Posted by John Behle on October 20, 1998 at 24:56:25:
You’d have better success at a shopping mall than at the recorder’s office or buying lists. Those are techniques that sound good, but very, very few have ever had any great success with it. Most have wasted their time. That is one of the techniques that sounds good, but doesn’t translate from the “podium to the pavement”.
Real estate agents, classified ads, exchange groups, attornies and title companies are your best sources of paper. Learning how to deal with any one of those sources is far more than we can go into here. The most important thing you can learn about paper is how to find it and if the recorder’s office is what some course or instructor suggested, then you need to get back to the basics and learn how to really find paper.
I work with real estate agents, through ads, flyers, brochures, sales meeting presentations, teaching continuing education courses, fax broadcasts, email, networking at educational events and word of mouth.
I work with title companies through the continuing education that many of them provide to agents or using the facilities they will make available to hold classes. I have them distribute flyers and cards to sellers taking back seller financing and encourage referals from the company.
Attornies can provide specialized forms of transactions, in particular foreclosure and bankruptcy attornies. Those referals end up in “bad note” opportunities where we end up with the property or restructure the note. Other attornies create notes to cover their fees and then discount them for cash.
There are over a hundred sources of notes, from vacuum cleaner paper to airplane paper, to funeral homes. It is vital to learn as many sources as possible, look for a niche or two and then learn the approach. Most people shy away from Realtors or have little success because they do not understand the agents, their needs and mindset. They are an incredible source - and not very well worked because most paper investors do not know how. Exchangors are the best source of notes among agents.