Los Angeles fix & flip loans.

How deals actually move in Los Angeles.

The capital is the same wherever the property sits. What changes is who reviews the plans, how long that takes, and where the paperwork records. That is usually what decides whether a short term is comfortable or tight.

A cosmetic scope can run on an express permit

The Department of Building and Safety issues Express Permits where the work needs no plan review at all, and its bulletin's residential list reads like a flip scope: a kitchen or bathroom remodel with no structural change, replacing drywall in a single-family home or duplex, a re-roof, re-stucco, swapping windows and doors for the same size and type, plumbing fixtures, water heaters, and residential electrical up to 400 amps. Those issue online through PermitLA. Read your own scope against the current bulletin rather than assuming it qualifies.

A structural scope does not

Move a wall, add floor area or convert to an ADU and the job leaves the express list for plan check on ePlanLA. That fork is the whole schedule question on a flip: the scope of work decides the path, the path decides the calendar, and the calendar is what the term has to cover. Los Angeles also publishes a paid expedited plan-check option, which is worth pricing before you need it rather than after.

On a flip, you are the seller

Municipal Code section 96.300 requires the seller of residential property inside the City of Los Angeles to apply for a Report of Residential Property Records and Pending Special Assessment Liens — the 9A — and to deliver it to the buyer before the sale agreement or before escrow closes. The same department page lists the point-of-sale items: water-conservation fixtures, a seismic gas shut-off valve on any building with fuel gas piping, smoke detectors, and a release mechanism on security bars over an emergency-escape window. On the rehab schedule those are a morning's work. In closing week they are the closing date.

The city taxes the resale, not just the purchase

A sale inside the City of Los Angeles pays the base real property transfer tax of 0.45%, which the Office of Finance states as $2.25 per $500 of value, and above the Measure ULA thresholds a further 4% or 5.5% is assessed on the transaction. Those thresholds re-set every July 1 on a chained consumer price index, so the current pair is the Office of Finance's to publish — its Measure ULA FAQ page — rather than ours to quote. Los Angeles County collects its own $0.55 per $500 on top, and Santa Monica and Culver City set city rates of their own.

Where the deed records, and who collects that tax

The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk in Norwalk records the grant deed and the deed of trust at the purchase and the deed again at the resale, and it is the recorder that collects the city transfer tax on the city's behalf, at the moment of recording. The county states plainly that the tax calculation belongs to whoever prepared the document rather than to the recorder, so it is worth checking before the closing statement is final.

Jurisdiction details are published by the authorities named above and can change. Confirm the current process with the relevant department before you build a schedule on it.

Los Angeles questions, answered.

How much of the rehab is financed on a Los Angeles flip?

Rehab is funded up to 100% through the lenders NexWin Capital Corp. places, and it releases in draws as each stage is completed and inspected. Acquisition plus rehab is sized up to 75% of the after-repair value, with loan sizes typically from $100K to $3M. Lenders release draws against their own inspection of the completed stage; in Los Angeles a Building and Safety correction notice on the permit can stall the stage that inspection is waiting on, so map the draw schedule against the permit inspections your path requires before you close, rather than after the first correction notice.

Do I need a permit for a cosmetic flip in Los Angeles?

Usually yes, but often an Express Permit rather than a plan check. The Department of Building and Safety's express list covers a kitchen or bathroom remodel with no structural change, drywall replacement, a re-roof, re-stucco, same-size window and door swaps, plumbing fixtures and water heaters, and those issue online through PermitLA. Move a wall, add floor area or build an ADU and the job goes to plan check on ePlanLA instead. Confirm your own scope against the current bulletin before you build a schedule on it, because the list is the department's to change.

What does the City of Los Angeles want when I sell the flip?

The 9A report and the point-of-sale items. Municipal Code section 96.300 makes the seller apply for the Report of Residential Property Records and deliver it to the buyer before the sale agreement or before escrow closes, and the same department page lists water-conservation fixtures, a seismic gas shut-off valve, smoke detectors and quick-release security bars. That is the City of Los Angeles only: an address in Culver City, Santa Monica or Pasadena answers to a different building department. Price the retrofits into the scope of work and they are cheap. Discover them in escrow and they are not.