In this article, I outline lessons learned during my career as a real estate lender so far, covering 1,800 loans spanning a 17-year period. This article is the first of a two-part series. The first article focuses on things that worked well, and the second one focuses on red flags that I have learned to pay attention to, usually by making a loan that I later regretted. I hope these articles allow other investors — particularly those newer to investing in loans — to get a little better results than they would have achieved otherwise.

The abrupt bankruptcy of auto supplier First Brands is shining a light on private credit — one of the biggest businesses in financial services today. Private credit is a major driver of profits for many of Wall Street’s top firms. This industry attempts to deliver attractive yields for investors, together with low volatility and low loan losses. In this article, I provide my take on what the First Brands bankruptcy tells us about private credit today. It is likely that this industry will experience some setbacks in the months and years ahead, even as it grows to occupy an ever-larger role in how private companies are financed.

Real estate private credit (also known as private lending) has its own terminology. In this article, I break down a dozen or so of the most important terms to know, based on my experience. Understanding the terms can help investors to understand and appreciate an asset class that has a lot of appeal at the moment, since buying and owning real estate today may have more risks than in the past, as long-term interest rates remain “higher for longer.”

For many years, “alternative investments” referred mainly to private equity or venture capital. Both generally did well over a long period of time, as interest rates trended down. Now, “private credit” has become a major focus of both alternative investment managers and investors seeking yield and something that is less correlated to the public markets. In this article, I explain how my area of expertise–real estate private credit–compares with the larger private credit phenomenon.

In this article I explain why I came back to real estate private credit after taking some time off, and what I love about this business.