Top 10 Tools & Goals for Mortgage Note Investing in 2024 | Real Estate Notes Show

Episode: Maximize Returns: Discover the Top 10 Tools & Goals for Mortgage Note Investing in 2024 Dave's Goals and Plans: - Creating a due diligence portal tool that automatically pulls property data, comps, agent info, population size, foreclosure data within 9 seconds - Can now process 50-100 assets in minutes using automated due diligence portal instead of manual analysis - Can make bids on 50 assets in 10-15 minutes due to automation of due diligence process - Teaching advanced class on building non-performing note calculators that factor in foreclosure timeframes by state - Spent holiday time with family and learned importance of slowing down to connect with loved ones Nathan's Goals and Plans: - Uses financial calculator (10bii) multiple times daily as essential tool for note investing - Cannot make offers without plugging numbers into calculator - constantly surprised by results versus initial estimates - Talks regularly with attorneys, servicers, realtors, and other note investors to learn and stay informed - Holiday was relaxing, involved snowboarding and time with family and extended family - Financial calculator has limitations - only calculates performing assets, doesn't account for defaults or foreclosures Key Recommendations: - Build network across attorneys, servicers, realtors, and other note investors - cannot succeed as solo investor - Use financial calculators but understand their limitations - they don't account for defaults or foreclosure scenarios - Implement automation tools for due diligence to process multiple assets efficiently rather than manual analysis - Create spreadsheet-based calculators for bulk analysis instead of relying solely on financial calculators for multiple assets - Set measurable goals at start of year and have accountability partners to track progress Topics Discussed: - Top 10 tools for mortgage note investing in 2024 - Goal-setting and accountability for investors - Importance of internet technology for modern note investing - Network and community as essential business infrastructure - Financial calculator tools and their limitations - Due diligence automation and property data analysis - Non-performing note analysis and foreclosure considerations you know we've said this a million times in Space is really kind of a network right our network is essential in our space right now yeah I could not at all live without who I connect with on everyday basis the fact that this community is available for me to really kind of grow learn share make mistakes I mean we have people who were beginners telling us something we didn't realize and that's okay we love that stuff because you never know where the information will come from or what experience that someone else may have yeah I mean you and I probably talk at least once a week um but then I'm talking to Realtors I'm talking to attorneys I'm talking to other node investors I'm talking to you know people that have done this longer than I have and learning what I can from them so that's a good one and it again it's essential you this is not a a oneman show you can't just decide one day you're going to do notes and and do it all by yourself there is a network and you have to be tapped into it so that's a good one yeah so you know our network doesn't incorporate only attorneys right it doesn't incorporate only servicers we'll get to right but it is key for us to grow as people and all that stuff so what's your next best tool that you use on a daily basis to kind of get things working for me I would have to say my next like top tool that I use is uh is my financial calculator it's I use it constantly and it's a tool that I didn't even know existed 15 years ago I'd never even heard of a finan cal calculator and I was introduced to it and now I use it I think every day multiple times a day [Music] hey everyone Dave puts here from jkp Holdings alongside me as always Mr Nathan Turner how are you hello we connect for a few minutes today it has been a crazy crazy time I gotta see if what I think we going on here guys has been a beginning of the year kind of glitches so I think it's been fun so Nathan what what was your holiday life man I'm G fix your C your vision as we talk because I see your camera's a little off here on my screen here go ahead what was your weekend what was your holiday like H it was good it was relaxing slowed down a little bit got to just hang out do nothing which was great it was good spend time with the family SP time with the kids yeah all that good my my parents are here my brother's over on the other side of town so we got to hang out with them a bunch and yeah it was fun just uh relaxed went snowboarding a couple times and just slowed down it was really nice nice how about you so things have been good man I think you know spend time with the kids over the holiday weekend um and just kind of did what we wanted to do make sure uh you know what we found was that when we slow down you start learning about your family right it's been craziness 2023 and uh it's been fun though um yeah you know it's been a journey for us to connect with everyone 2023 was such an awesome different year that we've had in all this time so it's it's been a journey with that said we're now in the new year and for some reason every new year we all want to set goals and have some missions and whatnot and this year we want to do the same thing because setting goals is part of growing it's part part of what we do of our top 10 tools and then we'll get to our goal setting and make sure we're accountable to our goal setting we encourage you guys who listen to us make sure you call us out and stuff and ask us how we're doing with stuff because we need that as much as you guys need uh that accountability partner absolutely so let's start there what would you say is probably your top tool or one of your top tools that you need every day when you're doing any kind of note investing in your space what do you think your top um or one of your top items is that you couldn't do your business without i' I've given this a bunch of thought and there are a lot of things that I use every day um or at least several times a week and but I think you know if I if I break it down and I think about the thing that I use the very most often it's the Internet it's it's just the technology of having the internet boring right essal it doesn't sound like a lot but but you know I I remember having this conversation with my kids I don't remember how many years ago uh and just the internet is what makes it possible for me to do what I do the way that I do it um you you know you go back and talk to Tom Henderson or something and he'll talk about these books that they would get and they would have to Rifle through these books about loans that were available and things and now I get sent a spreadsheet over the internet and I can go and look at it and I can analyze it right from home I don't have to go anywhere I don't have to do anything at most I might have to pick up the phone and say hey can you send me something but that's it and so it's I I know it sounds super basic and it's kind of boring but it's essential it's one of those things that I simp simply cannot do without it's a it's a really big deal so I see a comment that um there's some choppy with the audio hopefully it got fixed so I apologize if it didn't if so I'll keep working on this end for me as investors and as humans we need to grow we need to you know adapt and stuff like that yeah yeah I agreed um with that said we also got to make sure that we do things with a with a goal set I like what you said DME for those who don't know right goal setting has to be something we measure so on today's call we're going to talk about our goals for 2024 but also the top 10 tools that we find note inv use um as spills us on every day every month basis and what works for our businesses will be different for you guys maybe but majority this is what our key is yeah and it it's gonna be interesting because I know we don't use the same tools necessarily some of them are the same some of them are different so I think this is gonna be good for everyone listening in just to see different ideas things that you can Implement in your own business if you like so I'm excited so hopefully we all get connected with you guys and we kind of make sure that you guys are around um and tune in for everything if you have questions please feel free to put it in the chat put it into uh the comment section whatever and we'll do our best to answer anything we can for you guys um so when we do this kind of stuff we want to make sure that you guys get an idea of what works for you doesn't always work for us vice versa but also we all want to share our knowledge we want to share what what takes for us what you guys may be missing um which is fine which is great so yeah benefit from somebody else's experience so hopefully other people will be able to benefit from our experience things we have done and and uh things that we've found that worked and things we found didn't work that kind of thing yeah absolutely so let's start off with some often wow amazing right something we we barely ever talked about when we first got started is becomes something we need essential um never taught in high school none of that kind of stuff happens right um but it's essential and they just did a Blog article about flancher calculator and the problems with it right yeah because what we found is that most investors use the financial calculator which there's nothing wrong with the finance calculator except for if the property goes the note goes default right if that default happens there's nothing you can do about the estation and the financial calculator doesn't count into that because it doesn't know that it counts a bond or a string of payments it gives you a return yeah if the payments stop foreclosure happens that's outside the financial Cal's ability to figure out so I had a whole big blog about this that it comes up to a point and I'm sure you guys all know we're running a class next week on Tuesday where we're be teaching how to build a calculator a non-performing calculator that takes into things such as foreclosure time frames for every state which is different the cost for foreclosure statute limitations debt license all that stuff is our advanced class we'll be holding next week and the final calcul is amazing because if anyone's ever tried diving into what the formula is good luck yeah yeah certainly not manually I mean you need some kind of computing power behind it people will ask me all the time like what would you pay for this and I I honestly I cannot tell you off the top of my head I have to plug in the numbers and I've done this hundreds of times but I still I I couldn't just come up with a number even with all the times that I've calculated and done run numbers and things I still couldn't just come up with a number I have to plug in the numbers because I'm surprised constantly where I'm I you know if I was to try to do it off top of my head I would come up buying something in Tennessee or Texas or somewhere you know anywhere Montana is the closest state to me I'm still that's still you know a good three hours away uh I can't just jump in the car and go look at this house or I'm not going to I'm not going to go and get on a plane and in fact haven't over all these years I've look I've gone and looked at one one note of the property at it only because I happen to be in the area but anyway that being said um I'm one of the things that we're always looking at is what is the value of the property what are some of the property taxes behind it um some of these some of these numbers that you can fairly easily go and look at so I look at uh sites like Zillow and red fin I actually prefer red fin I find it's a little more accurate um but I will go and look at that and then we talked about this too like Zillow has a map feature so first of all not this estimate at all I don't know how their algorithm works but it doesn't work in my opinion so whatever number zestate spits out that's nice but it's not accurate so that's fine um I go down and I drill down to the map I look at properties sold in that area in you know in those three block radius kind of thing uh and try to drill down as best I can what I think the value is of the property that I'm looking at just to make sure the equity is there so zilla's really good for that uh just that map feature uh redin also has a map feature uh it's a little bit harder to find it used to be more obvious now it's a little bit harder to find it's down at the bottom if you put in your address and scroll down to the bottom uh there's a map feature down there you can pull up but then I'll go and look at at comparables and things like that so that to me is essential um again that's what makes it doable for me to do what I do I after I've done that kind of research after can drag things from one website into you know loading up something uploading a document I can have my files on one screen and then wherever I'm uploading on the other screen and just drag it across like so many things it is just so much more efficient I can find I get so much more done with two screens is there an advantage to three screens I know you've gone to three screens Rec yeah you know it's just more of the same which I I don't know if there's a bad thing about more the same you know my son just got for Christmas two different curve monitors uh and one Center monitor I'm a little jealous um I got one two and I got one on the wall up here they kind of let me see everything I need to see yeah um and most people say well that means too much multitasking it does to a point but say you're you're you're following a video and you're doing email as well as doing some it allows you to do multiple stuff um that kind of feature is really awesome um but there comes a time where the only people who need four or five screens are those crazy people working on stock market I get it but it's not about looking at every screen at any moment it's not about that it's literally about maybe copy pasting reviewing looking at assets comparing stuff and looking at stuff and analyzing two different things at one time said you can split your screen but it just makes it so small yeah to really kind of analyze stuff um or whatever you're trying to do and for whatever reason splitting the screen it's like it's not the same I've I've done that when I'm on a pinch like on my little laptop or something and I it's fine but for some reason it's it's not the same and I find that two screens actually makes a big big difference I encourage you guys in the in the comments below even on our recorded YouTube thing I'd love to hear what your best real estate tool that you find you use for the notes space I know there's other things out there for you know prop wire and all stuff I don't process not one but 50 or 20 or 100 Assets in a matter of minutes because I take that information every single tape I get and I take it put into my due diligence portal I hit a button and I get exported a great spreadsheet with the tape and the data and then I take that and I can plug into my calculator yeah which then at that point I can make a bid on 50 Assets in a matter of 10 15 minutes because of the fact that automates all the new diligence I need annual tax amounts multiple property values everything comes in a matter of 10 seconds of address so save me time and reduces errors I need that on a day-to-day basis I can't live without it yeah yeah so that's a tool I need right and I don't know how you guys grab your stuff but if you want take a look at it uh go to our site du diligence and whatnot um I see com from Greg that the 10bii changed my life in 2000 spreadsheets are a killer yes if you're running one asset find calculator nice and easy if you need to run 10 assets the fin calculator takes a little longer right that's okay whatever works for you so now we're on number five if I'm doing my math correct here right what would be your fifth best tool that you use on a daily basis or weekly basis for your business to be successful is today I'm checking my notes here because we we had talked about this before which one should we go with here let's go with um who choose you know what um sticking with that internet theme oh so due Dil is a huge huge part of this business um of any kind of real estate it's a big part of it uh but again I'm remote you're remote so we when I'm Deeds assignments all those kind of things without that I don't know how we try to find what the linin tax amount is manually and look at the deed record I don't know if I could do that no if I would do a space it's just impossible and that's the thing I think without that you could buy things in your county and maybe a couple of neighboring counties and that's it um so it's it's great to have these things online and just be able to go and look wherever wherever that's a great tool that's a really good one yeah so you're up next am man let's go with uh one that again is maybe kind of it's a luxury item but it's an essential tool two screens two screens is a huge deal I have found it has made such a difference and just two computer screens that's all I'm talking about um where I can be looking at one thing over here and something else over here and it's just so much more efficient I'd like to hear the comments for those people who are using one screen I just just tell me just curious I do I see Greg's with taker said uh dual monitor baby yes I'd love to hear from those people who are using one screen and I would challenge you please put in the comments if you try a second monitor for a week I it would be I think it'd be like a drug adct right trying to pull that drug away yeah it I don't know how I would function with one screen now again if you have one screen that's 40 inches wide different topics right but if you're working with a laptop or 125 in screen I'm telling you once you get to two you don't know how you functioned it just doesn't make sense yeah it's so efficient where I can be looking at something over here and even just transcribing I can be look I can have it up over here and typing over here or I free yeah no paid tools here right right right so what would be I really wear nine so what would be your ninth tool that you can't live without what service or tool that you need on a daily basis or a deal basis is crucial for you that you could not do this I'm thinking of one I think you may go with but what are you thinking what's number nine for you um just back on the spreadsheets I'm just looking on my computer I have one two three four five six seven spreadsheets open on my like as tabs Google spreadsheets seven different ones that are open right now and anything from uh marketing metrics uh leads I've got a whole spreadsheet just for leads for all kinds of different leads yeah um meeting chat I've got one here for DME just for the sponsorships and for the schedule and everything that's going on uh snapshot of everything that I own and then a couple of tapes uh I open up on spreadsheets that I'm looking at assets for sale so constantly constantly all the time so that's a big deal you you're more into it than I am but but but we need it we both need it essential absolutely so what would be your ninth best item and again all this stuff is free guys right we didn't realize before we made this call Everything's free what would be your ninth item that you say you need on a daily or a deal basis maybe you need it for to close a deal or whatever so I'm looking I don't know if this is the one that you were thinking of but I'm I'm finally caving on this one oh social media whoa I finally got dragged into it just this last year in 2023 on a serious basis I've always had social media I've always been there but I've never I've never used it I've never done anything with it and then finally in with a number and then I plug it into the calculator and I go oh wow I was way off it's something totally different than what I thought it would be okay so I've learned that lesson just I I go back to that constantly and I and we've run to new investors who are learning about notes and they say well I buy performing notes so I use my flanch calculator and you can be awesome at it which I encourage you guys to learn it's not about knocking it but the problem with it is is it only calculates performing assets all it does yeah um Cindy made a comment that the 10bii is her favorite best friend I agree with you it's you know one of the ninth wonder the world I want to call it right yeah but I think for me is understanding that piece that we want to understand the fact that that find Cal has limitations it does and if you can only do something someone made a post earlier today on I think your Facebook group was you know what percentage of upb and what percentage it depends on the Note numbers and that financial calculator helps you solve that problem but then like you say if and when something goes not performing well then that totally skews whatever numbers follow there so then you've got to go back and recalculate it and if you've got a spreadsheet uh that can be done a lot faster I can do it on the financial calculator but it's gonna take me three steps to get to where you can just plug it out in one step so I do have that class on flan Cal if you want to do in bulk I can teach you guys which is also part of our advanced class if you're interested so my tool is a little plug but also something I use on a regular day process because I have to um I create a tool for myself where I can go and grab Property Data I can go get um you know AO comps I can get AO agents I can get population size I can get value different things last sold date last listed price I can get foreclosure data all within 9 seconds in address automatically populated through my my d dild portal and that allows me to that allows me to put in a bid once I've won the bid then I go and talk to a local realtor I'll get a BP figure out for somebody local who's actually laid eyes on the property what they think that house is worth but initially I have to have some idea of what I think it's worth so I use Zillow and red fin on a daily basis um especially when I'm in buy mode when I'm looking at buying things I'm looking at that constantly trying to figure it out so that that's a long there you go yeah so the next step for me uh I was hoping you didn't go there and I want to make sure I mention this so and there's different ways to say these words similar the idea that we can't go to these multiple different cities counties and whatnot they get the information we talked to Robin on our private call weekly private call about this and that whenever somebody years ago wanted to go look at a property and they wanted to look at notes and whatnot and they wanted to get information about the property and maybe look at the assignment chain and look at the tax records and Stu like that they had to go down to the county records um I'm sorry but I'm not flying to look at due diligence right um the fact that we can easily see County records online is wonderful yeah however there's over 3,000 of these counties yeah well a nice website uh depending how you say the words called Nitro online or Nitro line or however N Net or online whatever it is is a great website where you can put a county Link in there and it'll give you the link for the assess attack assessor it'll give you the link for the tax deeds and clerical all those kind of things it's all one spot where you can click it well what I did was actually reverse engineering and actually it's mrar portal now so when you do download your spreadsheet the links to each whatever counting that property is will be inside the spreadsheet which makes it a whole lot faster to go look at the link with taxes or County record for think that's really for the notes space right it doesn't most of those Services find new stuff where we're trying to gather information it's more about gathering for us than to go find assets and build lists um but I think my next one I think we're on nine or eight or whatever much we're at now but we'll keep going for a few more here to get exure so I think for me um it we talked about before a little bit is and people know me and I should re name myself here spreadsheets I I I I don't know how I can do this notes space without spreadsheets I don't know how many times I've gotten an asset and I'm sure hopefully some of the people on here on the call but they give me a PDF and it throws me in a crazy world that I have to translate to a spreadsheet because spreadsheets allow me to analyze things a lot quicker easier faster and for bid calculators like we have in our advanced class we can analyze assets by just changing a row number in a matter of minutes I can analyze 10 assets by just changing a number on a spry and it reenter all the data we want boom boom boom boom boom and a matter of 10 minutes you can analyze 10 deals within seconds yeah so spreadsheets the power and know if anyone wants to have a debate between excel in Google Sheets I'm open for it right I'm a Google sheet person um but yeah spreadsheets is a tool that I use on an everyday basis for formulas analyzation uh reviews tracking things all kind of stuff that spreadsheet is essential if I didn't have that I couldn't do it my business business as you could probably see guys outside buying a second Monitor and paying for internet all the tools we're talking today are free yeah yeah right you can go get your Exel spreadsheet or Google sheet you besides buying a monitors right the use of the monitor the internet base everything here networking is sure so um again I'd love to see more of you guys comments and feedback in in the chat uh so I think we're on number 10 if we can if we think about any others we'd love to hear from you guys um so what are the ones I lean on on an essential basis um and I think that I I thought you were G to go here right yeah it's a service this one action does cost money but I guarantee you you need it and those who are creative Finance people who have been following us since 2023 you need it more than anyone your servicers and your attorneys you need them right oh you need your serer right shout out to all the servicers out there listening and watching you need your servicers you need your attorneys now could you do this work on your own and service it you can but there's a lot of laws you don't know a lot of things you not aware of and believe me the time it takes to do it and dealing with your borrows on a daily daily basis can be cumbersome yeah your service is your key for $23 a month they do it all yeah totally worth it abs absolutely and and your attorney if you're not using an attorney when you're creating documents or something like that that could cost you thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars later on yeah so essential service it's so important to use uh the right tools for the right job and in this case when we're talking about notes a servicer like you say could you do it on your own sure why would you there this is not a hobby this is a business yeah it's to make money right yeah your time is way better spent doing anything else so some of the runner-ups we had here that are essential to our business were things such as um yeah you can get lists from notes from like things like Bach and list Source I don't use it I've had problems with it in the past um so many 2023 I'm I'm seeing the value in it and so I'm diving in um get my name out there a little bit more and it's been a good thing it's been really good thing actually so that's that's been a tool that I've more recently kind of accepted and started using and and it's been it's been a great addition to everything I'm doing and now I find I'm using it seriously every day and now I'm looking and posting and things and you know it's funny we bring up social media and if you bring up social media your family oh did you see my post about and my answer is no no when we say social media media please doesn't mean that we're looking at people's travel plans or posts about their family and I appreciate those who do and that's great wonderful I literally open my social media and go you through to my Facebook group usually I have 10 15 notifications I go answer some questions in a group or so I very rarely go to my feed right I want to make sure I'm productive on social media make sure that we're putting out content getting content asking good questions and things like that those are the things that really matter to us yeah right and use social media for a business purpose rather than a personal thing right we may post sometimes personal Andia to those who are kind of tie between personal and professional what you could do is actually separate your friends you have questions let me know and you can group your friends personal you know your family one way and notes another and then when you make a post about your family you can actually make it sure that that only people that you want to see see that post and that you know post that you want to put about real estate your family doesn't comment on asking you crazy questions right you could do that kind of stuff on social media on the Facebook and whatnot yeah I still don't do very much family related stuff it's it's mostly business every once in a while I'll throw in something just so people know I'm human but otherwise no it's it's business purpose for absolutely so we hit upon all our let me see if there's any other Runner UPS here we have in our list um we mentioned podo and software I use spreadsheets a lot of times I do have an internal system to track things uh but you can track everything in spreadsheet um you don't really need podo or services like that um but I'd love to see um the next state for us I think it's a 26 Cy um uh what the two Friday from now in two weeks um I'll be posting event probably Monday or so uh but yeah Dr beond with us he confirmed U we have a couple things on the pallet coming up uh we're going to be talking about bookkeeping soon uh we also are trying to tee up uh a raising Capital uh conversation um and we have a few more on the docky that are scheduling out uh DJs had jump us on with a call I had a call with him today which is great so we literally want to we're g to really hit some stuff up here um yes so guys if you ever want to see what our next upcoming webinar inside my website there's a way you can either download a Google or Outlook Apple calendar and it'll actually attach to your calendar so anytime I upload a new uh webinar that we're having a conversation it will show up in your calendar and remind you and I usually put the links for the call as well in the calendar so feel free if you have a question about that let me know and if there's anything that anybody wants to learn more about let us know we see if we can do a show on that yeah yeah we we want to hit on some more topic this year we're going to hit again we're get the creative Finance seller finance World we're doing that stuff as well um if we have creative Finance seller finance people we are doing a great series on that kind of stuff to teach you how to sell a note for higher value and the way you create it and structure it um there's a lot of bad information out there we want to show you what it is uh this belief that percentage of upb is the way to go is a fallacy it's a myth um it's bad so we're that's that's the first thing it was a setup year that means this year uh the fund is a $5 million raise so I want to have that full five million raised by June 1 by the time W uh and have that up and running because there are so many deals you and I are looking at so many deals and so many great um a lot of these seller finance deals that are coming out I think we're reaching people where they're learning how to do them correctly I've seen much better quality the last couple of months much better quality so that's great and had some good conversations with people where they say okay so you mean if I did this and this different that's better yes and so they're they're getting to know that so that's good so five million raised by June 1 that's that's what I'm looking for high five well guys make sure you help him out there spread the word you know he's basically G to be giving great returns to people who want to get stuff going so um my goal uh one of the things that I have is I'm all about understand guys we don't make money from this at all right this is more about branding but I'd like to get out there more and talk to more people right so one of my goals is really to reach a high number of YouTube and Facebook followers and people who watch our content because it's not about me not about anything it's about the content making sure we get in front of people so we encourage you guys share podcast and share the YouTube thing I we're probably around 2,000 people on YouTube I'd like to get to 5,000 by the end of the year I'd like to double and almost triple that to the end of the year 5,000 subscribers are watching and learning not only on the notes side but also creative finan side so we encourage you to spread that word the podcast right now we get around 150 listeners share that I'd like to double that to get 300 listeners on every episode so we can share it but we need your guys help to tell us it's a topic and teach them what it is to create these notes so that when they get it they can sell partial now again if we talked about in our private call was that if the seller creates a note at 8% it may be better for them to sell partial to a note investor than the whole thing because you may not be able to sell the whole thing because of discount but we like to buy I like to buy at least 20 by by June and 60 by end of the year something I contain and I can do we have the capital for it it's not the problem it's just getting the deals that make sense and make sure the education's out there so I'd love for you guys to hold us accountable to both these goals and to help us with our goals right we'd love for you guys to join in here and I would love for you guys to post your goal publicly like we're doing now so people can hold you accountable so in your accountability group or Facebook group post your goal I know it may feel embarrassing may feel weird you may say I don't attain it but if you don't put it down it's not realistic you got to write it down so someone can check in on you find the accountability partner and check in with you so in June you come back and say Dave how you doing and I may or may not hit the mark but I need that accountability just like you guys do so it's really really essential that everyone has that accountability partner and and run it by that test is it a smart goal is it specific measurable actionable realistic And Timely uh run it by that test and if it meets all five criteria that's good goal if it if it's you know if it's missing any one of those elements then rethink it and just rework it make it something that you can do something about yeah so put in the chat box below put in your comments below set your goals publicly that everyone can see it so you can be held accountable we'd also like you to put your tools you put down there if we didn't mention a tool that you think you guys need That's essential to your notes space investor put it down there let's see who else you may find someone else who's using the other things were such as you know countability and Mastermind group and I think to me that's a picky choice if we need it we go it we have one privately League that we run off of which I can't live without out but I don't think it's essential for doing notes based the social media for new investors is key um we didn't put in there which I would say ties with fin calculator is a bid calculator that is essential but I would tie with your financial calculator you need to have a calculator to work things well and one that I think so a little bit of a plug here at the end of this month we've got a show with Simon white who is a genius yes guys listen to this so so far that's not an essential tool for me but I have a feeling that once I start using it once I get an idea of what I can do with it and how I can start using it I I get the feeling that it's going to become an essential tool yeah I'd like to hear if anyone in the comments in the recordings or YouTube or Facebook or LinkedIn or Twitter wherever we I'm streaming everywhere if you're using AI I we'd love to hear it we're just exploring and on our next call we'll have a AI expert to kind of walk through he's not a notes guy he's an AI guy who's going to help us learn see what AI can do for us how it can make our business better easier faster um and we haven't even touch upon what we can do with him yet we're gonna let his brain just work and tell us what we can do with it so he does work he does invest in notes as part of his life but it's not his his first business he's a he's a software he's a marketing guy um and AI is his Jam so I'm really excited to hear from him and see what we can learn from him I think it's going to be a big thing even in the notes space that's that think the piece that you and I haven't figured out yet is what would I use it for and I I haven't I haven't figured that out yet so I'm curious to see what he's got to say you can actually do something about realistic And Timely you gotta be able to attach a time to it so that's smart goals yes very important um so the opposite of smart goal is I want to lose weight is not a goal no that's a nice can't measure it no that's a wish that's a hope yeah right but it's not a goal if you say I want to lose whatever it is 20 pounds by June 1st now you got a goal then you can start working towards putting your plans into place of how you're going to achieve that goal but but specific measurable actionable realistic timely uh absolutely those are real goals so that's that's I learned that several years ago and I've I've taken that to heart and that's how I like to set my goals going so what would you say your first goal is lay it out for us my very first goal so uh we looking I'll back up for one second here looking back I don't know that I realized I was doing it at the time but 2023 was really a a setup year and I'm not sure that I did that necessarily on purpose but that's what it ended up being so we took over DME and ran the first one and set that all up which was fantastic and we've got a lot of things figured out which is great uh we put our fund together we had put it on pause and then we kind of revitalized that and put that back together so the fund is now up and running and and moving forward but that was another setup thing where that got all put together then the third thing was this uh nonprofit so we put together a nonprofit we were waiting for one last document uh to be able to start moving forward with that but that was the other setup thing so for me that's three different projects three different uh areas that I'm looking at um so Finance people want seller finance people we want gurus there we want everyone there in one room to talk yeah and share content we had deals getting done at the conference again at Nathan's conference right deals were getting done on the table money was getting wired yeah we want people there it's it's not just to come and rah rah rah and go home no no no no if that's all that happens then we've missed Mark it's to get deals done that's the number one goal of the conference itself is get people together so that deals can get done and we can actually have business being done so that's that's anything that I'm looking at is like okay who are we bringing for different sponsors and things it's not just anybody who's wanting to sponsor in fact we've said no to some people already no because they're not they're they don't contribute to that ultimate goal of getting deals time if they came it would be a great presentation they're great people are awesome but it doesn't contribute to that get deals done so that's that's the number one goal so my next one is um about seller finance right to me I love to buy more notes in general in last year I think we bought close to 10 or so seller finance deals and a bunch of partials of that but I'd like to buy more whole loan seller finance notes at a rate that makes sense for both a seller and a buyer I'd like to get to the point where we've actually bought and again measurable goals right in a timeline in the next by June I would like to close 20 CR Finance notes and then by December I want to almost triple that I'd like to get to the point where I close almost say 60 by the end of the year I'd like to keep going with that uh but the only way to do that is literally to get the word out there to create a finance people that we're out there we're evolved we can buy from them and we can play with numbers going to shift gears here and we want but everyone put their accountability hat on here um we want to set some goals for ourselves and uh and I what we challenge each other in the preall was we want to think big so that if we don't make something here we still are way above the mountain heads so let's let's talk about what goals mean to us Nathan you did a great job with the DME which again will be held in Nim May in Nashville what is a goal and what is not a goal so DME we had such a fun time last year I'm really looking forward to it again this this time around we're actually um it's amazing how much time goes into it and and planning um so we are just just about six months a little less than six months out uh we have almost sold out of our exhibitor booths um they're all spoken for almost all of them have been paid for some some people still out there send their money but uh but we've got 15 spots and I think 14 of them have been spoken for so that's that's amazing uh that it's going incredibly fast and then some of the other sponsorships which are a ton of fun we've got some really extra cool things that are we've thrown in there anyway point is we've started planning for that three months ago uh so it's it's up in planning is happening and we're really excited about bringing it back here this year for me so last year we had uh we had just about 200 people but before we go there what you did a great job of goals in the beginning of that what was the acronym do you remember the acronym you used smart smart smart goals so they've got to be specific measurable actionable something that would be really interesting such as raising Capital let us know that so we can really kind of hit home on what you guys want so I want to double my our typical podcast listens and almost triple the YouTube of our our our subscribers so we can get in front of more people and share the information we want to share that's awesome Sydney made a compliment that uh we do great job trying to reach out uh and educating all you guys yes but you guys educate us at the same time so we want to make sure we're giving back to you guys we just have a platform to do it yeah so that's my first goal what would be your next goal that you want to achieve that I I I I pushed you on this goal a little bit I I I pushed it a little hard let's see how where which way you go with it right go ahead what's your next goal so the next one would be uh surrounding DME so like I say last year we had about 200 people there um what I had said is uh when we were talking about this this week is I would like to get that up to 300 uh I think we can do better than that honestly and truly so we're gonna up that we're gonna say 400 people at DME so that's that's what we're shooting for at DME I honestly believe it is one of the best places you can go at to learn about notes to network with people that are in the note world and people that are involved it is such a good place to go I I highly highly recommend it just because it's such a good place to be so guys I want you to help me support Nathan on this I want him to get to 500 right I want that Target high so if we don't get 500 we get four 499 yeah he wants 300 I want to push him a little harder here right so I want you guys to help push this content again this is not about money making it's about getting around other people I want creative same tool that you could bounce things off of it's a crucial thing um you know it this stuff is fun to do and we do this we did it last year and do it this year and this is great for those who are just trying to get into this space um but also good for those who are experienced we often as experienced investors we kind of don't want to share much we we kind of get hidden we don't want to exposed but the only way to learn is to grow and sometimes the grow is to learn from those who may be telling you're wrong or something that's a little different right three four years ago I was never touching creative Finance seller finance notes it was too messy and all that stuff until I learned yeah and then I said wait a minute this can be done right right so we encourage you guys put your cability out there and let us let us uh let's hear what you have to say so well Nathan I'm looking forward to next call you know I'm big on AI um AI is something that is a goal but I don't know how to formulate the goal yeah until we talk to him Simon's gonna help me formulate how I'm gonna make AI because everyone knows out there I'm big on stuff how could I make AI work for me right and I'm probably implementing into our portal or dild this tool for note investors um so that's awesome I see someone asked how to get a hold of us uh we put it I put a chat in here just feel free to reach out to us on social media or go to the websites and email um you'll find us I promise you right if you can't just send us a message and we'll go from there but yeah well Nathan I think it's time to let the audience go enjoy their weekend we're gonna have snow this weekend for the first time I'm not sure if I'm ready for it that storm's coming through so looking forward to some snow here we'll see till next time guys enjoy thank you very much and we'll see you one soon.