The quick read: When the rehab account is empty and the house is ninety percent done, there are three real sources of completion money, and they are tried in this order: release the remaining draw or extend the loan you already hold, refinance that bridge into a completion loan sized on today's as-is value plus a documented cost to complete, or take a cash-out refinance on a separate stabilized property and carry the finish with that cash. Every one of them is priced off what an appraiser can see on the day of the inspection, not off your pro forma. Bring the half-finished file to YieldStack.
Why does the rehab money run out at ninety percent complete?
The money runs out near the end because the last stretch of a renovation concentrates the costs that finance the worst: punch-list labor, finish materials, permit and inspection waits, and the interest that keeps accruing while the schedule slips. Construction money is released against work already completed and inspected, so the cash gap opens before the new value does.
Two structural facts push borrowers into that gap. The clock is short by design: NerdWallet's fix-and-flip loan guide, last updated 2026-02-11, states that repayment terms on these loans are short, typically ranging from six to 24 months. And the budget is a snapshot rather than a contract, because materials and subcontractor hours are priced on the day they are bought, not on the day the scope was written.
The third reason is behavioral. Overruns in the middle of a job are usually absorbed quietly out of pocket, so the holdback is exhausted before the final inspection and the shortfall surfaces with only weeks left on the maturity date.
Where the gap opens: the punch list, not the framing. What a lender can fund: completed, inspected work. What the budget assumed: prices on the day it was written.
Can you extend or re-draw the existing hard money loan?
Yes, and this is almost always the cheapest completion money available, because an unreleased holdback or a short maturity extension comes from the lender that already holds first position, already has the appraisal and already knows the file. There is no payoff, no second appraisal and no new title work.
Start by reconciling the draw schedule line by line against the work actually finished. Rehab budgets are funded in stages, and a line item that was completed but never re-inspected is money sitting in the lender's account with your name on it. Order the re-inspection before you start shopping for a new loan.
If the holdback is genuinely spent, the next ask is an extension. Extensions are priced as a fee and sometimes a step-up in rate, and they are granted on evidence rather than optimism: a signed change order, a dated cost-to-complete from the contractor, photographs of the current condition, a clean payment history, and a credible exit such as an executed listing agreement or a lease plan with a takeout quote behind it.
Cheapest source of completion money: the draw you have not yet claimed. Second cheapest: an extension on the note you already signed. What both require: a re-inspection and a dated cost-to-complete.
Timing is the other argument for this route. A borrower who raises the shortfall sixty days before maturity is negotiating; a borrower who raises it the week of maturity is asking a lender to solve a problem under duress, and the price reflects that.
How does a completion refinance work on a nearly finished flip?
A completion refinance pays off the existing bridge and advances new money for the remaining work, and it is underwritten on two numbers a lender can verify today: the as-is appraised value of the property in its current, partially finished condition, and a documented cost to complete signed by the contractor. The after-repair number matters, but it is a ceiling rather than the basis.
That distinction is where most nearly-finished projects get repriced. NerdWallet defines after-repair value as an appraiser's estimate of the property's value after renovations are finished, which is an estimate of a future condition, and that is exactly why a lender writing a new first mortgage today discounts it or sizes to cost instead. See ARV for the working definition.
The advance rates are not generous. NerdWallet's hard money guide, last updated 2026-03-10, states that hard money lenders typically offer loan amounts with LTVs that range from 50% to 75%, whereas traditional lenders may offer 80% to 90%, and that a borrower may be asked for a down payment of 10% to 30% or more. On the cost side, the fix-and-flip guide notes that the maximum loan-to-cost depends on the lender, but some offer loans up to a 90% LTC or higher.
| Option | What the lender values | Typical cost items | Typical timing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Release an unclaimed draw | Completed work already inside the approved budget | Re-inspection fee, wire fee | Days once the inspection clears |
| Extend the existing note | Same collateral, same file, your payment record | Extension fee, sometimes a rate step-up | Days to a couple of weeks |
| Completion refinance, bridge to bridge | As-is value today plus a documented cost to complete | New points, new appraisal, title update, payoff and exit fee | Several weeks |
| Cash-out refinance on another property | That property's income and equity, not this project | New points, appraisal, prepayment charge on the loan retired | Several weeks |
| Rental takeout after completion | Certificate of occupancy, signed lease or market rent, seasoning | Points, appraisal, reserves | Weeks after the work is finished |
Read the table as a decision ladder, not a menu. Each step down adds a payoff, an appraisal and a closing to the transaction, and every one of those costs is incurred whether or not the new loan is large enough to finish the job.
Can a cash-out refinance on a second property fund the finish?
Yes, and when you already own a stabilized rental with real equity it is often the cleanest answer, because it leaves the project's collateral, its first-lien position and its exit completely untouched while the money to finish arrives from a different file. Nothing about the half-built property has to be re-underwritten.
The mechanics are ordinary rental underwriting rather than construction underwriting. The lender sizes the new loan against that property's income and appraised value, tests coverage against the new payment, and applies a seasoning requirement: a minimum period of ownership, and often a minimum period of stabilized occupancy, before the cash-out advance rate applies. A property bought and refinanced inside that window is commonly sized on cost rather than on value.
Two costs deserve a plain look. You are placing permanent debt on a good asset to fund a temporary need, and that payment stays in place long after the flip sells. And the coverage test on the refinanced property gets harder at every level of the rate tape below, because a larger balance at a higher rate is a larger payment measured against the same rent.
Practical constraint: this is a full underwrite on a different property, which makes it the slowest of the three routes. It does not rescue a maturity date that is four weeks away, so start it while the extension conversation is still open rather than after it fails.
What does a mid-project refinance actually cost?
A mid-project refinance costs far more than the rate on the new note, because you pay origination points on the entire new balance, a second appraisal, fresh title and recording work, an exit or prepayment charge on the loan being retired, and interest on both positions during the overlap. The new money is the small part of the transaction.
Consider an illustrative single-family rehab in a Connecticut submarket where the finished comparables support the exit and the work is genuinely near the end. Every figure below is invented for the example: no real borrower, no real lender, no real property, and no offer of terms.
| Illustrative line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Existing bridge balance to be paid off | $480,000 |
| Documented cost to complete | $62,000 |
| As-is appraised value today | $640,000 |
| After-repair value | $780,000 |
| Completion loan at 75 percent of as-is value plus documented cost to complete ($702,000) | $526,500 |
| Gross proceeds above the payoff | $46,500 |
| Two points on the new loan | -$10,530 |
| New appraisal and inspection | -$1,400 |
| Title update, recording and closing | -$2,600 |
| Exit fee on the loan retired | -$4,800 |
| One month of overlapping interest | -$4,300 |
| Net cash reaching the job site | $22,870 |
Illustrative cost of the move: $23,630, or about fifty-one cents of every gross dollar released. Illustrative shortfall afterward: roughly $39,000 against a $62,000 cost to complete.
That arithmetic is the argument for trying the draw and the extension first. A refinance that releases $46,500 gross and delivers under $23,000 to the job site has not solved a $62,000 problem; it has bought time and moved the shortfall. If the new loan cannot be sized on as-is value plus the full documented cost to complete, the difference has to come from equity, a reduced scope or a changed expectation about the exit price.
What should you never do to finish a flip?
The three moves that turn a finishable project into a loss are consumer borrowing at consumer pricing, stopping work to conserve cash, and letting contractor invoices age into recorded claims against the property. Each looks reversible on paper, and every one of them shows up in the next lender's file.
- Unsecured cards and personal lines. Revolving consumer debt is the most expensive money in the stack, and it is underwritten against you rather than against the project, so it raises your personal obligations at the exact moment a takeout lender is measuring them.
- Aged contractor invoices. Lenders and title agents generally require recorded claims against a property to be released, bonded or escrowed before funds move, so an unpaid invoice that becomes a recorded claim can stop a scheduled payoff or sale. Ask the closing attorney or title agent how that process runs where the property sits.
- Stopping work. A stalled job re-underwrites worse than an active one: the next inspection finds less completed work, the as-is value falls with it, and the story a lender hears changes from finishing to stuck.
- A quiet second-position loan. Most bridge notes prohibit additional liens on the collateral, so recording one without the first lender's written consent can trigger a default on the very loan you are trying to finish.
- Waiting for the maturity date. A maturity default moves the conversation from pricing to workout, and no part of that path is cheaper than the extension you did not ask for.
What does the September 2026 rate tape mean for completion money?
Completion money is priced off two different parts of the curve, so the tape matters twice: the extension or bridge you take now tracks short-term funding costs, while the refinance that eventually retires it tracks the intermediate Treasury curve. Here is where both stood in the week this was written.
Federal funds target range: 3-3/4 to 4 percent, after the FOMC statement of 2026-09-16 said the Committee decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate by 1/4 percentage point. SOFR: 3.85 percent for 2026-09-18, per FRED's SOFR series, updated 2026-09-21. 2-year Treasury: 4.67 percent on 2026-09-17, per FRED's DGS2 series. 5-year Treasury: 4.78 percent on 2026-09-17, per FRED's DGS5 series. 10-year Treasury: 4.94 percent on 2026-09-17, per FRED's DGS10 series.
Two readings follow from that tape. The front end is where the Fed's move landed, so an extension is priced off today's carry, not off a hope that it eases while you deliberate. And the gap between the 2-year and the 10-year was 0.27 percentage point on 2026-09-17, a curve flat enough that waiting a quarter for a cheaper takeout is a hope rather than a plan.
Price the extension against the refinance in total dollars, not in rate. Fee plus added interest on one side; points plus appraisal plus exit charge plus overlapping interest on the other. Then take the cheaper option that actually reaches the finish line, and if neither does, solve for the equity gap before you sign anything.
The bottom line
Work the ladder in order: claim the unclaimed draw, then ask for an extension, then price a completion refinance sized on as-is value plus a documented cost to complete, and only then cash out a separate stabilized asset. A mid-project refinance is expensive enough to be a last resort rather than a first call, and it is sized on what an appraiser can see today. YieldStack is a commercial mortgage brokerage, not a lender, with access to 20,000+ loan programs. Zero upfront to submit a deal and review offers; YieldStack's broker fee is 0.50–1.00% of the loan amount and is 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.