Contractor Funding in NYC: How to Get $75K for Materials When Your Job Pays in 60 Days
A GC out in Maspeth called us in May. He’d just won a $240,000 buildout — full gut renovation of a restaurant space in Long Island City. Good contract, signed, real client, money was good. The problem was the same problem it always is in construction: he had to buy $70,000 in materials and cover three weeks of payroll before the first progress draw landed. And that draw wasn’t coming for 60 days.
He had the work. He had the contract. What he didn’t have was $70,000 sitting in his account to front the job. His bank had already told him a line of credit would take five weeks to underwrite, and he needed to order steel and order it now or lose his slot with the supplier.
That gap — between when you spend on a job and when the job pays you — is the single biggest cash problem in this trade. It has nothing to do with whether you’re good at the work or whether you’re profitable. Plenty of contractors doing $2 million a year run out of cash mid-job for exactly this reason. Here’s how funding actually works when you’re in that spot, what it costs, and when it’s the right move versus when it’ll bury you.
Why contractors run out of cash even on profitable jobs
Construction has a structural cash flow problem that most other businesses don’t. You front the cost, then you wait.
On a typical commercial or larger residential job, the payment timeline looks like this: you sign, you mobilize, you buy materials, you pay your crew weekly, and then you bill on a draw schedule — net 30, net 60, sometimes net 90 if the GC above you is slow or the owner’s lender controls the purse. Meanwhile your supplier wants payment in 15 to 30 days and your crew wants their check every Friday, no exceptions.
So the money goes out fast and comes in slow. The bigger the job, the bigger the gap. A contractor who wins a $240,000 contract might need to float $90,000 to $120,000 in materials and labor before a single dollar comes back. Win two of those at the same time and you’re underwater on cash while being more profitable than you’ve ever been on paper.
This is why “just take more work” isn’t always the answer. More work means more cash you have to front. Growth eats cash in this business, and the contractors who blow up are usually the ones who grew too fast without a way to bridge the gap.
What contractor funding actually is
When we say contractor funding, for most of our clients we’re talking about a merchant cash advance — also called a revenue-based advance. Instead of a bank loan with collateral and a five-week underwrite, a funder advances you a lump sum against your business’s future revenue and collects it back through a fixed daily or weekly payment.
The mechanics are simple. You get, say, $75,000 wired to your account in 24 to 48 hours. You pay it back over a set term — often 6 to 12 months — through automatic payments pulled from your business bank account. The cost is expressed as a factor rate, not an interest rate, which we’ll get into below.
What makes it work for construction is speed and the underwriting. A funder isn’t asking for two years of tax returns and a personal guarantee on your house. They’re looking at your last 3 to 6 months of business bank statements to see that revenue is real and consistent. If you’re an established contractor doing $20,000+ a month, that’s a file that gets approved fast. You can have material money in your account before your supplier’s quote even expires.
You can see what you’d qualify for here in about 60 seconds without it touching your credit score.
What it costs — the honest math
Let’s not be vague about this, because vague math is how contractors get surprised.
Say you take $75,000 at a 1.28 factor rate over a 10-month term. Here’s what that actually means:
| Amount funded | Factor rate | Total payback | Term | Approx. weekly payment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $75,000 | 1.28 | $96,000 | 10 months | ~$2,215 |
| $75,000 | 1.32 | $99,000 | 8 months | ~$2,855 |
| $75,000 | 1.40 | $105,000 | 6 months | ~$4,040 |
The factor rate is just a multiplier. $75,000 × 1.28 = $96,000 total payback. The fee is $21,000. There’s no compounding and no surprise — you see the total before you sign.
But the term matters as much as the rate. The same $96,000 payback over 10 months is a very different APR than over 6 months, because you’re spreading the same fee across more time. A longer term means a smaller weekly hit on your cash flow, which on a construction job is often what keeps you alive between draws. Always ask two questions before signing anything: what’s the term and what’s the payment per week. Both should be in writing.
Now run the contractor math against it. On that $240,000 job, the GC in Maspeth was netting roughly $48,000 after all costs. The $21,000 advance fee came out of that, leaving him about $27,000 in profit on a job he otherwise could not have taken at all. Is $21,000 expensive money? In a vacuum, yes. Against $27,000 he wouldn’t have earned otherwise, it’s a line item, not a problem.
That’s the only way to judge the cost of an advance: against what the money lets you do, not against a bank rate you couldn’t get in time anyway.
When an advance makes sense for a contractor
There are specific situations where this is the right tool:
You won a job and need to front materials. This is the cleanest use there is. The funding is directly tied to income-producing work with a defined payout. You know the draw is coming; you just need to bridge to it.
You’re carrying receivables and the client is slow. You finished the work, you billed it, and the GC or owner is sitting on net 60. Your suppliers and crew don’t care. An advance bridges the receivable so you’re not the one eating the delay.
You need to take a second job while the first one’s cash is still tied up. Turning down work because your cash is locked in an active job is how contractors stay small. If the second job is real and profitable, bridging the materials on it can be worth the cost.
Equipment goes down mid-job. A skid steer or a work truck dies and you need it back running this week. Downtime on an active job costs more per day than the financing does.
When it does NOT make sense
Just as important — the situations where you should not take one:
You’re using it to pay back another advance. This is stacking, and in construction it’s a fast way to die. If you’re already two or three advances deep and taking a fourth to cover the daily payments on the first three, stop. The next call should be to someone who can consolidate, not another funder.
The job isn’t signed yet. “I’m probably going to win this bid” is not a reason to take on a fixed daily payment. Fund against work you have, not work you hope for.
You don’t know your real margin on the job. If you can’t tell us within a few thousand dollars what you’re netting on the contract, you don’t yet know whether you can afford the fee. Know your number first.
Your revenue is too thin or too irregular. If your deposits swing wildly month to month or you’re under $20,000 a month, a daily or weekly pull can choke you in a slow stretch. Funding should bridge a gap, not create a new one.
What you’ll need to get funded
The document list is short, which is the point:
- Three to six months of business bank statements — this is the main thing funders read
- A signed contract or PO for the job you’re funding (helps, not always required)
- Basic business info — time in business, legal entity, EIN
- A clear use of funds — “materials and payroll on the LIC job” beats “working capital”
No tax returns in most cases. No appraisals. No lien on your home. For a contractor doing $20,000+ a month with 1+ year in business, this is usually a same-day or next-day approval.
How fast and how much
For most established NYC-area contractors — the boroughs, Long Island, Westchester, North Jersey — funding runs $25,000 to $250,000 depending on your monthly revenue. The rule of thumb most funders use is roughly one month’s revenue as the advance amount, sometimes a bit more for clean files. A contractor depositing $90,000 a month can typically access $75,000 to $100,000.
Timeline is 24 to 48 hours from approved file to wire. We’ve closed contractor deals same-day when the bank statements were clean and the supplier deadline was real.
If you’ve got a job in hand and a materials bill you need to cover before the draw comes in, start your file here — it’s a soft pull and won’t move your credit.
Get materials money before the draw lands
At BlueLine Capital Group, we fund contractors, GCs, and subs across NYC, Long Island, Westchester, and North Jersey. If your business is doing $20,000+ a month and you’ve got a signed job you need to front, we can usually get you a real quote — factor rate, term, and weekly payment, all in writing — within the business day, and funding in 24 to 48 hours.
Get pre-qualified in 60 seconds →
Or call us directly: (212) 803-2032.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get funded if the job isn’t paid yet?
That’s the entire point. Contractor funding exists to bridge the gap between when you spend on a job and when it pays you. We fund against your business revenue, not against the receivable being collected first.
Do I need to pledge equipment or property?
No. A merchant cash advance is unsecured against your future revenue — there’s no lien on your house, your trucks, or your equipment. The funder underwrites your bank statements, not your assets.
What if my revenue is seasonal or lumpy?
Construction revenue is almost never perfectly smooth, and funders know that. What matters is the average over the last 3 to 6 months and that the deposits are real. If you have a genuinely dead season coming, tell us — a longer term with a smaller weekly payment usually fits better than a short, aggressive one.
How much can a contractor actually get?
Typically in the range of one month’s revenue, sometimes more for a clean file. A contractor depositing $90,000 a month can often access $75,000 to $100,000. Amounts run from $25,000 up to $250,000 for the bigger operations.
Will applying hurt my credit?
Pre-qualifying with us is a soft pull — your FICO doesn’t move. If a broker insists on a hard credit pull just to give you a quote, walk away. You shouldn’t take a credit hit to find out a number.
What disqualifies a contractor from funding?
The common ones: under 6 months in business, fewer than 10 deposits a month, three or more active advances already stacked, recent bankruptcy, or an average daily bank balance under $1,000. Most of those are fixable — sometimes the right move is to clean up the file for 60 days before borrowing.
Is a merchant cash advance the same as a loan?
Not technically. A loan charges interest over time; an advance is a purchase of your future revenue at a fixed factor rate, repaid through daily or weekly payments. For your purposes, the practical difference is speed and underwriting — an advance funds in days against bank statements, where a bank loan takes weeks and wants collateral.
Got a signed job and a materials bill you need to cover before the draw comes in? Send us your last three months of bank statements and we’ll come back with a real number within the business day. No obligation.
Apply in 60 seconds → or call (212) 803-2032.