Private Lending Explained: Transparency, Accountability, and Scaling the Right Way

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Show Summary

In this conversation, Hector Castro shares his extensive experience in private lending, discussing the evolution of the industry and the importance of structure and ethical practices. He emphasizes the values that drive HERA Lending, including transparency and accountability, and highlights the company’s commitment to community impact through initiatives like HERA Cares. Hector also introduces innovative tools designed to enhance client relationships and engagement.

Resources and Links from this show:

• • • Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
    • Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
    • Mike on Facebook
    • Mike on Instagram
    • Mike on LinkedIn
    • Hera Lending’s Website
    • Hera Lending on Instagram
    • Hera Lending on LinkedIn

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Hector Castro (00:00)
  Yeah, I think the resilience part is the most important thing and never give up, you know, like I always tell my employees like either you fail to learn or you learn to fail. And I love that, you know, like I am very passionate, like daily when I go to sleep, you know, like what, what, what I did during the day, what can I learn from it?

  My biggest fear is the life passing through and I’m not aware that life is passing. I’m 50 years old and I’m like what I’ve been doing the last 10 years.

  Quentin Edmonds (02:04)
  Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and I have another fantastic guest here. Listen, this gentleman has a very good track record in his industry. And he’s not a novice. He’s been doing this. He knows what he’s talking about. He’s been in the industry and I love because he’s doing it an ethical way. Not only is he’s doing it an ethical way, he’s putting systems in place for other people to do it an ethical way.

  And to really, you know, make sure that this place where he’s at, the industry that he’s in is a safe space for all. So I’m excited to talk to him. And I want to introduce you all to Mr. Hector Castro. Mr. Hector, how you doing today, sir?

  Hector Castro (02:47)
  Great, thank you, Quentin Thank you for the opportunity for being here. I’m really excited.

  Quentin Edmonds (02:52)
  Absolutely, I’m excited to see man and listen sir. I kind of want to dial in man ⁓ I would love for you to tell the people what your main focus is these days Give us a little bit of an origin story If you don’t mind of kind of how you got into what you do We love origin stories and then man tell them what part of the world you’re in and what market should operate in then So have to serve you have floor man

  Hector Castro (03:14)
  Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. So I’ve been doing this for 14 years already. I started back on 2012 after the O-A crisis, you know, like started working in a, in a family office that they were doing stock market, real estate, and they were starting this private lending thing that no one knows what it is, but everyone loves it because you know, like it was high returns. Obviously it was high risk as well because it was purely asset based lending back then.

  the harmony lending that we all know about, you know, like, I don’t care about who you are, I just care about your property. And then obviously, I started learning about lending. I was young, I had like 24 years old. So I was young, I learned a lot.

  came, you started from the bottom. I was the office boy in that office. I ended being, you know, like the second man. I was a servicing, I was a regionating, I was handling the relationship with the capital providers. So ⁓ obviously I evolved and I then opened my own brokerage office. So then long story short, I started working in a company, then I opened my brokerage office. And in 2019, Quentin, I built and I started.

  my previous company, Equity Lending Solution, where we deploy in five years, $1.5 billion, and then being, you know, like number one local lender in Florida and number 27 in the whole country. But I had a professor at Harvard. I went to Harvard and that professor told me that a business not only dies ⁓ for lack of food, a business can also die because of the excess of food.

  So the growing pains was like a big thing. So basically because of a change of vision, I decided to split way with my partners at the end of 2024. And I started Hera in January, 2025. The great thing is from 35 employees, 30, 31 decided to come with me to Hera. So we are building the strongest company in the lending industry because this is, as I already mentioned,

  To you before, when we were talking, we’re dealing in a non-regulated industry, managing regulated money. HERA Lending specializes in doing private lending for investment property only. It is considered in the private credit sector. We work in the RTL space, which is residential transitional loans.

  Quentin Edmonds (06:40)
  I love it, man. Thank you, bro. Thank you for walking us through the journey, letting us know what you do now. And I was listening, man. love, know, Professor Harvick gave you some incredible advice and I love how you did transitions. And so listening to you, man, I have a saying where I say destiny has no wasted moments, right? Meaning no matter what we go through in life, every destination teaches us something about ourselves.

  So man, what has this journey in real estate taught you about you? Has it taught you resilience, discipline, consistency? Like what has this journey taught you about yourself, Hector?

  Hector Castro (07:19)
  Yeah, I think the resilience part is the most important thing and never give up, you know, like I always tell my employees like either you fail to learn or you learn to fail. And I love that, you know, like I am very passionate, like daily when I go to sleep, you know, like what, what, what I did during the day, what can I learn from it?

  My biggest fear is the life passing through and I’m not aware that life is passing. I’m 50 years old and I’m like what I’ve been doing the last 10 years.

  So I try to live my days in the most passionate ways and trying to transmit everyone around the same. I’m talking about the real estate industry. That’s what I like the most on what we do. So we’re helping people build in their dreams.

  investors who want to the house to sell it to others that are looking for their primary resident, for flippers. So for time buyers, ⁓ for example, foreign nationals, we help a lot of outreach loans, the acquisition loans that we have, we help a lot of foreign national building ⁓ their portfolios in the United States, because obviously, this is one of the safest places to allocate your investments. So I think that’s what I like the most.

  and also educating everyone around you know like based on our experience so it’s not just lending money you know it’s that relational part I love it you know like ⁓ if I even if the loan is good but I know my clients they’re not gonna make any profit on the investment that they’re doing we’re not that type of company you know like I always says that transparency it’s our biggest asset and ⁓ you know like we’re very ethical

  That’s why we build, you know, like we designed the first certification for private lending brokers in the sector. That’s why also I wrote Beyond Mortgages, which is the first comprehensive guide. It’s a book that I did with the professor of ⁓ finance at University of Virginia. So we’re trying to leave a mark, you know, it’s not only making money, it’s leaving a mark as well.

  Quentin Edmonds (09:33)
  I love it, man. And I love how you said, if I heard you right, transparency is your biggest asset, right? Like one of your biggest assets. Absolutely love that, man. ⁓ cause that approach is everything. And, ⁓ I’m just listening to you. So I want to ask you as you was building, you know, sometimes the business we have to fast, definitely within real estate, right? Cause sometimes things don’t go the way we expect them to go. And so have you faced any or bumped up against any adversity as you was building Hara?

  Has that always been a smooth transition or has there been like some ups and downs sometimes?

  Hector Castro (10:41)
  No, if you find an entrepreneur or a business owner that tells you everything has been smooth, he’s lying to you. So it’s always ups and downs. It’s exciting, like building something. I remember when I transitioned from my previous company to Hera, I was telling my CFO and my CAO, my chief humanitarian officer, that I was really enjoying the process on

  building like a real corporate company, know, like coming in this corporate world when you have SOPs, clear, you know, like guidelines, everyone knows what they’re doing, the right seat under, know, the right people on the right seat. So it’s quite difficult.

  ⁓ You need to pivot fast when things are not going, you know, like, you need to try a bunch of things, you know, like the human resources part, it’s horrible because you need to deal with people and we all different, you know, like, and we’re very human company. So it’s not only telling them what to do, it’s how they feel doing it. You know, like ⁓ the why we’re doing this is the most important thing.

  So we’re very focused on that. When I built Hera and I was thinking about the name, I have two daughters. And I thought about many, many things. How can I relate a lot of things with the name? So my oldest daughter’s name is Helena, and that’s the H and E. And my youngest daughter is Clara. And it’s how one begins and how the other ends. So that’s Hera. And also, Hera was the

  Sears from the god from the Olympus. was Sears’ and she was the goddess destined to reign and Sears never let her reign. So when it was designed in the name Hera is going to be the goddess that was destined to reign. So she’s going to reign. And also when I start thinking about the values of the company, I talk to my employees and I said like Hera represent how we’re going to work.

  And I created the Haraway. The Haraway when, I don’t know if you like Star Wars, I really like Star Wars. So it’s like the Mandalorian, you know, like this is the We work as the Haraway and Hara ⁓ as its initials, know, like the H from Hara represent home. So we’re going to work as we, you know, like we’re in our home and we’re going to transmit people that if you are Hara, you’re going to feel like home. The E, the E.

  represent excellence. So we’re going to work as we are in a home, but we’re going to work with excellence. The most important part is the R, which is a respect. There’s no respect. There’s nothing. So respect, home and excellence. And at the end, the most important thing. And I think that’s what it’s lacking in this industry, accountability. That’s the hair away. If you work with those four values, there’s no way that you’re going to do things wrong.

  And this is a way that I’ve been trying to transmit my daughters, my employees, my clients, you know, like, and I have clients that tells me that they’re, being talking with their kids, telling like, that’s not the hair way. So we need to work with the hair way. So I love it. You know, like I’m trying to create like a culture around the company and I’m very excited. You know, like as, as you heard, we’re not talking about profit. We’re not talking about money. We’re not talking. It’s about the impact that we’re living in the community.

  Quentin Edmonds (14:27)
  Yeah, man. I love the hair away, man. Homes, excellence, respect and accountability. Bro, I love it. Ashley, listen, I’ve been here at the Adopt-A-Hair-A-Way around here. Hey, listen, in this home, it’s excellence, respect and accountability. So I love it, I love it, man. I love it. So listen, I got to ask you, man, what is the next real goal for hair? What are you looking to solve a scale next, man?

  Hector Castro (14:53)
  Yeah, well, actually I’m trying to achieve what I couldn’t achieve in my previous company. So being the $1 billion company origination in a year, we wanna reach that in the upcoming years. ⁓ We also wanna have presence in other states. We were super concentrated in Florida. I’m actually talking to you from our Houston office.

  And I’m going to Charlotte next week. So the strategy for 2026, it’s open ⁓ offices in the Sunbelt of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas and Houston, obviously, because it’s one of the gross states in the country right now. So yeah, that’s what we want to achieve. We want to be a reference, be a one billion dollar company in the Bolin-Namburi Nation.

  Quentin Edmonds (16:26)
  Absolutely. Well, it’s no doubt in my mind you’re on your way with the Hara way for sure. I mean, that is the foundation. And I always say that any sustainable business, the foundation is servitude. And I think the Hara way is all about servitude. It’s all about doing things of excellence, accountability, with respect. So there’s no doubt you’re absolutely on your way. I think you’ve proven before that you can do it. So now it’s just knowing it with Hara. So there’s no doubt in my mind.

  Hector Castro (16:54)
  That’s the best part. The best part is ⁓ this is a proven concept. We just need to fix some things and keep going. ⁓

  Quentin Edmonds (17:05)
  I love it, man. I love it. So let me ask you this, You’ve already got the hair of a way. You are investing in people. So I want to put a bow on this concept, relationships. I want you to talk to me a little bit about relationships. Is it important to you? How do you go about building it? Like, give me your thoughts on relationship within this business.

  Hector Castro (17:23)
  Yeah, I think that’s the most important thing on Hera. We always says that we’re not a transactional company. We are a relational one. We’re very hands on in our clients. We know pretty much all our clients. We know their families. ⁓ We know what they’re doing, what they’re trying to achieve. It’s not only approving alone and that’s it. You know, like we would truly care about our customers. I always says the best part of working with Hera, it’s not closing the deal, is the post closing when we truly care about our clients.

  the draw management part, the servicing part. ⁓ I actually launched our new, because we have a proprietary software, we launched the new version of that software. And what we changed on this new version is we’re making the borrower part of the team. Every time someone applies for a loan, they’re part of a team. like you have your originator, you have your processor, but you also have responsibility. So we’re trying to make the borrower accountable.

  So we’re not, it’s not a fight against Barware lender. It’s, man, we want to lend you money. So let’s work together. And after he closed the loan, the originator and the processor thanks the Barware for letting them be part of his team. And they introduced the new team. So like, hey, we’re not gonna be on your team anymore, but now service in Andro, they’re gonna work with you. So we’re trying to create that sense of community that the belonging sense, you like,

  is I’m in a place that I feel safe, that I want to stay here. I launched recently something that I really like on that relational part. I launched the fastest quoting tool in the industry. We call it CheckHeraFirst. In CheckHeraFirst.com, you can check in less than 60 seconds what we can do for you. Clear terms, clear, you know, the most transparent way. When I did some research on all our competitors,

  Yeah, you can quote with them online, but all of them at the end, they don’t tell you what they can do for you if you don’t submit your information. Give me your email. Give me your number. Give me your… So people drop the ball most of the time because I don’t want to give you my information if you don’t tell me what you can do for me. So we change it completely. So you can go to checkheraferz.com. You can see what we can do. And if you like it, you’re going to leave your information. That’s it. So we’re basically changing the rules and…

  in the most transparent way. And that’s it. know, like we want to be a reference. I also I’m creating tools, even if you don’t work with Hera. I think that’s the most ethical way. to check Hera first. And then you decided with who you’re going to go. That’s it. But I’m trying to do that inception, you know, like the Hera way, the check Hera first. Like Hera needs to be on, you know, like on top of anyone else.

  Quentin Edmonds (20:14)
  Yep, and hair need to be at the top of your mind. Like I get it, man. I get it. I see it, man. I see it. Check our first stack on. I mean, again, man, you are putting systems in place. That’s going to get you to that one billion. I see it is as clear as a day is just building up to it, man. So I see it. I’m excited for it, man. I know it’s going to happen, brother. So listen, let me, let me ask you this. You didn’t give it, you gave it a website, but I want you to give more if you want to, if someone wanted to get in contact with you.

  collaborate with you, check about more what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you,

  Hector Castro (20:48)
  Yeah, there are many ways. So you can go to heralending.com. You can go to our social media. I’m trying to be very active on social media. So on Instagram, heralending, on TikTok, on YouTube, I’m actually doing a podcast, ⁓ a podcast. I’m trying to interview people from the industry. ⁓ I also have on Amazon, the book, so Beyond Mortgages.

  written by Hector Castro and Marco Medeiros, the finance professor at University of Virginia. And I also want to tell you, Quentin, it’s not about lending. also, we have ⁓ an enterprise value because we have the HERA education platform. When we did the first certificate for private lending brokers in the industry and we’re launching more courses this year, we’re gonna launch the draw management, the servicing management and trying to teach

  even my competitors, how to do things. So I would like to all my competitors to request from their employees, go to do the courses on HERA education, and then come to work with me. Because we want to educate the people who are working in this industry. And also, I think the most, most, important thing, we have a nonprofit, which we call HERA Cares.

  from every loan that we do, we support three ⁓ foundations. One in the United States that helps people that live ⁓ in homeless situation or houseless situations. We help a foundation in Venezuela because I’m originally from Venezuela. And we help another nonprofit organization from Argentina. we’re forcing our clients on every loan to donate. So.

  And the difference when we design it, it’s when you go to the supermarket and they tell you, hey, it’s $200,000. You want to donate $1 more? We did the opposite. So from the $200 that you just spent, we are going to donate $5 to these organizations. So yeah, we’re trying to be very, you know, like aware on the people that they’re not that lucky than us. So.

  I think we built something that is really, really, really strong.

  Quentin Edmonds (23:15)
  Man, you are just not talking the hair away. You’re walking the hair away. So man, man, I thank you. This was an absolute pleasure, man. Three things I want to take to you, man. First, thank you for your time because of course time is our most precious commodity. So thank you for your time. Thank you for your story, man. Thank you for showing up being authentic. Thank you for showing up being transparent. I really appreciate that. And lastly, man, thank you for your mindset.

  Thank you for bringing that perspective and that mindset to this platform. I truly appreciate you, Hector. This is wonderful,

  Hector Castro (23:50)
  No, thank you, Quentin. Thank you for the opportunity. This is not our last. So it’s only our first.

  Quentin Edmonds (23:53)
  Absolutely.

  Alright, y’all heard him, right? Y’all heard him. This is just the first, y’all heard him. Listen, thank you so much again. I want y’all to definitely check out Hector, look in our show notes, check him out, get the book, check out his website, connect with him, learn how to do things to her our way, get connected with her, cares. I mean, check this gentleman out. And I love Hector, I really do. But definitely make sure you’re subscribed here. Check him out, but make sure you’re subscribed here.

  because I want you to come back because we’re going to continue to connect with amazing people just like Hector. So sir, I got to say thank you again, And to everyone else, y’all have a fantastic day.

  Hector Castro (24:38)
  Thank you.