All Forum Posts by: Jim Hartmann

Thank you @Steve Hodgdon

That is a good reminder of doing our full due diligence.  I heard it said long ago "Trust, but verify".  As you mentioned though, we are usually wanting to be more trusting of others and their intentions than we should be.  

For us, we will look at note, property and buyer in as much detail as we can find.  Looking at county taxes is usually easier to find than other liens, but will check for other info on the property that we can find.  On the buyer, if we are keeping the note or selling to an investor we get the pay history or an affidavit stating payments were made if the pay history is in question.  We also have the right to check credit if needed, but we have found that if pay history is good, they are likely to keep on paying.  If we are not comfortable with what we are seeing in the pay history (late or no payments), we will usually just walk away.  If taxes are not paid or if we find other negatives on the property, we walk.  If we are selling the note to an institution, they usually pull a credit report and let us know what they find.  

There are no guarantees, but I appreciate the reminder to not skip steps and to learn to trust our gut intuition.

Jim

@Jay Hinrichs 

We have been marketing to seller financed notes (residential and commercial) over the last couple years and have had some success with this method.  We send out 200-300 letters per week and get a couple calls per month of people who are trying to figure out if we can help them or not.   

As with all notes, we do buy at a discount to give us or our investors a return on investment to tie up funds for the length of the loan.  Our goal is to make it a win-win for both sides, so we are not trying to find only the desperate sellers but we have had a couple that were "needing" to sell rather than "wanting" to sell.  A good majority of them however are just looking to cash out to move on to other investments.  

Hi Sean,  I have not come across any companies that buy it without the land.  Without the land, it is fairly unsecured as someone could move the mobile home.  It would be similar to a car loan or similar unsecured loan.  I imagine there are companies that would purchase something like this, but you may need to take a larger discount on it.  You might be able to find an individual interested in purchasing the note and take less of a discount.

@Scott Nichols, I would also check out the Paper Source Symposium for some online content and if you are interested in their event next year, you could do that also.  I have heard really good things about the event: https://papersourceseminars.com.  I have been involved with teaching through Donna Bauer "The Original NoteBuyer".  I have been to her academy in Cincinnati a couple times and have joined her mastermind group.  The resources above or one of these are also helpful.  I have found benefit to the mastermind group as it is a small group and direct access to someone with 30 years of experience, but that is not for everyone and there are lots of ways to invest and get experience as well.

This is the inaugural meeting of the Columbus, IN group of real estate investors discussing cash flowing real estate (i.e. buy and hold investing).  Our main focus will be on multi-family investing, but may also discuss self-storage, mobile home parks or other asset classes which would provide a stream of income over time.  The group is open to beginners and experienced real estate investors or those who just want to figure out if investing for cash flow might be something they are interested in.  

This will be an informal meeting and you are welcome to order items from the Resturant and ice cream/soda bar to eat during the event.  Items purchased are not included in the meeting and will need to be paid for by each individual.  Please tip the wait staff as they are not paid out of the room rental fee.  

We look forward to seeing everyone who can come.  If you get a chance, sign up on the Meetup.com site to let us know you are coming.

Hi @Andrew Nordbye - Just found this thread.  I also purchase notes as well as sell them to investors.  If you still need some sources for quotes and a place to sell, send me a message and I would be glad to help as I am able.

@George Frye That sounds great also.  I have not tried that route yet.

@George Frye I started marketing to residential note holders about 18 months ago or so.  I started marketing to commercial note holders about 5 months ago.  I started off buying a list for several midwest states and have recently started on a list focused on a couple states out west to see if I see any differences in responses.  The midwest list I had was not so successful.  Already received a few calls from the list that I recently purchased however and so I am hoping to get more responses as I send out more letters.  

How about you?  Have you started reaching out to commercial note holders?

Hello @George Frye, we have started to actively market to commercial note sellers and have just started receiving calls, but have not purchased anything yet in that space.

Donna Bauer has been investing in and teaching notes for many years and likely has some of the most across-the-board experience in note investing.  Her web site is www.thenotebuyer.com.