Working With Title Companies to Source Deals

This week, I want to introduce you to a strategy that I have been using throughout my years in business…

That is working with the servicing division of local title companies to source Note Deals and advertise your company. The large title companies that we know on a nationwide basis, places like First American, Fidelity Title, Stewart Title, Chicago Title, Lawyers Title, all of those title companies have a servicing division within their organization and they’re typically on a state-wide basis. Case in point: First American Title here in Phoenix, Arizona has their servicing division located on Washington Street, on the outskirts of downtown Phoenix. That also happens to be their main processing center for the state of Arizona.

Each state has a division, and sometimes have multiple locations in states if they’re larger, like Texas, California and Florida. The purpose in doing that is because someone will carry back a note on the properties that they’ve sold, they’ll close the transaction in the title company and the title company will offer up their services to collect the payments and post them and issue year end interest statements for the note holder. Ultimately, over a period of time, we find once that note gets to a nine to fifteen-month range, the note holder no longer has any interest in continuing to collect payments. They’d much rather have a lump sum of cash versus the five or six or eight hundred dollars a month payment that they’re currently collecting. They find that their life has maybe changed a little bit. They see where they could put that lump sum of money into a different investment, into a different opportunity and now they are looking to sell it. So, having those relationships with those servicing divisions is an important part of getting deal flow and opportunity to come to you.

Now a little secret… if you offer to pick up the postage for the servicing division for a certain percentage of the monthly statements that they send out to the note holders, which basically means that they’ve collected the payment, they’re issuing the checks, they’re sending out a monthly statement to the note holder, they’ll do a drop insert. You have to pay for the drop insert, you have to have it designed and printed, but they’ll put that drop insert in there if you pick up the postage fee for the cost of “X” number of mailings. Let’s say you want to pay for 2,000 of these mailings, so you’ll pay the postage on 2,000 of those to go out. They typically want three to six-month commitment, but you’re putting your advertising in with that note holder’s statement and that note holder’s check. You can include a message to them that connects with them in a way where they would take action and contact you as a note buyer to purchase that particular deal.
So that’s one way of opening the door that speaks volumes to servicing companies. They can cut down on their costs because you are picking up that cost and ultimately you pick up deals as well, so it’s a very direct marketing source. Not to mention, when a place like First American or Lawyers Title or Fidelity Title puts that inside of a statement they’re endorsing your company, they’re endorsing your business, and they’re endorsing you as a note buyer. That speaks volumes on a referral type basis for them.

The other thing that you could do is you can also offer to them a Note Holder’s Handbook which you can download by going to http://www.pinnacle-investments.com. The Note Holder’s Handbook will allow you to catch the note holders on the front side at the title company when they’re closing the deal. You can actually brand the Note Holder’s Handbook with your information and the title company’s information by simply using somebody like Kinko’s. You can create a dozen or so handbooks, take them to the escrow department at the title company and as they close deals that have seller financing, kindly ask them to hand out the Note Holder’s Handbook to their client, which has all of your contact information as well as theirs. It’s a great book, it’s a great resource, feel free to download it at this site, http://www.pinnacle-investments.com.