You may remember 2007 and 2008 as pretty tough times for the real estate industry. The bubble that had been growing to gigantic proportions burst, and many folks throughout our country paid a heavy price.

It was around this time that I entered the note business, having been burned by trying to flip houses as the market was turning and I did not know it was turning! What I did not know till much later was that some of the biggest players in the note buying business had also been burned. So badly, in fact, that they either went out of business or withdrew from note buying and focused elsewhere.

I closed my first transaction in December 2007. In 2008, my expenses were 2x my income! What was I thinking? Was my decision to move from flipping houses to buying/brokering seller carry back notes a disastrous one? Sure looked that way.

I loved the business, despite the heartaches, and soon found my way and connected with veterans who had seen a lot in their 20+ years in the note business. Gradually, I changed, became more efficient, more comfortable, more knowledgeable.

Last week ended the 1st quarter of 2015. My results and profitability for these 3 months exceeded my combined efforts of 2007, 2008 and 2009!

The reason I share this with you is to reinforce my conviction that today is a great time for note sellers, note buyers and note brokers. By 2009, note growth had hit a market low, with only about 60,000 notes being created nationwide. And, so many of those were not marketable - at all. So sellers who were looking to their notes to get the cash they needed found few takers. And buyers found slim pickings and too much risk. Tough to make a living in that kind of environment.

Today, we have about double the amount of notes being created. We have real estate prices that have rebounded. We have buyers being diligent in what notes they will buy, but being aggressive when they find a note they like. Good times for seller and buyer.

If you are a note holder and potential seller, you also need to know that some buyers have loosened up on what they will buy when it comes to the property that is securing your note. In the past 3 months we have closed transactions on notes secured by single family homes, manufactured homes, condominiums, commercial property, farm land, residential land. In the past, many buyers who had bad experience with notes backed by mobile homes or land just opted to stay away from them. But today, if you have good terms on your mobile home or land note, you will find the pricing is competitive, and you should be able to sell your note.

If you are creating a note or desiring to sell a note, our industry is poised to help you, either with advice on suggested terms or pricing to allow you to get the cash you need.

All you have to do is ask!

You still have time to learn what you need to learn about the note business. The Paper Source Symposium will be held in Las Vegas from April 30-May2. See you there.  www.PaperSourceOnLine.com.

                                      New Home Sales

Union Bank, in its March 27, 2015 MMG Weekly report, says that new home sales surged in February, rising 8% from January to an annual rate of 539,000 units. This is the highest level since February 2008, and is up almost 25% from one year ago. Median price for new homes was $275,500, up 2.6% from a year ago.

"The real estate market can remain irrational longer than you can remain rational." Alex Nackoul in his book Secrets to Successful Mortgage Investing.

                                       Negative Equity

Core Logic reports that residential negative equity increased 7 billion dollars from Q3 to Q4 2014. The most pressing concern are the results for the lower end of the market, under $100,000.

See www.corelogic.com, March 26, 2015.

"If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you're misinformed." ...... Mark Twain.

                             Sales of Second Homes Surge

According to the National Association of Realtors (N.A.R.), Americans bought more than 1.1 million vacation homes last year, up 57% from 2013, and the most since N.A.R. started tracking these sales in 2003.

By contrast, investors bought about 1 million homes and owner-occupants purchased 3.2 million - a 13% decline from 2013.

The Realtor group said the median vacation home price fell 11.1% to $150,000, attributing this trend to higher sales of condos and town homes versus single family homes. Purchases also increased for distressed properties and for homes in the relatively affordable South.

"Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half."...... John Wanamaker.

                                  Western White House

Californians who have driven South down Interstate 5 near San Clemente know the property. It sits high on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and was a getaway for President Nixon while he was in office. He called it La Casa Pacifica, everyone else dubbed it the Western White House.

The man who has owned it for the past 30 years has put the estate on the market at $75 million. Check it out.

www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/04/02/397107395/nixons-western-white-house-up-for-sale.

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