Although the colateral for the note is the same the asset you’d buy in a more common real estate transaction the deals are sourced differently, sources for inventory are fewer and further between and are qualified differently, the approach and the transaction are more sophisticated, and the exits options are completely different from “fee simple” transactions.

Investing in notes, however, can be hugely profitable and in some respects a lot less work than “traditional real estate investing”.

More of our subscribers lately are non performing note investors or note brokers and I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of conversations with many of you who are trying to figure out a business plan and perhaps more importantly who are trying to find deals (business plan doesn’t matter much if you don’t have product). I’ve heard a lot about the challenges in getting started and where I’m not a note investor myself I decided I should find some experts who can speak on the topic.

Over the last few months I’ve been looking for the aforementioned expert but the big problem with a lot of what I found out there is that it didn’t smell like the real thing… a lot of talk, no transactions that I could see … big hat, no cattle. I’m pleased to say that about a month ago I found Doug Grimm from Northern Value Group. Doug and I have spoken a few times but I knew within the first few minutes of chatting about the bank data, qualifying target banks etc., that he knew what he was talking about.

In this episode I talk with Doug Grimm about his note buying business. Over the past couple of years Doug has been involved in more than $60MM in note purchases. Doug Grimm and Chris Gleize together manage Northern Value Group and also run Note Buying Mastery, a training company. Their main focus is investing in residential notes.

This episode is meant as a primer or a “Note Buying 101″ if you like.

In this podcast Doug and I discuss:

• What does it mean to “buy a note”.
• The 3 main differences between buying notes vs traditional distressed real estate investing.
• Note buying business plans and exit strategies – including a brand new FHA program that provides a fast exit.
• How and why to approach regional and community banks for non performing notes
• How they decide which banks to target
• Their top-down approach to prospecting banks, who to ask for, what to say

I’m talking with Chris and Doug after this podcast about conducting a more detailed interview and hopefully a webinar. If that’s something you’d like to hear about when it happens put your email in the form below and we’ll let you know.

I sit in a very privileged seat. What I mean by that is that I’m very fortunate to be connected to a great many high level real estate deal makers across the country. In any given week I’ll talk to a dozen or more serious players in the industry about what they’re seeing in the market, what kind of deals they’re doing and what challenges they’re facing.

Over the past 60 days I’ve had an unusual number of subscribers ask me about the new FASB rules which address the classification of certain loan workouts as “Troubled Debt Restructurings”. Well, it is said that “with great privilege comes great responsibility“, and so in that spirit I’ve reached out to my network to answer your questions in this podcast.

If you are interested strictly in residential deals go ahead and tune this out, this post is not for you. If you are involved in commercial real estate, multifamily, or C&I (non-real estate business loans) then you want to pay attention. Listen to this podcast and know that I’ll have the transcript available shortly.

If you don’t have all the bank relationships that you need or that you want right now go get busy or very soon you are going to wish that you had. If you’ve been discouraged by the distressed deal volume that you’ve seen in the market this could be your light at the end of the tunnel.

In this episode Sean Egan, CPA, senior level veteran of KPMG, and an expert on the topic of financial services accounting, takes time out from building his financial services industry consulting practice to educate you about FASB 2011-02 and how this will directly affect your business in the coming year.

In addition to Sean’s consulting practice Mr Egan is on the Investment Committee of ArchStreet Real Estate Partners. He can be reached by phone at (860) 558-3294 or you can email him.

This is a short podcast at under 15 minutes. I welcome your comments or questions below.

John is a former Wall St banker and is currently an SVP at REDC (auction.com), his clients are top tier banks and he sells non-performing notes and REO for his bank clients.

There are two keys to John’s calculation the first is knowing the banks Allowance for Loan and Lease Losses (ALLL), or Loan Loss Provisions for short. The second is knowing the approximate percentage of Unpaid Principal Balance (UBP) that the market will pay, or if you’re the buyer what you will pay. This method is most effective with the smaller local and regional banks.

Listen to this short podcast episode to learn how to estimate potential non-performing note deal size.

If you have questions about this or other podcasts in the professional podcast series please leave a comment in the box below. If you’re an expert and you’d like to share some of your expertise with other professionals in the distressed asset community please contact us and let us know what you have to offer. This website gets very highly targeted traffic and is visited by thousands of professionals looking for distressed assets, REO, non performing notes, data, and expertise.

In this episode John (a former Wall St banker and mortgage backed securities trader and investor) talks with me about the FDIC Loss Sharing Agreements and how these agreements will affect the flow and sale of distressed assets to the market. We discuss:

• The ins-and-outs of what the loss share agreements say
• How loss sharing agreements will affect the flow of distressed assets to the market
• Some tips on how to satisfy the FDIC and get assets covered under Loss Share’s sold

This episode runs for about 20 minutes.

As I mentioned in a previous post there are new reporting requirements that demand that banks with loss sharing agreements report in detail on the assets covered. We’re anticipating having all of that ‘loss share’ data available in BankProspector within the next 7-10 days.

If you’re an expert in your field we’d like to hear from you. If you have opinions or information about loss sharing agreements in particular please leave a comment below. If you work with banks in some capacity servicing, selling, or buying their distressed assets and you feel you have something to offer the distressed real estate community contact us about being featured on our site.

Thousands of distressed property professionals and bankers visit this site every month.

We’re now just days away from the private release of the new BankProspector 2.0. With this video I wanted to give you just a quick peak at just one of the new features. The ‘Advanced Search’ let’s you filter and save bank searches. You can now select banks by size, location, and you can filter for a much broader selection of distressed asset types. You can also now save these searches. Your saved search list automatically updates based on the criteria that you select so once you set the criteria banks will appear and disappear from that list based on their most updated information, which we pull every hour every day. If you don’t want a bank to age off that list you can add the bank to your watch-list and have it forever.

This is just one of many features that we are preparing to release with BankProspector 2.0. We plan to open BankProspector 2.0 to our current paying members shortly in an exclusive Private Beta program, and subsequent to that, will open it to the public.

Ken was a key player in the Wang Towers deal, probably the most famous distressed commercial property transaction in New England during the late 80′s early 90′s real estate bust. The four principals in that deal went on to net approximately $15 million each from a $25,000 initial investment – yes, you read that right.

Ken later became an SVP at CBRE Whitier Partners where he founded their Retail Advisory Group. He has sold or leased nearly $500 Million in commercial real estate. Ken has developed and owned a number of retail sites with partners and JVs and he has developed more than 4 million square feet for a major national retail tenant.

In this episode of the Distressed Property Professional’s Podcast series, Ken and I talk about:

• How the Wang Towers deal went together
• Differences and similarities between opportunities in the 90s and now
• How to put together effective distressed assets networking groups
• What banks should do to minimize their commercial real estate losses
• A forecast for the future of distressed CRE opportunities

The following content is available to non-members until January 27, 2010

Distressed Assets Mastermind Groups (142)

Continuing our Distressed Property Professional’s Podcast Series, in this podcast, I talk with Attorney Warren Kirshenbaum about the 6 key components to setting up a successful distressed assets fund. Warren was the lead attorney in assembling and structuring distressed asset funds and creating the equity raise strategies for four separate distressed asset investment funds in 2009. Fully leveraged the fund size Warren has been working on range from $3 million to $35 million.

The funds range from those seeking single family homes to three to six-family homes and commercial properties including retail, industrial, flex, and multi-family.

Warren has a law degree from New England Law and a master’s in corporate law from NYU. He practiced in New York both in-house for a Wall Street investment house and in private practice for a law firm. He was the general counsel to a large real estate developer, manager and builder based in Texas and now uses his background in corporate securities and real estate tax in structuring distressed asset funds.

In this episode of our Distressed Property Professional’s Podcast Series, we cover among other things:

• How to think about your funding strategies
• What’s a soft offering?
• The importance of a clear business plan for your fund
• Operating exempt from securities regulations
• Important fund communication protocols
• and more…

Listen in on the podcast below or download the transcript.

The following content is available to non-members until January 27, 2010.

Downloads

Troubled Assets in The Commercial Marketplace - Warren Kirshenbaum (67)
Warren's Bio (59)

Transcript

Podcast

I recently caught up with Greg Trotter (see Greg Trotter REO Experience (264) resume), President of Commercial Building Consultants, a commercial property project management firm. Greg has an impressive background in REO and distressed asset management and members have been asking me for exactly this kind of information.

Greg provided me with a tremendous amount of background information, but I’ll just give you a sample of some of the recent REO workouts and projects his company has been responsible for:

• 510 Unit Condominium Conversion Project located in Miami, Florida
• 150 Unit Luxury Apartment Complex located in Orlando Florida
• 652 Unit Apartment Portfolio located throughout the State of Indiana
• 404 Unit / 18 Story partially constructed Condominium-Hotel Located in Orlando Florida
• 806 Unit Multi-Family Apartment Complex located in Baltimore Maryland

Greg’s clients range from local and regional banks to national lenders and special servicers.

When Greg and I spoke he was in his office in Florida having just returned from halfway across the country looking at an assignment. We were lucky to have him available for this so I hope you find it informative.

The following content is available to non-members until January 21, 2010.

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Downloads

Podcast Transcript | Commercial Property Receivership Challenges and Opportunities (88)[/amprotect]

Join the conversation. Are you a proven professional in the distressed property space? We want to talk to you. We’re looking to talk to note sales and consulting professionals, note buyers, private equity investors, asset managers, special servicers, bankers, workout officers and others. Click here to contact us if you have something to contribute.

Bob is the owner of Turnstone Property, a Boston based firm that offers debt and asset management services for individual assets and portfolios, including loan portfolios and REO. Bob’s website goes on to say that Turnstone principals have extensive experience identifying, planning, underwriting, and executing complex projects. Particular expertise in repositioning and disposition of under-performing and nonperforming assets, adaptive re-use and urban infill.

In this interview we talk about:

• Workout strategies for distressed commercial and construction loans
• Preemptive strategies for performing loans
• Distressed asset opportunities for investors
• And more…

Learn from other real estate professionals on the front lines of the distressed commercial property wave to learn more about how you can be successful with investing in distressed assets or servicing those lenders who need your help in this shifting market.

Download information about Bob’s company here.
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