All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Warner

Jonathan welcome to Bigger Pockets!

Some of the books which are relevant would be the  The Millionnaire Real Estate Investor by Keller.
The Slight Edge and Atomic Habits too.

and

https://www.amazon.com/Building-Wealth-One-House-Time/dp/007...

We’ve been lending since 2010 and have never had a loan contested. We’ve only foreclosed on a few properties, all without issue, so I’m uncertain what qualifies as 'airtight,' Jonathan. What are your concerns?

Lending laws change frequently, and we receive emails from Lightning Docs throughout the year explaining their updates to the documents we use here in CA. Can you keep up and afford to have your lawyer update your documents?

We pay Lightning Docs a $500 annual fee and $500 per loan, which we charge to our borrower at closing. This way, we receive continuous updates from attorneys who eat, sleep, and breathe lending at minimal cost and we know we are always up to date. Unless your deals are particularly complex or unique, why would anyone pay to maintain their loan documents anymore?

We won’t lend a dime to anyone unless we’ve gone to lunch, gotten to know them a bit, and looked at a few of their properties. In our view, experience and integrity are by far the most important parts of any private loan. You only get a sense of this by meeting face-to-face once or twice.

A bad borrower can kill a great project. A good, experienced borrower can turn around even an unexpectedly bad deal. I was once told jokingly that we bet on the jockey, not the horse.

Next comes the property. The borrower must have a good deal from which they will make a fair profit. We have specific and unyielding criteria for this, which we provide to all potential borrowers in advance. We don't use LTV explicitly, but using our criteria, it ends up around 55% to 65% of the ARV. We are direct lenders, meaning we lend our own money, for flips within approximately 1½ hours of our home.

We walk through every property to avoid surprises and to confirm the rehab estimate. In addition, we pull our own comps and use Lightning Docs to generate our loan documents. This allows us to close extremely quickly, which is an important competitive advantage.

I don’t know how to read our own tax returns, and I’m certainly not going to read yours. The same goes for your credit score, which tells us nothing about your ability to flip a house and pay us back.

In sum: Experience, Integrity, a Killer deal.

Good resource to get started is The Banker's Code by George Antone. It's a detailed perspective on how private lending works, with practical strategies for building wealth through this niche. The book is useful for understanding how to structure deals, assess risks, and think like a lender, rather than just an investor.

Pair this with engaging in forums like this one and attending local meetups to put what you learn into practice. If you’re serious about private lending, this book is a great way to sharpen your skills and make smarter decisions.

Good luck, and feel free to reach out!

Best regards, Stevan

 Lend2Live written by @Beth Johnson and her FB group is a great place as well to get information. Also  American association of private lenders is one trade group,

1) cannot qualify for traditional financing

2) fears appraisal will come in low

3) fears buyer will back out so reduces contingency options

note for cash purchase I expect a significant discount.   Is the property priced appropriate for a purchase that does not permit financing?

Good luck

This seller feels like he has a good position to turn down people who need to finance. If you are in that boat, nothing is stopping you from making an offer with a financing contingency. You'll have to make your offer appealing in some other way. Look for how long this place has been on the market. Longer times mean he is more likely to deal with you.