic Property & Deal Analysis Tools#
These tools help evaluate if a deal makes financial sense, especially when borrowing at higher interest rates:
- County Assessor: Checking the county assessor’s website gives you quick access to key details like ownership, value, taxes, and zoning, which are essential for verifying properties and spotting red flags.
- DealCheck: This real estate analysis tool helps investors streamline processes and quickly evaluate deals using cash flow projections and ROI calculations.
- PropStream: A powerful platform for real estate investors, offering advanced search tools and property data to find distressed properties and motivate sellers.
- Rehab Valuator: A comprehensive tool for analyzing deals and marketing that assists investors in evaluating rehabs, estimating profits, and generating reports.
- Regional Multiple Listing Service (RMLS): The primary MLS in Oregon, accessible through a licensed real estate agent. It’s a valuable tool for tracking listings, comps, and days on the market.
- Redfin and Zillow: Offers public-facing access to property data, neighborhood trends, and estimate tools (with limitations).
- City-Data and NeighborhoodScout: Provide demographic, crime, school, and neighborhood-level data for investment analysis.
Title Companies#
These can be a great tool for investors as they offer a comprehensive list of properties that are in pre-forclosure or probate. This makes it a good source for motivated sellers and buyers looking for distressed properties to flip.
In Oregon, several reputable title companies provide access to these types of lists. Here are a few worth exploring:
- Cascade Title & Escrow: With locations in both Eugene and Florence, this title company offers traditional title and escrow services, along with contract collections and 1031 exchange services.
- Western Title & Escrow: Based in Eugene but great for the valley, central, and parts of the Oregon coast. Specializing in title and escrow services, you can also find calculators, apps, CC&Rs, and more on their website.
- Fidelity National Title: The parent company of Western Title, you can find offices all over the state. Their title and escrow services are great for real estate professionals, lenders, buyers, sellers, and attorneys.
- Evergreen Land Title: Locally owned and operated in Lane County, this title company offers fast service, often getting a preliminary title report to clients within 48 hours.
- Lawyers Title: With a strong presence in Portland, this is a great option for buyers and sellers in the more northern areas of Oregon. In addition to their title services, they also provide continuing education resources.
- Chicago Title: This title company has several locations around the Portland area. They offer premiere services that include public and private school reports, neighborhood demographics, sale records, and more.
- Old Republic Title: Supporting the Portland area, real estate professionals, investors, and homeowners will appreciate the services they provide for both commercial and residential properties.
- Ticor Title: Get access to buyer and seller resources such as a moving guide and information on fraud protection. This is a great option for many smaller/rural Oregon counties we commonly work in.
- Amerititle: Another great option for many small, rural counties. They come with plenty of experience – a combined 1,000 years – in the services they provide.
These are only a handful of the resources available to Oregon real estate investors that can deepen their knowledge, grow their networks, and give them tools that support smarter investment decisions.
Whether you’re managing multiple properties or flipping your first home, Cetan Funds is here to support your journey with flexible hard money loan solutions, expert insight, and proven tools. Contact us today or visit our Loan Programs page to learn more about flexible hard money loans tailored to your needs.
BORROWER FAQs#
What is a Private or Hard Money Loan?
Private and hard money loans come in many variations, but most are short-term loans provided by an investor or group of investors when conventional financing is unattainable or undesirable.
Most private lenders and hard money lenders, like Cetan Funds, finance projects like fix and flip rehabs, rental properties, commercial bridge loans, land development, and many other unusual or unconventional properties and projects. A private or hard money loan can help real estate investors, developers, builders, and small businesses grow their portfolios and businesses faster than they could on their own.
Here at Cetan Funds, we empower people to build wealth through real estate.
Why choose hard money vs. bank loans?
Hard money (or private) loans are built for speed and flexibility. Banks often require months of paperwork, strict borrower qualifications, and rigid underwriting standards. At Cetan Funds, we base our lending decisions primarily on the value and potential of the property, not just the borrower’s financial profile. This means we can finance properties and projects banks typically decline due to condition, complexity, or unusual circumstances.
Hard money loans are ideal for time-sensitive opportunities like fix-and-flip projects, new construction, or land development.
Where Does the Money You Lend Come From?
Cetan Funds offers two pooled private equity fund investments for Oregon residents who qualify and accredited investors. Our two funds, called Cetan Income Fund and Cetan Opportunity Fund, serve as the primary source of capital for the loans that Cetan Funds originates.
Rather than matching individual investors to individual loans, or borrowing capital from banks or Wall Street as many hard money lenders do, at Cetan Funds, we manage our own pool of funds. The investors own shares of their fund limited liability company and the principals of Cetan Funds manage the portfolio of loans owned by the fund. All loans are serviced by Cetan Funds. To learn more about the advantages of this structure, please contact us.
What Types of Loans Does Cetan Funds Finance?
We can lend on most commercial and residential property in Oregon and SW Washington if the loan is for business or investment purposes. We provide short-term financing for bare land, land development, new construction, rehabs, and residential and commercial bridge loans.
Do You Lend on Primary or Secondary Residences?
No. We can only lend for business or investment purposes and do not lend on owner-occupied residential properties. Check out our blog to learn more about what we do and what we don’t do.
Where Do You Lend?
We lend exclusively in Oregon and SW Washington because we know the market well and are committed to helping grow our local market. We lend primarily in Western, Southern and Central Oregon with an occasional loan in Southwestern Washington.
Do You Only Look at the Property/Collateral?
While we are primarily a “collateral-based lender,” we do not solely look at the property/collateral. In our experience, who you lend to is just as important as what you lend on.
We strive to build long-term relationships with our borrowers, and we cannot achieve that if we focus solely on their real estate. So, we also take into consideration character, capacity, capital, and other conditions.
Weighing these important factors, which are often overlooked by other private and hard money lenders, helps us accurately measure risks for both our borrowers and our investors while allowing us to offer better all-around results for our clients.
Do You Have Minimum or Maximum Loan Sizes?
How Long Are Your Loans?
We offer loans as short as 3 months and as long as 60 months; however, most of our loans are for 6 to 12 months. Plus, we build in automatic extensions to every loan to ensure borrowers have time to deal with unexpected events and circumstances.
What Are Your Application and Underwriting Requirements?
Cetan Funds loans are customized to fit each specific scenario. Therefore, application and underwriting requirements can often vary depending on the situation. Typically, we require the following:
For Applications:
- Cetan Funds Business Loan Application (online form, link provided by your loan officer)
- Personal financial statements for all loan guarantors (form provided)
- Property/project description
- Summary of construction or investment experience (if applicable)
For Underwriting:
- 2 years of tax returns for all loan guarantors
- 3-6 months of bank statements
- Project/property-specific documentation (such as purchase/sale agreements, lease agreements, business financials, etc.)
- Detailed rehab or construction plans and budgets (if applicable)
Please contact us for more information on the application and underwriting requirements for your specific scenario.
How Fast Can I Get a Loan Decision?
How fast is funding?
We pride ourselves on moving quickly. Loan decisions are typically made within 1–2 business days, and pre-approval can often be issued just as fast. Once approved, we can close and fund in as little as 3–5 business days, depending on the project and documentation. That speed lets you secure capital and act on opportunities without the delays common with traditional lenders.
Can I Get Pre-Approved?
How Fast Can You Fund and Close a Loan?
As quickly as 3-5 days.
What is Your Minimum Down Payment?
What Are Your Interest Rates?
Rates vary depending on the project. Typically, annual interest rates are 10-12%. Interest is only charged on the outstanding balance. Therefore, interest is not charged on construction or rehab funds until they are drawn. So, for most of our short-term construction and rehab loans, borrowers actually incur far less than 10-12% in interest expense. For more information, please contact us.
What Are Your Loan Fees?
Origination fees vary depending on the project. Typically, origination fees are 2-4% of the loan amount. We also charge a $995-$1,495 administrative fee at closing.
Can I Live in the Property While I Have This Loan?
Unfortunately, no. Our borrowers cannot live in the residential properties we finance for them.
The only exception is in very specific commercial loan scenarios. If you wish to get a loan on a property you would like to live in now, or in the future, please contact us so we can help you find a lender for that. We are happy to help.
Can I Pay Off My Loan Early?
Do You Fund Rehab and Construction Loans?
On Rehab or Construction Loans, Do You Charge Interest on the Full Loan Commitment?
No. Interest is only charged on the outstanding balance.
How Do Construction Draws Work With Your Loans?
Construction draws are typically disbursed for work completed, materials purchased, or subcontractor invoices ready to be paid. Borrowers work directly with their loan officer, their main point of contact from start to finish on the project, to submit draw requests up to twice per month.
We do not charge fees for construction draws. Draw requests include a breakdown of the items awaiting reimbursement or payment, evidence showing the completed work or materials on site, and copies of subcontractor invoices or receipts over $2,500-5,000. Draws are typically processed in 24-48 hours.
Do You Fund Loans on Bare Land?
Yes, we provide bare land loans. Each situation is different. Please contact us for details.
Do You Finance Mobile or Manufactured Homes?
What is “Cetan”?
Cetan comes from the Lakota language and means “hawk spirit.” We chose it to represent the values we bring to lending: vision to see opportunities, loyalty in building long-term relationships, and speed in delivering funding when it’s needed most.
Supporting local organizations like the Cascades Raptor Center also helps us honor that connection to hawks and our beautiful raptors in the Pacific Northwest while giving back to the community.