I am intrigued by the potential of buying notes directly from the bank or be involved in some part of that mechanism.  I think it may well be the next method of divesting the millions of non perfoming notes as this whole debacle continues to evolve. Anyone have experience or knowledge of Golden Gate Funding & Development?  They claim to be investors who aggregate defaulted properties and short sales. The concept is interesting and plausable... I think. They submit to buy a package of loans at discount of course... to their list of 11 lenders every 60 days.  They either complete a short sale with the realtor/affilate that flag the deal or they sell it on to institutional investors. They claim to waive defeciency. They can buy the note with our without a short sale in place but will honor the short sale if it makes sense. (ie all liens etc).  They pay the realtor thru the affiliate 5% of the purchase price of the discounted note. They also pay 6% commission if there is an executable short sale in place.  They say they have a network of affiliates across the country.  Buying notes may well be preferable for lenders to avoid the spotlight of foreclosing on homeowners.. reduce overhead managing the short sales and foreclosures... If the note has been written down or insurance collected..  In fact isn't there an article that states FHA may be selling notes in bulk to investors because they are unable to make loan modifications etc. given their own rules. 

The only thing I can think that might be an issue is that GG is registered as a corporation.  I think to buy notes, you have to be licensed with FTC or ???  So an agreement with GG is meaningless if the actual buyer is another institutional investor.  But I don't want to be so cynical as to miss a possible new trend.