Commercial Real Estate Acquisition Financing in California
Acquiring commercial real estate often requires financing that can move with the pace of the transaction. For investors and developers who need to close on a specific property within a defined window, private money acquisition financing is structured around the asset and the timeline of the deal rather than the borrower's financial profile — providing speed and certainty of execution when it matters most.
Rubicon Mortgage Fund, LLC provides short-term acquisition loans for commercial real estate across California, with a focus on the San Francisco Bay Area, Northern California, Sacramento, the East Bay, Los Angeles, and San Diego. We are an asset-based lender: approval is determined by the value and quality of the property, not personal credit scores or tax returns.
What We Look For
Rubicon evaluates acquisition loans on the strength of the collateral, the purchase price relative to market value, the property's income potential or repositioning opportunity, and the borrower's exit strategy. We physically inspect every property we lend on. Loans are available to individuals, LLCs, corporations, trusts, and partnerships. No personal credit check is required.
We are comfortable with transitional properties, value-add acquisitions, and situations where conventional financing is unavailable due to property condition, ownership structure, or timeline constraints.
Lending Criteria
- Loan amounts from $500,000 to $15,000,000
- Up to 65% loan-to-value (LTV)
- First position only
- Statewide California coverage
- All commercial property types
- No credit check required
- Loan terms from 6 months to 24 months
- Cross-collateralization available to increase loan amounts
Common Acquisition Scenarios
Rubicon Mortgage Fund, LLC regularly finances acquisitions where timing, property type, or ownership structure calls for a flexible, asset-based approach. Common scenarios include time-sensitive purchases with a defined closing window, properties in transition that do not yet qualify for permanent financing, 1031 exchange acquisitions with tight identification deadlines, and deals involving complex entity structures such as trusts or multi-member LLCs.
Get Started
Contact Rubicon Mortgage Fund, LLC with your property address, purchase price, and loan amount needed. We serve commercial real estate investors throughout California including the Bay Area, Northern California, Sacramento, Los Angeles, and San Diego. We typically provide an initial response and preliminary terms within 24 hours of inquiry.
Rubicon Mortgage Fund writes acquisition loans on California commercial real estate from its own capital, funding purchases that need to close on a fixed date rather than a lender’s timetable.
Why Conventional Acquisition Loans Lose Deals
Most commercial acquisitions are not lost on price. They are lost on the calendar.
A seller sets a closing window. A conventional lender needs an appraisal, an environmental report, tax returns, entity documents, a credit committee date, and a loan committee date after that. Those two processes do not fit inside each other, and when they collide the buyer either asks for an extension they may not get, or walks away from a deposit.
The closing date is the product
When a seller has multiple offers, the one that closes on the stated date wins, and it often wins at a lower price. A buyer who can name a date and hold it is offering something the other bids cannot match. That is the practical case for private acquisition loans — not that they are cheap, but that they are certain.
What asset-based underwriting takes out of the process
The documentation package is where conventional financing slows down. Three years of returns, personal financial statements, global cash flow analysis across every entity the buyer touches, debt service coverage modelling on income the property does not yet produce under new ownership.
None of that is assembled here. We underwrite the property, the price against the market, and how the loan gets repaid. A buyer with an unusual tax picture, a recently formed entity, or income that does not present well on a return is not disadvantaged by that structure.
Certainty has a price, and it is usually worth it
Private acquisition loans cost more than a bank. The honest way to weigh that is against what the alternative risks: a deposit at stake, a property that does not come back to market, or a 1031 clock that does not pause. Measured against a failed close, the cost of speed is generally small — and the loan is short-term by design, refinanced out once the property supports permanent debt. Full parameters are set out on our borrowers and lending criteria page.
California Acquisition Loans Rubicon Has Funded
A lender’s record is best read through the deals other lenders would not have written.
- $3,500,000 — Fremont. A gas station acquisition for a seasoned operator, secured by the real estate and the operating business together. A hard corner near a freeway on-ramp, modernised pumps, double-walled tanks. The plan was to season two years of operating financials and refinance into a community bank.
- $750,000 — Oakhurst. A mobile home park on 3.7 acres in the Sierra Nevada foothills with 18 mobile home spaces, 11 RV spaces and a single-family residence. Cash flow at acquisition would not support conventional financing; the value-add plan did. Cross-collateralized against a rental property the borrower owned in Stockton, and closed in 30 days.
- $3,000,000 — Santa Rosa. A 170-key flagged hotel where an equity raise came up short against an all-cash acquisition price while a bank loan matured at the same time. We bridged the shortfall and closed in 30 days.
- Berkeley and Ripon. Gas station and service station acquisitions in two very different California markets.
Gas stations, mobile home parks and hospitality are the three property types California private lenders most often decline — for environmental exposure, operational complexity and cyclicality respectively. Rubicon funds all three. More closed deals are listed on our funded loans page.
Getting Out of an Acquisition Loan
An acquisition loan is a bridge, and the question that matters most at underwriting is what it bridges to.
Most Rubicon borrowers exit one of three ways: refinancing into bank or agency debt once the property has operating history under their ownership; completing a repositioning and refinancing on the improved value; or selling. We want to see which of those it is, and whether the timeline is realistic, before we fund — a loan with a vague exit is a worse deal for the borrower than for us.
If the exit is a refinance, ask a prospective permanent lender early what seasoning they require. That answer sets the term you actually need, and it is better known at acquisition than discovered later.
Acquisition Loans: FAQs
How fast can you close an acquisition?
Most borrowers receive preliminary terms within 24 hours of getting in touch, and closings inside 30 days are routine. We have closed faster when an escrow required it.
Do you require an appraisal?
No, on any loan. Someone from Rubicon inspects the property in person instead, which is both faster and more informative than a report.
Can you fund a 1031 exchange acquisition?
Yes, including reverse exchanges where the replacement property has to be acquired before the relinquished property sells. See our 1031 exchange loans page.
Will you lend on a property that is vacant or not yet producing income?
Yes. We underwrite the asset and the plan rather than trailing income, so vacant, transitional and value-add acquisitions are normal for us.
Can I buy a business along with the real estate?
In the right cases, yes. Our Fremont gas station loan was secured by the real estate and the operating business together.
What do you need to give me a quote?
The property address, the purchase price, the loan amount you need, and your closing date. If there is a plan for the property beyond buying it, tell us that too.
Do you lend to out-of-state buyers purchasing California property?
Yes. The property must be in California and the loan must be for business purposes; the borrower does not have to be a California resident.
Are acquisition loans regulated in California?
Yes. Rubicon lending is made or arranged pursuant to California Financing Law and overseen by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. All loans are business purpose and secured in 1st position.
What happens if my closing date moves?
Tell us as early as you can. We control our own capital, so a schedule change is a conversation rather than a re-approval.