How to Be a Successful Note Broker

Achieving financial success is one of the most popular self-help subjects of all time.

If this tells us anything, it’s that creating and sustaining financial success is difficult for lots of people — so difficult that, in an odd twist of fate, they spend millions of dollars on resources that will supposedly help them earn millions.

Key takeaways

1. Set realistic goals as you embark on your plan to be a note broker. Don’t let stories of overnight success fool you into thinking this happens to everyone.
2. Starting out as a one-person business is often the best option, allowing you to run a low-cost operation until your revenue grows.
3. Timing is crucial. Buy and sell notes when market conditions favor your finances.

Self-help or self-hindrance?

Most people who turn to self-help guides for wealth building never make it to the top of the money pile. One of the main reasons why is that the book or video’s famous author never tells us the most important secret of all: To be as successful as me, you need to possess my intuition and insight for savvy business moves. It’s like Harrison Ford teaching an acting class, where students expect to become legendary thespians at the end of the course.

The same situation can befall beginning mortgage note brokers. Instead of taking a time-tested, common sense approach to building a lucrative note portfolio — and increasing their intuition and insight as they go — they put the cart before the horse and feel defeated after falling short of prematurely lofty goals.

Of course, you can always find stories of overnight successes, but they shouldn’t be held up as examples for every investor to follow. Rather, most mortgage note brokers experience more success and less discouragement by taking humble but proactive steps like the ones below.

1. Start out as a one-person firm

Unlike many entrepreneurs, mortgage note brokers don’t need a team to start a note buying business. They can start on their own, and hire brokers, administrative assistants, in-house legal counsel, etc., as revenue increases. Most mortgage note brokers start out solo for a reason: A one-person operation is usually the most cost-efficient kind of business you can run.

2. Promote yourself inexpensively

It would be great if you could start out with full-fledged offline and online marketing campaigns that advertise your services, but this isn’t a reality for most new mortgage note brokers. There are, however, some effective, inexpensive ways to promote yourself, such as passing out business cards at real estate broker conventions, distributing flyers among owners of seller-financed mortgage notes, and placing inexpensive ads in real estate magazines.

3. Use one note to finance another

You’ll consistently pay less for mortgage notes than the notes are worth after all the mortgage payments are made, so you can use profits from one note to purchase another. Doing it this way is better than using business loans; it prevents a loan provider from foreclosing on your assets if some of your notes are temporarily inactive, and make it hard to pay on the loan.

4. Consider timing of transactions

The ultimate value of buying, trading, or selling real estate notes depends largely on market conditions at the time of the transaction. In fact, when it comes to building wealth through note transactions, you might say that patience can be a virtue, but waiting too long can be a vice. Focus on acquiring or liquidating notes when the market strongly favors your financial interests, whether that time is this month or a year from now.

About Amerinote Xchange

Amerinote Xchange is a loan acquisition firm located in San Francisco, California. To inquire about the debt instruments we purchase and services we offer, please call us today at (800) 698-3650, or email us through our contact form. Our note buyers look forward to hearing from you!