Is the Government Into Notes?

Recently, one of my LinkedIn connections messaged a comment to me that my profile stated that I was in the government. He asked, “Is the government selling notes now?” I had to laugh at first then I responded to him, no, the government is not selling notes (although, the General Services Administration may perform that contractual function on behalf of the government). I explained, I am a note investor who also happens to work for the government.

After retiring from the Navy, I continue to provide public service for the last 14 years, as a warranted Contracting Officer for the DoD. To those of you outside of the government, that means nothing. To those of you that are a part of the government, or familiar with government contracting on a day to day basis, you know that a Contracting Officer is the only person warranted and authorized to obligate and bind the government under a contract.

Obligate the government? Spend your (our) tax dollars, in short. Under my Contracting Officer’s warrant, I have unlimited authority to do that. UNLIMITED. This means, while following certain federal laws, regulations and compliances, I have been entrusted as a steward of the citizen’s money, your tax dollars, at an unlimited amount, to conduct the business and varying missions of the department. Every year there are billions of dollars in contracts awarded and that is just under the DoD, the largest department.

How does this relate to notes you ask? Well, I am also a note investor and business owner who is entrusted with other investor’s funds. While those funds are a whole lot less than billions (or even millions) handled daily by me, those dollars are no less important than the millions of dollars in contracts that I have put in place and administered over the last 14 years. One of the things that drew me to note investing was the definite parallel that I noticed to that of contracting.

In notes you must do market research, perform due diligence on assets, research information on the borrower, use different systems to

track incoming/outgoing funds, keep thorough files, maintain a record of correspondence, get certifications, ongoing education, collaborate with legal counsel, etc. Guess what? I must do the exact same things before I award a contract and then administer the contract through completion and closeout of the contract!

I couldn’t believe it when I took my first note training (and every training after that), how similar it was and how many processes directly correlated! That was my lightbulb moment and so my journey into notes began. Now I’m applying some of the same acquisition principles and practices to residential notes, just like I do for the products and services that I typically award contracts for on behalf of the government.

©Awanna Renovation & Holdings, LLC (Dec 2019-1), zee@awannarandh.com/www.awannarandh.com