Frequently Asked Questions

A private lender is an individual, corporate entity, or financial entity such as a self-directed IRA or a Solo 401k, that loans or invests money.

Bel Air Lending is a group of private investors specializing in real estate ventures such as buy and hold, fix and flips, as well as new construction loans. Our goal is to deliver impressive returns while maintaining minimal risk.

We offer simple annualized interest rates of 10%, accruing daily until the property is sold or refinanced.

At the re-sale or refinance of each home, you can receive your entire investment back from the closing attorney. Most are 4-16 months, refinances and flips are shorter and new builds are longer.

No, all funds are given or wired to our trust attorney, Steve Lowry, made payable to the attorney's trust fund and released after the proper documents are filed at the local county Register of Deeds.

You are secured the same way your bank or mortgage company is secured on your personal home mortgage. Each loan is secured by a specific property with a promissory note and a Deed of Trust (recorded at Wake County or the local county where the property is located). We also have our borrowers sign personal guarantees and back up your investment with our business and personal assets.  We find that if we plan for “Murphy” to show up, that he does not show up. If he does, we will be ready. We guarantee the performance of each borrower. If they can't finish, then we take over the project and finish it.

Title searches & title insurance are obtained. Builder's Risk or Hazard insurance is purchased: we are listed on the insurance policy as the mortgagee, just as a bank would be listed on your personal home insurance policy. When building new construction, we or the builder obtains Builder’s Risk, Liability, and Workman's Comp. insurances.

Yes, all interest earned or gains are taxable, and you will be receiving a 1099-INT in January. If you have loaned us money from your self-directed IRA, then we will send you a FMV (Fair Market Value) of your investment by December 31st of each year.

1. Self-directed IRA, 401k, Roth IRA (visit solo401k.com for options available to you for self-directing in real estate). Our lenders have used funds self-directed in real estate from an HSA (Health Saving Account), Roth IRA, Solo 401K & traditional IRA.

2. Cash loan- personal or business accounts.

You are only providing a loan, you are not participating in gains or losses of the specific project.  If there is a shortfall, we place our business and personal funds into the project.

Then we require the borrower to sell (flip) the home.

There is always potential risk to any investment. We have taken several steps to try and mitigate knowns risks. We believe it is better to plan ahead to avoid them. Here are some items we have in place to lower your risk:

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• We have made 400 loans totaling over $70 million and have not lost a penny of our investors money.

• Since your investment is a loan and not a profit/loss sharing, your risk is reduced.

• Your investment has collateral of real property in the form of a first-position lien.

• The borrower's performance is guaranteed by our business and personal assets.

• We have proper insurance for hazard & fire. We are listed as the mortgagee. If the policy is cancelled, we get notified from the insurance company.

• All documents are created by an attorney and funds are only given to and released by an attorney.

• We have a Deed of Trust and Promissory Note recorded on the property.

• We recommend and sometimes require a licensed home inspection report before purchasing. 

• Because we only lend locally, you can visit the project before you invest or anytime after to see the progress. You can touch and feel it, as well as talk to anyone there.

• We have extensive experience with building new homes and rehabbing homes (over 50 rehabs and 60 new builds)

• We are big proponents of continuing education. Real Estate markets change from time to time. We want to know about it.

• We only use your funds for that specific project.

Our management team is more than able and equipped to take over at any step of the process if need be.