The 5 Questions Podcast
Join us as we unlock real estate and business insights, one question at a time.
The 5 Questions Podcast
Mastering Private Lending: Marinella Nicolosi's Strategies for Risk Mitigation and Success
Unlock the secrets to successful private lending with Marinella Nicolosi, the Private Lending Queen! Learn how to avoid common real estate pitfalls, mitigate risks, and make smarter lending decisions. Marinella shares her expert tips on due diligence, negotiation power, and navigating today’s challenging market. Plus, discover her SMART Masterclass to elevate your real estate game!
Don't miss this episode packed with practical strategies for all investors!
#RealEstate #PrivateLending #InvestSmart #RiskMitigation #DueDiligence #FinancialFreedom #WealthBuilding #PodcastEpisode #InvestorTips
Also very important do not and listen carefully. Do not lend just on trust.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the 5 Questions Podcast, where we unlock real estate and business insights one question at a time. Welcome to the 5 Questions Podcast. I'm your host, mario Lamar, our guest today. She has been titled the Private Lending Queen, recipient of the 2012 Women of Worth Award, and is at the head of the Smart Masterclass Private Lending Program. Welcome, marinella Nicolosi. Welcome to the show, marinella.
Speaker 1:Thank you, Mario, for inviting me and for being here. I'm really honored that you have chosen me to be one of your guests.
Speaker 2:It's going to be a lot of fun and you have lots of knowledge, so I can't wait to poke your brain for a couple of questions. The concept of the podcast I ask you five questions and we get straight to the point. Are you ready?
Speaker 1:Yes, I'm ready Go for it Okay let's start with the first one.
Speaker 2:Winning the 2012 Woman of Worth Award in the health and wellness category is a significant achievement. How did this?
Speaker 1:recognition impact your professional path and your personal philosophy. Yeah, so I've always believed in taking a holistic approach in life, and I honestly believe that if you want to thrive both as an individual, as a professional and as a real estate investor, you have to take care of your mental health, of your emotional and physical being, of your spiritual self, and so for me, it's really important to find balance in everything I do, and you know so this is my approach for every aspect of my life and for everything that I do.
Speaker 2:Very good, that's, you know. You need actually you're right, you need to be balanced in everything you do. You cannot just do, work, work, work and burn yourself out.
Speaker 1:So I agree, 100 you need to take care of yourself out. If you are, if you don't find balance and you find time for yourself, sooner or later you are going to burn out yeah, so that brings us to our question number two, private lending.
Speaker 2:It is your subject, but private lending can be very complex and daunting for many. What advice do you have for someone looking to get started, maybe in private lending within the real estate sector?
Speaker 1:Yeah, sure. So I believe that private lending is a challenging strategy and I feel that many people think that it's just simply lending money and receiving a return. It's not quite as straightforward as you may think. Often people, I would say, underestimate the intricacy of the strategy. In the last couple of years, we have witnessed tremendous hardships in the real estate community, where a lot of private lenders, including myself, have experienced some capital loss or have lost thousands of dollars, and I can tell you that in some fraudulent cases that have been investors that have lost millions of dollars.
Speaker 1:So my advice would be to get educated first. You need to understand the lending process. You need to learn how to implement a risk mitigation strategy. You need to learn how to screen borrowers and how to vet deals. Also, very important, do not and listen carefully. Do not land just on trust. A lot of people I've seen doing this. Trust is out of the equation now. You cannot trust anybody anymore.
Speaker 1:So and I can tell you from personal experience I had to start a legal proceeding on a borrower who I inherited from a mortgage broker who I trusted and who assured me that they did a thorough vetting process on the borrower. What it turns out is that this borrower was completely incompetent. He had no management, problem solving or even communication skills. He didn't know how to deal with the lenders and or he couldn't even come up with a repayment plan. So I had to take the legal route.
Speaker 1:Now you don't want to put yourself, as a lender, in a vulnerable position where the borrower basically calls all the shots and you have no idea of what is happening or what you're getting into. So I want you to understand that you need to be in charge of your investing. You need to be in charge of all your investments, you have to have control and also you also want to have negotiation power, because when you deal with the borrower, you have to negotiate, you need to understand, you need to ask the right questions. So education is power, and I suggest check out my real estate courses on my website, privatelendingqueencom. You can start from there to see you know what's important to learn and how to protect yourself.
Speaker 2:A lot of people they get attracted by the high interest rates you know promised by real estate deals but then forget to, like you said, vet the deals or go deeper into the person who's asking the money. So I completely agree with you People need to get educated first before they start giving their money away.
Speaker 1:Yes. A lot of people underestimate the strategy.
Speaker 2:That brings us to our question number three. With the extensive experience that you have in private lending we talked about you know getting educated first, but what are the common mistakes, maybe, that you see new investors make, and how can they avoid them?
Speaker 1:Sure. So I would say that the number one mistake that I've seen is that a lot of lenders trust that the borrower has their best interest. So ultimately, it is your money and that's why you need to educate yourself first, but you also have to need to educate yourself enough so that you know which investment is best for you and how to protect it, how to approach it. I would say the number two is that there is no understanding of risk mitigation and how to diversify to reduce their risk people. I've seen people put all their money in one investment and then they lose all of it. Or another one is that people are just usingnotes, like you were mentioning before, because they like their high returns but they don't realize the risk that they're getting into.
Speaker 1:And also another mistake is that I've seen a few investors who overextend themselves and they maximize their HELOCs, which are all made with line of credits or any line of credit, and then they struggle with their interest payments because the borrower does not send their monthly payments, it's defaulting or they don't receive their initial capital back. So I would say that the best approach is to invest what you feel comfortable. Losing and honestly investable will not put you in a detrimental financial position. So because if you lose everything, you won't be able to continue to move forward. So you want to be able to move forward in a way that you can still do some investing even if you lose some of your capital. So think carefully before you lend your money out and how much you lend out as well, and how well diversified are you.
Speaker 2:Don't put your eggs all in the same basket.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:All right, that brings us to our question number four. Over the past two years, you've seen we talked about, you know people having hardships. Over the past two years we've seen people, even seasoned investors, face challenges, some even going belly up, yeah. How has this trend impacted? First, private lenders? How are the commons reason? What are the commons reason behind these failures? But, most importantly, how can private lenders use a strategy to protect themselves against such times? So it's a long question, but divided in maybe three sections.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a great question and actually great questions in general. Yeah, absolutely. We have seen quite a few, actually quite a lot investors who struggled in the last couple of years, and some of them have even gone bankrupt. So I would say that some of the challenges that many of us, so many borrowers, are facing, first of all, is the state of the economy, which is a very unpredictable economy. We have high interest rates still, and we have seen a small decrease from the Bank of Canada of just 0.25, but that's not nearly enough. And so we also have we're still seeing a stagnant housing market and there is no much sales going on and there is lack of liquidity because a lot of investors have lost their money or their stock.
Speaker 1:I've also seen that many of these investors, many of these borrowers, have gone on a shopping spree at the wrong time. They bought lots of properties that have lots of projects going on, but all at once, and it all happened when the economy it's so strong, and so what happens is that when you put all these factors together, it becomes like a disaster, which which we have witnessed in the last couple of years. So, but also many of these factors are unpredictable, so sometimes you know as much as you want to do your due diligence, and you have to always do your due diligence. There are some things that you cannot predict, like, for example, covid, who would have thought that we had a pandemic, and it came all of a sudden, and after that everything went, went downhill and we still haven't recovered. We still haven't recovered. So so you always have to be stay up to date with the economies um, how the economy is doing, uh, what the real estate market trends are and, of course, always do your due diligence.
Speaker 1:But I also want to add that many of these borrowers are seasoned investors and they're very knowledgeable and they're trying to do their best to find solutions because they want to protect their investor capital and also they want to pay them back. So it's important to understand that, as a lender, you also have the responsibility to work with your borrower. You also have the responsibility to work with your borrower and you want to find a solution together so that you help them going through these challenging times and you also get your money back. Right, you want to be paid back and because you want to avoid legal action, you don't want to get to court. The legal process is long and it's costly. It can cost all the way up to $285,000 and more just to recover your money.
Speaker 1:And yeah, this is just. You know it's very expensive and very often you don't even recover all your money. So I highly recommend to always collaborate with your borrower, understand what their standard and understand the factors. Understand that if they don't have the money now, they might have it in six months or in one year because the economy is different, because they are able to sell their units, because they're able to refinance. So, yeah, there is a lot of factors that are contributing to all the problems that we have seen.
Speaker 2:So be patient as well, and let's hope that we we are able to move from this time as quick as possible well, from what I get from your answer is uh, very, you know you gotta work, like said, with your borrower, but first you need to understand the borrower. Maybe how many projects does he have on the go before you start investing with that borrower? You need to understand the complete picture to make sure you're not taking extra risks of him getting over leverage. And then, if there is a hiccup, try to work together to find a solution and not jump in the two arms screaming in the air. The first thing that you do, so try to work with that person if there is a hiccup, that happens. Very good insights. Thank you very much for your knowledge. It brings us to our fifth and last question, and we talked about getting education. So your SMART Masterclass program has been a game changer for many people I know. Can you tell us about the courses, what the benefits are both for maybe beginners and advanced investors?
Speaker 1:Yes, I have to say that I'm really proud of the Smart Masterclass Because, like you said, it has been a game changer for many investors, many people, and if you go on my websitelinguincom, you see our testimonials and they just speak for themselves. Um, you have been one of my students, so you know the care that I take and the attention that I put into not only my courses but also the whole community of investors that I built after people take my course. So the Smart Masterclass now comprises two courses. One is the Real Estate Investing New Diligence, and the new course is Become a Capital Magnet. Now.
Speaker 1:The Real Estate Investing Due Diligence is tailored for both beginners and seasoned active investors. In this course, basically, as a beginner, you'll learn how to implement the due diligence process, how to protect your investment, how to build a risk management strategy, and also it helps you. It puts you in a position of power instead of vulnerability. Like you don't want to be vulnerable and at the mercy of the borrower, right? So you want to know exactly what you're getting into.
Speaker 1:And, as a borrower or as a seasoned investors, if you take the due diligence course the real estate investing due diligence course you basically learn how to protect your lenders. That's one how to protect their investment, because that's what lenders want. They want to see that the borrower takes responsibility for their money. You want to distinguish yourself from others, so this course will help you to distinguish yourself from others and not only attract lenders, but also how to retain them for a long period of time. Right, because as you continue to grow as a borrower, as a real estate investor, and build up your portfolio, you want to have good relationship with your lenders so that they continue funding your projects and they, if you treat them well, if you know what is important for them, then you will retain them for a long period of time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't want to work with them just for one deal. You want to work with them for 10 years.
Speaker 1:Exactly exactly and basically, the lenders love it because they continue to make money and you continue building up your portfolio right when it comes to become a capital magnet.
Speaker 1:This new course is tailored mostly for advanced real estate investors who have the desire to become an attractive borrower Again.
Speaker 1:How to be an attractive borrower, an attractive borrower Again, how to be an attractive borrower. However, this course basically focuses mostly for real estate investors who wants to learn how to establish an impeccable reputation, how to build a solid network, how to be visible, how to be visible, how to successfully raise funds for their projects not just for now, but for the long run and how to steadily also grow their portfolio. I also want to add that in the last couple of years, as I mentioned earlier, I made some pretty big mistakes and I learned lessons of vital importance, and now I am sharing all this knowledge and these experiences that I've made in the last couple of years and these significant lessons that I learned in all my real estate courses, because I want that my students won't have to make the same mistakes. So I took this to heart because I want people to be successful as I have been and I continue to be successful as I have been and I continue to be successful, but I've also made big mistakes and I want people to avoid those mistakes.
Speaker 2:So that's yeah, that's very valuable for for students uh, for your students because there's no price on that. There's no price on well, there is a price. There's the price of the mistake, but if you can learn from someone, it's invaluable. I did big mistakes, too, when I started, and I wish somebody was holding my hand back then to tell me don't do that, because it would have saved a lot of money, because it would have saved a lot of money, you know, yeah.
Speaker 1:So spending a little money on a course, it will save you thousands in the long run.
Speaker 2:Well, marinella, thank you so much for being with us on the show today. Great lessons, great value that you bring. Private lending is not a subject that you hear a lot on different podcasts, and I'm happy that we got you on the show and you shared your knowledge with us. So thank you very much and I hope that we'll talk soon.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely. Thank you again for bringing me in to your podcast and congratulations on starting your podcast. I wish you all the success.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much, Marinella. Bye-bye.
Speaker 1:Thank you, bye-bye.
Speaker 2:Thanks for tuning in to the 5 Questions podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, like and hit the notification bell on our YouTube channel so you never miss an episode. Stay tuned for more insights and tips to transform your real estate and business game. See you next time.