Private loan question

[Hunter Woolsey]

Hello all,

I am new to Bigger Pockets, I have been reading the forums for about a year as well as listening to the podcasts on my commute to work. I am also a rookie investor from Texas,  I currently have four rental properties that I have obtained all with loans from a local bank at a rate of one property per year. I have heard a lot about private money loans and it got me thinking, how do you structure a private money loan on rental properties? It seems relatively easy to set up private money with a flip deal because the investor gets their money back within a year if everything goes as planned, but with a buy and hold is your investor in it for the long haul with you? and after its paid off are they still a partner, or is just like a bank just a loan with interest? I have a possible private money investor but he is an older gentleman and I don't know if a 10 or 15 year loan would be appealing to him. I listened to Michael Zuber on the BP Summit 2012 Audio, I would be curious to know how his private money loans are structured. I hope all of this makes sense. Thank you in advance for all yall's help.