Your Completed-Project Count Is Now Worth More Than Your Credit Score

Certain Lending Team

Two flippers walk into the same deal with the same 700 credit score. One writes a $50,000 check to close. The other writes a $37,500 check. Nothing about their credit explains the gap.

Certain Lending's Fix & Flip leverage is tiered by completed-project count, not by credit score above the qualifying floor. Once a borrower clears 680 FICO, the number that keeps moving is how many projects they have finished, and most active flippers are still optimizing the wrong variable.

Credit Score Stops Moving the Number Once You Clear the Floor

A 680 FICO minimum on Fix & Flip is a floor, not a scale, and treating a higher score as the fastest way to unlock more leverage misreads how the pricing works. Once a borrower clears that floor, leverage is set by a different input entirely.

Pricing does still respond to credit quality at the margins, but the structural ceiling on loan-to-cost and the after-repair-value cap are set by experience tier, not by whether a borrower is at 700 or 760. A flipper chasing a credit score improvement to unlock more proceeds on the next deal is optimizing a variable that has already stopped moving.

Completed Projects Move the Same Two Numbers Credit Score Doesn't

Certain Lending's Fix & Flip leverage scales in three tiers based on completed-project count: up to 90% of cost for a borrower with 0 to 4 completed projects, up to 92.5% for 5 to 9, and up to 97.5% for 10 or more, with the after-repair-value ceiling moving alongside it from 70% to 75%. Every tier finances 100% of the renovation budget.

That means the same purchase price and the same renovation scope can require meaningfully different cash to close depending purely on how many projects the borrower has finished, holding credit score constant. A borrower's fourth flip and a borrower's sixth flip are treated differently by the leverage grid even if their credit profiles are identical.

The Math on Two Identical Credit Scores

Here's the math on a hypothetical deal. Take a $400,000 purchase with a $100,000 renovation, for a $500,000 total cost, exiting at a $650,000 after-repair value. Both borrowers in this example carry a 700 FICO.

Borrower One has completed 3 projects, landing in the 0-4 tier: up to 90% of cost, capped at 70% of the $650,000 ARV. The cost-based number, $450,000, is the binding constraint, leaving $50,000 in cash to close. Borrower Two has completed 6 projects, landing in the 5-9 tier: up to 92.5% of cost, capped at 75% of ARV. The cost-based number here is $462,500, still the binding constraint, leaving $37,500 in cash to close.

Same purchase price, same renovation scope, same credit score. The $12,500 difference in cash required comes entirely from completed-project count, not from anything a credit bureau reports.

Track Your Project Count Like It's Collateral

Most flippers track their credit score the way they'd track a bank balance, checking it before every application and treating a bump as good news worth chasing. Completed-project count deserves the same attention, because it is doing more work on the leverage math than the score is.

That means logging every completed Fix & Flip and every completed BRRRR conversion, since both count toward the experience tier, and knowing exactly which tier a deal will land in before submitting it. A borrower one project away from the next tier has a concrete reason to close out a smaller deal before starting a bigger one, purely for the leverage it unlocks on what comes next.

Key Takeaways

Credit score is a floor on Fix & Flip, not a lever. Once a borrower clears 680 FICO, completed-project count is what moves the loan-to-cost and after-repair-value ceilings.
The same deal can require meaningfully different cash to close for two borrowers with identical credit, purely based on which experience tier their project count lands in.
Know your tier before you submit a deal. A borrower close to the next tier threshold has a real incentive to bank one more completed project before financing the next one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a higher credit score increase my leverage on a Fix & Flip loan?

Not directly. Once a borrower clears the 680 FICO floor, leverage is set by completed-project experience tier, not by how far above the floor the credit score sits.

How is Fix & Flip leverage tiered by experience?

Up to 90% of cost for 0 to 4 completed projects, up to 92.5% for 5 to 9, and up to 97.5% for 10 or more, each paired with its own after-repair-value ceiling and with 100% of the renovation budget financed at every tier.

Do BRRRR deals count toward my completed-project count?

Yes. Fix & Flips and BRRRR conversions completed in the last three years both count toward the experience tier used to set leverage.

What is the minimum credit score for a Fix & Flip loan?

680 FICO, assessed on a soft credit basis. Pricing can still scale with experience, but the leverage ceiling itself is set by completed-project tier.