Another week has come and gone and the Markets finished on a downward slide. I am sure some of you are experiencing some heartburn with your investments. Are you being proactive with moving your investments in and out of the Market, or are they tied up in your 401(k)? The one thing that I wanted to make sure for myself that I had full control of my investments as they are my retirement nest egg. In my last post I provided an overview of real estate note investing niche and the two types of investments that are available to you and me. In this post I want to discuss the ins and outs of performing notes.

A performing note A.K.A. is a mortgage that you or I can get from our local bank. Once your mortgage is funded by your lender or broker it either is serviced by that entity or it could be sold to another financial institution. Mortgages are sold in what is called the primary market. The major players in this market are banks, credit unions, and mortgage brokers. Now you are asking yourself where to do I come into play? You come into play in the secondary market. Before, I go into too much depth on the secondary market I want to give you an overview of Mortgage Backed Securities(MBS). Mortgage Backed Securities were created by President Lyndon Johnson when the Charter Act was passed in 1968. The original concept of MBS was to allow banks to sell off mortgages that would in turn allow them to free up funds to lend to other homeowners. The simplest MBS is called the pass-through participation certificate. This MBS pays the holder principal and interest payments that have been collected on the mortgage. This MBS is the most common you and I will invest in the secondary market. The creation of MBS also allowed non-bank institutions to enter into the mortgage business, and lenders were able to get their cash back in the secondary market instead of waiting for 15 to 30 years for the mortgage to mature. This brings us to the 2000s when the industry decided to become creative in offering complex MBS to entice new homeowners. We all know how this finished! I am not willing to rehash history, but if you want to read more about MBS here is a great website.

With all that out of the way lets talk about how you and I can invest in the secondary market. There are numerous ways to invest in the secondary market, but I am going to cover the three options I have experience with. First, purchasing directly from banks, lenders, hedge funds, and mortgage brokers. This choice is for a person that is looking to be a full-time investor, and he/she will have to build relationships with these financial institutions. Specifically as I have done in my career many times one has to "Dial for Dollars" to Asset Managers. These individuals control multi million dollar portfolios for their respected banks, and their job is to make sure these loans are sold and off the books before the end of the banks' fiscal year. The 2nd option is to purchase directly from private sellers. This option too has some full-time aspects as in you have to market your business to potential sellers in the form of phone calls, website presence, email marketing, and direct mail campaigns. A private seller is typically an individual/couple that has sold their home to a buyer on Contract/Owner Financing, which is another form of a MBS. Another nuance of contracts/owner financing transactions is that you need to ensure the loan was originated per Federal and State Laws. The biggest challenge I have experienced with these MBS is the contract violates State usury laws. When that is discovered the contract has to be re-written like a new loan. All terms stay the same except the interest rate on the loan is lowered and the home buyer will sign the new loan documents. The 3rd option is to be a private lender. Simply put you are the bank and you are lending funds to investors with an ROI expectation. This option by far is the easiest way to start investing in MBS.

There are endless investment vehicles that one can choose from, but there are not many investments that have a greater impact on society as a whole like MBS. When you invest in a contract/owner financing transaction you are providing financing to home buyers that otherwise would not be able to obtain a mortgage due to some credit challenges. In turn, you earn a healthy ROI and your investment is backed by real estate. I will leave you here for this post, and in my next post I will talk about non-performing notes (MBS), and how they too can be a great investment vehicle for your portfolio.