NPN: Contact the homeowner before or after buying the note?

[Gary Dezoysa]

Hi all, let's say you find a bank willing to sell to an individual investor and review their spreadsheet for potential deals. I'm a little uncertain of the timing on when to contact the homeowner to see what options are possible for fixing their situation and exiting at a nice return. Ideally I can contact them before buying their mortgage. "Hi, my name is Gary with XYZ LLC and I might be taking over your home loan. Do you have a moment to talk about that? {Then ask a few questions to figure out a good option for them}

Or do investors normally have to buy the note first before being legally allowed to contact the home owner?

If the later, seems like it makes notes much more of a gamble, since you don't really know what exit options are on or off the table.