All Forum Posts by: Patrick Desjardins

 Thanks for the tag. I think that you're most likely right, and as Wayne mentioned they're probably old notes that have been foreclosed on. I'm not sure where this tape is from but that kind of stuff is pretty common on LinkedIn where people just recycle tapes and claim they're "direct to seller".

Since you're familiar with GIS and probably the counties' register of deeds, I would pick 2-3 of these notes and look at what's been recorded, how title was transferred, and from which entity/person to which entity/person. You can gather a LOT of information online through public information and sometimes reconstruct the history of the note, which is how you sometimes find hidden potential.

I've used Richmond Monroe. They do more than just store your files. They also review your collateral pre-purchase and get your assignments registered with the county.

Of course you can do all of those yourself. The benefit is that each county has different standards, so the custodian can save you some time by doing it right the first time. 

Even if you read the requirements on the county's website, odds are you'll still make some mistakes. When I started out and was doing it myself, I had a county return my assignment twice - one because there was only one witness instead of two, the other because of not enough margin or something like that. Had another one returned because the witness signed but didn't list their name in block letters. Just minor inconveniences but that each add a week to your timeline.

I would say one of the only things I fault them with is you still can't pay them online or through credit card. We're in 2017 and still have to send checks every other month which is annoying.

BS advice above. Why is he not going to have access to "high quality notes or good pricing"?

We've mentioned 100 times on this forum to start your pricing at 12% irr on performing notes. That's been pretty standard knowledge with the buyers and sellers I've talked to, and I sold my last one at 12.5. Not sure why he would have worse pricing as a newbie.

Same thing with quality of the notes. Why would his reperformers be worse than anyone else's?

I know some people here are fishing for JV partners but misleading people isn't going to get you anywhere and you will be called out on it.

There is nothing wrong with starting out with a performing or reperforming note if it gives you confidence in notes and fits your strategy.

Just my opinion but if you're just starting out, and are looking for performing notes, I wouldn't bother with banks.

You will get quicker results with small note investors and hedge funds, some of which are on this forum. Recapitalizing is a challenge so people sell reperformers or, a new trend, partials.

 I'm not the great Wayne Snell, but this is a frequent question, and here's how I do it.

1) Make sure every field in the excel spreadsheet is sortable/filter-able.

2) If there is a price attached to the notes, filter out everything that is out of your price range. No point in looking at a 60k note if you have 25k. If there is no price attached to them, just look at the BPO/AVM value and remove notes that are significantly above your 25k budget.

3) Go into the state column and filter everything except the 3-4 states you picked when you made your note investing plan. This usually removes a huge chunk of the list and makes it more digestible.

4) In the property type column (if there's one) remove the things you don't like. Me personally, I don't buy notes on manufactured housing. You can filter out condos, townhouses, duplexes, whatever doesn't fit your strategy.

5) There is sometimes a column saying whether the house is vacant, occupied, or has a tenant in it. Again, filter things out based on your strategy.

6) I personally filter out houses that are far away from main cities. Suburbs are okay but if it's like an hour away from a major urban center, everything gets tougher (due diligence, finding qualified people on the ground, houses sell slow etc)

Just doing the 5 things above can often bring your list down from an overwhelming 100+ notes to maybe 5-20. It's much easier analyzing 5 notes than 100.

 There are 2 main things I recommend:

1) As Kim mentioned, network at those conferences but make sure you don't waste too much time with the eager newbies. Look for more experienced investors, people who've already bought at least 5-10 notes and have showed initiative. I've attended many of these conferences and 90% of attendees will never buy a note and, no offense intended, are a "waste" of time. Great people, and you might be able to raise money from them in the future but in the short term they can't teach you anything. So find the more experienced people, pick their brain and see who is genuine and who you'd like to potentially partner with.

2) There is a LOT of information on this forum and many of the frequent posters do so to gain visibility and attract JV partners - they just can't openly solicit. Simply wade through a few pages of this section of the forum and connect with the people that you feel are providing value, and then start developing a relationship with them. Again, you'll quickly see who you get a good vibe from and who you'd like to deal with and learn from.

Watch his videos first and see if you like his style and strategy. I love his presentations, tho I have no idea about the course itself. I had no interest in rentals until he explained how/why notes and rentals complement each other perfectly.

You can't. You can usually find some information through the automated system IF you have the SSN, which I'm assuming you don't. 

Pm me your contact info, I'll send you some to look at. Please specify if you're looking for 1sts, 2nds, or both.

 Fair Debt Collection Practices Act: it mostly covers communications with the borrowers and includes a lot of common sense stuff like don't call people at 11pm at night, don't try to intimidate them, don't try to blackmail them with their neighbors etc ("I'll call your neighbors and your colleagues at work and tell them how worthless you are and how you're losing your house").

But it also covers a lot of small, silly notices and details that are easy to forget. You always have to give them the mini miranda (google it), put a notice that if they're in bankruptcy you're not trying to collect a debt and it's for information purpose, etc. This is compounded by the fact that if you send any written communication, the borrower can give it to his attorney to look for flaws and use it as a negotiation tool.

Debt buyers being exempt from those shenanigans would be extremely welcome as we could focus on actually helping the borrower.

CFPB is the consumer financial protection bureau. It impacts servicers more than it impacts us, but it still has a big impact for example all of the regulations involved with seller financing to individuals.