Training

Private Money Mortgage Training from the Yoda of Hard Money Lending

California DRE brokers have the opportunity to learn hard money lending — one-on-one — with Dennis H. Doss, a 44-year veteran of private money mortgage law and Manager of Doss Law, LLP in Irvine, California. New to hard money lending? Welcome aboard. Have you been in the private money / hard money lending business for some time or are you a part-time investor wanting to step up your lending to the next level? Start your mortgage lending training with Dennis and learn how to smartly grow your business while proactively staying out of trouble with the numerous government oversight bureaucracies.

THE 10-SESSION* VIDEO
BOOT CAMP WILL COVER

01

Your Mortgage Company

In this segment of mortgage lending training, Dennis will cover entity structures, licensing, DRE online registration, advertising, loan officer requirements, capitalization, DBAs (FBNs), banking and other nuts and bolts of owning a mortgage company.

02

Defining Your Products

In this session, he will help you define the types of loans you will offer, including the competitive landscape, current rates, and consumer vs business credit.

03

Landing the Deal

Dennis will walk you step by step through the loan origination process, including the questions to ask to avoid wasting time, creating a letter of intent (template provided), loan applications, clarifying agency, and early borrower disclosures.

04

Underwriting the Deal

Before you present this loan to investors, you must know it is solid. He will walk you through the process of opening a title order, engaging an appraiser, using quick valuation tools, list of docs to ask the borrower for, the role of credit reports, background checks, and recognizing identity theft.

05

The Private Investor Process – Getting the Money

Obtaining private investors, the Loan Summary (template provided), the private investor disclosure process, obtaining a “spread” in the deal, servicing retained vs released, the sale and servicing agreement (templates provided). Dennis will walk through a list of disclosures (hyperlinks or templates provided) so you understand the role of each. We will also discuss the handling of investor money for the loan and the lawful sequence you must follow to do it correctly.

06

Documenting the Loan from the Borrower Side

Here, he will discuss documentation alternatives, such as a loan doc service vs in-house vs attorney-closed, what documents your package should contain (list provided), guarantees, role of environmental guarantees and how to protect yourself from forgery claims. Dennis will go through an actual set of loan docs to discuss how and why they are used in loan transactions.

07

Fractionalizing a Loan

Some loans require the use of multiple investors. He will cover your alternatives, including the multi-lender rule, Corp. Code 25102(f), and SEC Rule 506, as well as your DRE reporting responsibilities once you start fractionalizing loans.

08

Analyzing Title

09

Closing and Booking the Loan for Servicing

He will go through the final closing process and what you are expected to do to finish the deal. Then, Dennis will shift to boarding the loan with a servicer and your role as the loan is being collected.

10

DRE Reporting

In this final chapter, he will take you through your filing and reporting responsibilities with the DRE.

Meet Your Mortgage Lending Training Coach

Dennis H. Doss has 44 years of experience in law and finance – a veteran of hard money lending. His firm, Doss Law, LLP, represents the Who’s Who of private money lending in California, including many clients with hundreds of millions of dollars under management. He is one of the best-known educators in the business and has taught hard money seminars for over three decades. Below is a partial list of his publications and speaking engagements. Dennis is famous for taking a complicated topic and turning it into plain, no-nonsense, and digestible English. You will be speaking one-on-one with Dennis and interacting in real-time with this very seasoned expert of the hard money business.

Hard Money Lending Boot Camp

Welcome to Hard Money Boot Camp. The training you will get will not make you a Navy Seal, but you will be a very competent foot soldier. Seal training can come later. The course covers the soup to nuts of private money lending in a very practical way. It is not a theory class. It is a practical how-to class. How to do it right the first time.

The course is broken down into separately digestible video chunks, so you are not overloaded with information. We recommend that you take no more than 3 classes per week and listen to each more than once. That way, between sessions you can study your notes, come up with follow-up questions and frankly, give your brain a rest. The upload of information into your brain is going to be intense. Here is how Dennis will break it down for you in these 10 video classes.

01

Industry Background and Regulatory Landscape

State and federal regulators
Applicable state and federal laws
State license types, their uses and limitations
SAFE Act and the NMLS system
California usury law
Role of the private money mortgage broker
Agreement to Procure with Agency Disclosure

02

Starting Your Private Money Mortgage Business

LLC vs corporation, summary of tax treatment
Defining a protectible brand, URL registration
Applying for DRE Broker’s License
DBAs and their registration with regulators
Office address and branch office registrations
Loan Officers, licensing, employment, tax issues
IC v. W-2
Insurance
Advertising rules/Trust Funds/DRE Filings

03

Vendors

Attorneys and when you need them
Accountants
State license types, their uses and limitations
Document preparation alternatives
Property Insurance
Servicers and Sub servicers
Your role as servicer
Anatomy of a Loan Sale and Servicing Agreement

04

Beginning of the Loan Process

How to get deals
Handling the borrower Call
Questions you will be asked
Next steps
Steps after Signed Letter of Intent
Appraisals/BPOs
Review the Preliminary Report from the Title Company
Finders Fees/Referral Fees

05

Business Purpose Lending

Why loan purpose is so important
Definition of “consumer loan”
Numerosity test of consumer vs. business purpose
Exempt transactions
Rental property loans
Owner-occupied loans
Entity loans
Special Situations (ADUs, bailout, business loan gone bad, fix and flip)

06

Business Purpose Loan Early Disclosures

Mortgage Loan Disclosure Statement (MLDS)
Credit Authorization
Fair Lending Notice
Appraisal Notice
Privacy Policies
Credit Score Disclosure
Broker Disclosure by CFL Lenders

07

Consumer Lending

NMLS Endorsement
Consumer loan process (Application, Loan Estimate, MLDS)
Ability to repay–QM and non-QM
High Cost and higher-priced loans
Exceptions to high cost status
Closing Disclosure
Notice of Right to Cancel
Consumer loans attractive to private money lender

08

Borrower Loan Docs–Business Purpose

09

Investor Docs and Disclosures

10

Closing and Post Closing

“Herding Cats”
Boarding the loan with a servicer
Investor Letter
Payment Letter to Borrower
Follow up phone call fefore first payment is due
DRE Compliance Checklists
Loan Specific Critical Document Checklist (Business Purpose Loans)
Loan Specific Critical Document Checklist (Consumer Loans)

Risks Of Doing Hard Money Loans Without Adequate Training

We understand. You are starting a new business and money is tight. Why not learn as you go to save the money? The simple reason is that hard money lending is highly regulated and can be contentious. After all, your investors will be making millions of dollars of loans to less than perfect borrowers. What could go wrong? Many things. You are constantly dealing with borrowers and investors who, when in a tight spot, will look for a way to make you share their pain. If you skirt the rules, then you will most likely get sued or face discipline by a regulatory authority like the Department of Real Estate, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and/or the Department of Business Oversight. These folks do not mess around. Discipline by these agencies results in your disciplinary record being splattered all over Google until the day you die. If you get sued, then you could drop a quick $100K or more on attorney’s fees for the first year of the case; double or triple that if the case goes to an actual trial. The bottom line is that you cannot afford to wing it or cut corners. Your survival in this business depends on getting it right, every time. It is undeniably cost effective to get comprehensive training for the high stakes business of hard money lending…

We recently defended “John,” a real estate broker who was sued by the Department of Real Estate before he retained our law firm to defend him. The DRE wanted to take his license, because his files were missing crucial disclosure forms and he did not have contracts with this loan officers. John did not seek counsel to make sure he was conducting his business in compliance with the law and was not properly trained. We were able to save his license, but it is now a “restricted license,” which means it is just hanging on by a thread.

Then there was “Jane.” The DRE claims that she used the wrong borrower disclosure form, missed several fields of information in a very important disclosure form and made a business purpose loan on what the DRE mistakenly believed to be a consumer loan. We eventually won her case, but it was too close. It cost her many times more $$$ than the cost of this course.

Engaging in the private money mortgage business without the right tools is like showing up for a gunfight armed with a water pistol. If you take our course, we will provide you with the right tools to start a hard money lending company and succeed. Prudent legal and business advice comes from experience. We have 42 years of it.

What Will I Be Able To
Do After This Training?

This course is the nuts and bolts of starting and operating a hard
money loan business. When you finish, you will know how to:

File your business entity
Secure required licensing
Define your loan products
Provide borrowers with a letter of intent that protects you
Secure the commitment of the borrower to only work with you
Perform every step in the underwriting process
Make presentations to private investors

Get borrower disclosures and loan docs drawn
Understand and know when to deliver investor disclosures and contracts (provided)
Fractionalize a loan
Open escrow and order preliminary title reports
Study a title report, order endorsements and secure a loan policy of title insurance
Close a loan
Set up loan servicing and secure your “spread”

Secure Your Training Slot

You will walk away with the tools you need to make hard money loans lawfully. Do not build your business on a weak foundation. Get it right from the beginning and sleep on a pillow full of dollars you know you can keep.