I definitely agree with Skylar Howard & Christopher Lippincott.
In all the deals that I've worked on with my clients that ACTUALLY resulted in being legitimate and/or closed....the seller offered up what they ACTUALLY had for sale to us so we can review and make sure the assets matched our criteria. If all was well with that....we moved to price/term negotiations...offer letter...POF, etc.
EVERY other time I've pushed to get all these annoying docs drafted (BEFORE seeing what is for sale), it has NEVER worked out OR our docs were then shopped to find what the rep/seller said they had in the 1st place! (EVERY TIME)
And, I DON"T buy the "give us your NCND/LOI/POF/FPA and we have multiple banks willing & able to put a tape together in 48 hours to match EXACTLY what you are looking for". TOTAL...I have 18 "CUSTOM" orders out there (placed between 1-5 months ago) with reps that offered this awesome service, and NOT one has been able to produce ANYTHING YET...LOL)
Banks are getting bent over right now, but they WON'T let you come in and STEAL their non-performing assets based on a simple LOI. I found that there will ALWAYS be some kind of negotiation/bidding process and the banks are NOT ALWAYS dumping their REOs/Notes at rock bottom prices every day. For example, one of my sources is Morgan Stanley and they aren't shelling anything out right now due to the "Foreclosure Moratorium" status they are under right now.
When the bank scrubs their inventory and decides there is a portion they need to get rid of...they take that pool thru their normal sales marketing process to find potential Investors to purchase.
Kofi,
If you are dealing with someone that wants ALL kinds of BINDING paperwork before even telling you WHERE these assets are coming from...chances are they don't have control in the deal, they really don't have anything to show you, and/or they just too damn scared of getting cut out of their commission for referring you to someone else. Either way, you will be spinning some wheels for sure.
I'm sure all of us can go on ALL day about this one.
-Rafael