Read past the rate. Know what you're signing.
Learn to examine the borrower, collateral, and terms before money changes hands. Goodwin Yee's private money lending class puts the lessons, exercises, and sample documents together so you can practice evaluating a loan before committing capital.
Know which questions to ask before money moves.
Somebody needs money. You have money. Now comes the part worth learning.
What secures the note? What do you know about the borrower? What happens when payments stop?
If you're learning how to lend in real estate, work through those questions before facing them with your own money. Start with our private lending guide, then use this class to study the calculations and documents behind the answers.
Your private money lending class, from terms to paperwork
Thirteen recorded lessons walk through:
- Promissory notes: parties, principal, interest, repayment, maturity, fees, and penalties.
- Buying: borrower, collateral, payment history, and unpaid principal balance.
- Holding: servicing, late payments, and missed payments.
- Selling: collateral files and assignment documents.
- Hypothecation: using a note as collateral to borrow.
- Private lending: start with the 60-Second Analysis, then work through full due diligence and papering the deal.
Spot the problem on paper first.
Open Goodwin's 229-page Be The Bank manual. Work through six sections and 14 exercises: spot problems in notes, calculate unpaid principal balance, ask borrower questions, and evaluate a rehabber lending scenario.
The sample-document appendix includes deeds of trust, mortgages, Assignment of Rents and Leases, personal guaranty forms, allonges, estoppels, trust and LLC documents, and release forms.
Build your checklist for the borrower, collateral, servicing, title, and exit as you study.
The manual's creator walks you through the work.
Goodwin Yee created and teaches Be The Bank: An Introduction to Promissory Notes and Private Lending.
Follow his recorded two-day class from understanding a note to buying, holding, selling, hypothecating, and evaluating private loans.
Watch the lesson. Study the sample documents. Work through the exercises. The teaching and practice are together, ready to work through at your pace.
Goodwin Yee built his real estate business around private lending, buying, selling, and structuring promissory notes and creative-finance deals. He created and teaches FIRE Center's "Be The Bank" course, a two-day, 16-hour class on promissory notes and private lending, and co-leads the club's Creative Finance Exchangor sessions alongside fellow instructor Andy Teasley.
Learn the calculator. Then put it to work.
Complete a basic financial-calculator class first. Goodwin's lessons build on those calculator functions, so that foundation lets you focus on the lending material.
Find the calculator training in our class catalog. Then study the lending recordings and manual from wherever you are.
Learn lending first. Keep your membership path open.
Learn How to Lend: $297 one-time. Lifetime access lasts as long as the FIRE Center offers the class.
Explore membership for broader study. FIRE Starter is $97 a month or $999 a year: classes included today, the Wednesday room, the FIRE App, Replay Vault, and FIRE AI: Starter Analyzer.
Buy this class first and upgrade within 7 days for $550. We credit every dollar you paid.
One-time payment. Lifetime access to Learn How to Lend. 7-day no-questions refund.
Buy this class for $297Every class in the catalog plus full FIRE Starter membership benefits, first year only. Renews at $999/year after that.
Get every class + FIRE Starter for $847/yrAlready a member? Open the FIRE App instead of buying again.
Frequently asked questions
Investors considering private lending or notes who want to understand the documents, calculations, and due-diligence questions before committing capital. Complete a basic financial-calculator class first.
You get thirteen recorded lessons from Goodwin Yee's two-day class, plus his manual and exercises. Study remotely at your pace.
Open the Introduction lesson for the Be The Bank manual. Use its six sections, exercises, and sample-document appendix alongside the recordings.
Buy this class first and upgrade within 7 days for $550. We credit every dollar you paid.
Yes. FIRE Starter and FIRE Builder include classes today; explore membership to compare the full benefits.
Practice on the paperwork before committing your money.
Start with Goodwin's lessons and build your lending checklist as you work through the exercises and sample documents.
Buy this class for $297