Being in the real estate business, you need BPOs, title searches, help with finding assets, and a variety of other services. Don’t you just wish there is a one-stop-shop that can do all of this? In today’s episode, Scott Carson talks with Dickie Baldwin about the services offered by Baldwin Advisory Group (BAG). Dickie has over 35 years of Real Estate experience as a realtor, loan originator, mortgage wholesaler, and mortgage correspondent. He goes through their comprehensive website and details costs and options, making real estate look as easy as 1-2-3!
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Watch the episode here
Listen to the podcast here
Baldwin Advisory Group With Dickie Baldwin
We’ve got some great content. I think you’re going to walk away with some phenomenal things because we’re excited to have our special guest. Our special guest has been doing a tremendous job not just for our Note Mastermind members. He’s done a great job for them. If you’re actually in the real estate industry, one of the most intimidating things as a new note or real estate investor is, “Who do you call when you have an issue? What do I do to get a BPO? Why do we get an O&E? Who do I call for a realtor? I need an MLS guy across the country.” That can take you a good 60 days to 6 months or even a lot longer than that to find the type of relationship that is going to do well.
Our special guest has done an amazing job. He’s got over 35 years of experience in real estate title, mortgage and notes. Our special guest and good friend, Dickie Baldwin, is joining us from the Baldwin Advisory Group. I’ve known Dickie for years. We’re honored to have you here. You have done a tremendous job in a short period of time with the Baldwin Advisory Group. Why don’t you do share who you are, what led to you putting the BAG together for everybody and go from there?
Thank you, Scott. What is BAG all about? As Scott had mentioned, I had been in the industry for 35-plus years. I have done everything from being a realtor, loan originator, wholesale lending, correspondent lending, warehouse lending and title business. As well as being in your shoes as an investor back in the old days when the note business wasn’t even known of. In March of 2018, knowing that I was reaching the age of retirement, I did retire back in March of 2018. After about three days of being retired and realizing that I can’t get a hole in one every time I go out and play golf, I started the Baldwin Advisory Group, better known as BAG. I think as we go through, you’ll understand what BAG is all about. The slogan is, “One BAG for all your real estate services.”
Being new in the business or even if you’re an experienced investor, which I work with a lot of experienced investors also, I have put together a one-stop-shop for virtually anything and everything that you need in investing. What I’m going to do is explain all the different things that are available to you as an investor because if you get on the phone and let’s say that you need a BPO. First, you have to go on the internet and then you have to find a company and then you have to worry about the pricing. Most vendors don’t like to work with a one-off individual. Part of the vision of the BAG is strength in numbers. Whereas a typical investor may do five, ten Broker Price Opinions a year, I’ll do 300, 400 a month. Vendors, even though it may be coming in one at a time, a vendor does not want to lose that volume and everybody gets to participate in the share of the vision, be it BPOs or tittle searches.
I think you were talking with Joel originally about the idea and stuff like that. He gave me a phone call about that like, “This is awesome and I’ve got my Rolodex of contacts in my different markets,” but it doesn’t mean that it’s a perfect Rolodex for everybody. You’ve got just great relationships and you reached out to these vendors to help them, “I’ve got a bunch of investors that want to do stuff that I can come as the bulk guy and I’ll handle a lot of these individual orders for you and vice versa.” 50 BPOs a month or 300 BPOs a month, that’s a lot of things. You hit a couple of milestones too with the number of orders you’ve taken and fulfilled across the board.
Since the BAG has started and this is the very first of the BAG network, I haven’t advertised. The people that I have worked with are the ones that I have dealt with throughout the years as well as the mastermind group have done a little over 1,000 individual orders since the website went live the last week in December 2018.
A thousand-plus orders in nine months roughly. Do you still have enough opportunity to play golf?
I live on the course. What I’m doing, yes, it’s a lot of hours but I have helped so many people out in situations with their BPOs, with their title searches, finding assets or finding a servicer. Just about anything that you need. With your permission, I’d like to get into the crust of things. The BAG network, Baldwin Advisory Group: One BAG for All of Your Real Estate Services. To make it simple and to get the full effect of everything, what I’d like to do is go through each one of the different services and each of the different services has its own very specific order form that everybody can complete, hit submit and then immediately comes to me.
If you’ll notice like a BPO and here is a brief explanation of what a Broker Price Opinion. It’s not a CMA. A Broker Price Opinion is done by a realtor. There’s always the debate, “I’m going to get on the phone and I’m going to call a realtor and try and get them to go out and take a look at the property.” I’m in favor of that. What I like about using my vendors for a BPO, they are done by a local agent and the job of that agent is not to try and get the listing but to get a value. Once that agent completes the BPO, it then goes back to the vendor into quality control. If QC does not agree with the value or the cost or something about that, they will send it back to the agent for revisions. To me, that’s a plus because you have an extra set of eyes.
Assuming that would want to do a BPO, you can simply click that button on the client information, you have the company name, your name, phone number and email. What is the subject’s address? City, state, zip and access if it’s going to be an interior. If it’s an exterior, you don’t have to know if it’s on a locked box or who to contact. Simply checking off, “You wanted an exterior BPO and interior BPO or even a full appraisal,” which I’ve also arranged to do what is called a hybrid appraisal. It’s in between a BPO and a full appraisal basically where the vendor will go out and take pictures of the subject, both interior and exterior, whichever one you’re ordering. It is given to a licensed appraiser, which I work with a lot of lenders that like to do that when they’re making the determination as to whether or not they’ll loan money on the property. Also, there is a property inspection report that’s available in exterior as well as interior. You type the code in, hit submit and then that immediately comes to me. I will personally place the order for the BPO. If I’ve got any questions, I will call you immediately when that comes across and talk about it, otherwise it’s ordered right away.
The people that ordered, do they get an email alert that it’s been ordered?
It will. The system as time is going on, this will become more and more automated. Once that submit is done, then my web designer is working on notifying the client that the order has been sent.
Dickie’s website is BaldwinAdvisoryGroup.com and that’s what we’re going through. Let’s talk about that. What’s the difference in prices for somebody that’s brand new that hasn’t ordered BPOs before, internal or external? There’s probably a difference in the breakdown in pricing a little bit.
Obviously, as more volume for a particular client comes, they’re able to get into the bulk writing. Generally, it’s in the $100 range. The one at a time as long as it’s not rural will be in the neighborhood of $115. Let me explain what comes with the BPO. We’ll get pictures of the subject as well as the street as well as the address. There are three sold comps in the neighborhood and three current listings within the neighborhood. These are all done through MLS. Typically, they don’t like using for sale by owners because the price will vary so tremendously in those situations. Try if at all possible and stay away from REO and distressed properties. Those will be in the neighborhood as a set of $115.
On an interior where we will have to have access either by lockbox or agent somehow to get into the house and the agent will make an appointment to go in. They will take pictures of all of the rooms. Along with it, just like on the exterior, you’ll have an as-is value and then an estimate of after repair value. Keep in mind that on an exterior BPO, you typically are not able to see the inside, so you don’t know if it’s trashed out. You’re looking more at the roof, siding and things of that nature. The other things you have to be aware of that agents are pretty well instructed not to get on the porch or go in the back yard, because in some of the neighborhoods where the properties are, they don’t want to get shot.
Baldwin Advisory Group: The whole purpose of a title search is to make sure that you have no taxes, liens, or anything that would be clouding the title.
I get a lot of requests, “Please take pictures of the air conditioning and the backyard or the side.” If it’s visible, they’ll make every effort. If there are any special instructions that can go into comments. I can put that along with the order. In fact, I’m doing one that they wanted a value on the house as well as what would the land be because there was a mobile home on it. What would the land be? I was able to put that into special instructions so the agent would be able to keep that in mind. Also, you can do a property inspection report where this is a drive-by. They will take pictures of the exterior and/or are able to get inside the property, they will do an interior but no comps or listings are given. Those typically are around the $45 range for the exterior and $65 to $70 on an interior. I might mention the hybrid appraisal, which a lot of people are starting to use because the thought of an appraiser versus an agent, you’re in about the $220 range for an interior and about $195 for the exterior. Are there any questions on these? Any more on the BPOs?
I think we’re good. Let’s jump over the next one.
Let’s talk title searches. The title search is done online as well as with abstracters, depending on the county and township and areas. The whole purpose of a title search is to make sure that you have no taxes, liens or anything that would be clouding the title. With that, here’s another very specific order form where once again, the client information, the company, your name, phone, email, the subject property address and are you wanting a current owner search. A lot of times that’s called an O&E report and that’s just the one owner. The full search two-owner is typically used in the REO arena. Although there are a lot of people that have notes that are contracted for deeds and they will request a two-owner search. You can even go back to a 30-year search. I also do commercial along with residential. Some of the products are available for an update. If you run a report through me, let’s say two or three months ago and you wanted to do an update, you’re in about the $35, $40 range to do an update to do an O&E report. You’re in the neighborhood of $85 with all the recorded documents. In the full search, you’re in the neighborhood of $100 with documents. The update is around $35, $40.
There’s an online that I personally have access to where I can do what’s called a property detail report. I believe Laura has done some property detailed reports as well as the total overview report. Property detail report just gives basic information, address, legal and ownership. They typically run around $5. A total overview will let you know if there’s been a foreclosure process and they’re typically in the $20 to $25 range. Once again, entering the code, hit submit. That immediately comes to me. If there are any questions, I’ll get ahold of you right away. Otherwise, it’s being placed. I might mention, that over the first two items that we’ve discussed, the BPOs and the title searches, I’m not restricted to just one vendor.
There are times where for instance the BPO may not have an agent within the area and another one of my vendors may have it. There’s not that rural charge because the rural can range an additional $25 to $100-plus, depending on how close an agent is and how far they have to drive to do the report. Same with title searches. The great part about what I’m doing is I’ve reached out to the vendors that are currently in the BAG and I have worked in some shape, form or fashion with all of them or their personnel throughout the 35 years that I’ve been doing this. Any questions on the title search?
No, it’s good stuff there. Would you say between the BPOs and the O&Es are probably the two biggest things you’re getting orders on?
Yes, most definitely. Here’s why I’m excited about, REO and notes. Being in the business for so long and knowing a lot of sellers that have assets to sell, they’re reaching out to me and asking me if I can help find them a buyer. On the other hand, I’ve got a lot of buyers that are reaching out to me and asking me can I help them find some assets. What the BAG does will connect a seller and buyer. How do I do that? Go to the order form, I collect all the information, the company, their name, phone, email, and then they let me know, are they a seller? Are they a buyer? Are they private or institutional? Do they want notes? If they want notes, if they want performing, they check performing. If they want non-performing, they check nonperforming. For residential, commercial, do they want bulk or individual? Here’s the important thing is list what states you want.
Being in the industry for so long, I see tapes going across the internet all the time where there may be states on there that you don’t even care about. I’m trying to minimize that. For instance, if Scott has a note in Wyoming. A seller and a buyer have completed this form and they tell me they want Wyoming. My database will tell me I’ve got a Wyoming seller and buyer. I simply put that buyer directly with Scott and then Scott negotiates the pricing, giving out collateral and all the negotiations. My purpose in what I’m doing with this is just to connect the right buyer and the right seller and not waste anybody’s time. The third thing is REOs, are they wanting residential, commercial, bulk, individual rehab, zero to light, light the medium? Once again, list the states. You can put the range of values. That is not quite as important. The states and what they’re looking for is. Any comments, put the code in, hit submit and then this information is immediately put into the database where I have all the sellers that I work with, all the buyers and it’s just a matter of matching the states up.
We have a question, “Are these services for every state in the United States?”
Yes, they are. Everything I do is nationwide, both residential and commercial. What’s an RMLO? It’s a Residential Mortgage Loan Officer. My RMLO will originate seller finance mortgages compliant to Dodd-Frank and issue a certificate as such. Let me back up. This item, the BPOs, the title searches and the REOs, I will be directly involved with from beginning to end. The rest of the services, what I have done is make arrangements with the vendors that I’m representing, I’m marketing for. If you need an RMLO, you’ll go in, hit the read more, give me your information. Where’s the property located? What is the purchase price, the loan amount, the estimated closing date? Is it note and deed of trust or contract for deed? Enter the code, hit submit. What I will do is introduce you directly to my RMLO. He will immediately email you or arrange a call and you’re dealing with him one-on-one. You don’t have to reach out to me from the time that you order. The next deal that you do with the RMLO, you don’t even have to call me because you’re already registered with that vendor.
I know there have been a lot of people talk about, “I need to go get an RMLO in each state.” That can be a bit of a list, especially when you’re buying nonperforming notes or contract for deed. You originate and you’ve got a guy that does it everywhere. It’s a rarity. It’s like a needle in a haystack for the most part.
I have saved you hours of time on the internet.
Plus, also do you know what he charges to originate on that or does it vary state by state some?
It’s right around $499. For an additional fee, he can draw pertinent docs for the transaction. Lawnmower, what does that mean? It’s property preservation. On the property preservation, there are companies that I work with that hire contractors to go out and do just about anything, repairs or winterization, whatever needs to be done on a property. This is to give an idea of the extent of property preservation. Please, this is the only way I can contact you is complete your company name, your name, phone and email, then the subject address. You need lock work done, doorknob, lock only, deadbolt, lockbox, padlock. Just a matter of checking whatever needs to be done. You need window glazing, check whatever box needs to be done. Boarding, somebody busted the windows out, debris removal and landscaping. This is miscellaneous work, but here’s something that every investor needs to start thinking. One of my clients did in Wisconsin and he called me at the end of November or 1st of December and he said, “I need to get winterized.”
Start thinking about if you’ve got vacant properties that you own up north, call me. I can help you get that place winterized. I’m not going to go through every one of these, but you can see all of the different items that can be done. I will definitely follow up with this to make sure we’re not missing anything and then introduce you to the appropriate vendor where I know if they have crews in that particular area or do not. I’ve got various private money and hard money lenders that I have relationships with. It too has a very specific order form. I’ve tried to get a variety of lenders where they all have the same thing. Lines of credit, business loans, commercial, residential loans, fix and flips, buy and hold. Some of the lenders are very creative in what they will loan on and where they will loan on. I even have a lender that will loan down to $25,000, $30,000, which is pretty unique. Title and escrow, I can do a traditional closing and we all know what a title and escrow are so I won’t go on and explain everything. The client information, subject property information. Traditional closing obviously is going to be an owner’s policy. A lot of note people are looking into lender title policies. Scott, you may want to do a presentation one day strictly on lender title policies.
That’s a great idea. We’ve actually been thinking about doing that here before too long. You’re 100% right about that.
Baldwin Advisory Group: The collateral review will tell you what you have, what you don’t have, and what you should have in order to make an intelligent decision of moving forward with that asset.
There are a lot of times too where a seller may want the funds to go to escrow. My title companies will also do that. They also are able to do the current owner report, the two-owner, etc. Typically, I don’t go through my title companies if it’s just going to be a current owner search or two-owner. I will go through the title company if we know there’s going to be a lender’s title policy or something that’s going to require title insurance. They will utilize their own product for that. Title curative work and release tracking. There are a lot of times when you do get your reports, you’ll find out that something may not have been recorded properly. I ran into a situation where I had a first and a second. The second was a HELOC. The first got refinanced, so did the HELOC, but the HELOC still showed up as a lien. The attorney and the client worked for months to try and get it cleared out through Wells Fargo and First American. They couldn’t do it. They shifted to me. My vendor had it done. He got that HELOC position to where it’s supposed to be in and showed it on the title in less than a week.
You’ll see that happen sometimes where lines of credit don’t get released, don’t get removed. I actually had that happen on a property in Houston, Texas we did where the lien was from Bank of America. It took forever to get done. It happens occasionally out there. You’ve got to be careful about that, but it’s good to have somebody that can go get it done that specializes in that.
Because you wouldn’t know where to go to get it done.
Especially if the lender or the bank is no longer in business anymore.
The next one is the collateral review. There are many of you that will be new investors and even old investors that just don’t have time to go completely through a collateral package. Even if you did go through it, until you get the experience, you may not even know what you’re looking for. In short-terms, the collateral review will tell you what you do have, what you don’t have and what you should have in order to make an intelligent decision of moving forward with that asset. This also has an order form, just as the title form. Each order form is very specific about what the service happens to be. Assignments and recordings, we all know that in the note business. You don’t use the title company. You use the assignment from one seller to the buyer and then that needs to be recorded. Some people try and do that on their own. I don’t know all the pricing because they vary from state to state, but it’s very inexpensive to outsource assignments and recordings. Next is record and document retention. If you’ve got a whole bunch of files like Laura does, you don’t want to put them in a cardboard box in your bedroom. There’s a vendor will store original docs for you.
Mortgage servicing, it used to be you didn’t have to worry about mortgage servicing, but every state and just the knowledge of the business, you need that third-party servicer. I’ve got several nationwide servicers that can do the work for you, collect the payments when they come in. Self-directed IRA and I’m sure many of you are investors that do have a self-directed IRA. I get calls every day, “I’m with so and so, but do you have anybody else that I can talk to just in case I want to move?” Yes, I do. Not big business, but it’s good to know this guy, a nationwide IRS tax attorney. He’ll take on tax disputes with the IRS at $10,000 or more. He even received a letter from the IRS telling him how good his bites were against them to dispute a case. That’s pretty encouraging, but it is not the guys you see on TV. This is at a very small company but very efficient.
Here’s one of the things that I’m proud of is a nationwide realtor network. I keep on mentioning Laura. She could probably talk for an hour about this little service right here. What I have done is create an investor-friendly realtor network. I’ve got about 70 where I will eventually have an investor-friendly realtor in every major city in United States. These realtors not only are able to list, sell, property manage, but as Laura can tell you, they can clean property out. They can cut the grass, they can sell a property, they can put a tarp on a roof because the realtors that I’m reaching for, they need to understand that most of the investors are out of state. You don’t want to jump on an airplane and you want to have a trusted individual that can handle the work for you with feet on the ground. There are a lot of real estate agents out there, but believe me, it’s tough to find truly investor-friendly realtors. When I vet them, I hope that either they have their own construction companies or they work closely with local contractors, which also helps if my property preservation doesn’t have coverage in the area. My investor-friendly realtor might. Do you have questions on that?
No, but that makes sense though, especially maybe not to in bigger areas but definitely some of the midsize city, secondary market stuff like that. Having the nationwide realtor network is critical in this business.
Here’s the great part about these realtors too. Many of them work with their local banks and/or credit unions on their distressed assets. Typically, a realtor’s investor base is in their own backyard. The realtors are starting to let me know if they have assets available, where I can go right back to my REO and note registration form and see if anybody has registered that may want assets within that particular area. It’s not just REOs. A lot of these realtors understand the note business also. The other is a nationwide attorney network. I have the United States covered. These are attorneys that as it says can help with foreclosure, evictions, bankruptcy matters, pre-foreclosure, preparing real estate documents.
Lastly, skip tracing. I’ve got one vendor and this is one of the items that once again, depending on the size of the pool, I don’t want to limit your sources to just one. If I’ve got one that’s covering everything, that’s great. Sometimes a vendor doesn’t cover the whole United States and that’s my goal. The affiliates that I work with are PaperStac, which I’m sure if you’re not familiar with it, please reach out to me and I’ll tell you everything I can about it. There’s a publication that I have been fortunate in called REI-Ink and I have a full-page ad in each of the publications. If any of you all are interested in attending the Note Expo, which will be held in Dallas, Fort Worth in November, you can also register right here through my website. That’s BAG.
What’s your typical turnaround time for you to reach back out to somebody? Is it 12 to 24 business hours?
No, typically if somebody emails me, within an hour or two, unless I’m gone.
That’s a big thing I want people to know. If you don’t hear, then make sure you’re going to follow up. Dickie does a great job of follow up. I’m not saying he isn’t. If you went and order on Friday night, you may not see it until Monday just because of travel and other things like that.
If you do need me, my phone number is on the website. I love that saying, “If real estate’s your game, Dickie Baldwin is the name.” You can email DBaldwin@BaldwinAdvisoryGroup.com. I might mention that if you don’t want to fill out the order form, many of the people that I work with, they know that they can email me and things are taken care of without the order form.
Let’s make sure that people were still filling out the order form for you because of the fact as you’re getting a lot of business, but getting busier on that stuff. It’s always better to have the tracking that has gone through the forms and stuff like that too.
The other thing I want to mention is I put a lot of faith in the vendors that are working with the BAG network. If the situation ever arises that you’re not getting the service and responses that you want, then I need to know about it because I don’t deal with the business development person. I’m dealing with the VP and the owners of the company. Your input is crucial if they’re not doing a good job. Even if they are doing a fantastic job, I need to know about it.
Baldwin Advisory Group: Skip tracing is about $0.10 cents a hit; it’s very inexpensive.
Are you also open if somebody got some good realtors for recommendations to add to your realtor network?
I’m always looking for good investor-friendly realtors. I use that term heavily but by all means, anybody that has had satisfaction with a realtor, please let me know and I’ll reach out to them right away.
Also if you can get no satisfaction, BAG can help you with his own network there. What’s your handicap? You’re playing on the golf course all the time.
My biggest problem is I stand too close to the ball after I hit it. Because of my age, I have now moved up to the forward tees. I can’t drive a ball 300 yards anymore.
There is nothing wrong with that. When people used to ask me what my handicap was, I said it was a six-pack. We have a question, “What’s the cost of using the skip tracer?”
It varies. All I can say is it’s extremely inexpensive. It ranges from zero to ten. I was talking with the skip tracer and he had gotten in 575 addresses that needed a skip tracing on. That would probably relate down to about maybe $0.10 a hit.
Let’s say $0.10 a hit on that stuff, but it depends on the in-depth of what you’re looking for on that stuff too.
The depth and the quantity.
I’ve used Dickie for BPOs, O&E and skip tracing. A lot of great stuff there. I’m about to send some stuff over to you to pull some BPOs and some stuff because we’re getting ready to move some stuff here off of the books as well too. We have a question, “What’s it cost for third-party escrow?”
That will vary on the amount. I’d never want to misquote, if someone is interested in third-party escrow, even if you don’t use them, let me make the introduction. I would request that everybody, if at all possible, complete the REO and note form because I’m starting to get more and more product in and it’s just another source.
We have another question, “What’s the cost of getting into your program, Dickie?”
Call me or email me. How about nothing?
That’s what we’re trying to get at here. There’s no signup fee. There’s no $19.95 a month. This is nothing. How Dickie makes his money is the fact that he’s got these relationships that either pay him a little bit of affiliate split or is it a bit of split and things, but he’s still delivering the costs cheaper than what you would normally. There are no signup fees. You can use Dickie’s services or one of his vendors for one or whatever. There’s no difference in the cost. That’s why we thought it was such a valuable thing to bring them on Note Night in America out there. That’s why we introduced into the Mastermind group first, get things rocking and rolling for them. You’ve done a great job with a website but now it’s like, “You’re not ready. Let’s bring it into the big time there for you.”
Thank you so much. Thank you and your group and everybody for everything that the future holds for us.
You’re going to be busy. Once again, BaldwinAdvisoryGroup.com is the website. Dickie’s email is DBaldwin@BaldwinAdvisoryGroup.com or you can reach them via phone number at (936) 447-4170. I would recommend going over to the website. Check it out. All of his information is there. Reach out. If real estate your game, Baldwin is the name.
Scott, thank you so much.
Anytime, Dickie. Thank you so much for taking time and a great job as always. We look forward to working with you more and helping me grow even further out there. Once again, go check out a BaldwinAdvisoryGroup.com. Trust me, you will be very happy. You saw the people coming through, leaving great comments and testimonials and things like that. You should know by now, we like to bring on the best of the best out of here. Dickie has done an amazing job with his few decades of experience out there. Don’t forget, he likes blended Scotch when you see him out.
Important Links:
- Baldwin Advisory Group
- PaperStac
- REI-Ink
- DBaldwin@BaldwinAdvisoryGroup.com
- http://BaldwinAdvisoryGroup.com
About Dickie Baldwin:
Baldwin Advisory Group (BAG) has over 35 years of Real Estate experience as a Realtor, Loan Originator, Mortgage Wholesaler, Mortgage Correspondent, Mortgage Warehouse Professional, Title Research & setting up multiple National Mortgage-Net Branching operations, BAG is in a unique position to provide expertise for investors in today’s various real estate market opportunities.
Having created long term business relationships with all of our Service Providers over the years, we now are offering the Investor, an opportunity of sharing our strength in numbers & knowledge.