Beyond Face Value: Understanding What a Note Is Worth

In this episode of Property & Paper Live, Dawn explores how understanding both real estate and the secondary note market can uncover opportunities most agents and investors overlook. Using a real seller-financed note as an example, she explains why a note’s face value doesn’t determine what it’s actually worth—and why factors like property value, loan-to-value, payment history, borrower credit, note terms, and overall risk all matter when evaluating a deal. She also discusses how partial note purchases can offer an alternative to selling an entire note at a steep discount, and how agents can expand their opportunities by learning to work on both the “property” and “paper” sides of a transaction.