Advice on becoming a private lender?

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Hi BP! I know it has been quite a while since I've had any activity. I fell into some pitfalls (when it rains it pours) as well as working very hard towards eliminating a drastic amount of CC debt I had accumulated and have been working massive overtime at my job. With a little luck I should have it completely eliminated in a month.

Initially I had wanted to get my foot in the door wholesaling real estate. Although I believe in the industry and that it is very doable, I realized I just didn't have the time I would need to do it successfully checking out leads all across Houston. I was right at the brink of dropping my marketing strategies to start and guess I got cold feet in the end.

I decided that I would prefer to get my feet wet privately funding the right individuals projects and in time work towards doing my own projects. Though I have pm'ed one of my colleagues who has really helped in guiding me in the past, I also wanted to get insight from others who might help in pointing me in the right direction (i.e. Finding the right solid individuals, evaluating the actual investment, expected yields I should be prepared for, any stipulations or questions I should need answered before committing, setting up the deal etc.).

I see a ton of articles here and across the net on how individuals can go about finding private capital, but can't seem to find any on what steps individuals such as myself who would like to invest in others should do to safeguard and make the most solid investment for themselves.

I would be starting off rather small (5k-10k or hopefully more assuming my company keeps the overtime going for a while). Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, thank you.