​Note Expo 2015 Report Card

[Patrick Desjardins]

I've been going to several of these note investing conferences and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. I figured I'd provide a brief summary for people searching for reviews next year, or those of you who were on the fence this year.

Organization: A+
Eddie Speed and his group sure can organize an event. Flawless audio and video, presentations on time and orderly, catered food so you don't scramble to find something to eat etc.

Vendors: B
Very good turnout for servicers and IRA custodians, but many key players missing (BPOs, property preservation, doc custodian etc). Not a lot of newbie friendly note sellers aside from the usual suspects.

Networking: B+
Met a lot of active note investors and not a bunch of dreamers. Makes for more rewarding conversations and good contacts to keep in touch with. Greatly enjoyed meeting some of the Bigger Pockets contingent such as @Joshua Andrews, @Bob Malecki, @Sandy Uhlmann @Wayne Snell and several others.

I was particularly impressed with Eddie's students. Aside from one couple who had joined recently, all of the students I talked to had done at least "one" deal. So we can mock gurus and their silly prices but at least these students are taking action and I find that great.

Education: F
I didn't expect much and I was still very underwhelmed. Lots of fluff, very little actionable content. If I was new at note investing I would be frustrated and feel like it was just a ploy to get me to sign up for training. For example the Realtytrac statistics were great but nothing you wouldn't know by reading the housing / servicing related websites.

It's not for a lack of high quality speakers. Top notch guys like Alex Goldovsky of ProTitleUSA, or the CEO of FCI. @Dave Van Horn who writes on BiggerPockets and inspired me to take action and start buying notes. But what are they supposed to teach you in 45 minutes or on a panel? They barely have time to present themselves and their company.

Only big highlight to me was FCI Lender Services adding new support for note partials to make the transactions much easier. A partial lets you purchase a number of payments, say 5 years out of 25+, from someone's performing note. As the name implies it lets you buy "parts" of a note. Since you get paid first it is extremely safe. Good technique for us smaller note holders to recapitalize while keeping the tail end of the notes as bonus.

Overall I could have skipped this event but the networking was pleasant. Always nice talking with people who love notes as much as I do, and to put faces to the names of people I've been talking to online for several months. Hope this helps someone.