Hi all — Florida-based investor, buying out of state. I've been investing since 2015; the first stretch was wholesaling and wholetailing in my local market, and since early 2024 I've focused on buying affordable single-family homes and reselling them with owner financing. I hold and service those notes on the buyer side — they pay me monthly, and since it's a contract-for-deed structure, I retain title until it's paid off rather than recording a lien in their favor. When I bring in a private lender on a property, that works the other way: the lender gets a recorded first lien against the property, and I pay them back by autopay. My experience is that most borrower/lender friction in this space comes down to sloppy paperwork and poor communication.
Joined a while back, finally participating. I'm mostly here to understand what people considering their first private loan worry about, and I'm glad to answer questions about how these notes get structured and serviced from the borrower's side. Not selling anything.
Hi all — Florida-based investor, buying out of state. I've been investing since 2015; the first stretch was wholesaling and wholetailing in my local market, and since early 2024 I've focused on buying affordable single-family homes and reselling them with owner financing. I hold and service those notes on the buyer side — they pay me monthly, and since it's a contract-for-deed structure, I retain title until it's paid off rather than recording a lien in their favor. When I bring in a private lender on a property, that works the other way: the lender gets a recorded first lien against the property, and I pay them back by autopay. My experience is that most borrower/lender friction in this space comes down to sloppy paperwork and poor communication.
Joined a while back, finally participating. I'm mostly here to understand what people considering their first private loan worry about, and I'm glad to answer questions about how these notes get structured and serviced from the borrower's side. Not selling anything.
Great question and welcome! I think you're in a good spot to add value here because a lot of investors are curious about private lending but don't get to hear much from someone who actually structures and services notes. One thing I'd be interested in is how you handle situations when a borrower falls behind. At what point do you typically step in, and what practices have helped keep defaults and misunderstandings to a minimum? It sounds like you've found that clear expectations and consistent communication matter just as much as the paperwork itself. Looking forward to hearing more about your experience. Happy to connect and answer any questions you have!
Welcome to the BP community! It is a great place to meet new friends and learn about various aspects of real estate and more.
Check out BP Podcasts: https://www.biggerpockets.com/podcast
Thanks, Brett! Appreciate the welcome.
Thanks, Logan! I'll check that out.
@Justin Schulman Hey Justin, welcome to the community! There's a great investor/lender within BP named James Dainard (who actually is presenting at BPCON in October, which I'm really excited to see) who has an awesome video on this. Check out the 20:30 portion of this video that BP posted last year and I think James gives a lot of great advice on generally what investors should worry about before going through with a private lender. Always helps to have some possible red flags on your radar in my experience.
Hi all — Florida-based investor, buying out of state. I've been investing since 2015; the first stretch was wholesaling and wholetailing in my local market, and since early 2024 I've focused on buying affordable single-family homes and reselling them with owner financing. I hold and service those notes on the buyer side — they pay me monthly, and since it's a contract-for-deed structure, I retain title until it's paid off rather than recording a lien in their favor. When I bring in a private lender on a property, that works the other way: the lender gets a recorded first lien against the property, and I pay them back by autopay. My experience is that most borrower/lender friction in this space comes down to sloppy paperwork and poor communication.
Joined a while back, finally participating. I'm mostly here to understand what people considering their first private loan worry about, and I'm glad to answer questions about how these notes get structured and serviced from the borrower's side. Not selling anything.
Great question and welcome! I think you're in a good spot to add value here because a lot of investors are curious about private lending but don't get to hear much from someone who actually structures and services notes. One thing I'd be interested in is how you handle situations when a borrower falls behind. At what point do you typically step in, and what practices have helped keep defaults and misunderstandings to a minimum? It sounds like you've found that clear expectations and consistent communication matter just as much as the paperwork itself. Looking forward to hearing more about your experience. Happy to connect and answer any questions you have!
Hi all — Florida-based investor, buying out of state. I've been investing since 2015; the first stretch was wholesaling and wholetailing in my local market, and since early 2024 I've focused on buying affordable single-family homes and reselling them with owner financing. I hold and service those notes on the buyer side — they pay me monthly, and since it's a contract-for-deed structure, I retain title until it's paid off rather than recording a lien in their favor. When I bring in a private lender on a property, that works the other way: the lender gets a recorded first lien against the property, and I pay them back by autopay. My experience is that most borrower/lender friction in this space comes down to sloppy paperwork and poor communication.
Joined a while back, finally participating. I'm mostly here to understand what people considering their first private loan worry about, and I'm glad to answer questions about how these notes get structured and serviced from the borrower's side. Not selling anything.
Great question and welcome! I think you're in a good spot to add value here because a lot of investors are curious about private lending but don't get to hear much from someone who actually structures and services notes. One thing I'd be interested in is how you handle situations when a borrower falls behind. At what point do you typically step in, and what practices have helped keep defaults and misunderstandings to a minimum? It sounds like you've found that clear expectations and consistent communication matter just as much as the paperwork itself. Looking forward to hearing more about your experience. Happy to connect and answer any questions you have!
Hey Jimmy thanks for the welcome!
Good question. To be clear, all of my structured notes are in the form of selling on Contract for Deed, where I'm the one holding the note. That's where I've actually got default experience; on the private lending side I'm the one being serviced, not doing the servicing.
Honestly, I've moved away from informal check-ins and let the notices do the talking instead. These are lower-dollar homes with a first-come-first-served buyer model, so no credit or income underwriting up front. Therefore, the back end needs to be just as consistent, not dependent on me staying personally on top of every account. A documented notice process treats every buyer the same way and gives me something enforceable if it needs to go further. And honestly I was doing personal communications to late payers in the past and compliance is much better when that piece was eliminated.
From there it's genuinely state-specific as far as the actual notice process.
Happy to go deeper on either state's process if it's useful.