There is no single "best foreign national lender" for every deal, but there is a clear way to judge one. The right lender funds you on the same terms a US investor would get on the same property, moves at the speed a competitive acquisition demands, and actually understands the cross-border path: forming a US LLC, documenting source of funds, and closing remotely. A lender that nails those three things is the right one. A lender that bolts a foreign-national surcharge onto a slow, generic process is not, no matter how it markets itself.
Use the criteria below to evaluate any lender. Then see how Passy Capital measures against them.
The criteria that actually separate lenders
- Parity of terms: does a foreign national get the same pricing and leverage as a US borrower, or is there a foreign-national rate premium and a reduced loan-to-value? The best lenders price the asset, not your passport.
- Asset-based qualification: is the loan underwritten on the property and a funded US LLC, with no US credit score and no US income documents required? If they still ask for a US FICO file, the structure is wrong for you.
- Speed: how fast is the term sheet, and how fast is the close? On a competitive deal, a 24-to-48-hour term sheet and a roughly two-week close are what let you compete with cash.
- Cross-border fluency: does the lender understand US LLC formation, EIN, US banking, and source-of-funds documentation for an overseas investor, and can they guide you through it rather than leaving you to figure it out?
- Structure and compliance: is the loan business-purpose, made to a US LLC, with standard KYC, and does the lender work cleanly with eligible countries while declining sanctioned ones?
- Range and product fit: can the lender cover the residential investment range you need ($500k to $5M core) across the products that fit your strategy, bridge for speed, construction for ground-up, renovation and fix-and-flip for value-add?
Your four realistic options
Measured against those criteria, a non-US investor has four realistic ways to finance a US investment property, and they differ sharply on term parity, speed and cross-border fit.
- US retail and private banks: built for borrowers with a US credit file, US income, and a US banking relationship. A foreign national with none of those is usually declined outright, or told to place a large deposit and wait months. Term parity is irrelevant because the answer is typically no.
- Local US investment lenders: they fund US-based investors on business-purpose terms well, but most have never structured a deal for an overseas borrower. You hit friction on US LLC formation, source-of-funds documentation, and remote closing, and the process stalls even when the deal is sound.
- Region-specific cross-border specialists: lenders focused on a particular home market (for example an Asia-focused desk) can be strong inside that market, but they are a poor fit for an investor in a different region, with the wrong time zone, the wrong banking relationships, and a process tuned to someone else.
- A business-purpose lender fluent in both markets: understands the US investment-lending side and the investor's home market, structures the loan to a US LLC, qualifies on the asset rather than US credit, and guides the LLC, banking, and source-of-funds steps. This is the option that delivers term parity and speed for a cross-border investor.
How Passy Capital fits
Passy Capital was built around exactly this borrower, and it meets each criterion above.
- Same terms as a US borrower: no foreign-national rate penalty and no degraded leverage. A well-documented foreign-national file is priced like a domestic file, with the same leverage: up to 80% loan-to-value on bridge, 85% of total cost on construction, and 90% of total cost on renovation and fix-and-flip.
- Asset-based, no US credit needed: the loan is business-purpose and made to a US LLC, qualified on the property and your liquidity rather than a US credit score or US tax returns.
- A European founder who knows the process on both sides: Passy Capital is run by a founder based between Europe and the US, so the cross-border path, LLC, EIN, banking, source of funds, is familiar rather than foreign, and you are guided through it.
- Fast: a clean file gets a term sheet within 24 hours and can close in roughly two weeks, which is what lets you compete with cash buyers.
- Residential investment core of $500k to $5M, funded through a US LLC, across bridge, construction, renovation, and fix-and-flip. Larger or more complex deals can be placed case-by-case through a capital-partner network of institutional and private capital.
- Clean compliance: standard KYC and source-of-funds verification on the borrower and the US LLC. Passy Capital works with investors from eligible countries and does not work with sanctioned countries or individuals.
The one-line way to compare lenders
Ask a single question of any foreign national lender: "Do I get the same rate and leverage a US borrower would on this exact property, and can you tell me my term sheet timeline today?" A lender that answers yes on parity and gives a concrete 24-to-48-hour term sheet timeline is running the structure built for you. A lender that hedges on either is not the best choice for a cross-border investment deal, whatever its marketing says.