I just returned from the first-ever conference of the American Association of Private Lenders in Las Vegas last month. This new group aims to become the premier organization of private lenders across the nation. The goal of the three-day conference was to bring together the leading private lenders across the nation for educational networking, tool building and best practice sharing.
We’re excited about the mission of this new organization. With conventional credit unprecedentedly tight, private lenders (sometimes called hard money lenders) can fill an important role in reviving the real estate economy. However, it’s important that we establish high standards for ethical and professional operations. The AAPL offers a great opportunity for the best lenders in the business to work together to create these key benchmarks and set the right image for our industry.
While attending the conference, I got updates on pending and potential legislation affecting our business. I was able to share Sterling Pacific’s best practices with my colleagues around the country and discuss some of the changing trends in the private lending marketplace. I also had the opportunity to meet several new vendors that Sterling Pacific Financial will be working with and learned more about the existing tools we are using from several vendors as well. Companies like Robodocs and ABS offer services that will go a long way towards helping our businesses streamline and manage themselves professionally — key steps for growing our companies and our industry.
It was quite interesting for me to learn while there are significant differences in the way businesses like Sterling Pacific Financial operate across the nation, at the end of the day, the similarities greatly out number those differences. The challenges and opportunities are there and I was able to have some interesting conversations with colleagues and discuss challenges we’ve seen and loan opportunities we are evaluating. We were also able to compare those opportunities to the ones folks are looking at all over the country.
While at the conference, I was asked to speak on a two topics: an overview of our marketing efforts, which I enjoyed quite a bit, and a panel on servicing loan portfolios (whether they should be done in house, outsourced or some combination thereof). I also particularly enjoyed hearing from one of the panelists, Tom Anderson, founder of Pensco Trust, one of the self directed IRA custodians that Sterling Pacific Financial works with.
As the AAPL continues to gain strength over the coming years, I look forward to reporting back on some of the efforts underway. I expect it will help protect and strengthen our position in the marketplace, both at the state level and federal level, helping us grow with best practices. We also need a collective voice to protect us from some of the poorly considered, threatening legislation that is on the table; a strong association effort can help rework these draft laws into legislation that accomplishes its goals of protecting borrowers and investors without unintended consequences that hurt the marketplace.
Ultimately, the AAPL can help accomplish the goals we are all looking for: a stronger marketplace, a better educated group of colleagues with the best practices shared across the industry, and better results for lenders, their borrowers, and their investors.
Whether you are a private real estate lender, a real estate developer looking for a loan, or an investor looking to invest in trust deeds (private real estate notes), I encourage you to check out the website of the American Association of Private Lenders at www.aaplonline.com, it should be a wonderful resource going forward!