Lending private money, getting things started

[Evan Loader]

I'm a 35 year old professional that travels a lot for work, but still actively wants to invest in RE. I am currently working overseas in Bahrain as a civilian defense contractor and won't be back in the US until at least the end of the year, if not much later. This makes investing directly in RE difficult, clearly not impossible but harder to get things rolling. I have participated in a syndication as a limited partner, but want to branch out into private lending, loans of one year or less. 

I read 'The Bankers Code' by George Antone and it drew me to private lending. For my situation being away from home so often(I'm a Michigan resident), this would still allow me to participate in real estate but be diversified beyond a syndication. The more I have researched the area, the more comfortable I am to actually do it. I am not looking to loan out a ton quite yet, but $30-$50k seems reasonable. Is that enough to attain a good return? I would want my money to be secured by a promissory note and mortgage on the property in question, and thanks to the advice from some on here, if the property in question isn't enough to cover it, I would need to attach a lien to other property to ensure I can get my money back. 

What do you all recommend as to additional education/reading or areas to explore getting things moving? Thanks. 

[Roman M.]

Evan,

I read the book and attended the seminar. 

Your first priority should  be compliance with federal and state lending regulations. 

So read up on Dodd Frank, usury law in each state you planning to lend and that state's lending license requirements. This is something that is not covered enough and can cost a lot of money if certain laws are broken. Now if you just lending to friends and family then it's less complicated.

After looking more into bankers code, private  lending and doing a lot of research, I came to realize that it is a job and not passive in any way.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to do private lending but regulations makes it very difficult and time consuming. Also you have to constantly look for customers and you competing with highly competitive hard money lenders.

Lendng under $50k is great idea because most HML don't do loans less then 100k.

So I found that traditional real estate is much more passive and easier but I still be interested in private lending on a deal to deal basis I such deal falls into my inbox and it passes all check and balances.