Comparing hard money lenders in Myrtle Beach means normalizing eight terms to dollars before the quoted rate enters the conversation: points and fee load, accrual basis, the leverage denominator, holdback release, draw and inspection pricing, extension cost, prepayment, and the exit the lender assumes. Two offers carrying identical rates routinely differ by five figures once those lines are filled in. The Grand Strand adds two variables no rate sheet shows: a tax reset that follows the sale, and coastal thresholds that cap what a rehab budget can buy. Run every offer through one grid, then put the file in front of competing lenders at once.
What should a Myrtle Beach investor compare first: rate or points?
Compare points and total fee load first, because on the loan sizes a Grand Strand condo or duplex renovation typically carries, one point of origination moves more cash on closing day than one point of annual interest moves across a six-month hold. Rate matters at the margin; fee load and accrual basis decide what you wire.
A point is one percent of the loan amount, charged once in cash at closing. On a hypothetical $250,000 loan held six months, two points costs $5,000 on closing day, while one extra percentage point of annual interest costs $1,250 across the whole hold. The two-point quote has to beat the other offer by four full percentage points of rate just to break even.
Accrual basis is the second lever: a rehab tranche accruing on the entire committed facility from closing costs far more than one accruing only on drawn funds.
The line that decides the deal: total dollars wired at closing, not the advertised leverage percentage.
The line nobody volunteers: business days from inspection request to funded wire.
How do leverage caps work against purchase and rehab in Myrtle Beach?
Hard money quotes carry two separate ceilings that borrowers routinely read as one: a percentage of purchase price or total project cost advanced at closing, and a cap on total exposure measured against after-repair value. Whichever binds first sets your cash to close, and on coastal renovation scopes the after-repair ceiling usually binds first.
Per NerdWallet's fix-and-flip loan guide, last updated February 11, 2026, the maximum loan-to-value available on fix-and-flip loans is usually up to 90%, some lenders offer loans up to a 90% loan-to-cost or higher, and repayment terms typically range from six to 24 months. NerdWallet's hard money guide, last updated March 10, 2026, states that hard money lenders typically offer loan amounts with loan-to-value ratios ranging from 50% to 75%, against 80% to 90% for traditional lenders.
Those ranges do not conflict; they measure different denominators, which is the trap. A quote against loan-to-cost and one against after-repair value can differ by tens of thousands on the same deal. How a hard money loan releases proceeds is set out on our hard money page.
Table 1: The eight terms to normalize before comparing two Myrtle Beach quotes
| Term | What to ask | Why it moves your cash |
|---|---|---|
| Points and fee load | Underwriting and document fees included? | Paid in cash when reserves are thinnest |
| Accrual basis | Committed facility or drawn funds? | Often exceeds the rate gap between offers |
| Leverage denominator | Cost or after-repair value? | Equal percentages, different bases |
| Holdback release | Advanced or reimbursed after inspection? | Reimbursement means you float phase one |
| Draw and inspection fees | Cost each, number included, turnaround? | Coastal scopes need more draws |
| Extension pricing | Flat fee or uncapped step-up? | Prices a sixty-day permitting surprise |
| Prepayment and exit | Minimum interest, penalty, exit fee? | A fast resale can forfeit the gain |
| Exit assumption | Resale, long-term rent, nightly rental? | Sets the appraisal instruction |
Then compute one figure per offer: total dollars out of pocket from closing to payoff, assuming work runs thirty days long.
How do draws, inspections and extensions change the real cost?
Draw mechanics convert a headline rate into an actual cost of capital, because every day between an inspection request and a funded wire is a day the crew stands idle while interest accrues on the balance already outstanding. Ask for turnaround in business days, in writing, and ask who approves a change order.
The coastal failure mode repeats: a crew opens a wall in a 1980s oceanfront tower unit, finds water intrusion that must be corrected before the next inspectable milestone, and the work sits outside the approved budget. Our fix and flip financing page covers how those budgets are staged.
An extension priced at a flat percentage of the loan is a known cost; an uncapped rate step-up is not.
NerdWallet's fix-and-flip guide states that hard money lenders generally have flexible eligibility requirements and can provide fix and flip loans as quickly as one or two weeks — and a lender that funds draws on a documented schedule is often cheaper once crew downtime is counted, as our guide to hard money loans in commercial real estate sets out.
How does South Carolina's six percent ratio change the carry on a Myrtle Beach hold?
South Carolina taxes non-owner-occupied real property at a six percent assessment ratio rather than the four percent ratio a legal residence receives, and the transfer that hands you the property also resets its taxable value, so the carry you inherit is not the carry the seller was paying.
The ratio is statutory. Per Section 12-43-220(e) of the South Carolina Code, all other real property not otherwise provided for "shall be taxed on an assessment equal to six percent of the fair market value of such property."
The reset surprises buyers. Per Section 12-37-3140 of the South Carolina Code, as published by the Horry County Assessor, fair market value is the value applicable for the later of the base year or "December thirty-first of the year in which an assessable transfer of interest has occurred."
Partial relief exists and it is calendar-gated. Per the South Carolina Department of Revenue's September 2025 business property tax chapter, Section 12-37-3135 allows a partial exemption reducing the ATI fair market value by 25% of that value, floored at the current fair market value, and requires that "the owner must notify the assessor that the property will be subject to the 6% assessment ratio before January 31st of the property tax year for which the owner first claims eligibility for the partial exemption/alternate valuation." The Department adds the exemption may instead be claimed in a later year, up to the parcel's next county reappraisal.
Assessment ratio, non-owner-occupied parcel: six percent (per S.C. Code Section 12-43-220(e)).
ATI partial exemption: 25% of ATI fair market value, floored at current fair market value (per the S.C. Department of Revenue, September 2025).
Notice deadline, first year claimed: before January 31st (per the S.C. Department of Revenue, September 2025).
Confirm filing mechanics for your parcel with the Horry County Assessor.
What coastal rules constrain an oceanfront condo renovation budget?
Two thresholds decide how much renovation an oceanfront Myrtle Beach structure can absorb before the scope changes character, and both sit entirely outside the loan documents: the federal substantial-improvement test and South Carolina's beachfront setback jurisdiction. A lender that has never underwritten Horry County will price neither.
The federal one is a percentage. Per the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Flood Insurance Program study guide, "substantial improvement" means any reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition or other improvement to a structure, the total cost of which "equals or exceeds 50 percent of the market value of the structure before the start of construction," and a qualifying structure "must meet the requirements for new construction," meaning elevation to or above the base flood elevation.
That is an underwriting ceiling: crossing half the structure's pre-construction market value turns a cosmetic scope into a compliance project.
The state layer is a line on a map. Per Section 48-39-280 of the South Carolina Code, the baseline for each standard erosion zone sits at the crest of the primary oceanfront sand dune, and a setback line must be established landward of it "a distance which is forty times the average annual erosion rate or not less than twenty feet from the baseline." Section 48-39-130 provides that no person shall "in any way alter any critical area without first obtaining a permit from the department," and that critical area runs from the mean high-water mark to the setback line.
How does a short-term rental exit change a Myrtle Beach underwriting?
The exit a lender assumes decides the appraisal instruction, and on the Grand Strand the three live exits — resale, long-term rental refinance and nightly rental refinance — carry different revenue definitions and different tax treatment. Name the exit before the appraisal is ordered.
Nightly revenue is treated by statute. Per Section 12-36-920 of the South Carolina Code, "a sales tax equal to seven percent is imposed on the gross proceeds derived from the rental or charges for any rooms, campground spaces, lodgings, or sleeping accommodations furnished to transients," and proceeds from accommodations "supplied to the same person for a period of ninety continuous days are not considered proceeds from transients."
Local layers are capped rather than fixed. Per Section 6-1-520 of the South Carolina Code, a local governing body may impose a local accommodations tax "not to exceed three percent"; per Section 6-1-720, a local hospitality tax may not exceed two percent and applies to charges for food and beverages rather than lodging. What a parcel actually pays is set locally, so pull the current schedule for the address rather than a stacked figure from a rental-platform summary.
Zoning is the lever this article will not guess at. Whether a parcel may be operated as a nightly rental is decided address by address, and the city's planning and zoning staff are the only current authority. Confirm it in writing first: a three-or-more-unit oceanfront asset whose nightly use is not permitted must be re-tenanted at long-term rents.
Which Myrtle Beach submarkets change the underwriting?
The Myrtle Beach metro is a renovation-and-resale market rather than a new-construction market for anything between a single-family house and a large condominium tower, and the permit record says so plainly. A comparison grid here is dominated by rehab mechanics rather than construction draw schedules.
The Census Bureau's Building Permits Survey annual metro file for 2025 reports 6,418 privately owned housing units authorized in single-unit structures in the Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC metro area (CBSA 34820), no units at all in two-unit structures, 16 units in three- and four-unit structures, and 77 units across 15 structures of five units or more. Authorization is not completion, but the shape is clear: the small multifamily stock an investor buys here is recycled, not replaced. Metro context sits on our Myrtle Beach market page, statewide programs on the South Carolina market page.
Oceanfront condominium renovation. Expect an HOA estoppel and reserve study on the lender's list, a master-insurance question governing what your own policy must cover, and the substantial-improvement threshold over the budget.
Surfside Beach duplex. The exit question bites hardest here: the resale buyer, the long-term rental buyer and the nightly-rental buyer are three bidders at three values. Ask which comparable set the appraiser is instructed to use.
Carolina Forest single-family flip. Newer inland product, lighter scopes, faster inspection cycles, deeper resale bid — the profile where a national rate card most often beats a relationship lender.
What does the September 2026 rate tape mean for a Myrtle Beach hard money quote?
Short-term coastal rehab capital is priced off short-term funding costs and local competition rather than the long end of the Treasury curve, but the takeout you underwrite at closing is priced off exactly that long end. Both curves govern the same deal, and they are not moving together.
Federal funds target range: 3-3/4 to 4 percent. The Federal Open Market Committee decided on September 16, 2026 "to raise the target range for the federal funds rate by 1/4 percentage point to 3-3/4 to 4 percent," per the Federal Reserve Board.
Bank prime loan rate: 7.00% on September 21, 2026, against 6.75% on September 16, per FRED. A facility indexed to prime has repriced.
SOFR: 3.85% on September 21, 2026, against 3.62% on September 16, per FRED. A spread-over-index extension behaves differently from a flat-fee extension.
10-year Treasury constant maturity: 4.96% on September 21, 2026, per FRED.
2-year Treasury constant maturity: 4.76% on September 21, 2026, per FRED — twenty basis points of slope between the two on the same day.
Underwrite the refinance takeout at today's long end, and price the extension you will probably need at the index as it prints.
How do you get competing hard money quotes on a Myrtle Beach deal?
The practical obstacle to comparing hard money lenders in Myrtle Beach is sequencing rather than sourcing, because quotes gathered one at a time across three weeks are not comparable and tend to arrive after the property is under contract to someone else. Parallel submission fixes both.
YieldStack is a commercial mortgage brokerage, not a lender. One complete file goes out against 20,000+ loan programs and comes back as 5–8 matches, with a median offer in under an hour, from an institutional lender. Submitting costs Zero upfront, and the brokerage fee is 0.50–1.00% of the loan amount, paid only at closing. Every credit decision is made by the lender; YieldStack arranges the introductions and negotiates on the borrower's side, and no loan, rate, or closing is guaranteed.
What matters is not the count of offers but that they land the same day against the same scope and after-repair assumption, and that a borrower-side team reads the accrual basis, holdback release and extension language before you sign.
The bottom line
Shop the structure, not the rate. In Myrtle Beach the terms that decide your real cost of capital are the leverage denominator, whether the holdback is advanced or reimbursed, whether interest accrues on drawn funds or the whole facility, and what an extension costs when permitting runs long. Then price the two local variables no rate sheet carries: a reassessment that follows your purchase at the six percent ratio, with a January 31st notice deadline on the partial exemption, and a substantial-improvement threshold that can turn a cosmetic budget into a compliance job.