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The following article appeared in the October 2008 issue of the NoteWorthy Newsletter.  Call (800) 487-1864 to request a sample issue, and be eligible for the introductory subscriber price of $58/year.

“You can shear a sheep every year but you can only skin it once”
M. S. Garrison, Utah real estate investor

“He who has the gold makes the rules”
Unknown

Part One of a Two Part Series-Overview of Private Investors.

I’m Tobias (Toby) Preston, President of McKinley Mortgage (MMC) and the Alaska Financial Company (AFC). Private investors have purchased over $32,000,000 of our company’s private notes (another ~$28MM have been sold to “institutional investors”. I’ll tell you my recipe shortly.

First a bit about the note business and my dealings in it: Read the rest of this entry »

The last days of July saw title company closings in Texas, Arizona and California. United Title of Texas and Arizona Title Agency both closed their offices unexpectedly and laid off all of their employees. These companies are owned by Mercury Companies, who closed title operations in Arizona, Texas and California. In addition, I attempted to order a title commitment in Texas. Read the rest of this entry »

Clint Hinman is the Editor of the NoteWorthy Newsletter (click here to subscribe or call 800-487-1864).  You can read his blog here.

The last of the securitizers has left the building. Some went out in a blaze of gory (misspelled intentionally), and others quietly slipped out the back. The industry has come full circle to a place where purchase yields matter again, and due diligence is no longer perceived (at least by the investor) as a nuisance designed to thwart purchase volume.

From the first seller-financed securitization in 1996 to the last in 2007, the industry had a ‘golden age’ of 11+ years that made many brokers (and investors) wealthy. Pricing was at levels never seen before. Underwriting standards got more and more inconsequential as Wall Street money got more and more plentiful. A relatively small and previously unnoticed niche market consisting of privately held real estate notes was enjoying equal billing with the big boys of conventional lending. Read the rest of this entry »

Lyle Wall, the “IRA Guy” and owner of http://www.theiraman.com, received the 2008 Industry Achievement Award at this past October’s NoteWorthy Subscriber’s Convention in Las Vegas.  In this article he answers some questions about investing.

Questioner: What are your goals and what is in your investment pipeline for this year? Read the rest of this entry »

Here it is Monday afternoon and I’m struggling to keep it together for at least a few more hours.  The 22nd annual NoteWorthy Convention was held in Las Vegas this past weekend, and although I thought it went remarkably well, I always come home completely exhausted.  Of course, a combined 11 hours of sleep over three nights didn’t help my current condition.

I love Las Vegas, and I love the NoteWorthy Convention.  I met so many great new people to the industry, and was able to reconnect with the old guard who have been, in many cases, around since the first convention.  The speaker sessions were informative, the debate was lively, and the majority of attendees seemed to be more focused on the business and networking opportunities (vs. the distractions of Las Vegas), than in years past. Read the rest of this entry »