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Lima One Capital Review 2026: NYSE-Parent BPL Lender with a Public Consent Order

By Jorge··Updated October 16, 2026·39 min read

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Quick Answer

Lima One Capital, LLC (Greenville, SC, founded 2010, NMLS 1324403) is a top-five US business-purpose lender and a wholly-owned subsidiary of MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE: MFA). The lifetime track record: 30,000+ closed loans, over $10B funded across 46 states. The company was founded by former Marine infantry officer John Warren in 2010, sold its majority stake in August 2019 to a Magnetar Capital-led group, and was fully acquired by MFA Financial on July 1, 2021 for $57.3M in cash (plus $4.7M of restricted stock unit awards to Lima One management) (the remaining 57% stake; MFA had bought an initial 43% interest in 2018). John Warren stepped away to run GEM Mining. Jeff Tennyson served as CEO from approximately 2018 until his retirement in July 2024. Josh Woodward, employee #6 and former CFO, has been President and CEO since July 25, 2024. Q1 2026 originations were $130.2M with mortgage banking income of $7.7M (up 34% QoQ). One regulatory record most reviews omit, and what it actually was: California's regulator summarily revoked Lima One's finance-lender license (#60DBO-45834) on April 3, 2020 because its 2019 annual report had not been filed; Lima One filed it 77 business days late, and a July 3, 2020 Consent Order rescinded the revocation with a $10,000 administrative penalty. That is a paperwork lapse with a fine, not a finding about how it treats borrowers. Add a Yelp 1.6/5 average across 18 reviews (Atlanta office) and recurring escrow-misallocation complaints on BBB and you get the honest picture: a credibly-funded, publicly-parented lender with a documented servicing-pattern problem that matters more on a 30-year DSCR than it does on a 12-month flip.

CSV · 19 rows

The data table in this article, as CSV

The 19-row table from this article as CSV: Dimension, Lima One, Kiavi, Roc360…. Sources are listed in the article.

Why this review exists

Lima One is one of two top-five US business-purpose lenders that almost every consumer review website covers wrong. The recurring mistakes you'll see in competing reviews:

  1. The CEO is misidentified. John Warren left in 2019. Jeff Tennyson then ran the company for approximately six years. Josh Woodward has been CEO since July 25, 2024. Aggregator reviews still cite Warren as if he's the current CEO.
  2. The parent company is misstated. Lima One is owned by MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE: MFA), a public mortgage REIT — not Pretium Partners (which owns Anchor Loans) and not Magnetar Capital (which was the prior controlling owner from August 2019 through July 1, 2021).
  3. The California DFPI consent order is omitted, or never explained. California's regulator summarily revoked Lima One's finance-lender license (#60DBO-45834) on April 3, 2020 for not filing its annual report, and a Consent Order on July 3, 2020 rescinded the revocation with a $10,000 penalty. It is on the public DFPI enforcement page. Almost no competing review mentions it, and the ones that do rarely say it was about a late report.
  4. The headline statistic is stale. Most reviews still cite the 2021 acquisition-era figure of "$3B funded since 2010." Lima One's own homepage now reports 30,000+ closed loans and over $10B funded across 46 states (verified May 2026).

This review corrects all of those. We have no affiliate relationship with Lima One — there is no public retail affiliate program for our audience. We earn nothing if you apply. The analysis below is borrower-side only; there is no retail-investor product on Lima One (capital flows through MFA Financial's public REIT balance sheet, MFA-affiliated securitization vehicles, and warehouse facilities).

1. The corporate stack and ownership timeline

You cannot evaluate Lima One without understanding the four-stage ownership history. Each transition changed the funding base, the underwriting tolerance, and the servicing model.

2010 - Founded by John S. Warren. Warren served four years as a US Marine Corps infantry officer, including a 2006 deployment with 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines to Ramadi, Iraq, before founding Lima One Capital in Greenville, South Carolina. The name "Lima One" comes from his combat radio call sign. The company started with a single product (fix-and-flip bridge loans for South Carolina investors) and expanded multistate from 2012 onward.

2018 - MFA Financial buys a 43% minority interest plus $22M in preferred stock. MFA, a public mortgage REIT trading on the NYSE under "MFA," had been buying whole loans from Lima One since 2017. The 2018 minority stake gave MFA a board seat and a strategic option on full acquisition. Magnetar Capital remained the controlling owner alongside Lima One management.

August 2019 - John Warren sells his majority stake. Per Upstate Business Journal and BusinessWire reporting, Warren sold his founder ownership to a group including Magnetar Capital and Lima One management. He stepped away from operations to launch GEM Mining (a Bitcoin mining company headquartered in Greenville). Warren has no current operational role at Lima One; some competing reviews still incorrectly list him as CEO.

July 1, 2021 - MFA Financial buys out the remaining 57%. MFA paid $57.3 million in cash (plus $4.7 million of restricted stock unit awards to Lima One management) to Magnetar Capital and Lima One management, taking 100% ownership of Lima One Holdings, LLC. The transaction included a $1.1B servicing portfolio and approximately $200M of related financial assets. From that date forward, Lima One is a wholly-owned subsidiary of MFA Financial — meaning Lima One's mortgage banking segment performance is now consolidated into MFA's quarterly 10-Q and annual 10-K filings (SEC EDGAR CIK 0001055160).

July 25, 2024 - Josh Woodward replaces Jeff Tennyson as President and CEO. Tennyson had served as CEO since approximately 2018 and led Lima One through the MFA acquisition. He retired in July 2024 and joined CEO Coaching International as a Partner in February 2025. Woodward joined Lima One in 2013 as employee #6, previously served as CFO, and built out the accounting, capital-markets, servicing, and special-servicing functions. He was named a HousingWire Rising Star in 2024 and an IMN SFR Industry Rising Star in 2022.

What the ownership history means for borrowers

Lima One is structurally among the most transparent of the top US BPL lenders because its parent files SEC 10-Ks. You can read MFA Financial's quarterly reports and trace exactly what Lima One originated, where its delinquencies sit, and how its mortgage banking segment is performing inside the broader REIT. Kiavi became a wholly owned subsidiary of Figure Technology Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq: FIGR) on September 1, 2026 (Figure's Form 8-K), and Figure also files 10-Qs and 8-Ks; Roc360 (private LLC) and LendingOne (undisclosed asset manager) lack this transparency.

The trade-off: Lima One's pricing flexibility and underwriting tolerance move with MFA Financial's portfolio-wide stress signals. MFA's residential 60+ day delinquency rate was 7.1% at year-end 2025, rose to 7.8% as of March 31, 2026, then declined to 7.3% subsequent to quarter-end per MFA's Q1 2026 earnings release. The mortgage banking segment that contains Lima One had a Q4 2025 net loss of $2.9M, recovered to $7.7M of income in Q1 2026 (up 34% QoQ from $5.7M in Q4). For comparison, Kiavi became a wholly owned subsidiary of Figure Technology Solutions, Inc. on September 1, 2026, and at that closing Figure repaid Kiavi's credit agreement in full and Kiavi Funding terminated its Deutsche Bank repurchase agreement (Figure's Form 8-K); Lima One is funding through a parent that's navigating elevated delinquencies.

2. Verified product set and 2026 rate sheet

Lima One runs five active product lines: Fix-and-Flip, Bridge Plus, New Construction, DSCR Rental (including portfolio Rental30 Premier and short-term-rental variants), and Multifamily. Below are the published terms from Lima One's product pages, verified May 2026.

Fix-and-Flip

FieldValue
Loan amount$100,000 - $5,000,000
Starting rate"As low as 7.25%"
Max LTCUp to 95% (quick flips with rehab less than 50% of purchase)
Max LTV75%
Rehab financing100% of rehab budget, 24-hour draws
Term13, 19, or 24 months (interest-only)
Time to closeWithin 3 weeks for repeat borrowers
Prepayment penaltyNone
FICO floor660
ExperienceAt least one investment-property exit (flip, sale, or refi) in past 36 months
Property types1-4 unit residential, warrantable condos
Foreign nationalsEligible

Source: Lima One Fix-and-Flip product page.

The 7.25% headline is for top-tier repeat borrowers with 740+ FICO, multiple completed flips, and a 1-4 unit deal in a Lima One core market. First-time borrowers typically see 9-10% starting rates.

Bridge Plus

Bridge Plus is Lima One's positioned-between-products line for investors who don't fit the standard fix-flip box: short-hold acquisitions without major rehab, mid-cycle refinances, or stabilized properties being repositioned.

FieldValue
Term13 or 19 months
Max LTVUp to 80%
FICO floor700 (higher than Fix-and-Flip's 660)
Interest structureInterest-only
Prepayment penaltyNone

New Construction

FieldValue
Loan amount$100,000 - $5,000,000
Starting rate"As low as 9.2%"
Max LTCUp to 90%
Max LTARVUp to 75%
TermLima One's product page (October 8, 2026) lists 19- and 24-month options in its highlights, while the FAQ on the same page says a standard length of 13 months with 19 also available
DrawsAs fast as 24 hours; 4-day target
Interest structureInterest-only on drawn funds
Property types1-4 unit; spec builds, scrape-and-build, subdivisions, custom homes, infill
ExperienceGround-up project on title, or GC, or fix-and-flip portfolio
Special programsBuild2Rent (two-close program per Lima One's page, October 8, 2026: one loan for the build, one for the rental, with no seasoning required to refinance into the rental loan); foreign nationals eligible

Source: Lima One New Construction page.

The 90% LTC ceiling on ground-up, per Lima One's product page, is the strongest reason mid-market builders use Lima One.

DSCR Rental

FieldValue
Loan amount (single-family)$85,000 - $2,500,000
Starting rate (single-family)"As low as 6.0%"
DSCR floor1.0 (1.2+ for best pricing/leverage)
Max LTV (purchase)Up to 80%
Max LTV (rate-term refi)75%
Max LTV (cash-out)75% (single-family); 70% (short-term rental cash-out)
Term options30-year fixed amortizing; ARMs; interest-only options
FICO floor660
Income documentationNone ("No personal income requirements")
Property typesSingle-family to 9-unit multifamily, warrantable condos, short-term rentals (Airbnb/VRBO eligible)
Prepayment penaltyOptions from 0 years to 5-4-3-2-1 step-down
Cash-out seasoningThree months for DSCR; waived for refinances from Lima One fix-and-flip, new construction, or bridge

Source: Lima One Rental product page.

The 6.0% starting rate is the most aggressive on the page among top-five US BPL lenders as of May 2026 — Kiavi gives rates to applicants only and is not compared here; LendingOne does not publish a rate-card floor; Roc Capital, Roc360's broker channel, shows a DSCR rate from 5.39%, while CIVIC and FACo show 6.56% (October 11, 2026), and CIVIC's reputation gap is severe. For a typical 740 FICO / 75% LTV / 1.25 DSCR borrower, expect approx. 7.0-7.25% real-world pricing per third-party tracking sites.

Rental30 Premier (portfolio)

Lima One's current Portfolio Rental page (checked October 7, 2026) describes "Two or more rental properties, one loan", a $125,000 minimum value for each property and 5-, 10- and 30-year options. An older, undated Rental30 Premier release describes portfolios of 5 or more properties worth $500,000 or more, up to 80% LTV, on a 30-year non-recourse loan; treat those as the earlier generation of the product and confirm current terms with the lender. This is Lima One's most differentiated product: LendingOne's institutional channel handles this but at higher loan sizes ($25M+ aggregation lines); for mid-cap operators with 5-50 rentals, Lima One's Rental30 Premier is one of the only mainstream options without going institutional.

Multifamily

Lima One eclipsed $1B in multifamily bridge originations in July 2023 — the company offers value-add bridge and stabilized bridge loans for 5+ unit multifamily, structured for investors preparing for agency takeout financing. This is a smaller segment of Lima One's book and a smaller share of MFA's mortgage banking segment than the 1-4 unit residential business-purpose product set.

Correction, September 28, 2026. Earlier versions of this section described the 2020 order as a serious enforcement finding and said no other top-five business-purpose lender had one. Having now read both orders, they concern a late annual report, and Easy Street Capital received the identical order the same day. The text below replaces that description.

The facts, from the orders themselves:

  • March 15, 2020 — Every California Finance Lenders Law licensee had to file an annual report with the Commissioner by this date (Financial Code section 22159). The regulator had sent reminders on December 16, 2019, January 29 and March 2, 2020. Lima One had not filed, and a notice on March 18 gave it until March 30.
  • April 3, 2020 — The California Department of Business Oversight (now DFPI) issued an Order Summarily Revoking License #60DBO-45834 under Financial Code section 22715, which allows summary revocation when a licensee fails to file that report within 10 days of notice. The order's only finding is that Lima One "did not file its Annual Report". Lima One requested a hearing.
  • July 2, 2020 — Lima One filed the report, 77 business days late. It told the regulator it had taken one new California application after April 3 and, once it learned the license was revoked, forwarded that applicant to a different entity instead of making the loan.
  • July 3, 2020 — A Consent Order, signed for Lima One by its then CFO Joshua Woodward, rescinded the revocation and required a $10,000 administrative penalty. The consent order notes that California Financial Code section 22715 allowed a penalty of up to $25,000 for a report 77 business days late.

Source: California DFPI enforcement action page for Lima One Capital LLC and the two orders linked above, read September 28, 2026.

What this means for borrowers in 2026:

It is a compliance-paperwork lapse with a fine, closed six years ago, and it says nothing about how Lima One treats borrowers. It was not unusual that spring: Easy Street Capital CA, LLC received the same summary revocation on the same day, April 3, 2020, for the same missed report, and settled it with a $1,000 penalty (our Easy Street review). What does bear on a long-dated DSCR loan is the servicing record in the next sections, not this order.

4. Borrower reputation: BBB, Trustpilot, Yelp, BiggerPockets

Lima One's reputation profile is genuinely mixed — better than CIVIC/Roc360's reputation gap, worse than LendingOne's clean record.

BBB

  • BBB-accredited; A+ rating at the Greenville SC profile page.
  • 5 logged complaints in recent rolling-window data.
  • 7 customer reviews on profile, averaging approximately 4/5 stars.

Documented complaint themes (from publicly viewable BBB complaints, 2024-2026):

  • Escrow misallocation — payment posted to wrong account, late fees and default interest then stacked. Specific complaint: a borrower documented that representative Jeff Fleming assured fees would be reversed; payoff statement showed late fees and default interest still added, plus property-inspection fees, despite errors not being the customer's fault.
  • Unauthorized auto-payments — a borrower documented in writing multiple times that they would make monthly payments on the due date and did not consent to ACH; Lima One pulled the payment from an account that had been used during the property sale.
  • Communication delays on resolution of payment-application disputes.

Source: BBB Lima One Capital LLC complaint profile.

Trustpilot

Approximately 21+ reviews. Mixed sentiment. Positive reviews praise dedicated loan-rep relationships and competitive pricing for repeat borrowers. Negative reviews from April 2026 specifically reference: "Five weeks of lead time was not enough for this lender to get their act together" and "Zero communication from beginning to end." The Trustpilot rating is materially lower than Kiavi's 4.6/5 across 787 reviews (October 8, 2026) and below LendingOne's 4.0/5 across 426+ reviews.

Yelp

The Atlanta Lima One office Yelp page shows 1.6/5 stars across 18 reviews, a pattern most competing reviews do not surface. The Yelp page is for a specific office (Five Concourse Pkwy, Atlanta, GA) so the n is small and the distribution is skewed, but it's a reputation signal worth knowing for southeastern-market borrowers who do business at that office.

BiggerPockets

Two persistent threads on BiggerPockets capture borrower sentiment over time:

  • "Lima One Capital Hard Money Lender...stay away!" (thread 611093) — multi-year thread accumulating borrower complaints, primarily about post-closing servicing issues.
  • "Lima One Lending Complaints" (thread 927515) — more recent thread with similar pattern.

The recurring themes across both: post-closing escrow movements not reflecting borrower instructions, late-fee assessments on payments the borrower can document as on-time, and difficulty reaching the same point of contact across the loan lifecycle.

Counter-signal: Lima One's own customer-reviews page and verified Trustpilot positive reviews are real — repeat investors with established relationships and proper documentation procedures typically have smooth experiences. The pattern is concentrated in (a) first-time borrowers without close relationships, and (b) post-closing servicing rather than the origination flow itself.

5. Active and recent litigation

Below is the public-record litigation landscape for Lima One Capital as a party. None of these are class actions; all are individual disputes. The volume is roughly consistent with what you'd expect from a lender with 30,000+ closed loans — but the pattern of borrower-initiated cases is worth tracking.

  • Hearst Pettway et al v. Lima One Capital, LLC et al — U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Case No. 5:24-cv-01282, filed March 25, 2024. Borrower-initiated federal case; docket as last retrieved indicates active proceedings.
  • Tony Saad v. Lima One Capital — Texas 5th Court of Appeals, May 2025 decision. Borrower-initiated dispute on appeal.
  • Lima One Capital v. Aixian Properties — Pennsylvania Superior Court, 1265 EDA 2024, March 2025 decision. Lender-initiated foreclosure / promissory-note dispute.
  • Lima One Capital, LLC v. Herkimer BK — D.N.J. Case No. 2:21-cv-11035. Bankruptcy-related dispute; resolved on procedural grounds.
  • Lima One Capital LLC v. DAC Acquisitions LLC — D.S.C. Case No. 6:19-cv-03547-DCC, 2020. Lender-initiated commercial dispute; lender prevailed.
  • Lima One Capital LLC v. 201911WY 49 LLC et al — Florida state court, UniCourt records. Lender-initiated foreclosure.

No CFPB enforcement action against Lima One has been identified in our 2023-2026 search. Lima One's loans are business-purpose (Reg Z exempt), so CFPB jurisdiction is structurally limited.

The litigation pattern is normal-volume for a top-five BPL lender at scale. The forensic concern is the combination of (a) the BBB/Yelp/BiggerPockets servicing-pattern complaints and (b) a non-zero count of borrower-initiated federal litigation. (The 2020 California order was about a late annual report and does not belong in this list.) Taken together, they describe a lender whose origination side is well-run but whose servicing side has a documented multi-year pattern of disputes that borrowers should plan around.

6. Securitization and capital base

This is where Lima One's structural transparency is best, and where its independence is most limited.

Lima One does not run a standalone public rated securitization shelf under the "Lima One" name. The securitization activity flows through MFA Financial-affiliated entities. MFA Trust transactions and MFA non-QM securitizations include Lima One-originated BPL collateral. DBRS Morningstar has assigned provisional ratings to MFA-branded trusts (e.g., MFA 2023-INV1 Trust, backed by 788 DSCR mortgage loans totaling approximately $203.85M as of December 31, 2022 cut-off; Class A-1 rated AAA(sf) with 46.60% credit enhancement). MFA completed one $305M non-QM securitization in Q1 2025 and two non-QM securitizations totaling $757.2M unpaid principal balance in Q1 2026; total MFA securitized debt as of March 31, 2026 was approximately $6.3B.

S&P Global Ratings publishes a public servicer evaluation of Lima One Capital LLC. The evaluation exists on S&P's regulatory disclosure portal as a formal "Servicer Evaluation: Lima One Capital LLC" document. That's a meaningful credibility signal — Lima One acts as its own primary servicer and special servicer on the loans it originates, and S&P's rating-agency evaluation of that servicing function is a public document available to institutional investors and counterparties.

Borrower implication: You can read MFA Financial's 10-K and trace Lima One's mortgage banking segment performance every quarter. You can read S&P's servicer evaluation. You can read DBRS-rated MFA trust statements. That's the most parent-transparent capital model of the top-five US BPL lenders. The trade-off: Lima One's pricing and underwriting move with MFA's broader portfolio stress, not with Lima One's standalone economics — and MFA carried 60+ day residential delinquencies of 7.1% at year-end 2025 rising to 7.8% at Q1 2026.

7. Lima One vs Kiavi vs Roc360 vs LendingOne

The four-way 2026 comparison for major US BPL lenders.

DimensionLima OneKiaviRoc360LendingOne
Founded2010October 2013 (as LendingHome)20142014 (as Crestar Funding)
HQGreenville, SCSan Francisco, CANew York, NYBoca Raton, FL
Lifetime originations30,000+ loans / over $10B$30+ billion / 100,000+ funded (kiavi.com, Oct 15, 2026)approx. $25-28B (incl. acquired)approx. $11.17B / 16,074 loans
Q1 2026 originations$130.2MNot separately disclosedNot separately disclosedNot separately disclosed
Q2 2026 funded (new loans)$184.7M (plus $84.9M of draws)Not separately disclosedNot separately disclosedNot separately disclosed
OwnerMFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE: MFA)Subsidiary of Figure Technology Solutions (Nasdaq: FIGR) per site footer; previously VC-backedRoc Capital Holdings LLC (Temasek-anchored REIT)Undisclosed global asset manager (since 2021)
Public-parent transparencyFull SEC 10-K via MFA FinancialParent Figure Technology Solutions files SEC reports (CIK 2064124)None (private LLC)None (private LLC; LP undisclosed)
Fix-flip starting rateFrom 7.25%Not stated here; see kiavi.comFrom 8.25% (Roc) / 8.49% (FACo)Not publicly advertised
DSCR starting rateFrom 6.0% (single-family)Not stated here; see kiavi.comFrom 5.39%Not publicly advertised; 0.75 DSCR floor
Max LTC (fix-flip)Up to 95%Not stated here; see kiavi.comUp to 90%Up to 92.5%
Min loan amount$85K (DSCR) / $100K (fix-flip)Not stated here; see kiavi.com$50K (Roc broker)$70K-$100K
Max loan amount$5M (some products); $2.5M DSCR single-familyNot stated here; see kiavi.com$3M$3M-$5M; $50M institutional
State coverage46 (excludes AK, ND, SD, VT, PR)49 + DC45 (Roc); national (FACo/CIVIC)45 (excludes AK, NV, ND, SD, UT)
Securitization shelf (rated public)Via MFA-affiliated DBRS-rated trustsLHOME Mortgage Trust (newest in the Aug 3, 2026 ABS-15G: 2026-RTL1)RocMortgage Trust, DBRS, 2 deals, approx. $437.5MNone public under the LendingOne name
S&P servicer evaluationPublic servicer evaluation on fileNot publicly identifiedNot publicly identifiedNot publicly identified
BBBAccredited; A+; 5 complaints recentNot stated here; see kiavi.comRoc 360 accredited; CIVIC notAccredited Feb 2017
Trustpilotapprox. 21+ reviews; mixedNot stated here; see kiavi.comCIVIC: 1.5/5 (768 reviews, October 8, 2026)4.0/5 (426+ reviews)
Yelp1.6/5 across 18 (Atlanta office)Not as prominentNot as prominentNot as prominent
State AG / regulator actionCA DFPI Consent Order July 3, 2020 (late 2019 annual report; revocation rescinded, $10,000 penalty)None identifiedNone at parent levelNone identified
Public retail investor productNoneNone (closed Oct 2021)None (Reg D / institutional only)None

The most useful comparative finding: Lima One's parent MFA Financial files SEC 10-Ks and 10-Qs, and since September 1, 2026 so does Kiavi's parent, Figure Technology Solutions; Roc360 and LendingOne have no public parent, so Lima One's origination volume and segment results are public every quarter. Its one state-regulator order, from 2020, was for a late annual report and was rescinded with a $10,000 penalty; Easy Street Capital received the same order the same day.

For more depth on the head-to-head, see our Kiavi vs Lima One comparison and the LendingOne review.

8. When Lima One is the right choice

Based on the product set, the parent-transparency profile, and the borrower-review pattern, Lima One is the strongest choice for:

  1. Ground-up new construction builders at 90% LTC. Lima One's NewConstruct at 90% LTC and 75% LTARV are Lima One's advertised limits (per its product page). For builders running 4-12 spec homes per year, this is real working-capital leverage.
  2. DSCR rental portfolios. Its Portfolio Rental loan puts two or more rentals into one loan (the earlier Rental30 Premier generation started at 5 properties). LendingOne goes higher (institutional channel) but at higher minimum sizes.
  3. DSCR borrowers with strong FICO at the top of the rate sheet. The 6.0% starting rate on single-family DSCR is the most aggressive publicly-advertised floor among top-five BPL lenders as of May 2026. Real-world pricing for a 740 FICO / 75% LTV / 1.25 DSCR borrower lands around 7.0-7.25%.
  4. Multifamily bridge for 5-50 unit value-add. Lima One's $1B+ multifamily bridge book is one of the deepest among non-bank BPL lenders for this product profile.
  5. Foreign nationals. Lima One explicitly offers programs to non-US-citizen borrowers without established US credit — a differentiator vs LendingOne, which has stricter foreign-national requirements.
  6. Borrowers who want to read the parent's public financial filings. If you want to know what's happening at your lender's parent every quarter, Lima One's owner (MFA Financial, NYSE: MFA) files SEC 10-Ks; so does Kiavi's owner since September 1, 2026 (Figure Technology Solutions, Nasdaq: FIGR).

Lima One is the wrong choice for:

  1. Borrowers in AK, ND, SD, VT, or Puerto Rico. Lima One does not lend in these jurisdictions. Kiavi's homepage says it lends in 49 states + DC (kiavi.com, October 15, 2026); LendingOne covers some of the others.
  2. Speed-obsessed first-time flippers. Lima One's "within 3 weeks for repeat borrowers". If you must close in a week, ask each lender for its timeline.
  3. Borrowers who cannot document every payment in writing. Given the BBB/BiggerPockets servicing-pattern record, Lima One borrowers should treat payment documentation as a primary obligation. If you can't or won't maintain that discipline, the post-closing experience may be frustrating.
  4. Borrowers whose procurement process requires a record with no regulator orders at all. The 2020 CA DFPI consent order (late annual report, $10,000 penalty) is minor, but it is on file; LendingOne and Kiavi have none that we found.
  5. Sub-$85K small-balance DSCR. Lima One's DSCR floor is $85K. RCN goes to $50K.
  6. Borrowers without 660+ FICO. Lima One's hard FICO floor is 660 across all products. Some specialty BPL lenders go down to 640 with rate adjustments.

9. Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Top-five US business-purpose lender with 30,000+ closed loans and over $10B funded across 46 states since 2010 — operating scale at the top of the BPL category.
  • Parent (MFA Financial, NYSE: MFA) files quarterly SEC 10-Ks — public transparency on the capital base (Kiavi's parent, Figure Technology Solutions, has also filed with the SEC since Kiavi joined it on September 1, 2026).
  • DSCR rate floor of 6.0% on single-family rentals is the most aggressive publicly-advertised among top-five BPL lenders as of May 2026.
  • New Construction at 90% LTC and 75% LTARV per Lima One's product page.
  • Portfolio Rental loan puts two or more rentals into one loan (5-, 10- or 30-year); lower min size than LendingOne institutional channel.
  • Public S&P Global Ratings servicer evaluation on file — an institutional credibility signal.
  • Foreign-national programs across multiple product lines without requiring established US credit — a differentiator vs LendingOne.
  • BBB-accredited with A+ rating; the published BBB record is materially cleaner than CIVIC/Roc360's reputation gap.
  • Multifamily bridge product crossed $1B in originations in July 2023 — depth in 5-50 unit value-add few non-bank BPL lenders match.

Cons

  • California DFPI Summary Revocation Order April 3, 2020 for a late annual report, rescinded by a Consent Order July 3, 2020 with a $10,000 penalty (License #60DBO-45834). Minor and closed, but on the public record.
  • Documented servicing-pattern complaints across BBB (escrow misallocation, unauthorized ACH, late-fee stacking), Yelp (1.6/5 across 18 reviews at the Atlanta office), and multi-year BiggerPockets threads — the pattern is concentrated post-closing, not at origination.
  • Active and recent borrower-initiated federal litigation (Hearst Pettway, E.D. Pa. 5:24-cv-01282; Saad, Tex. 5th Ct. App. 2025) — not class actions, but a non-zero borrower-driven litigation count.
  • Parent MFA Financial carried 60+ day residential delinquencies of 7.1% at year-end 2025 rising to 7.8% at Q1 2026 — Lima One's pricing flexibility moves with parent portfolio stress, not standalone segment economics.
  • Mortgage banking segment posted a $2.9M Q4 2025 net loss; full-year 2025 mortgage banking income of $22.8M is thin given the operating scale.
  • No standalone public rated securitization shelf under the "Lima One" name — issuance flows through MFA-affiliated trusts. Loan-level performance is harder to triangulate than for a sponsor that files under its own name.
  • Standard close time of approximately 3 weeks for repeat borrowers is a longer window than some lenders quote. First-time borrowers should expect 30-45 days from application to close.
  • Does not lend in Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, or Puerto Rico.
  • FICO floor is 660 across all products — not the most accommodating for sub-660 borrowers.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Bottom line

Lima One Capital is a top-five US business-purpose lender with the most transparent capital structure of any private BPL lender (because MFA Financial is publicly traded on the NYSE), the most aggressive ground-up new-construction leverage (90% LTC), one of the more aggressive DSCR rate floors (6.0% headline on single-family), and the deepest portfolio aggregation product (Rental30 Premier) for mid-cap rental operators. The lifetime track record — 30,000+ closed loans and over $10B funded across 46 states — is real and validated through the parent's public SEC filings.

The forensic counter-weights are also real, and the regulatory one is the smallest: a 2020 California DFPI consent order over a late annual report ($10,000 penalty, License #60DBO-45834). A documented multi-year servicing-pattern complaint history across BBB, Yelp, and BiggerPockets, concentrated on post-closing escrow misallocation, unauthorized ACH, and late-fee stacking. Active borrower-initiated federal litigation (Hearst Pettway, E.D. Pa. 5:24-cv-01282). Parent MFA Financial carrying elevated 60+ day delinquencies (7.1%-7.8% across 2025-2026) that constrain Lima One's pricing flexibility.

The honest 2026 recommendation: Lima One is a credible primary lender to comparison-shop on every deal in the 46 states it serves, especially for ground-up new construction at the 90% LTC ceiling and for multi-property DSCR portfolios via its Portfolio Rental loan. We do not rank Kiavi here; its rates and terms are given to applicants and published at kiavi.com. For a borrower whose first priority is regulatory cleanliness without giving up product depth, LendingOne is the closer match.

For long-duration 30-year DSCR borrowers specifically, document every payment in writing, set up servicing communications in writing rather than by phone, and keep the BBB profile and DFPI enforcement page bookmarked. The servicing-pattern record is real and the documentation discipline costs nothing.

We will keep this review updated as MFA Financial publishes Q2 2026 and beyond results, as the Hearst Pettway docket evolves, and as the BBB and Trustpilot data shifts through 2026.


Sources (primary and verified):

Last verified: May 11, 2026; the two California DFPI orders were read and section 3 corrected on September 28, 2026. Loan terms, securitization data, regulatory records, and review-platform metrics change frequently — always confirm against the lender's current website and primary databases before applying.

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