Roof Financing for Contractors: How to Offer It Without Getting Burned

"Do you offer financing?" is now a standard homeowner question — a new roof runs five figures and most households don't have it liquid. Contractors who can answer "yes, here are your monthly options" close jobs that cash-only competitors lose. But contractor financing has real costs and real compliance edges, and plenty of roofers have signed up for a platform without understanding either. Here's the whole picture.

How contractor-offered financing works

You don't lend the money. You partner with a point-of-sale lending platform that specializes in home improvement. The rep presents payment options during the sale (usually from the platform's app), the homeowner applies on their own phone, approval comes back in minutes, and the lender pays you directly — often on completion, sometimes in staged draws.

The names you'll encounter: home-improvement lending platforms and networks that specialize in contractor point-of-sale (offering unsecured home improvement loans), plus promotional structures like "same-as-cash" periods and low-teaser-APR plans. Some roofing software platforms also bundle a financing partner into their product.

What it costs you: the dealer fee

The lender's economics come partly from the homeowner's interest — and partly from you, via a dealer fee (also called a merchant or contractor fee) deducted from your payout.

The pattern to internalize: the more attractive the homeowner's terms, the higher your dealer fee. A standard-APR loan might cost you a low single-digit percentage. A "12 months same as cash" or a heavily subsidized low-APR promo can cost several times that — promotional plans routinely carry dealer fees well past 5% and into the low teens.

That's not a reason to avoid promos; it's a reason to price them in. If you offer subsidized financing, your pricing has to carry the fee the same way it carries material and labor — and your reps need to know which plans cost the company what, or they'll give away the whole margin to make a payment number work.

Financing in insurance restoration: the three gaps

Storm contractors sometimes assume financing doesn't apply to them — insurance is paying, right? In practice, financing closes three specific gaps on claim jobs:

The deductible. Homeowner deductibles have shifted from flat dollars to 1–2% of dwelling value in hail states — that's $4,000–$8,000 out of pocket on a typical home, and it cannot legally be waived or absorbed (more below). A monthly-payment option for the deductible keeps otherwise-approved claims from dying.
The depreciation timing gap. On replacement-cost policies, carriers hold back recoverable depreciation until the work is done. Homeowners sometimes need to fund the gap between the ACV check and the depreciation check.
Upgrades the claim won't pay for. Class 4 impact-resistant shingles beyond the approved scope, ventilation corrections, gutter upgrades — legitimate out-of-pocket additions that financing turns from "no" into "it's $60 a month."

The compliance lines (do not improvise here)

Never waive, absorb, or rebate deductibles. In most states — explicitly by statute in Texas and much of hail country — paying or hiding a homeowner's deductible is illegal, and "financing" structured to make the deductible disappear is the same crime with paperwork. Legitimate financing helps the homeowner pay the deductible; it never makes it vanish.
Reps present options; lenders make offers. Your reps are not loan officers. They can show the platform's payment options; they cannot quote guaranteed terms, steer credit decisions, or fill in the application. Keep the application on the homeowner's own device.
Advertise accurately. "Payments as low as $99/mo*" needs the asterisk to be real — approved credit, actual terms. State consumer-protection offices in storm states watch roofing ads.
Get trained on your platform's rules. Every lending platform has presentation requirements. The five-minute training is cheaper than the enforcement letter.

Choosing a platform: the questions that matter

What are the dealer fees per plan — including every promo plan my reps could select?
When do I get funded — completion, staged, or invoice — and what triggers a clawback (cancellations, disputes)?
What's the approval rate for typical roofing-customer credit profiles, and is there a second-look lender for declines?
Does it work on a phone in a driveway, and can multiple reps use it under one account?
Does it integrate with my CRM, or is every financed job double-entry?

That last one is quieter than it sounds: financed jobs have more moving money — deposits, lender funding, deductible payments, depreciation checks — and they're where paper processes drop dollars. Keeping the payment plan, the invoice, and the insurance-check tracking on the same job record is the difference between "financing grew our close rate" and "financing created an accounting hobby."

Making it actually move the close rate

Offering financing and selling with financing are different. The crews that get results: present monthly-payment framing on every retail quote ("$18,400, or from about $180/mo"), train reps on which plan to lead with, put "financing available" on the website and yard signs, and track close rate on financed-offered vs. not. If you present it on every job, financing typically pays its dealer fees several times over in recovered would-be-lost jobs.

This article is general information, not legal or financial advice — financing regulations and deductible law vary by state. Confirm specifics with your platform and a construction attorney in your state.