MEET ROB:

In the Spring ’11, my junior year, I was studying marketing and excited about entrepreneurship. One fateful Monday night, I sat through a guest lecture from a real estate investor (Joe) building a Note Business: investing in secured junior liens. As a kid from a family that renovated & rented victorian homes outside of Philadelphia, I was intrigued with the idea of real-estate secured assets. Rather than buying homes, this investor bought mortgage notes to assume the position of the Bank. I knew what it was like for a Borrower, my parents owed plenty of mortgages over the years – it was hard work! Mom & Dad had to keep their units rented & in working order. I would mow lawns & shovel snow otherwise face fines from the township.

When I started buying my own properties, I was in for a treat – the day after closing my second rental, I got a call from the tenant – “sewage is filling up our kitchen sink when we flush the toilet upstairs!!”. Fortunately, with my father’s help, we replaced the corroding cast iron stack with PVC and cleared up the issue. But do you know who made money the whole time with literally ZERO work? The mortgage company. While dad and I wrestled with stinky pipes, the bank did their thing: collect principal + interest. What a deal! As note holders, investors step into these privileged shoes and avoid the hassles of tenants, toilets, townships, and termites – that’s the owner’s job.

While my dad is capable with any power tool, I was more comfortable with the computer. I knew early on that my value to the real estate industry would not be wearing a tool belt – my skills were on the phone, mouse & keyboard. And it was clear to me, I couldn’t miss this opportunity to learn the Notes business. Later that week, I interviewed with Joe & his co-founder Tom. We hit it off and I was hired as an intern to begin work the following Monday auditing collateral files. At first, I had no clue what I was doing but over the years, I took on more responsibility. Thousands of assets later I became an indispensable part of the team, handling everything from sourcing, due diligence, pricing, negotiation, on-boarding, asset management, disposition strategies and process development.

After 6 years in the industry, I was ready to build my own brand by  launching FIXnotes, focused solely on providing value to Mortgage Note investors. First I wrote How to Invest in Mortgage Notes, our 100% free online course, to educate investors on how to invest in Notes the right way. Then I launched our live, industry YouTube show: be.the.bank.

No longer an intern, Tom & Joe now trust me with their firm’s entire mortgage note portfolio. Since hiring FIXnotes in 2017 we’ve helped them buy & sell thousands of assets, with revenues in the tens of millions. I continue to play an active role in the secondary mortgage market as a portfolio manager, high-level consultant and trade desk with over 100 assets sold in the first few months of 2021.

As a culmination & continuation of my career in this industry, I’m excited to bring you the Mortgage Note Mastermind, a group of over 50 investors poised to take their businesses to the next level in 2021.