Paid Off Student Loans Early with Notes | Real Estate Notes Show

Hey, everybody. Hey, you're not going to want to miss this one. We've got Sierra Davis on it, and she is just killing it with notes. So she comes from a corporate America background, data science, all that stuff, decided to get into notes because she wanted to do something that was a little bit more flexible. So she gets into it. She's paying off her loans. She's managing more than 30 notes. And you probably have seen her all over social media. She started about a year ago after a conversation she actually had with Dave at Note Expo. And after that, she started getting on to LinkedIn and Facebook and all that stuff.

You can't miss her. She's all over the place. She is a great example of just getting in there and getting it done. You don't have to be a guru. You don't have to be somebody who has been studying this for years and years. Get in there. Start doing it. Check it out with Sierra Davis, and you can learn something from her, as Dave and I have. Welcome back to another Real Estate Notes show. I'm your host, Dave Putsch from JKP Holdings. Alongside me, always Mr. Nathan Turner. Hey, hey, how are you? Good, man. It's been fun. We've been busy lately with all kind of stuff going on. And I know that you have a lot of stuff happening your side of it.

Share a little bit about what you're doing this new year to change up your systems and just make the new year worthwhile. Oh yeah, there's been a lot of discussion lately. We're looking at just shifting some things, making some changes to our fund. And yeah, that kind of stuff is always happening. And then, of course, we've got the DME coming up. And so there's lots and lots of preparation going into that right now. And who's speaking? Who's sponsoring? Who's doing all those things? We've got a fantastic lineup. Really excited about that. I can't wait. Make sure you're there. My ticket's bought.

I'll be there, guys. So definitely tune in. Make sure you get the day before, because there's a great icebreaker event that we do. That Nathan runs and his wife. It's great. For me, we're doing more tools. We're creating more activities. I got some great websites. There are some AI tools we're doing for creators as well as note buyers. We're really kind of just 2026 is going to be a year of automation and systems to help a lot of people come together. I'm looking forward to that. You mentioned a tool that you've put in together that I think is fascinating, where they can put in some of the parameters, and it'll spit out like, that's a good deal, or here's where it's going to be a little weak, things like that.

So those who are creating notes, you don't know us. We've been buying notes for over 15 years each. And one of the things we run into a lot is people create notes that are just not good. That for one reason or another, either maybe not legal or just not sellable for whatever reason. And I have a red, green, and yellow kind of setup where you plug in some stuff and we tell you, eh, or don't do it, right? If it's owner-occupied and you didn't underwrite it, here's a big red flag. Those kind of things. And it's a great tool for you to use. It's free to use. If you want a summary, you just sign into it, but you can play with it over at jkpholdings.com slash note validation.

So feel free to play with it. Give me some feedback. But it was all built with AI, which is crazy. That's really cool. Weirdly enough, we've been buying a few assets that are not typically what we do, lower and lower, and stuff, but we've been finding recently is that we're getting more and more assets that are people that are just wanting to get out. I was bidding on some assets recently where they just, two different people came up and said, listen, just give me a number. And I don't know what that's about, and they really wouldn't clarify it, but I said, okay, here's a number. And one of the most important parts of that was why are they saying that to us? Or me? And a lot of times, I'm sure you get this, and I'm sure our guests will get this, is I just need someone to close.

I need to make sure that I get a buyer who's gonna close. I don't wanna go through the ringer again, where they've gotten to a point where it's ended up being a broker or a problem. You just, hmm, right? And they wanna deal with someone who is experienced, who understands your diligence. For sure, that's one of the great secrets of this business is if you say you're gonna do it, do it, and then guess what? You're gonna have another deal tomorrow, and you're gonna have another one the next day. But if you just keep doing like, if you just kinda keep going back and forth, and like, I don't know, maybe this one's messed up because of this, that, and the other, no one's gonna send you any more deals.

So do what you say you're gonna do. Yes, and I think that's really key. The people in this space don't know, we're talking all fair, and the biggest two things that we don't get out often are sources and our big calculator. Just something we just don't do. It's private, sometimes it's complicated. And a lot of times people wanna know who you buy from, and I can give you the source, you're probably not gonna get the same response that I'm gonna get, right? It's a relationship that you need to build, and a network you need to get. And by building both of those, those deals will come easier, and the conversation will be better.

Yeah. Right. And where do you build those relationships? Conferences. Yes. Just pick one. I mean, come to mine, obviously, but any conference, go to conferences, that's where it's done. That's how Dave and I have met. Yes. That's where we've built our businesses. Yeah. Going to conferences. And one of the things that people are shy about when they're first beginning in this space is that nervousness of, I don't know enough, I might take trainings, and one of the things that I'm amazed by is that once you come out of your shell, you become a rock star. Sometimes you don't know you're a rock star to anyone else, but to yourself, you feel kind of weird or uneasy, and you start becoming known.

You start becoming branded, and that's where you want to get to, is the branding part. Yeah. I don't remember who said it a little while ago, and I think it was on the show, but they said it gets to a point where it's about who you know, but then even more importantly, it's about who knows you. Yeah. And that's actually even bigger. That's even better. Yes. People then start coming to you and saying, hey, are you interested in this? No, hey, are you interested in partnering up on this or that and the other? Yes. That's how you get out there and start building. So it's funny, you know, and I'm bringing this all together.

The reason this guest came on is Sierra was on LinkedIn and Facebook, and the posts were crazy, and I'm like, this girl's killing it. I mean, this is amazing. So, well, welcome, Sierra, to the show. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for having me. I'm really excited. This is a show that I've listened to for years. Oh, thank you so much. You impress me so much. And I says, man, I got to get whoever do her social media. And before we got on the call was funny. She says, I didn't do any of that till a year ago. So you said somebody in Odexpo to just try to put yourself out there. And I forgot we had that conversation until you brought it up and you're killing.

The reason that you're killing is because you're putting yourself out there. So give us a little background of who you are. How did you get into real estate? How did you get into notice? Yeah, so I'm Sierra. So I'm born and raised in Kansas City. And I wanted to get into something that would just help me be stable as a young adult. I was in my 20s and trying to figure everything out. Student loan debt was sitting there. And so finding a means to get out of that. And so I was studying, you know, everybody says, you know, real estate, real estate, real estate. And so I started to look at different avenues, whether it was like rentals, fixing flips.

And I think I don't know if Airbnb was like really hot back then, but, you know, all of those avenues. And so I came across a book that kind of like basically changed my life. And I think it was a Dave Van Horn's book of note investing. And so I read that book and I was like, oh, I've never heard of like this mailbox money type of deal. And so that really sparked my interest. And I started to look at it and figure out, like, how do I actually do this thing? And so it sounded something like something that I could do while maintaining my full time job. I was studying my MBA. And so I didn't have time to do all the other stuff.

So I definitely gravitated towards notes and the ability to have that a little bit of that freedom. Awesome. Cool. Really cool. And so when did you get started with the notes? Yeah. Yeah. So I got started in 2018. And so I bought my first note then. And it was it was a wild ride. And so it was a contract for deed and it stopped paying three months after I bought it. So that was fun. Oh, they don't just keep paying forever. And it's as easy as they say on. But it was performing. It was performing. Yeah. Yeah. Things happen. So, yeah, I got a real education, you know, a learning experience real fast.

And so the things that, you know, they teach you in the book, you can follow the formula, but it can just. This forget it, because because I definitely think it's it's not going to be consistent, as everybody says for sure. And that's one of the things that I actually enjoy about notes is just because it's not exactly the same like and as much as we try to keep it that way, just keep paying, doing your thing. But but it doesn't always work out that way. And I actually in a way, I kind of like that. Like it helps it make it a little bit more interactive and you're a little more creative and you story sell stories.

It's a lot of fun. Yeah. You know, I'm just kidding. So contract for deed was that in Missouri or somewhere else? In Kansas. In Kansas. Yeah. Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah. So this learning, the creative financing world to like, OK, so, you know, gave me an opportunity to kind of learn what to do and how to what next steps to do and, you know, figure that out. And I my cousin, who actually did, you know, a bunch of those deals throughout the city, kind of helped me guide me through what to do. And having a good mentor and someone who's actually done things is really, really a game changer. What what are some things you thought before getting into it that you were surprised in that process of started buying your first note and go to the process? What was you didn't expect or the book didn't say? What were you saying? Yes.

Yeah, that's a good question. So the book doesn't say that every single note is different. Every single like transaction, you know, no creators, they create things differently. Every document is very different. So, you know, it tells you like the steps by steps and, you know, what those things are. But you kind of have to go into each note very differently. And so you learn how to do that. And people, right, you got to work with the people. Every person is different. They, you know, some pay this way. Some just refuse to, you know, use online. But some of this like to send out checks and that's OK.

You know, you just learn some of that and those nuances as you go along. But that, you know, those are not in books. You just kind of have to get out there and do it. What do you do? You step did you get stuck on? Right. What was some of the due diligence of you got stuck on that? That, you know, some people think for granted or something. That's a new person. You say, guys, you're going to get stuck here. Yeah, that's a I think that's a good question. I think the paper, the paper of it all is very something that, like I said, you're reading these documents and they can look very different how they structure them.

And they might have different clauses in them. And so, you know, preparing to like see what actual like late fees and is there a servicing in this note, you know, all of that. And so those are things that, you know, might, you know, might catch somebody up, especially not knowing what to look for. And having original documentation, I think those things are very important just in case something does happen. So, you know, we could think about the bar. And I think those are kind of for me, that's not like a good thing. And we have a lot of different tools on the Internet things to kind of do property evaluation and stuff.

But that paperwork could be like eye opening. Absolutely. That's a great point, because we spent a lot of time talking about the property and the borrower. But what we're buying is the paper. Yes. You know, that that's actually the thing that we end up with. So it's if it's not done correctly, if it's done poorly or if it's whatever, it's missing that or this and we're missing a launch along the way or something like that, like that can really mess things up. And so make sure you know what that paper should be and what it should be looking like. And it's funny. Today's a little different than when we got first started.

I would get collateral in 2012. We had six launches or assignments we had to record. And it's like, holy goodness, I record all these. I think maybe one's missing or you send it the county records and you wouldn't out of order. And all these kind of things, you know, that change over time. Now you only recording one now, which is more beneficial because that's been sold as often. You didn't mention before and we before we got the call, you did. But what are you primarily looking to buy? What are your focus around? Yeah, so since I was trying to replace my income and so that was kind of like the goal was either, you know, replacing my income and then paying off my student loan debt.

I was primarily focused on performing and first position notes. And so that's kind of where I've been in this game for for those years. And so that's kind of where I land in my performance and notes. Yeah, well, that's actually when you got started, that was a that's good timing transition to that. That's right about when non-performing was kind of petering off and performing was taken off. So great timing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I actually didn't know a lot of people who were doing not performing. So, you know, I guess it kind of like happens with the season that I'm learning about the different market shifts.

So that's kind of the only thing that I knew then and kind of just stuck with that path. Were you nervous about dealing with servicers or attorneys? You know, we're not doing to me non-performers. You're not dealing with attorneys so often. But was it a learning curve transitioning and learning all these different worlds and vectors? Yeah, so absolutely. Yeah. So servicers as well as, you know, working with some attorneys, like coming from a lot of the different things that you do see is like you manage everything and do those things and you just, you know, do the thing that you're supposed to do.

But actually, there are servicers in place and working with them. And understanding those a little bit better. I didn't start that way, but, you know, I gradually like, oh, this is what, you know, a proper way to do. So again, that learning experience, drifting to self-management, then to servicing was really a big, big deal for me. And it kind of like made me, oh, yeah, this is a thing to do compliance. So starting out was like, oh, just trying to figure it out. But now it's like more, OK, what are the actual things that I need to be doing in a better way? So maybe you started with a contract for deed, maybe we can kind of settle a debate for us.

Yeah. OK. Are you still are you still interested in contracts for deeds? Seeing as how you've done them now and. Yeah, I. I just love them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. See, Dave. I just. Yeah. So. So I think I think for me, and I will say I have two reasons. I say I'm young. I'm a little risk. I'm a little I like a little challenge. Like a lot. So I like a little bit of risky, but I definitely like the the structure, you know, I definitely have a mix, but I have no problem with them. I'm not afraid of them. So I don't know. We're talking about contract for deeds is someone where literally what the words say.

You have a contract and then they're paying you. And once the contract's done, paid off, they get the deed. Then similar to a car financing. Sort of like rent to own. Right. The only lease option is a little different. But then there's there's different terms. But that's generally the speaking where a mortgage or deed trust is you get the deed up front when you buy it. So that's the big difference in some states in Ohio, Indiana, where if you pay off 20 percent or five years, it forecloses just like any other, you know, mortgage or deed trust, which is, you know, takes away that benefit of being a contract for deed in those kind of aspects.

What contract for deeds, one of the biggest things we look into is you own the property itself. You're liable of that property. Oh, for a newer investor, I know you're not newer anymore, but for a newer investor, how would you calm their nerves about owning the property versus just owning the paper? Yeah, I think that's a really good point. And I think you have to kind of know yourself, you know, and I think that's where you kind of like think about your risk tolerance. And so you are you are, you know, responsible for that property. And so I kind of have to take a kind of consideration for yourself is that, you know, if something happens, you're responsible for this property that's in your name, you're going to get tax, you know, tax notices.

You're going to get I had a contract for D where I kept getting mobile line notices. Those are things that you have to you know, you're responsible for. And so like, what can you tolerate? I think that's where, you know, it is. But, you know, for me, because I've had some contract for deeds that, you know, fell through and didn't cancel, I was able to get the property back a little bit, you know, faster, you know, cancellation of contract and all that a little bit better than, you know, traditionally. So I definitely think there is, you know, pros and cons to it. But, you know, for me, from that path, I was like, OK, I can just do this.

I can create a new note. Yeah. So, you know, you just kind of have to think about that. Are you find these deals locally or you find these deals on bigger, you know, pages? How are you finding a typical deal for those people? That's one of the biggest questions everyone has. Where's your sources? Yeah. Typically, where are you finding your deals? Yeah. So I started off locally. And so I still kind of work with the same buyers that are locally. So that's kind of how I started. And then move, you know, bought some notes on paper stacks from buyers and then moved on from those people to building my network, you know, getting in the right rooms, like, you know, mentions like some know people that, oh, yeah, I have some notes for sale and, you know, oh, I buy notes.

And so getting in those rooms, your network starts to grow. So like I started off a little bit smaller, but now I have like a few, you know, people and funds and all that to to kind of connect with to, you know, buy their notes now. And a lot of times when a new investor walks a room like that, they get intimidated. Right. What are some things to make sure that anyone going to be me is ready and willing to talk to a seller and feel confident? What should they know before going to that conversation to ensure that their connection solid, that they can say the right words, look real, but also be prepared? Yeah, I definitely think that, you know, if you have an open mind and being curious, I think that's kind of like the first step is like, just be yourself and be curious and like, hey, I'm just starting out.

You know, I've been looking at notes and things that, you know, like that. And here's where I started to look at starting, getting my buy box and looking where I might be interested in purchasing and what, you know, different metrics that I'm looking at, what, you know, what am I interested in, what kind of performance of notes? And so I definitely think that if you have a opportunity to kind of have a little bit of that upfront and introduce yourself, I think, you know, I can speak for myself that in those conferences, people are very, you know, generous with their time and, you know, being willing to help you.

So, you know, the nervousness will happen. But if you kind of come prepared with some of the ideas of what you've been looking at, what you've been seeing and what you want to do, I think that's really the key. Yeah, that's that's great advice. Yeah, just go in, be confident. And it's an appear confident. We'll say that. Yes. You're you could be shivering. Yeah, but yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I definitely think nervousness is all get out. But yeah, just people because yeah, this is one of the friendliest groups I've ever encountered. Yeah. Investors. And it's funny because the better you come across that person, the more they trust you when they trust you.

You may say, yeah, I'll buy your note at 12 yield and I come in and go, I'll buy a 14. Well, they may like me better. Right. Even though my yield's higher because they like doing business with you. So you walk in and you feel confident for someone else. They're going to do business with you because of trust. You only do business with people you know, like, and trust. And if they don't know me or they don't trust me and they trust you, it doesn't matter what number or bid or process I go through. They're not going to like me. Yeah. Yeah. And I think the key is like, don't try to oversell or overbe overconfident.

You know, it's a yield point, you know, I can give you like, I think it's important to like just be yourself and be more. I would say be more conservative, especially if you're starting out to kind of get get more into doing those deals and then, you know, building those relationships. Conservative. Let's put that for a minute. What's that look like for those people? Because they see online people bragging about, oh, I closed 17 deals and I got this return. What is conservative? What number are you thinking? What are or what angle and why? Yeah, I think that's a good question, because I for me, conservative, I think about the market as a whole, as investing as a whole.

So I like to think about like stock market, you know, bonds, stocks and all of that, you know, multifamily syndication, all of those things. And so I would say conservative for me is like a return that is as not as risky as like 20 percent yield versus like, you know, a 10 percent. You know, I think that's really conservative where you're on par with like consistently payments, making good, strong payments backed by a good collateral. And it's not like, you know, you're not looking for, you know, over promising of returns like, oh, I made 20, you know, 20 to 30 percent in two months. And it's kind of laugh, you know, so definitely the 10 percent.

And I think is that conservative? I can't I can't agree with you more. It's it's fabulous. We always tell people the best way to start in this space, go by a partial. Just get learned the process. You have a supportive seller who's willing to sell to you. They'll buy it back. Then goes wrong. You have to go boarding a servicer. You have to do the process. But if anything goes haywire, you have the seller to go back to. Yeah, that's a great number, because most people can't buy notes at 10 percent. Right. We talked beforehand that when you're raising capital, your capital raises that be probably seven, eight, nine percent.

And you can't go buying 10 percent. But if you have your own money or your own IRA money, 10 percent really is again, it's a solid deal. But so, you know, due and due diligence is like we said before, is the hardest part. The paper is confusing. What have you found makes you feel more at ease by doing it? That's the first couple of times I remember looking at a mortgage file. I knew I signed it when I bought my house, but I had no clue what I was looking at. So what made you feel a bit more at ease when you start looking at your own stuff? Yeah, that I think for me, I think about like a funnel, like at the top is like 100 notes and then 75 and 50, maybe 10 and then five.

So like the more notes you look at, the more reps you'll get in. And so I think it's practice, you know, making sure that you kind of like look at those notes and, you know, I tell people like, I don't know, look at, you know, every week, just try to look at five notes. You might not buy them, but like get in the habit of looking at them. And I think that's a big part of the habit of practicing and looking at some like of that paperwork and, you know, AI is a really good tool too now. Like you can kind of study different markets and where you are and look at some of the things that if, like I said, you look at your own deed of trust or mortgage, see what that says and kind of get familiar with some of the numbers.

But I definitely think there's practice and reps and getting that. More deals than you might buy. How are you using AI to help you out today? I don't know if you're a big AI person or not. We've had guests on who are, but how are you leveraging AI to make your self better, easier, whatever you want to use for words of a. Yeah, so I'm definitely using it for deals. And so I've, you know, I use innate in. And so like I put in my buy box and it'll spit out some things. I have some things that I'm looking at and it can send me emails. It's like all these notes, pitch your buy box and here's that. And I can use it for underwriting and offers and things like that.

And also looking at some of like the legal things too. I've been playing around with locally, like looking at title reports. And so check it out. Is the chain of title correct? Is all the assignments are in there? So that's pretty exciting game looking at the PDFs. But, you know, I've actively looking at AI pretty much every day. And so I definitely think that it's going to be. It's going to get better from from from this point on. But if you're not using it, I think you're you're getting left behind. I'm it definitely helps a lot. I I've been dragging Nathan. He's falling into using it more. Again, there I'm an addict, I would say.

Yeah, you a lot. And we have a few friends are really, really big into it. Those who don't know what any and is it's a basic automation system that you can call different AI tools. And it's a visual look of the process. You don't need any in a do it, but the process is it looks like blocks connected. Each block has a decision if thens and it can call AI or call different tool. It can call Google Maps. They can make multiple calls like phone calls and bring information in and then make decisions based on that. So it's a really good tool to kind of automate, but also use some AI tools alongside of it to make decisions.

Right. I use a lot of that in Python in my world. But I think people should start being comfortable with it. And I did post a while back. Just put a post prompt in there and you can probably find our Facebook group. It says, here's my property address. Give me all the data from all these sites. I want you to research it. You can really do that. And within seconds, it pulls back the data. It's amazing tool. So just get used to using it. That's my only big thing is play with it. And it's not dirty. It's not scary. It's just it's here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Make you make your days go faster. And once you get those systems and those system prompts, I mean, just put it in there and drop files in there and you'll just do pretty much anything you want.

Yeah. And I would ask questions, get into Facebook group and ask people questions. Everyone's using it, right? There's a big new phenomenon happening this past weekend that I'm playing with. And you never know what's going to happen. But I think people just get nervous with it. I feel just open chat. You can start talking to it on week on your car rides with notes, though. I think people get overly nervous when they're dealing with servicers and attorneys. What's been your experience with working with an attorney or servicer? And is it what you expect to be? Yeah. So my experience has been pretty good working with servicers.

I will say that one of the things that I will tell newer investors is that even though you do have a servicer, you have to manage your servicer, too. So keeping in communication with them. And so I definitely think that in this business, it's really good to have strong communication skills and emailing skills and be able to contact them. And so I think having and building a relationship with them, your servicer, goes a long way to keep that intimidation and things like that at bay. And with attorneys, I definitely think that if you have to have to use them, there could be a challenge. But I definitely think that depending on the situation, having somebody else help guide you along the way within those attorneys can be a little bit better.

But yeah, it's just the name of the game and some things that we have to do in this business. I would say attorneys were scary for me when I first got in this space. I was like, Oh, my God, you know, imagine the people on TV. I'm going to get ridiculed. And then I met my one of my first ones at a conference and didn't know to two hours later that there were attorney. Erin Quinn comes to mind. I didn't know she was attorney to like it out after I met her. And I would never guess Erin was attorney based on our conversation. She's awesome. It's just amazing that these are people, too. They're human beings.

Yeah. Some are more strict than others. Some are more what they are. Yeah. Same. I was super intimidated. I didn't want to talk to anybody. Same kind of thing. Like I said on TV and that's kind of what I had in my head. But now you go and you hang out with them. And I really like hanging out with attorneys. Actually, they're a lot of fun. They've got some cool stories and it's good. And Nathan just finished up as an eviction in out in Chicago, getting together with his attorney more often and, you know, motel year foreclosures eviction process. And that's what they're good for. That's their skills.

Right. And it's funny. We we've talked to attorneys on the phone. They like to invest with us because they don't know this side of it. They only understand the law side of it. What systems have you built from start before to manage your notes? Are you using spreadsheets or using a lot of people are getting started? Either they go a wired and buy all these tools or they stay with emails. What was been your progress along the way? Yeah. So spreadsheets definitely has been my progress in the beginning and not still use spreadsheets to kind of like manage some things. But email and being organized, I would say I drop box and different tools and encryption tools, especially with a lot of the collateral files that we do deal with.

And so those are systems that are just one thing is I don't, you know, I would say systems are the things that you don't want to take for granted. You want to put in place even if you've got one note or hundreds of notes, don't miss out on having good systems because they'll keep you accountable and organized when you're ready to sell it if you need to sell whatever that might be. So definitely love systems. Where'd you store your first collateral file? They got shipped to you. Oh, man. I mean, I think it was in a cabinet. I was. I'll agree with that. I think I laid up my table for a while. We had someone on the show.

He said he put it in his car. He wrote a note, just left the closing table and put the note on the side chair of his car. His kids go putting on it and all the kind of stuff. And it was just almost flew out the window because you just don't know when you first start. Yeah, you don't. Yeah, you don't know. And so as you get better, you get more. And I think I will say that being around the right people kind of help you helps you to so go into the conferences, seeing the vendors, seeing what's out there, seeing what other people are doing can kind of help you like, oh, you know, safe fire, you know, fire safe, safes and things like that for documents where you just don't put them in different places and retention of documents.

So yeah, it's where you find the people that can help you. It's awesome. A lot of those are just casual conversations. Like it's not even, you know, anything formal. It's just, what are you guys doing with that? Or whatever. People are just talking about it and somebody mentions, oh, yeah, and my fireproof safe and you're like, oh, I guess that's a thing. Yeah. Yeah. So let's shift gears for a minute. We talked before I came on and we're bragging it. You know, social media has been a thing for you. Can you share with someone who's newer? What did social media do for you? If you had any hesitancy about doing it, how did you get over it? Because you look at natural out there.

So share a little bit about that. Yeah. So originally, like I was just doing my thing, you know, just doing it. I didn't necessarily think that I needed it. So everything was working. Right. And so once I got the, you know, curse to actually do something, you know, talk about this thing where some people knew, but not a whole lot of people knew that I was even doing it. I started to get more comfortable just to get on camera and talk about notes that, you know, I've been doing this for years, but let me tell you exactly what that means and what that looks like. And so what it's what it has done is opened up so many doors, I will say, from people that have engaged with me.

I've been able to help people get their first note, their first deal, being able to share my experiences, education, and even, you know, capital investors wanting to work with me. And so I think the part for me is being just showing up, being present and being, you know, true and just leading with integrity. I think that's where people can see that. And so, you know, my advice is I just be open and just share as much value as possible because, you know, you never know who's looking. And so sometimes I get emails and stuff like that. It's like, oh, okay. Yeah. And definitely like for me being relatable and being, oh, you can actually do this.

You know, I came from this background. So I think that's the key to is to give value as much as possible and just show up as yourself. Well said. Well said. Do you find any when you're talking to the newer investors, what are some of the things that you find that the most common questions you're being asked that we can kind of help along them? What are some of the things that they're asking you that all the other new investors, even new creators, right? What are the typical questions you're hearing from your posts or your emails? Yeah. So one of the first, one of the biggest questions, like what happens if they stop paying? Is this like a freak out? It's like what exactly happens? And so that's one of the biggest questions that I get is that the hasn't hasn't to see of what if they stop paying? That's scary.

It is scary because that's what you bought. You bought this painstaking. So then all of a sudden they're not paying. Then what? Yeah. Then you do the scary attorney people and all that stuff, right? Yeah. Yeah. Then you gotta talk to an attorney. When you do tell these people what the next steps are, is there something else that they ask in addition to that? Do you find them still frustrated, worried? And how did you get over that kind of fear, that anxiety driven thing? Because I think we all dealt with it. Even, I mean, my first, I don't know, 80, 90, 100 notes I bought were not performers. So I got over it pretty quickly.

But what do you advice do you give to them or what do they give back to you when they first went into that? Yeah, I think the first thing, you know, I kind of like share with them, like, you know, you're thinking about what could happen in the collateral and thinking about you're doing your due diligence. I definitely think that that's important to think about and just share with them. Like, this is, you know, backed by real estate and there are options. There are, you know, different extra strategies that you can work with. And so giving them that, I think it kind of helps them with the different strategies that you can use instead of like, there's just a stop and there's just, you know, everything just falls apart, but there's different things you can do.

But letting them know that the reality is the reality, too. And so, you know, being able to hold their hand a little bit about the strategy, offering some advice to help them along the way to kind of think through that. That protection's inside the agreement, right? That's that's there. It's not like it's a left field. It just feels awkward, right? You send a demand letter, you're following the lesbians, you know, the process. And you learn the steps and it takes a little while. It I mean, I'm thinking back to my first note and it was it was a disaster. My first two, you know, they didn't even know they own the debt anymore.

They were like, oh, we don't own that property. Like, yeah, you do. And the second we couldn't find and it was a disaster. We actually released that note, one of the first two notes we bought. But it was all Wild West. And I think it goes back to making sure your due diligence is solid and you feel confident, not for the fact that they'll perform forever. But what if it doesn't? Making sure you buy it with that thought process of not planning for the best, but, you know, make sure you're making a dollar if it goes bad, according to another one else. Schemar. So making sure you make something on it a little bit.

You're not, you know, just losing a ton of money on it and make sure the worst case scenario. If it's even if the worst case scenario, you're OK, then that's a good deal. Yes. And then go from there. Yeah. What deal have you been surprised with? Give us a deal or a scenario that you're a shock buyer, maybe a bad story, a good story about your experience. Yeah. So I think one of the surprising things I share is that going back to like the documentation paperwork is like I was looking at a chain of assignment. I was buying a note, a mortgage note, and Wells Fargo forgot to sign a chain, you know, sign the assignment.

And it was probably four or five years before it got assigned. It's like, oh, OK, so a big bank can mess up. So you have to do your due diligence. You can't expect these, you know, anything, anything can happen. So it was resolved pretty quickly, but I definitely think that was, you know, eye opener. Yeah. And so that's why it's important to do that due diligence part. And, you know, the other ones have just been really inspiring because they paid off quicker. And, you know, some scenarios where I had a one borrower who paid extra on the principal every month was like, oh, this is a nice thing.

So, you know, they wanted to pay the note off faster. And so those are some good wins that, you know, expecting, you know, some income replacement, but you're getting a little bit more on the on the back end. So, yeah. What's been your best deal? What's been the deal that, you know, without you don't give us trade numbers, but what was that deal that stood out where someone says, hey, tell me why to get into notes? What would you what would story would you give them? Yeah. Yeah. So I think it was like the note that allowed me to pay off my student loan debt. And so that was the one that was like, oh, okay, this is what it's, you know, this what it's about.

And so didn't think it would be paid off. And so I paid off to I paid it off two years earlier than I was expecting to do it. And so I was like, okay, yeah, this this note thing actually does work. Yeah. And that's I think that's attributed to good strong powers and good collateral and just good focus, you know, thinking through how can I solve this problem and how can I be a little bit creative in the process? Was the note paid off? Did you was it? Yeah. So it got paid off early. Oh, high five. She paid. Yeah. She paid the note off early and wasn't not expecting it, but kind of got a sense of it, you know, in bar.

How much, you know, oh, yeah, how much payoff? Yeah. Yeah. How much does pay off? And so I looked at my balance and, you know, I could have bought a different note, but I was like, you know what, this is what I this is what I said to do. And I do that. Yeah. There's some deals now we have some we have some interest only loans where I'm like, don't pay anything. Don't pay anything off. Right. Yeah. I don't want the interest being down. Yeah. Our principal. So you said about your create notes, right? What does that look like? Yeah. So, um, yes. I asked for the question again. Sorry. I was saying you created notes.

Yeah. Yes. What does that look like? What have you done? Yeah. Give us a story about certain circumstances. Like, when do you do that? Yeah. So that's a good question. So originally that's kind of how I came into this world and creative financing. And so I set out to, you know, find a property that I could sell of a seller financing. And so I called around and found a house that I took over the note. And so I created a note. And so the reason why I did that was I wanted to get a big, you know, a bigger payment up front. And so I fixed the property up and made sure it was really nice and brought it up to value and got a down payment and then monthly payments from there.

You bought a sub two, you took over a sub two and then you got a down payment. You fixed it up a little bit. You sold it with a wraparound note. Right. Yeah. You still have the sub two there and you put a bar in place, got a down payment. The bar was unwritten. And now you get a bigger payment because you didn't have to put as much money into a deal than you would in a normal note. What was that journey like? I mean, getting the underwriting, it's a little different from buying a note because that all stuff is done already. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that the underwriting for me was like a first step in getting into that.

And so figuring out how to look at the subject, to look at the note that I was creating, look at the wrap and making sure everything was in order and getting the proper down payment and the monthly payments together. So, and then co-assigning with those payments too. So it was a little bit of a work and organization to get that completed. So that was one of my first deals and doing that. And so again, definitely learning experience. But that's the beauty. You do it once and now you've got that confidence to do it again. Whether or not you know how to do it perfectly or not, it doesn't matter. You've done it once and now you can figure out how to do it again.

That's awesome. Would you do another one or would you rather buy a note? Yeah. So that lesson you taught me, I didn't want to do that again. Okay. All right. So I was like, yeah, I could just buy notes. And so not to say that it was not for me. So I definitely think, like I said earlier, it's like what's for you and how, what's your risk tolerance is, what's your time is. You have to look at all of that. And so my time, you know, starting a family, I have a four-year-old. So like, you know, I'm going to be at home versus going out and training. Yep. Nope. I like being the lazy person behind the spreadsheet.

You too. Right. Yeah. It works for me, right? And I'm more than happy to have someone else do that part of it. And I just want to be on the back end. Tell me when you've got it all figured out and I'm here. I'll pay you off. Right. We do a lot. We get a lot of rep notes sent to us. I got five or six sent to me today and I look into it. I diligence in it a lot of times is something we can't buy. And we've talked about in the show why we can buy certain things or we can't. What are some properties you look at? Do you look at mobile homes? Do you look at raw land? Do you look at, you know, what kind of typical property are you looking for to buy? Yeah.

So my primary focus is single family. Yeah. And I will buy land notes depending on where they are and acres and the structure of those. And as well as mobile homes that are, you know, the title and not in mobile home parks. So mobile homes with land is like a really sweet spot that I invest in. So I do like that. Like I said, I'm more of a risk taker. And so I might do like a combination and a diversification of those different collaterals. And I find land notes can be high risk and high reward. Yes. And single families are really good to me. So they're a combination of those in your portfolios, you know, something that I like.

Yeah. Three of the five I got today were mobile homes or inside park. I have the same conversation as I always do. Yeah. I can't buy your note. It's a mobile home. It's a vehicle. It's not actual personal real property. Where do you see for yourself the missing pieces that someone who's getting into today is missing out on? Where what do you think is missing in the in the note space world? If anything at all, where they just a gap where it's like, boy, I wish you would be better if if I had this when I got started or maybe you found it now, I don't know. Yeah, it would help these people get through the process a little better.

Yeah, I definitely think that I think it's twofold for me. I think there's a really good strong education when it comes to buyers, but not as much as in sellers. And so working with different sellers, you kind of see like a lot of different things and different flavors. And so I think there's a gap in like being able to kind of help organization and seeing what they actually need to make a successful transaction go through properly. So, you know, I think that's something that can be working. There's a lot of, you know, note holders that are, you know, mom and pop accidental. You know, someone told them, hey, this is kind of, yes.

Carry this note for me because I want this property. So I think there is a gap in the education for those folks who don't know that they could sell. They don't know. Yeah. And if you're one of the people's opportunity, please listen to our webinars. We've talked about so much. And the reason it comes up so much if you're listening is it's a huge deal. And it's a huge opportunity for you as well as Ross. Yeah, we can be great partners. Yeah, great partners. Check us out. Yep. Absolutely. Note buyers love you guys. Just ask questions and understand. You know, I put the website together, jkpholdings.com slash note validation.

It will go through some of the features why we can or can't do certain things and why certain things work. One of the notes that's all today, again, it was a 5.2 interest rate note. And they wonder what if I could pay par. Because they don't understand what par is, and they don't understand why the interest rate matters. It was 40 years, which is crazy. 40 years, 5.5. Yeah. 5.2. Yep. So and they just don't understand why. Listen, I have equity and that doesn't work. It doesn't matter if you have equity and all these kind of things. And working with them, you're right, Sierra. I don't they just don't think like we do.

And I think the gap is there. And we're trying to marry the two. And if you're listening to it, get down in Nashville in May and come meet with us and talk to us a little bit and just learn and shake our hands. Right. Yeah. Well, I'm going to let Nathan ask his final last question because I love the fact you're out there. Missouri is one of my favorite states to invest in, by the way. For notes. Me too. I don't talk about too much. Everyone looks Texas. Missouri is so I know you're from Kansas. Missouri is one of the actually the fastest state to foreclose on if you do it correctly. Yep. I had that same thing.

And the same thing. It's kind of one of those hidden gems and I don't like to talk about it. Yes. Yeah. Good stuff. So we always like to get our guests take on, you know, given the history and what you've been through and what you're doing right now, what do you see coming up? What's your crystal ball prediction for notes, for real estate? What do you see in our future in the near short term or long term? Yeah. So I definitely or like the short term, I definitely think, you know, people are entering into the space, which I think is really, really key because they're seeing the benefits of it. I think a lot of people are getting tired of the low margins of cash flow within rentals and syndication and multifamilies that might not be what they're expecting to be.

So I definitely think there's going to be a lot of interest into the space. I definitely think there's going to be a lot more seller financing deals coming, especially with all the regulations and tightening, but seeing all of that happening here in Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas as well. So I definitely think there's going to be a little bit more inventory for people who are getting into the space. And so which I think is exciting and looking forward to that, that happening for everybody. So I like to see everybody getting into the game. And so I'm very excited about that. Awesome. Well, Sarah, it's been a pleasure having you on.

It is so cool. Finally talk to you again. Yeah, we will. I'm sure see you down to DME. We're going to share the serious contact information. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to her, share information, talk to her, give her a call, whatever you got to do. You'll be amazed on the level of understanding she has and are willing to be openess and talk to you about situations. Nothing. Don't be shy. Don't be afraid. Just ask. She's a great person to reach out to, does great job of social media. I'm jealous. I know Nathan's jealous of social media. She's done so keep up the great work.

If you're looking to deploy some capitals, there is an option you can have. She's also looking for partners to just JV with uncertain situations. So just partners in general. So once again, thank you so much for coming on. Hang on for a few minutes and we'll see everyone soon. We'll see you in a few weeks. Take care. Have a good time. Thanks..