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Keyhole Financial

LEADERS IN THE DISTRESSED MORTGAGE MARKET

8 Websites That Make Me Smarter



Whether I’m looking to track down a borrower or reviewing my borrowers to update their records, there are websites that I simply can’t live without. These websites aid me in the process of making me smarter and when I’m smarter, it’s easier to make smart decisions and when I make smart decisions, I usually make money, and when I make money, I’m happy!


These are my “go-to” websites that I always use. Here’s my in-depth reasons why I love them (in no particular order):


Netronline (netronline.com)

If I don’t know the status of the first mortgage, I go to this site and patiently sift through all the mortgages, releases, and assignments. Like a project from High School, I carefully notate all the transactions by date, type, book, page, and amount. I then start color-coding them so that all the mortgages and matching release of mortgages are the same color. This eliminates them in my task of finding the last-standing mortgages. During this process I also want to make sure that the assignments make sense and follow a chain of title. At the end of the project, I should know which loans are still valid, which helps me determine what course of action I should take with the borrower.


For those interested, I created a Title Report Template in Excel that helps with this color-coding process. Click on the link, here to access this template.


Title Profile (titlepro247.com)

Whether I’m looking to buy a new loan or am updating my existing borrowers, I use this site to verify the borrower is still the owner. There is no charge just for this part. , For instance, if I see that instead of John Doe (my borrower), the name is Acme Mortgage Company, I can assume the loan has been foreclosed on. If the new name is Mary Smith, I can assume the loan was sold either directly to Mary Smith or the loan was foreclosed on and then sold to her. Either way, my borrower is no longer the owner.


Quite often I find the seller’s information incorrect as the name on the spreadsheet doesn’t match the name on the title screen. In these cases, I click on the sites’ Property Title Report (there is a charge for this) and can see what happened to my borrower.


Zillow (Zillow.com)

I use Zillow a lot! I know the prices are usually inflated by about 10-15%, but I take that into consideration when I’m running formulas to figure out CLTV’s or whether it’s worth foreclosing on a loan. There are other home value websites you can use, and I do use them as backups, but I like Zillow the best.


Sometimes I’m missing information such as monthly mortgage, interest rate or even maturity date. I need this information to make informed decisions. This site allows me to get this info within seconds.


TLO (tlo.com)

This is a great “skip-tracing” site that allows me to confirm and find so much information. From age of borrower to phone numbers, emails, names of potential relatives to liens against the borrower. This type of information is invaluable and a real time saver. Be forewarned, the art of skip tracing is a boring and frustrating task but is a necessary evil to get to the borrower.


Credit Reports (cbcinnovis.com)

Sometimes the seller doesn’t provide credit reports or they’re too old. Sometimes I want to just see how my borrowers are doing with their first mortgage. For these reasons, I’m constantly running credit reports. I think one of the greatest hidden gems in due diligence is the borrower’s FICO score. This number tells you overall how the borrower is doing financially. If I’ve captured this number from when I purchased a loan and decide to run it again, I can see whether the borrower is improving or getting worse. Credit reports also sometimes give you hints to where the borrower is currently working.


Who would have thought the Government would supply us with a site that provides amazing information for next to nothing. This site is free, and you only pay for pages you print. Anytime I need information on bankruptcies for potential new borrowers or my existing ones, this is the place to go. It’s like being a fly on the wall in that you get so much information at your fingertips. It takes a little bit of time to familiarize yourself with the lingo, but after you’ve seen a few dozen, you catch on fast. This site has saved me from making dumb investments many times.


Google (google.com)

This site has managed to turn the universe into your backyard. Anything and everything you need is at the touch of your fingertips. I’ve managed to find borrowers by just thinking outside of the box and Google has allowed me to do this.


I hope you’ve enjoyed my list of websites that help to make me smarter and I encourage you to make your own list.


KEEP GETTING SMARTER!


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