Hard money lenders are lending companies offering a specialized type of real-estate backed loan. Hard money lenders provide short-term loans (also called a bridge loan) that provide funding based on the value of real estate that has been collateralized for the loan. Hard money lenders typically have much higher interest rates than banks because they fund deals that do not conform to bank standards.

Hard money lenders will offer a range of requirements on the loan-to-value percentage, type of real estate and minimum loan size for a hard money loan.