Notebuying

We have extensive with assisting the buyers of distressed debt, particularly real estate backed notes in using the Force.com platform and related tools to assist their efforts to work their notes and document their activity. Our experience that during the process of working a note, a buyer typically needs to evaluate:

• What interests in the property collateral are encumbered by the loan?
• What is the value of these interests?  Are they sufficiently valuable that if the note borrower fails to pay the note, the buyer can collect the amount owed by foreclosing on the land or taking other allowed liquidation actions?
• Who owns the property collateral? (Generally, it should be owned by the borrower.)
• What is the property used for? (This information is very important in determining the value of the land and the likelihood that it is environmentally contaminated.)
• Where is the property located? And can it be located with specificity on a survey? Has it been subdivided (so that it can be resold after a foreclosure if necessary)?
• How has the property been used in the past? (Also very important when determining environmental risks.)
• If it were to have to foreclose, what use could the buyer make of the land?
• Does anyone other than borrower (and typical easement holders, like utilities) have any rights to all or parts of the land?  If so, could such interest holders block buyer’s use of the property after a foreclosure?

The common goal of all of these questions is to find out precisely what the seller is selling and what the buyer is buying. This sounds simple but is not.  The key is to be able to find out about the property while relying only on sources of information that are known to be highly accurate. Salesforce.com CRM and custom applications built on the Force.com platform permit a note buyer to accomplish both.