Do you recall the 1981 hit from “Men at Work called Land Down Under?” (and yes, I was a big Men-at-Work fan.)

I recieved an email from a Korean by the name of Joe and it reminded me of the show.

What Is The Relation To Buying Notes?

The story that Joe shared with me involvd on of the most important lessons in the business of how to find notes. Your relationships matter.

In addition to these relationships, you should find “commonalitites” with your seller. This will also help you when you’re trying to find notes.

These commonalities can be a number of things, they can be social, sports-related, cultural. Any type of activity can be a good point of commonality. Some examples are sports, hobbies, favorite pastimes, favorite foods, music, etc.

Joe’s Story -A Little Gem Of How To Find Notes

Here’s what he wrote to me today:

“I am the owner of a Korean Investment Club. I do not undertand the note buying business very well and therefore I am not ready to think about buying notes. Last week I was approached by a big Korean bank who wanted me to buy their notes. They told me to offer any amount for the first trust deed. The property is a 79 room motel with attached restaurants. It is worth over $4 million and the defaulted mortgage has a face value of about $2.7 million which includes interest. I am really interested in buying the notes. Thank you for time.”

So what are we looking at here?

There is Joe, the owner of a Korean Real Estate Investment club. And then we have the big Korean Banks offereing an interesting lead.

Does Joe Know Anything About Buying Notes?

No – he admits as much in the first line of his email. So do you think that he pitched to this big Investment Bank that he would be the perfect guy to buy their non performing notes?

No he did not. The note buying opportunity found him. And it also seems that they are willing to accept any offer that he makes on that note.

Just for a little while, try to stop focusing on the fact that Joe might be able to offer a low bid on this note and actually close his first note buying deal. This can be a great a deal! If the value of the collateral is actually $4 million and if the loan is a non performing note, Joe will have the opportunity to foreclose on a motel.

I want to point out something that is so simple when you are trying find notes. It is so simple, you probably looked it over thinking that there is a bigger lesson here.

Joe is from where? Korea. What kind of a bank is this? Korean.

So the fact that this note, which is on a California property, happens to land in Joe’s lap, should actually come as no surprise.

Tips on Finding Notes

Remember when you are trying to find notes, banks often want to sell notes to people that they can talk to.

And sometimes, the people they can talk to look like them, talk like them, act like them, do business like them, live like them, and entertain themselves like them.

The chances are, even a well known investor trying to find notes probably wouldn’t get the same recognition from the Korean Bank that Joe did. They just preferred to deal with him because Joe had that one commonality that you or me could never have. Because of this, getting to know each other was a simpler process for Joe than it would be for you or me.

So start applying this note buying tip today.

Find the Commonalities between You and your Sellers.

Find someone that speaks your language and ask them if they have any notes for sale.