Investors: Have you been thinking about private money in 2026, or already using it?
Real Estate Broker · Martin County, FL · Member since 2026 · 45 posts · 17 votes
Hey BP,
With banks still being slow and strict this year, I’ve been talking to a lot of active investors who are either:
Curious to hear from the investor side:
Would love to hear honest takes from people who are actually doing deals. Trying to get a better feel for what investors really need in today’s market.
Thanks in advance!
Rich - Jensen Beach, FL
Answering from the lender side since I see this dynamic constantly.
The biggest advantage investors cite with private money: flexibility and speed on the first deal. No rigid underwriting boxes, faster decisions, and more room for creative structures.
The biggest surprise: relying on one person's capital creates single points of failure. Private money relationships work great until they don't — the lender gets cold feet, changes their terms mid-deal, or simply runs out of capacity when you need to scale.
The investors who stick with private money long-term tend to be the ones managing smaller, simpler deals. Those scaling to multiple simultaneous projects almost always shift toward institutional programs — DSCR, bridge, and construction loans — because the consistency and speed is more predictable than managing individual relationships.
Treasure Coast is an active flip and rental market right now. Happy to connect with anyone in the thread who wants to compare what structured financing looks like vs private money on a specific deal.
Are you seeing more first-time private money users or experienced investors looking to diversify their capital sources?
Hey BP,
With banks still being slow and strict this year, I’ve been talking to a lot of active investors who are either:
Curious to hear from the investor side:
Would love to hear honest takes from people who are actually doing deals. Trying to get a better feel for what investors really need in today’s market.
Thanks in advance!
Rich - Jensen Beach, FL
I'll give you two takeways we see a lot in private lenders. We'll work with a lot of smaller private lenders that struggle to deploy their capital or they have no idea to underwrite a loan. This is what I've been seeing a lot from them.
1) Alligator Arms: I've noticed a lot of novice private lenders will talk a good game and get excited for a project. We help them go through the full underwrite and mitigate as much risk as we can. Then, when it comes time to fund a deal, they get alligator arms and can't seem to reach the checkbook. You have to make sure if you're going to count on a lender that they actually pull the trigger. I can think of one person that met me through a webinar I did for an IRA company that, over a many month period, seemed to never be able to get out of the question phase. Just make sure if you rely on a private lender that the capital is there like they promise.
2) Lack of Understanding: I'll be blunt. Pretty much every "guru" I've seen "teaching" private lending out there have zero formal credit background. I can think of one really large and profitable group that say they teach private lending, but they are really there to charge people to "set up a fund" go raise money without actually teaching basic credit principles. I've always said the three most important things in lending are ability, ability, and ability...how is the the borrower going to pay you back. Do they have a primary, secondary, and tertiary form of repayment? Most notice private lenders focus on collataral without regard of the costs of loan failure.
A good lender that really knows their stuff, has heavy investment experience themselves, and actually pulls the trigger as promised is super important for a prolific investor. Of course, I could go on answering forever, but those are two items that most people don't really think of. I hope that helped.