Looking for advice from experienced flippers- Hard money vs Cash

[Kerri Asekeme]

We’re still relatively new to flipping—we’ve done two properties so far—but we’re running into some serious challenges with hard money.

The interest and fees are basically eating up our profit. Contractor delays alone have cost us over $16,000 in extra interest, and we’re realizing that between permit delays, unexpected timelines, and holding costs, hard money is taking $40,000+ off the top—and that’s before we even list the property.

We originally went the hard money route so we could scale and do multiple projects at once, but now we’re questioning if it’s even worth it. We can buy in cash, but didn’t want to tie it all up in one property. At this point though, it’s feeling like hard money is setting us back more than helping us grow.

Is it smarter to just buy in cash, at least until we have more efficient systems and reliable contractors? Or is there another approach we’re missing?

Any advice or shared experience would be appreciated.