I'm the borrower. Here's exactly how it works.

If you've never done this before, here's what that actually means.

• You're in first position. Your mortgage is recorded at the county courthouse against one specific property, ahead of every other claim. If I ever failed to pay, you'd hold the first claim on that property — the same position a bank holds when it writes a mortgage.
• Your money isn't pooled. It isn't combined with other people's, and you aren't buying a share of my company or a fund. It's one loan, on one property, with your name on the mortgage.
• You see the property first. The address, the title work, the appraisal or valuation, and the note itself — all of it, before you decide anything. You can drive by it.
• It's deal by deal. I'm not raising a fund and there's nothing to enroll in. When a purchase comes up that needs funding, I bring it to people who've told me they'd like to see that kind of thing. You look at that one deal and say yes or no. No commitment in between, and no obligation when one comes along.
• I sign personally. Twenty-six years and more than a thousand transactions in the same market, as a licensed Broker-in-Charge. I live twenty minutes from most of what I own.