Fix & Flip Loans in Knoxville, TN —
Funded With Our Own Money
Approach Lending is a direct private and hard money lender in Knoxville. We fund purchase and rehab on East Tennessee investment property from our own balance sheet — no brokers, no capital partners, nobody above Chris and Flynt who can kill your deal at the closing table. Rates from 9.99%, 2–3 points, up to 90% of purchase price and 70% of ARV, from $50,000, on 9-month terms. Standard closings run 14 days.
- No tax returns or W-2s
- No full appraisal on most deals
- Draws funded next day
- First-time flippers welcome
★★★★★ 30 five-star Google reviews · 300+ loans funded since 2021 · 65% repeat borrowers
What we look at on a Knoxville flip
The property and your plan for it — not a stack of pay stubs.
We don't ask for income verification, W-2s, or two years of tax returns. That's why we get so much business from self-employed investors whose returns make a bank conversation go nowhere. What we're underwriting is the purchase price, the after-repair value, your rehab budget, and whether the numbers still work when the job is done.
Credit does matter — we'll be straight about that. What we're reading is whether you generally pay your obligations on time, not a threshold score. A one-time event you can explain, a medical bill, a divorce, a rough year, is not an automatic no. A long pattern of missed obligations is a different conversation.
Here's what to have ready when you call:
- Purchase contract, or just the property address if you're still negotiating
- A scope of work with a rough rehab budget
- Proof of funds for your down payment
- Your exit — sell it, or refinance and hold it
Most deals don't need a full appraisal. We do our own third-party evaluation from photos and video plus our own opinion of value, which takes weeks out of the timeline. Chris and Flynt read your file themselves, so the answer you get is the actual answer — not a loan officer relaying it from a committee.
Whether this is your first flip or your twelfth, the process is the same. Over half our borrowers have flipped before, and we fund first-timers on sound deals regularly. Experience affects your leverage. It doesn't decide whether we'll work with you.
How we size the loan
Two ceilings, and your loan lands under whichever one comes first.
We lend up to 90% of the purchase price and up to 70% of the after-repair value. Those run as two separate tests, and the lower result governs. A bargain buy doesn't automatically unlock a bigger loan if the ARV can't support it, which is the piece investors comparing lenders for flipping houses most often get surprised by.
Payments are interest-only over a 9-month term, so your carrying cost stays as low as it can while the property is torn up and unsellable. Points run 2–3. If you have real equity in another property, cross-collateralization can push your total leverage higher than the purchase-price ceiling on its own — that's how we get deals funded that would otherwise die for a down payment gap.
Bring a defensible ARV. Recent comparable renovated sales in that submarket, not raw price per square foot off the whole neighborhood. We pull our own comps and we know these submarkets, so a well-supported number moves fast and a stretched one just costs us both a round trip.
The terms on your commitment letter are the terms at closing
We lend our own capital. There's no capital partner above us, no credit committee, and no secondary-market buyer whose appetite can change in week two. The rate and fees we quote don't move between commitment and closing — the only exception being if the situation turns out to be materially different from what was represented, on credit or on the condition of the property.
Draws: send a video, get funded the next day
Rehab money is released in stages as work gets done. How painful that process is will affect your project more than a quarter point on the rate.
What a draw usually involves
- Itemized invoices for the completed phase
- Signed lien releases from every trade
- A third-party inspector scheduled to the property
- Three to five business days of waiting, longer in the busy season
- Crews idle, or moved to another job, while the check clears
What a draw involves with us
- Walk the finished work on video
- Send it to Chris or Flynt
- Funded the next day
- No inspector visit to schedule
- No invoices, no lien releases
This is the part borrowers underestimate until they've lived through it once. A stalled draw doesn't just cost paperwork time — contractors who aren't paid for finished work move their crews to the next job, and rebooking skilled trades in this labor market can add weeks. Meanwhile interest, insurance, and utilities keep running against a margin you calculated back when the timeline still looked clean.
Three things that catch flippers out in Knoxville
Local specifics we talk borrowers through before they're under contract, not after.
1. Older housing stock eats rehab budgets
Knoxville's older neighborhoods — Fourth and Gill, Old North Knoxville, parts of Parkridge — are full of early-1900s homes carrying knob-and-tube wiring, aging supply lines, and foundation settling that a walkthrough won't reveal. On anything pre-1930, get a contractor into the property before you finalize your offer, and carry a real contingency for electrical, plumbing, and foundation. Because the rehab number feeds both the loan-to-cost and the ARV test, a budget that moves after closing moves your financing with it.
2. Permits stall draws more than anything else
Work touching electrical, plumbing, mechanical, or structural systems is permitted through the City of Knoxville Codes Administration, and investors regularly assume cosmetic-sounding work is exempt when it isn't. Swapping a water heater, moving a wall, upgrading a panel, relocating supply lines, altering load-bearing framing — all permitted and inspected. Get the permit groundwork started before closing rather than after, and your renovation schedule and your draw schedule stay pointed the same direction. Properties in unincorporated Knox County go through the county's own codes office instead, so confirm which jurisdiction you're actually in.
3. Tennessee taxes the recording of the note
Tennessee charges a recordation tax on indebtedness secured by real property, collected when the deed of trust is recorded. It's calculated on the loan amount, and it surprises out-of-state investors and first-timers every time. It isn't a junk fee anyone can negotiate away — build it into your cash-to-close alongside title fees and origination points and settlement day won't come in over your estimate. Ask us for the current figure on your loan size and we'll walk you through the whole closing-cost stack.
Where we fund flips
Knoxville and Knox County are home. We also fund the small towns and tertiary markets most lenders decline outright — we evaluate whether there's real buyer demand in that market instead of applying a population cap.
When a fix & flip loan is the wrong tool
We'll tell you so on the first call, even when it costs us the deal.
- You're keeping it as a rental. A 9-month flip loan is the wrong shape for a long hold. Our fix & hold product fits that, and we can facilitate the DSCR takeout through our network.
- The spread is too thin. If the ARV barely covers purchase, repairs, and carry, 90% of purchase won't rescue a deal that never had room in it. That's one we talk people out of.
- There's no scope of work yet. If you haven't walked the property or priced the repairs, calling now usually just means calling again later. Get the numbers first.
- The project changes the use type — a conversion to multifamily, say — without the permitting in place.
- Ongoing credit trouble rather than a single explainable event.
We also don't lend on raw land, mobile home parks, RV parks, or owner-occupied primary residences. None of that means you're stuck — usually it means the product or the timing needs to shift, and one conversation sorts out which.
Knoxville investors on working with us
All 30 of our Google reviews are five stars. A few that speak to flips specifically:
"Most lenders make things complicated, but Chris' team makes it simple to get a fix & flip loan."
— Caleb Luketic"I was able to close in as little as 10 business days. Done multiple deals with them and will continue."
— Chandlor Mullins"They really saved me on a deal that another lender dropped the ball on."
— Kevin DykeFrom first call to funded
Fourteen days is the comfortable version. Ten is doable when a deal needs it.
Call Chris or Flynt
You talk to an owner, not an intake screen. Bring the address, your rehab number, and your exit, and you'll leave the call knowing where you stand.
We evaluate the deal
Our own comps, our own opinion of value, third-party evaluation from photos and video. No full appraisal on most deals, no committee, no waiting on anyone above us.
Term sheet, then commitment
Rate, points, leverage, and term in writing. What's on the commitment letter is what you close at.
Close and start work
Title companies like closing with us because we're responsive and easy to work with, which matters more than it sounds when you're trying to hit a contract date.
Draw as you go
Video walkthrough of the finished phase, funded the next day. Repeat until the rehab budget is out.
Fix & flip loan questions
Have a Knoxville flip under contract?
Call and talk to the people who decide. One conversation and you'll know whether we can fund it, what it costs, and how fast we can close.
(865) 999-8083