Your first loan, and where to go next

01The sequence, in order

Ten steps, in that order, because each one changes what the next one means. Step seven is pointless before step one: you cannot assess a return on a position you have not identified.

02What a complete file looks like

Before money moves, you should be able to put your hand on all of this.

• The loan agreement, signed, and your own agreement if there are two.
• The security document, and confirmation of registration — not an undertaking to register.
• A Deeds Office search, dated, showing every bond over the property and in whose favour.
• Proof from the municipality of what rates are owing. And, on sectional title, what levies are owing.
• An independent valuation, commissioned by somebody with no interest in the deal proceeding.
• Your arithmetic: forced sale value, less costs, less rates, less prior bonds.
• Identity and registration documents for the borrower, and for any surety.
• Written answers to the four questions.
• A note of what you were told, by whom, and when.

If assembling that list feels disproportionate for the amount you are lending, the honest conclusion is usually that the amount is too small to justify the work, not that the work is unnecessary. That is a real and sensible reason to pass.

03The rules worth keeping

1. Secured is not insured. Security is a right to a process, and processes cost time and money.
2. Due is not arrives. The date in the agreement is when money becomes payable, not when it lands.
3. One loan is not a portfolio. The rate was an average price for an average outcome across a population you do not have.
4. Emergency money does not belong here. The requirement and the instrument are incompatible.
5. A quoted rate is not a return. Four things sit between them, and nobody mentions the third.
6. If it cannot be answered in writing, that is the answer.

04Where to go next

This course is an overview that teaches. The Association's library is the depth behind it.

• If you are close to a decision — the complete guide, then risk and red flags. The second is the page most likely to save somebody from a bad outcome.
• If your question is the registration one — do I need to register as a credit provider, which is the longest and most carefully sourced page on the site.
• If you are weighing positions — the four positions, with worked examples and the checks for each.
• If you want the vocabulary — the glossary, which defines each term in its South African sense rather than its international one.
• If something has gone wrong — complaints and review, which says plainly what the Association can and cannot do.

05The outcome this course is happy to produce

A reader who finishes twenty lessons and decides private lending is not for them has wasted nothing. They have reached a correct answer more cheaply than the alternative.

It is the right answer for a good number of people, and the reasons are specific rather than vague:

There is a short assessment next. It is marked immediately, you can take it again, and it is a check on your own understanding rather than a credential. Thank you for reading it through.