A “Win Some, Win Some” Investment Opportunity
Interview by Anita Cooper
In the real estate world, investors have a lot of choices to grow their portfolios; fix and flip, buy and hold, residential, multi-family or commercial, and finally, one type of investment that’s often forgotten or at the least remains shrouded in mystery: note investing.
Note investing is a fantastic way to grow your wealth, but until the last ten or so years, it’s not been on the radar of many property investors. We sat down with Jasmine Willois, founder of The Note Assistance Program (N.A.P.) to learn more about her and to discover how her organization can very often help investors reap double digit returns.
Question: Jasmine, how did you get involved with note investing?
ANSWER:Note investing is one of those things that kind of came to me. I started out with a real estate investment club called Lady Landlords of San Diego, and that really took off! We ended up expanding to two clubs, the latter being Lady Landlords of Orange County.
After years of flipping homes, offering turn-key investments (rentals) and some life changes, it occurred to me that I didn’t want to work this hard at investing. So I called a hedge fund manager I knew from networking, and we will it off. I ended up shadowing him for the next two years of my life, and learning everything he did inside and out.
Question: Do you enjoy your work?
Yeah, it’s exhilarating… it really fits my personality. It’s something that allows me to use my problem solving skills to help those in need. You see, I used to be a day trader and a stock broker. It was a lot of money, but not as rewarding. With note investing I’m able to make good money and also feel good about what I do.
Question: Why should investors add notes to their investment portfolios?
ANSWER: Outside of the sheer return, which is very alluring — it’s really a product that, whether investors know it or not, they’re most familiar with.
The majority of people use traditional means to invest and save, such as stocks, bonds, ETFs and mutual funds. These vehicles are really hard to understand and that’s the difference with notes, if explained correctly almost anyone can get it.
Again, because most of us are familiar with the underlying asset, real estate and even further a majority of them have experience getting mortgage loans from one of the bigger mortgage banks, like Wells Fargo or Chase.
As far as the underlying asset, which is the actual real estate, investors who buy notes are already very familiar with the concept. They’ve bought a home before with a loan, so whether they realize it or not at first, they’re very familiar with the product.