Are Note Finders just another broker?

[Jerome Harrod II]

Short intro, My name is Jerome and I'm a young new Notefinder without much experience. However, I have alot of knowledge of the Cashflow business/industry and I have closed 4 deals in this business which I believe balances out my lack of experience.

Now, I have seen and been through alot of ads, telephone calls, and emails that calls for their note to be sold, but once I say who I'am and what I do. I get told that they do not work with brokers and our business ends there.
Here's what I say, and this is what I''am, to people wanting to liquidate or sell their notes.

" I'am not a broker, I'am a Private Party CashFlow Specialist who focuses on monthly payments secured by real estate.So I work with people like yourself who are receiving payments on a mortgage and match them up with investors interested in purchasing them."

Note Finders and Brokers do share a familiar job description, but the key things that separate those two descriptions are that a Note Finder/CashFlow Specialist represents only himself and not his buyers, working independently not acting as agents, consultants, or assisting the structuring notes of any kind to our note buyers. Our job is to only act as matchmaker between noteholder and note buyer.

However, most disregard that defining detail and classify us as a broker. My first question is why do people dislike working with brokers anyway? Are their fees just too high?

Secondly , Am I the only NoteFinder here? Are there other NoteFinders, brokers and others that understand this matter and can give a comment? I do need help progressing in my chosen career path of working with notes until I can actually start investing in notes and properties myself.

[Don Konipol]

I think you are spending too much time and energy concerned about minute differences between brokers and finders. Your customers do not care about Fereral or State legislation, legal mumbo jumbo or whether they are customers or clients. To potential note sellers, you have no differentiation from a note broker. Further, they couldn't care less about terms and definitions; what is important is that you attempt to match a note buyer with a note seller, and you are not a direct buyer, but an intermediary.

The reason the more sophisticated note sellers do not want to engage an intermediary is that they can go direct to the source (direct buyers) themselves and avoid the middleman fee. Further, it seems like everyone and his brother has taken a course, seminar or workshop on how to become a note finder or cash flow specialist, and all these "experts" are chasing the same notes! I placed an ad on bigger pockets recently for a note I had for sale. Out of 26 responses 23 were from brokers, two were from individuals for their own account and one was from a direct buying institution. Most of the brokers asked us to fill out a standardized form (despite the fact that all the information was already provided to them), the form was exactly the same for each one! All claimed to work with exclusive buyers, but none were able to provide any testimonials or recomendations. The offers we received from these brokers were quite low.

The offer from the direct institutional buyer was somewhat higher than from the brokers, and the offer from one of the individuals was our full asking price (face value of the note) which we accepted and successfully closed.

So tell me again, why work with note brokers, or note finders?