Private lending to a friend

[Emily O'Neill]

Hello, a friend of mine has flipped about 12 properties in Birmingham, AL. He has used hard money lines for the purchase and renovation and then he turns them into DSCR loans on the back end to hold as rentals. I am considering lending him the $135,000 he would need for his next project to give him better rate/points than his hard money line and we would benefit from those terms also. What guidelines are in place regarding private lending? Am I able to just issue a Promissory Note and then record a Deed of Trust on the subject property? Do I need a mortgage license or another finance license to do this? We both live in California.