Hey Reader! If a mortgage note deal landed in your inbox tomorrow, would you know what to do with it? That is what we are working on inside the 3 Day Note Investor Challenge. A few people received the early VIP offer. Now registration is officially open to everyone. From August 5- 7th, you will: Day 1: Build your note investing strategy and buy boxDay 2: Analyze a real mortgage note dealDay 3: Decide whether to buy, pass, or ask for more information, then build your 90-day action plan The...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, Last week, the City of St. Louis filed a lawsuit against a real estate investor over a strategy called the “slow flip.” The idea sounds simple. Buy inexpensive homes. Sell them to buyers using a contract for deed (Check out an article I wrote about this). Let the buyer make monthly payments toward ownership. In theory, this can create a path to homeownership for people who may not qualify for a traditional mortgage. But according to the lawsuit, there was a major problem. The City...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, When I look at a seller financed note, there is one question that matters more to me than almost any other. How was the borrower qualified for this loan? The reason I focus on it is because every other number on a listing is a snapshot. The property value. The interest rate. The LTV. The payment history. All useful. None of them tells me whether the borrower could actually afford the loan when they took it out. The qualification process does. A note where the borrower put $500...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader, Every 18 months, real estate has a new "hot" strategy. Short-term Rentals Wholesaling BRRRR RV Parks Sober living homes Each one got hyped, pulled in a wave of investors, then cooled the moment the conditions that made it special shifted. Mortgage notes have never been on that list. Not because they're boring (they are), but because they don't depend on the conditions that make trends work. A short-term rental needs tourism, friendly ordinances, low rates, and the right platform...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, If you're someone who's heard how the wealthy borrow against their assets instead of selling them, you already understand the idea behind this. The rich rarely sell what's working. They borrow against it. Buy an asset, borrow against it, keep it growing, that's the playbook some people call "buy, borrow, die." The asset stays theirs while the borrowed money goes to work somewhere else. You can do the same thing with a note. It has an intimidating name: Hypothecation It's simpler...
2 months ago • 1 min read
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 Note investing is more passive than being a landlord, but it is not truly passive. So here is the process for me these days. It usually starts with a loan...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader, I hear this almost every week. "Sierra, I would love to invest in notes, but I just don't have the money." I used to believe that was the real problem. I do not anymore. The longer I do this, the more I see that money is rarely the actual constraint. People with no money close deals all the time. People with a lot of money sit on the sidelines for years. The difference is not the account balance. It is who they know. There is a concept called Who, not How. Most people, when they...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, You may have seen the Brandon Turner news last week. He is a big name in real estate. His team bought an apartment building in Texas a few years ago for $72 million. The deal worked. Rents went up 33%. The building stayed full. By every measure, the operator did what he said he would do. Then the market shifted, and they had to sell for $62 million. Here is what happened to everyone's money: Same building. Same operator. Same deal. Three completely different outcomes. The...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, 14 months.... That's how long Marcus had been "researching notes" before he picked up the phone and called me a few weeks ago. He could explain yield. Seasoning. LTV. Performing versus non-performing. Better than most people who actually own notes. He had bought zero. When I asked why, he said the thing I've heard a hundred times. "I just want to make sure I understand everything first." I've been there. So this week, I'm breaking down the term that scares most investors away, and...
3 months ago • 3 min read