Posted by Dario on May 01, 2007 at 10:56:45:
Carol-
Try asking where they record Land Records. You may even look for a title company employee and ask “when someone sells a home, where do they record this information?” Is it in books or on computer? When you find the book look for mortgages or deeds of trust, depending on your state. If a mortgage state, you want to look for the “mortgagee”, if a deed of trust state you look for the “beneficiary”, this is the party receiving payments and you want to make sure this party is a person(i.e., john smith) and NOT an institution like bank of America or Wachovia, etc.
This however, is the hard, and less efficient way to find notes. There are companies that will sell you the names of people holding paper for as little as $0.12 per name.
Perhaps the best way to find paper is to use referral sources to send you notes such as attorneys, builders, accountants, bankers, financial planners, etc., you should emphasize to them that you can make them look good in the eyes of their clients by providing them with cash for their notes, to which you in turn will pay a referral fee.
Hope this helps,
Dario