I’m still active, but the profile of what works has changed.
I don’t think performing notes are dying, but they’re no longer a casual, low-touch yield play for small investors the way they were 3–5 years ago.
What I’m seeing in 2025–2026:
• Servicing and compliance costs matter now. They eat disproportionately into smaller balances, which quietly pushes out <$100k note buyers.
• Paper quality hasn’t disappeared, but pricing discipline has. A lot of sellers are anchored to 2021 pricing while risk is higher. That creates fewer clearing trades, not fewer opportunities.
• Institutions aren’t killing the space, but they are compressing the middle. They want scale and clean pools, which leaves one-offs and edge cases for experienced operators only.
• Notes now compete with ops-heavy real estate that throws off real cash flow. If you’re already built for ops, it’s hard to justify thinner, capped yields.
For smaller investors, I think performing notes are still viable only if:
• You have scale or shared servicing
• You’re buying at real discounts, not spreadsheet yields
• You understand exit risk, not just coupon rate
Net-net: not a dying niche, but no longer beginner-friendly or passive in practice. It’s a precision tool now, not a broad strategy.”