Your First Note, The Good The Bad The Ugly?

[Reggie Smith]

Curious to know other's experience on first note purchase/or seller financed created note.  What went right?  What went wrong?  Is there anything you would do differently?   After going thru the experience of creating or purchasing your first note  what's one piece of advice you would give yourself  if just starting out?  

[Pat L.]

Never bought or sold a note but...

Years ago while busting my knuckles, never taking a vacation, driving a POS truck, chasing rents & racking up CC debt I met a wealthy older woman who had only dabbled in RE. She told me her strategy was to buy, rehab, then seller finance. Her husband helped me get into several properties that I was able to buy seller hold, then flip them several years later & then hold the notes.

That has been our strategy on the majority of our properties. We would buy duplexes/3-plexe at tax lien auctions, then flip them for 2-3 times our buy-in knowing that the rents would more than cover our 12-13%. In fact we have one who has been paying us on 6 properties (plus 3 his Kids bought from us) for 15 years & he just bought another from us. Our 3 kids also own notes on several themselves.

Admittedly we have had one foreclosure & took several back deed-in-lieu-of, but we simply 'rinsed & repeated'. It's been an amazing run...