All Forum Posts by: Scott Carson

@Shiloh Lundahl what you are asking is skewed...but I'll give you my answer.  I live in Austin, TX which is one of the hottest real estate markets in the fastest foreclosure state in the nation.  I don't see first's or seconds period!  And I don't see much in Texas either so I had to invest outside of my home state.  I started with 2-3 states and have grown that as I've built teams in markets.  Personally, there aren't a lot of seconds out their currently to cherry pick from, but @Dave Van Horn is moving a couple this week (and one in Texas as well).  Obviously, anything in your area is going to be preferred but if you live in the AZ or CA, the notes you will see in your backyard are going to be expensive and rare to come across.  

Here is what I would suggest for bidding on non-performing 1st liens. Anything over $50K in value, you have to expect to be bidding at 55% of FMV (Fair Market Value). Anything in the $40's, 45% of FMV. Assets valued in the $30's, 35% of FMV. Anything below $30K I would not bid more than 25% of FMV. FMV is AS-IS Value! Not AFTER REPAIRED VALUE! Now some of the things that will affect your bid. If it is in a fast foreclosure state like NC, GA, TX, AZ, NV, & MO you would probably need to add 5% or more to your bid. If it is in a longer foreclosure market like FL, SC, NY, NJ or other states, you would reduce it by 5%. This only holds true unless the foreclosure process has begun and you are close to a final judgment/auction date. And in that case, you would need to probably bid closer to 60% because all of the legal work is done. If it is in a rural area, reduce your offering by 5-10% (or don't do the deal!). If it's in a hot market, expect to pay more for it. If you are buying or cherry picking from the usual suspects who send out their lists on a regular basis, expect to pay 5-10% above this pricing unless you are taking some of lower "junk" to offset you taking the cream of the crop. If there are over $1000 in taxes owed, reduce your stairstep bid by that amount.

Make sure to ask the seller what their model is.  If they want performing/reperforming notes, then they may only sell the vacant, non-performing notes that they've already started legal on and you may be paying more as they've already done some of the outreach.  If they bought the note as a performer or BK CH 13 note, then they may not be able to sell it at the stairstep price because they overpaid for it.  There are a lot of factors in this fuzzy math.

Just shoot me a PM for more info....

@Bob Malecki what has happened to you is a disturbing trend that Chaz and Granite are doing.  Chaz approached me at the beginning of the year to help market their assets.  We agreed to do this under one major caveat...that we were the only firm marketing the lists.  We didn't want to do all the work of marketing just to have people buy the assets through a different broker and us not get credit or paid for our time and energy.  Well, that worked for two initial trades.  Unfortunately, our investors and a chunk of our mastermind students who bid on assets and had verbal agreements that they were the approved buyers on a Friday afternoon found out on Monday that Chaz/Granite sold the asset to someone over the weekend.  

I can understand that happening once or twice, but that quickly became the norm for Granite trades.  And then the big kicker was that Chaz could not keep his word and was marketing the tapes to other brokers even after I stressed that we would not waste our time doing all the work that we do to market if he sent it out to his list or other brokers.  Well, wouldn't you know, I get two phone calls from buddies who stated that Chaz either sent them the list two days or a week before he sent it to me...basically exposing Chaz as untrustful.   Hey, if you are going to market it, go ahead and do it, just don't waste my or my staff's time.  And sure as hell don't waste people's time and money telling them that they have an accepted offering and they start paying for BPO's, O&E's, etc only to pull the rug out from underneath of them and lie to them.  That's why we've blacklisted Granite as a source and stopped doing business with them.  It's not worth our time.  Thanks for initially posting.  

So a very simple system could be your wife using Voice to Text where she sends you the message...easy done from any smart phone.  You might want to look into Rev.com which charges $1 per minute to transcribe your words into voice.  I've used rev.com on my phone to record speaker sessions and then transfers it to text.  Easy to use and well worth it.  

One of the things that we have implemented in our Due Diligence in Ohio and Michigan is to call the utility departments (gas, water, power, etc) to find out if they are paid up to date or even on, have a balance,, are on payment plan or are about to be turned off.  We've gotten a ton of info that has helped avoid ugly assets.  

It depends.  Sometimes the seller will pay a fee if you are helping them market the deals.  Otherwise, the buyer ends up paying a flat fee, % of funding amount, or whatever you can negotiate.

@Cecilio Gandara the best way is to network and make sure you are direct to sources.  Often times there are a lot of recycled lists floating around.  Also, take a few minutes to do some due diligence on the lists to understand what you are actually marketing vs just throwing stuff against the wall to see if someone bites.

Yes, it's okay to flip or wholesale notes.  But you have to be careful as a lot of people are just throwing crap against the wall trying to find anyone to buy their note (not a deal) without doing any due diligence on the deals.  The note business is a smaller niche and you don't want to run yourself out of the business by becoming a joker broker...

It all depends on your time available, how much private capital you have, and your experience...