Hey Reader,

If you're someone who likes knowing how the work actually gets done before you trust it, this one's for you.

People assume AI in investing means a bot picking trades. That's not how I use it. I use it for the data analysis & underwriting, the work that takes up most of my time.

Because here's the truth, I want everyone to know

So here is the process for me these days.

It usually starts with a loan tape.

A broker or seller sends a spreadsheet with 10-100 notes on it: UPB, interest rate, monthly, property value, payment history, state, and term left.

So instead of doing my underwriting directly in the spreadsheet, I use AI in my workflow.

After I've excluded personal information, I run the tape against my buy box, the criteria every note has to clear before I'll even look closely:

• Performing 1st liens
• Conservative loan-to-value with real equity underneath
• States where I can actually resolve a default in a reasonable timeframe
• Payment seasoning to trust the history.

AI scores the whole list against those rules in one pass, kills the obvious no's, and tells me why each one failed so I can sanity-check the logic.

Then, on the few that survive, I go deeper, one note at a time.

I'll have it digest the payment history, flag inconsistencies in the numbers, and draft the questions I take back to the seller or my attorney.

AI doesn't replace my judgment or any professionals.

It just gets me to the decision faster, with my attention on what actually matters.

If you want to put this to work yourself, here's where I'd recommend starting:

1. Start with what's draining you. Pick the one task you keep doing by hand that eats your time. This could be repetitive reading, sorting, and the first-pass filtering.
2. Write your criteria down. AI can't filter against rules you haven't defined. Get your non-negotiables on paper, the things a deal must have and the things that are instant no's.
3. Get your tools in one place. I stopped paying for a pile of separate AI subscriptions and switched to one workspace to save on cost.
4. Keep yourself as the final call. AI sorts and flags. It doesn't decide. It can be confidently wrong, and in this business, that's dangerous. Treat it like a sharp junior analyst: fast, useful, always double-checked.

So when people ask if note investing is really passive, my honest answer is yes, compared to most real estate, but passive doesn't mean automatic.

The systems do most of the lifting.

Your attention does the rest.

Sierra

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Educational content only. Personal investment examples are shared for illustration and do not constitute investment, tax, legal, or financial advice, or an offer to sell securities. This email may contain affiliate links.