Private Lending Events in 2023
March 8-10, 2023
California Mortgage Association Spring Conference
Hyatt Regency, Newport Beach, CA
March 26-28, 2023
57th Pitbull Conference & NPLA Golf Tournament
Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne, Miami, FL
April 17-18, 2023
Innovate by Geraci Conferences
Balboa Bay Resort, Newport Beach, CA
June 15, 2023
Private Lender Expo
Hilton Garden Inn, Staten Island, NY
June 19-21, 2023
National Private Lenders Conference
Hard Rock Hotel, Atlantic City, NJ
June 22-23, 2023
National Lending Experts
InterContinental Hotel, San Diego, CA
August 24-25, 2023
Captivate by Geraci Conferences
Encore, Las Vegas, NV
September 27-29, 2023
California Mortgage Association Fall Conference
Mission Bay Resort, San Diego, CA
October 4-5, 2023
National Lending Experts
Hilton West Palm, West Palm Beach, FL
October 15-17, 2023
National Private Lenders Conference
Fairmont Hotel, Austin, TX
November 12-13, 2023
American Association of Private Lenders 14th Annual Conference
Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, NV
Click the links to visit the website for each event. When you register or contact the event organizers, please tell them you learned about their event on PrivateLenderLink.com.
2022 Private Lending Events
February 7-8, 2022
National Lending Experts
Hilton Scottsdale Resort & Villas, Scottsdale, AZ
March 26-28, 2022
54th Pitbull Conference
Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne, Miami, FL
March 30 – April 1, 2022
California Mortgage Association Spring Seminar
Hyatt Regency, Newport Beach, CA
April 11-12, 2022
Innovate by Geraci Conferences
Balboa Bay Resort, Newport Beach, CA
June 16, 2022
Private Lender Expo
Hilton Hasbrouck Heights, Hasbrouck, NJ
June 21-22, 2022
Leverage Dallas by National Lending Experts
Marriott Downtown Dallas, TX
July 27-29, 2022
California Mortgage Association Summer Seminar
Mission Bay Resort, San Diego, CA
July 30 – August 1, 2022
55th Pitbull Conference
Lowes, Miami Beach, FL
August 21-23, 2022
Captivate by Geraci Conferences
Encore at Wynn, Las Vegas, NV
October 19-21, 2022
American Association of Private Lenders 13th Annual Conference
Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, NV
October 26-28, 2022
California Mortgage Association Fall Seminar
Aria Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, NV
November 6-8, 2022
56th Pitbull Conference
Venetian Resort, Las Vegas, NV
November 16-17, 2022
Leverage Tampa by National Lending Experts
Westshore Grand Hotel, Tampa, FL
December 8, 2022
Private Lender Expo
Caesars Palace, Atlantic City, NJ
Private Lending Event Organizers
There are 6 companies that organize and host private lending conferences:
- National Private Lenders Conference
- American Association of Private Lenders
- Geraci Conferences
- California Mortgage Association
- Private Lender Expo
- National Lending Experts
National Private Lenders Conference
This event has been running for over 20 years and has the largest audience in our industry. The National Private Lenders Conferences are extremely professional, and they attract most of the biggest players in our industry. They take place in exclusive luxury resorts 3 times a year. Miami has been the venue for their Spring conference from 2018 to 2023. The Fall conference took place in Austin in 2020 and 2021. We have attended most of their events since 2018 and don’t plan to miss any of them moving forward.
The conference was founded by Leonard Rosen and was formerly named the Pitbull Conference. The company was acquired by Jonathan Hornik / Private Lender Law in November 2022 and renamed to the National Private Lenders Association Conference in March 2023.
In 2019, Rosen founded the National Private Lenders Association (NPLA) which was also included in the acquisition. The association is now fully integrated with the conference, but not all conference attendees are members of the organization. The NPLA typically hosts a golf or poker tournament, dinner, and other events the day before the conference, but only for members. So the conference is typically on a Monday or Tuesday, and there’s always a big cocktail party the night before. If you attend the NPLA member-only events, it would end up being a total of 3 days.
American Association of Private Lenders
Next up is the American Association of Private Lenders, also known as “AAPL” and some people call it “apple.” This organization was established in 2010 and has always hosted just one annual conference in the Fall, always at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. This is one of our favorite conferences. It was the very first private lending conference ever attended by our founder, back in 2013, and he has not missed any since then. AAPL’s conference date has always been close to Veterans Day in November, but in 2022 it was in late October. The AAPL conference is always a two and a half day event. Day 1 has education all day, which is optional, plus a welcome reception at night. Day 2 is a full day, and Day 3 typically ends around noon.
Geraci Conferences
The AAPL was founded by Anthony Geraci of Geraci LLP, a law firm in Southern California. Geraci maintains a minority ownership stake in the association, and his firm is still the general counsel for the association, but he created a media division and began hosting their own conferences around 2017. Being one of the largest law firms serving the private lending industry, Geraci LLP has a huge rolodex of clients who frequent their events. Their conferences draw some unique guests and speakers who don’t typically attend other industry events. They currently host 2 conferences per year which we feel are quite amazing. Innovate is a one-day event in the Spring in Southern California, and Captivate is a one and a half day conference which takes place in Las Vegas in either late August or early September. Both have epic cocktail parties the night before the conference. Geraci uses the Brella app which helps attendees match with the right people and schedule 15-minute meetings at a designated area in the exhibit hall. The entire Geraci staff, including the attorneys, is a fun group of people with a very positive vibe. We have attended most of the Geraci Conferences since early 2018.
California Mortgage Association
The next event organizer on the list is the only one out of the six that has a regional focus (the others are national events). The California Mortgage Association, commonly known as “CMA”, was established in 1999, and is focused on providing education and advocacy to private mortgage lenders. Since California has many mortgage and real estate regulations, their events are typically filled with educational sessions and therefore have been called “seminars” even though they offer a lot of networking as well. Pre-COVID, they hosted four conferences per year – two in Southern California, one in Northern California, and one in Las Vegas. In 2022, they are hosting 3 live conferences and may have some regional events in between. The schedule for these events have been fairly consistent – two full days on Thursday and Friday, plus a welcome reception on Wednesday night. We have attended most of the CMA seminars since 2017.
Private Lender Expo
The Private Lender Expo is the only industry event which we have not attended as of early 2022. A few people in the industry have shared with us some positive feedback about their last 2 conferences. These events are typically held in New York, New Jersey, or Miami. When they started a few years ago, their events only lasted a few hours. The last two have been one full day. In 2022, both of their conferences will take place in New Jersey – one in June, and another in December. We are planning to attend both of them and hope to be regular at their events in the future. One other thing to note is Private Lender Expo is the only private lending conference that does not currently charge a registration fee to attendees. The other conferences cost anywhere from $500 to $1,200 to attend.
National Lending Experts
The last event organizer on the list, National Lending Experts (NLE), is fairly new. They started out in 2021 with three conferences. All of them were one full day with a sponsored cocktail party the night before. The first was in Scottsdale in February 2021. In May, it was in Dallas, and September was San Diego. NLE went back to Scottsdale in February 2022 and had a golf tournament the day before the conference, hosted & organized by 2 sponsors. We attended the last three NLE’s, and all were solid events. NLE always gets some big name speakers for their panels, and we’ve heard positive feedback from other attendees about the sessions and content. They also attract people that we don’t see at other industry conferences. NLE uses the Brella app which helps attendees match with the right people and schedule 15-minute meetings at a designated area in the exhibit hall.
None of the event organizers have paid to be mentioned here, and they don’t give us a free ticket to attend or sponsor their events. We feel they offer an extremely valuable service which is vital to our business and everyone in the private lending industry, so we are glad to support them by spreading the word about their events. And selfishly, more people attending these events means more potential networking opportunities for us. Another thing to disclose is we are a member of all 3 trade associations mentioned here – NPLA, AAPL, and CMA.
There are lots of other conferences focused on additional sectors of the real estate industry which we have attended and keep on our radar every year, including ones for residential property investing, commercial real estate, alternative investments, note investing, and business finance. We’ll produce more videos and guides to cover all of these sectors in the near future. In the meantime, reach out to us if you’d like insights on any particular conference or trade association.