Land Loans: Best Personal Loans To Buy Land
Skip your down payment and get quick approval with a personal loan for land
| Lender | User rating | APR | Term | Amount | Min. credit score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
5.99% – 29.91% | 36 to 84 months |
$5k – $50k |
580 | ||
|
8.72% – 27.87% | 36 to 120 months |
$20k – $250k |
660 | ||
|
7.99% – 24.99% | 36 to 84 months |
$2.5k – $40k |
720 | ||
|
8.24% – 24.89% (with autopay) | 24 to 84 months |
$5k – $100k |
Not specified | ||
|
6.70% – 35.99% | 36 to 60 months |
$1k – $75k |
300 |
| Lender |
|
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| User rating | |||||
| APR | |||||
| Term | 36 to 84 months | 36 to 120 months | 36 to 84 months | 24 to 84 months | 36 to 60 months |
| Amount | $5k – $50k | $20k – $250k | $2.5k – $40k | $5k – $100k | $1k – $75k |
| Min. credit score | 580 | 660 | 720 | Not specified | 300 |
Best for: Current homeowners buying land – Best Egg
- Can use your home’s fixtures as collateral instead of the home itself
- Also offers personal loans that don’t require collateral
- Payment Pathways program can help you pay your loan off faster and save on overall interest
- Accepts less-than-perfect credit
- Hard or impossible to sell your home until you’ve paid off your loan if you use your fixtures as collateral
- Keeps 0.99% – 9.99% out of every loan as an origination fee
- Mobile app is poorly rated by both Android and Apple users
Some people buy land using a home equity loan or a home equity line of credit (HELOC). These use your house as collateral. That means if you don’t pay back your loan, the lender can foreclose on your home.
If you don’t want to put your house on the line, consider Best Egg. Its Secured Loan + Homeowner Discount product uses the permanent fixtures inside your home instead of the home itself. Permanent fixtures include features that are physically attached to the house, like lighting fixtures and vanities.
Secured loans typically come with lower rates, but they aren’t without risk. Even though Best Egg can’t take your house if you stop paying, it can take your fixtures. Plus, you probably won’t be able to sell or refinance your mortgage until you’ve paid off your loan. If you aren’t at peace with this risk, Best Egg also offers personal loans that don’t require collateral.
Even if Best Egg uses your home’s permanent fixtures as collateral, no appraisal is needed. Instead, Best Egg will review your credit history and home equity to see if you qualify.
You must also meet the requirements below to qualify for a Best Egg loan:
- Citizenship: Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident living in the U.S.
- Administrative: Have a personal checking account, email address and physical address
- Residency: Not live in the District of Columbia, Iowa, Vermont, West Virginia or U.S. territories
- Credit score: 580+
Best for: Large land loans – BHG Financial
- $250,000.00 loan could buy a large parcel of land
- Could have up to 120 months to pay, which can make a big loan easier to afford monthly
- Will be assigned a dedicated finance manager to help you finalize your loan
- Will keep 3.00% – 4.00% of your loan as an origination fee
- Might need to wait up to five days to get your money, which is longer than many other lenders
- Mobile app for BHG credit cards only, not loans
Land can get expensive. Depending on how much you’re buying, you might need a lot of funding. At $250,000.00, BHG Financial offers some of the largest personal loans around, with long repayment terms to match (36 to 120 months).
Although you’ll pay more overall interest with a long-term loan, your monthly payments should be lower since you have more time to spread your balance across.
However, BHG Financial may charge you an origination fee, which will come out of your loan. Depending on how much you’re borrowing, this could end up being a lot of money.
For instance, a 3.00% origination fee on a $150,000 loan would be $4,500. You won’t have to pay it out of pocket. BHG will deduct the fee from your loan before sending it to you.
To get a loan from BHG Financial, you’ll need to meet the following requirements:
- Administrative: Have a Social Security number and email address
- Credit score: 660
BHG Financial’s average borrower has a score of 744, with no past bankruptcies or collections, and an annual income of $241,000. Not all of BHG Financial’s loans, loan amounts, rates or terms are available in all states.
Best for: Superior customer service – Discover
- Has three support options if you’re struggling with payments
- 97% of LendingTree users who’ve worked with Discover recommend the lender
- No fees
- No cosigners or co-borrowers
- Must have good credit and make at least $40,000 a year (individual or household) to qualify
If customer service is top-of-mind, check out Discover. It offers borrower-friendly benefits that you might not find with a competitor.
For instance, it may let you postpone or temporarily reduce your payments if you run into trouble. You can also lengthen your loan term, reducing your monthly payments (but increasing your overall interest).
But to take advantage of these benefits, you have to qualify first, and Discover’s eligibility criteria is a bit harder to meet compared to other online loan lenders. Not only do you need good credit and a moderate income, but you can’t add a cosigner or co-borrower. That means you have to qualify based on your credit alone.
You’ll need to meet these eligibility criteria to get a Discover loan:
- Age: Be at least 18
- Citizenship: Have a Social Security number
- Administrative: Have a physical address, email address and internet access
- Income: Minimum income of $40,000 (individually or as a household)
- Credit score: 720+
Best for: Same-day land loans – LightStream
- Could get a loan the same day that you apply
- May beat competitors’ prices with Rate Beat program
- No fees
- Must have at least good credit to qualify
- Can’t check eligibility without dinging your credit score
- Can’t change your payment due date
As long as LightStream approves you before 2:30 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time on a business day, you could get a personal loan to buy land the day that you apply. Traditional land loans can take weeks to close.
On top of same-day loans, LightStream also offers a unique rate-matching program called Rate Beat. If a competitor offers you a loan with a lower rate, LightStream may be willing to beat it by 0.10 percentage points.
Although it doesn’t specify its minimum credit score requirements, LightStream only works with good and excellent credit borrowers. Unfortunately, you’ll have to take a hard credit hit to see if you’re eligible — LightStream doesn’t let you prequalify for a personal loan.
LightStream doesn’t specify its exact credit score requirements, but you must have good to excellent credit to qualify. Most of the applicants that LightStream approves have the following in common:
- At least five years of on-time payments under a variety of accounts (credit cards, auto loans, etc.)
- Stable income and the ability to handle their current debt obligations
- Savings, whether in a bank account, investment account or retirement account
Best for: Easy application and approval – Upstart
- Offers instant approval decisions, with paperwork not usually required
- Accepts bad or no credit
- Loans start at $1,000.00, which could be good for smaller land purchases
- Potential for a high origination fee
- Only two loan terms to choose from: 36 or 60 months
- No cosigners or co-borrowers
Personal loans are generally easier to get than traditional land loans. Upstart takes it one step further by verifying your information electronically. As a result, most applicants don’t have to send in paperwork.
Upstart also accepts credit scores as low as 300. It might even approve you if you have no credit (so long as you meet some education requirements — more details below). If you have excellent credit, you could score an ultra-low rate of 6.70%.
Although Upstart loans have easier credit and paperwork requirements than most personal loan lenders, that doesn’t mean your loan will come cheap. If you have bad credit, you could face a double-digit origination fee (the highest of all the lenders on this list).
Upstart has transparent eligibility requirements, including:
- Age: Be 18 or older
- Administrative: Have a U.S. address, personal banking account, email address and Social Security number
- Income: Have a valid source of income, including a job, job offer or another regular income source
- Credit-related factors: No bankruptcies within the last three years, reasonable number of recent inquiries on your credit report and no current delinquencies
- Credit score: 300+ (unless you’re an eligible college student or graduate, in which case Upstart could approve you with no credit)
Yes, you can use a personal loan to buy land
It’s not the most conventional financing choice, but you can use a personal loan to buy land.
Unlike other types of loans that are tied to a certain purchase (like auto loans or mortgages), you can use a personal loan to pay for nearly anything.
But there’s a reason why this strategy is unconventional — land loans (also called lot loans), home equity loans and home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) usually have much lower rates.
That doesn’t mean buying land with a personal loan is always a bad idea, but it won’t be a wise move for everyone.
When it could be a good idea to use a personal loan to buy land
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If you don’t want to make a down payment
Personal loans don’t require a down payment, but land loans do. -
If you are trying to snag a piece of land fast
You may be able to get same-day or next-day funds with a quick loan, helping you buy that land before someone else does. You won’t need to get a land appraisal, either. -
If you only need a small plot of land
A personal loan could work if you’re buying a small plot, perhaps for a tiny house. Personal loans come in smaller amounts than land loans. -
If you are buying a parcel for camping or hunting
Some loans for land require that you build a home on the land you’re financing. Personal loans do not, which could make them a reasonable choice if you don’t plan on building.
When it could be a bad idea to use a personal loan to buy land
-
If you have the time and patience to get a land loan
Land loans take longer to get than a personal loan, but they usually come with much lower rates. Land loans use the land itself as collateral, helping bring down rates. Unsecured personal loans don’t require collateral but are riskier for the lender, making them more expensive for you. -
If you have fair or bad credit
Even if you have excellent credit, personal loans typically carry higher rates than land loans. In the first quarter of 2025, LendingTree users with credit scores between 800 to 850 saw an average annual percentage rate (APR) of 12.50% on personal loans. Land loans can start around 6.00% to 10.00%. -
If you need more than five to seven years to pay off your loan
Your loan term is the length of time you have to pay off your loan. Personal loans typically come with terms between 12 and 84 months (one to seven years). You can have up to 30 years with some land loans, home equity loans and HELOCs. -
If you are planning to build a house
An FHA construction loan finances the land and the home you plan on building. You’d only have to get one loan instead of two, and rates are generally lower than with personal loans.
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Alternatives that could be a better choice than a personal loan for land
Most personal loans are unsecured, which is why they usually have higher interest rates than other types of loans.
Below are four alternatives that are likely cheaper ways to finance your land purchase. But on the downside, you’ll have to use the land you’re buying or your existing home as collateral.
Land loan
Land loans use the land you’re buying as collateral. You can find them with some banks and specialty lenders. Generally, there are three types:
- Raw land loans → used to buy undeveloped land with no access to utilities or roads
- Unimproved land loans → used to buy land that has some utility access
- Improved land loans → used to buy land that has utility and road access; may be build-ready
USDA construction loan
If you have low or moderate income and want to buy land to build a home in a rural area, check out a USDA loan, specifically through the Single-Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program. You can use the loan to finance the land and the building of your home. A down payment is not required.
FHA construction loan
FHA construction loans don’t have an income requirement, and you don’t need to buy in a rural area — but you do have to make a down payment. If you have a 580+ credit score, your down payment could be as low as 3.5%. Lower than that and you’ll have to put down at least 10%.
Home equity loans
A home equity loan lets you borrow against your home’s value. Out of all the alternatives listed here, a home equity loan is probably the riskiest. It uses your existing home as collateral, so you could end up without a roof over your head if you can’t pay. However, rates are generally lower than some other types of land loans.
Frequently asked questions
Every lender sets its own minimum credit standards, but you can qualify for a personal loan with a credit score as low as 300 (see Upstart). But the lower your credit score, the higher your rate. Generally, personal loan rates start becoming more affordable once you hit 670.
Lenders also look at other factors like how much debt you already have and how much money you make per year. The best way to see if you’re eligible for a personal loan to buy land is to prequalify. Prequalification doesn’t hurt your credit score and it can give you an idea of what rates you can get from a lender.
No, a land loan is not the same as a traditional mortgage. A land loan is used to buy land, and a mortgage is used to buy a home.
Lenders decide their minimum mortgage amounts, so there’s no official definition of “small mortgage.” But typically, a mortgage under $100,000 is considered small.
Our methodology
We reviewed more than 30 lenders to pick the overall best personal loans for land. To make our list, lenders must offer personal loans with competitive APRs. From there, we prioritized lenders based on these factors:
Accessibility. Lenders are ranked higher if their personal loans are available to more people and have fewer conditions. This may include lower credit requirements, wider geographic availability, faster funding and easier and more transparent prequalification and application processes.
Rates and terms. We favor lenders with more competitive fixed rates, fewer fees and greater options for repayment terms, loan amounts and APR discounts.
Repayment experience. For starters, we consider each lender’s reputation and business practices. We also look for lenders that report to all major credit bureaus, offer reliable customer service and provide any unique perks to customers, like free wealth coaching.