Ever wonder what it takes to go from a $40 tax deed to managing a $5 billion real estate portfolio? This episode unveils the incredible journey of Hillary Vitovsky, the visionary founder and CEO of SAMI (Strategic Asset Management Intelligence). A true “OG” in real estate, Hillary shares her unparalleled experience across finance, law, construction, and real estate, including insights from managing over 26,000 assets! Learn how she navigated the shift from 9-to-5 to real estate mogul, the critical lessons learned from scaling a hedge fund, and why technology is the future of note investing. Discover the “gold in the cracks” of today’s market and how to avoid common pitfalls that bleed profits. If you’re ready to revolutionize your real estate game, this is an episode you can’t miss!

Want to talk to Scott? Book a call with him HERE.

—

Listen to the podcast here

 

Unlock the Secrets Of Scaling Real Estate: Building A $5 Billion Note Empire With Hillary Vitovsky

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, everybody. Welcome to this episode of The Note Closers Show. As always, I’m Scott Carson. I’m excited to be with you here. I got a very special guest, somebody I’ve been working with again for a few months, because she is a rockstar. She is the original OG when it comes to buying and investing in real estate and notes. She is somebody who has helped manage over $5 billion with over 26,000 assets.

That’s quite a few notes, whether it’s the first contract for deeds. This lady knows her shiznit. We are honored to have her here. She’s also the visionary founder and CEO of SAMI, which stands for Strategic Asset Management Intelligence, bringing a dynamic blend of experience in finance, law, construction, and real estate. Who am I talking about? I’m talking about the one, the only, the head honcho, chief bottle washer, the boss babe, Ms. Hillary Vitovsky, joining us here. What’s going on, Hillary? How are you doing?

Thank you for that introduction. I’m good. How are you?

I am doing great. We’re honored to have you on here. You are doing some great stuff out there, with 26,000 assets. That’s a lot of notes. Can you dive into it? We get a lot of folks who are brand new to note investing. They’re buying their first or second with the idea that they’re going to buy a hundred at some point. How do you transition to 26,000 assets? Can you talk a little about your background and how you got there? We’ll then go from there.

The Genesis Of An Investor: Tax Sales & Due Diligence

Let’s go back to 2007, where I was just like everybody else, working 9:00 to 5:00, trying to pay the bills paycheck by paycheck, and wanting more out of life. In 2007, I started hearing advertisements about buying tax sale properties for pennies on the dollar. They wanted you to pay $5,000 to go to this webinar or whatever you want to call it. Like everybody else who’s trying to struggle, make ends meet, and make more money, I didn’t have $5,000 to spend, but I did have $25 to go buy a book.

I went and bought a book. Thank you, Barnes and Noble. It covered tax foreclosures in all 50 states. At the time, I was from Texas. I lived in Texas, and I started studying up on Texas tax sales and how the foreclosure process works. I started doing due diligence and figuring out where to get the list for the tax sales. I was finding out, going to the counties and courthouses, looking up online, and doing my research.

You get a list of properties, and you’re like, “What’s next?” I started researching those properties. A lot of the lists go by legal description. I had to teach myself the title piece of it, like how to read the legal descriptions, how to know if that legal description encumbered the whole property, if it encumbered the right property, boots on the ground, and how to print off the plat map. This is 2007, so we weren’t too snazzy on our cell phones at that time. I would print off the plat map, get in the car, and go drive those assets. “This is something that looks good. It is such a good deal, but the property burned down. I don’t think I want to bid on that property.”

I had to teach myself what the exemptions mean as well. In Texas at the time, there was a redemption period. If you acquired a tax cell foreclosure that had a homestead or agriculture exemption, that meant that you had to hold it for two years, and then the original party could come back and redeem it. In Texas, you would get 25% interest for the first year and then 50% interest for the second year. My strategy was not to make an interest. My strategy was I wanted to maximize my ROI, and I wanted to make the most I could. What did that mean to me? That meant I wanted to go after properties that didn’t have an exemption because, one, it was only a six-month redemption period.

Two, most times when you say a property that doesn’t have an exemption, that means there’s no mortgage on it. I wasn’t going to fight with the bank. The banks like to play the waiting game, and a lot of times, they will go the whole distance with the redemption period and then redeem it on the very last day. This is a numbers game and using their capital. They’re trying to be smarter. I don’t know if that’s smarter, but that’s what they do.

I did all my research and went to my first tax sale in September 2007. I cashed out my measly 401(k) for $4,000 and bought my first tax sale property for $4,800. I’ll never forget that day. I’ll never forget the feeling of buying a house for $4,800, and I was hooked. That was all she wrote, and that created the monster today. Fast forward to 2013. I started building up my tax portfolio. We kept them as rental properties mostly. We started doing renovations. I opened a renovation company. I had my own investment company. Little by little, I was building my wealth.

In 2013, I was approached to come work for a law firm that specialized in title curative. They worked for the banks that did the curative work for the title defects. What is a title defect? It can be an encroachment on the property. It could be a break in the chain of title. It could be as simple as a lien. It could be a couple of different things. I started at that law firm in operations. The owner wanted to create a hedge fund because he saw a niche with these title-defective assets, where we can buy them cheaper. We knew how to cure them, and then we could disposition them.

Don't let others control your money. Dig into the contracts and understand your delegated authority. Share on X

We started raising capital. We got our first million-dollar capital raise. We bought twelve title-defective REO assets. Why did we buy REO assets? We knew that with REOs, you didn’t need a servicer. Servicers are a huge expense in your pocketbook when you have notes because you have to have them. You can’t get around not having a servicer if you want a lot of notes. In Texas, you can have up to three notes on your own and not have a servicer.

To anybody doing this, you’re looking at making a lot of money in the long haul. You’re not looking at holding three notes for your lifetime. We started with those twelve assets, and then we started buying contracts for deeds. We slowly built that. We started out with a million-dollar investment. We turned over that capital and got another reinvestment. We opened a friends and family. That is $3 million. Eventually, we were able to raise capital, where we could start buying $10-million deals. By the time I left, we were at $500-million deals a month.

It was a niche in the marketplace. All these assets were from the 2008 crash. They were coming out of the gate. That’s how we built it. Raising capital is a big part of it. Once you have the capital, what do you do with it? A lot of hedge funds and a lot of investors do not have the educational background to understand what it means to own notes, go through the foreclosure process, go through the bankruptcy process, go through the title litigation process, or the title curative, or how to value their assets. I have seen hundreds of thousands of BPOs, and maybe 1% are right valued.

I’m an expert in valuing properties because I look at it from an investor’s perspective. I’ve had those boots on the ground. In my own deals, I knew how to value those properties. I knew where to buy them out, and I knew where to exit. A lot of funds look at, “We’re doing great if we make a 20% return. That’s what we’re shooting for.” Some even shoot for 10% return. I want 50% or higher. I want to do it for the big game. I learned a lot. We slowly scaled. I think by year three, we’re at $3 billion. It was a lot of work with the investors. You’ve got to find the properties, too. It is a lot of relationship building.

When you’re going to that many assets, where were you buying them? What size is the number of assets per pool? What’s that breakdown?

Because the owner of the company did title curative work for banks, we already had an inside track to their trade desk. Our first tape of twelve REOs came from a bank. When we went off into contract for deeds, you have to have so much capital to be able to buy from a bank. When you’re not hitting the $10-million mark or more, you have to look elsewhere. You have to think outside the box. We hit the smaller funds, a contract for deed. Contract for deeds needs to know the law in each state because it varies. It’s not like a traditional non-performing note.

By the time we were done, we had 26,000 assets, 70% were non-performing, 28% were performing. The other 2% were REOs, and those were MPOs that we held. We didn’t buy REOs except for that first pool and then the contract for deeds. REOs are hard to come by at a discount. They have to be effective for it to be worth your money to buy them, unless you’re going to do a long-term strategy. Investor covenants will guide and govern what you can do with those assets.

For example, we had some fabulous assets that would have been turnkey. They were already turnkey, but we couldn’t use them as turnkey rentals. That wasn’t in our covenants. I’ve always been of the opinion, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. I don’t believe in investing in the stock market because other people play with my money. I don’t want that. I want to play with my own money. You will always make your money in real estate. It’s just a matter of pivoting your strategy. It’s a matter of being able to hold that real estate when the market goes down, or how we have it right now, with it all over the place, with interest rates, and all that. There’s always going to be a need for rentals. Somebody always needs somewhere to live. You just have to buy right, and then exit.

What was the biggest lesson learned going from the 26,000? What did you do after that? What was the next case? Was it investing more of your own money at that point or starting your own fund? How did that process work?

Controlling Your Money & Common Sense Underwriting

The biggest lesson learned from being at the hedge fund is not to let other people control your money. A lot of funds, and everybody who has those services, has a huge delegated authority. You have to know what that authority is. You have to dig into the contract and say, “We’re going to control this.” About year three, I had to go in and redo all those contracts. I wasn’t the one who set them up, but then I had to get involved. I had to tear them up and say, “Here’s what we’re going to do. You’re no longer allowed to do this without our approval.”

I also put a team in place. I taught them how to value those assets. I taught them how to look at the repairs. The industry is funny. I learned a lot. There are a lot of hands in the cookie jar. The industry is funny because we’ve created this madness. Like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, they will give their servicers or property companies a blanket $5,000 per property and say, “Within this $5,000, if you see these repairs that need to be done, go ahead and do it.”

However, on the flip side of that, they want to pay $25 for a lock change. That doesn’t pay for someone’s gas to go out there, nor the lock change. The materials you’re getting don’t even last. You can break it off in your hand because it’s so cheap. At that, has anybody looked at the asset to determine, “They repaired the basement steps on this asset. That’s okay because it’s in their $5,000 budget, and it’s in their approved list of repairs, assets are falling down.” Why would you repair the basement steps?

 

Here’s another pet peeve of mine. I love data analytics, and I am a techie. I own a technology company. However, data analytics is just a generalization. It’s not a strategy. It’s not making you the most bang for your buck. It’s like taking all of us humans and saying, “Generally, we’re all going to have red hair and blue eyes.” How well does that work?

We call that common-sense underwriting. A lot of the banks and the servicing companies don’t have the common-sense underwriting because it’s not their assets. It is not their money. “I’ll get $5,000 to go repair. This needs to be repaired. I’ll fix it.” As you said, it’s burnt. It’s got a lien on it, not a house that you want to repair.

The Missing Piece: Technology In The Real Estate Industry

They focused on keeping manual tasks and processes because it’s a comfort zone. They don’t like to change. A big piece that’s missing in our industry, oddly enough, is technology. When I was at the hedge fund, I couldn’t see our bottom line dollar easily. “Send me this spreadsheet. Let me look in the doctor’s repository. Let me look at the servicing. Let me look in the REO system.” I’m like, “We have 10 or 15 different places to go. My data is 30 days old. That helps.” I built the prototype and approved the concept. You don’t have transparency on your assets if you don’t have a one-stop shop technology. You just don’t. You can do it manually by hand up to so long, maybe twenty assets, and then you’re going to start getting out of hand and losing control because you don’t have the manpower to do it.

It also varies too what locations your assets are located because we all know things are different in different parts of the states you have. I learned that I don’t like buying in Chicago because half my assets would have the copper ripped out in the middle of the winter, and I’d have an indoor ice skating rink. You’ve got to worry about the humidity and mold in Houston or Florida, hurricanes, and stuff like that. Every market’s a little bit different. As note investors, we’re often investing in multiple states, too.

What they’ve done is they’ve come from the mindset of, “How can we do this faster?” They’ve trained themselves to use data analytics because they don’t want to hire more headcount. They’re not understanding that if they had the right technology, they wouldn’t have to hire more headcount. They could transition their existing headcount to doing revenue-generating tasks rather than administrative tasks. For example, they trade on tapes on an Excel spreadsheet, and they have a team of people doing nothing but pulling documents to Dropbox all day long. How’s that work for your return? That doesn’t make sense to me.

Nobody is looking at that because they’re so siloed and into the position. A lot of it’s a lack of education and understanding of how to view your assets. Some of that you won’t get until you have that hands-on experience. It is what it is. You only know what you know until you know it. You don’t know what you don’t know until you know it. It’s interesting. I learned a lot, created the technology, and brought in millions and millions of dollars more. I’m like, “I have something here. I want to help this industry be better. I want to change this industry for the better.”

My only challenge in this industry is getting people to change and getting people to understand that you can make so much more money if you do things the right way, you treat people the right way, and you look for the gold in the cracks. There’s so much gold lying in the cracks. That’s another reason I wrote the book, because I’m trying to educate our industry and trying to get the light bulb to go off. Do you know how much money you’re bleeding? You will bleed profusely in servicing expenses if you don’t know and you don’t micromanage it. You have to.

The thing I always say is you have to take control. You can’t rely on a servicing company to service your assets, because then all they’ll do is service and cut. It’s literally like the death with a million cuts. They’re not paid to speed up the borrower outreach. They’re paid to do the minimum each month. One of the smartest things I ever did was hire my asset manager away from my servicing company and direct her to say, “You be aggressive. From a week after we fund this transaction, I want you to contact the borrower. We’re not waiting 30 days for servicing to kick in. If you see something, let’s get it done.”

Every time I do public speaking or whatever, I tell people, “Everybody is in business for what? To make money. The servicers make money their way. The investor makes money their way. You’ve got to make sure those collaborate.” The way to do that is to incentivize your contractors, your vendors, who help your pocketbook, not bleed your pocketbook. You don’t know what you don’t know. I preach it. I teach it. In however I can help, I try to show people, “You can do this and you can make a lot of money, but here’s the path you need to go down.”

I pulled up your book on Amazon. It came out in 2023. It is The Hedge Fund Guidebook: A Humanistic Approach. It is the years of experience that you have, all the background and title, being an investor yourself, and stuff like that. You talk about having that humanistic approach, as you say on there. Tell us what that means. Are you thinking like a servicer or are you thinking like an investor, thinking outside the box? What’s that approach on that, Hillary?

This is a combination of metaphysics with business. A humanistic approach means that you are a team. It’s not about “I.” You cannot do this alone. You can’t do anything alone and maximize your ROI, not on a grand scale. If you have to have a team of people, vendors, employees, whoever, boots on the ground, your real estate agents, you’re all a team. You’re all one. You all need to succeed. I would always tell my team, “If you fail, I fail. It doesn’t work that way.”

A lot of what goes on in corporate America is that management likes to manage from a place of fear and use a fear-based approach. It’s unnecessary, and it does the opposite for your bottom line. One thing about my book is that I wanted to instill that unconditional love of we’re all one. Open your eyes. I give examples, different types of leadership, autocratic versus humanistic, and the effects of each scenario. Also, I go into the gold that is lying in the cracks. Here’s where you need to look. Here’s your biggest piece, and here’s what you can do. Then, I go into the valuing of your assets. How do you value your assets better?

There’s so much gold in the cracks of this industry—if you’re willing to find it. But you’ll bleed profusely in servicing expenses if you don’t know what you’re doing and don’t micromanage. Share on X

I don’t like BPOs. They’re like data analytics. People are banging out. Banks are ordering 1,000 BPOs at a time. How great do you think those are going to be? They’re not. We’re spending $85 to $115 a pop for a BPO. For what? You can train your staff to do a quality review and have real value. The only reason that hedge funds don’t do worse than they do is that they win some and they lose some. It shuffles up. When you have multiple pools and you start getting to the end and liquidating that pool, then you start seeing, “We didn’t make as much money as we thought. Why?” It’s about being proactive here. The book is not big, but I try to hit the most crucial points of the business, as well as “Be a good person, do the right thing.”

You talk about the gold in the cracks. The market has changed from when you got started doing this. A loan contract for deeds used to be cheap, but now they’re at a different price point in a lot of cases. As values go up, we don’t see as many. Where do you see the gold in today’s cracks compared to when you first started?

It’s still the same process. You have interest rates going on. You have a different type of investment. COVID was beautiful in that it opened people’s minds because they were forced to change. We have to grow remote. We don’t need a physical office, but you still have management styles that can’t manage unless they can see the people in front of them. That’s because they don’t know what they’re doing. They don’t know what the people are doing to know the difference. It’s still the same gold in the cracks. It’s just a different look.

It’s pivoting. I love non-performing. There’s still a lot of non-performing out there if you know where to look. You’ve got to get a little more creative. A lot of note investors originally were buying from note funds. Those funds were great for a while until they stopped selling notes. They have to go out and market the banks and other hedge funds to find more sources. It’s a constant aspect of finding new gold. When one gold vein runs out, start digging for another one.

It’s cyclical. You could go back hundreds of years and look at history. Econ 101 teaches you that what goes up must come down. They do it on purpose. They do that with the market on purpose because they’re generating money. War generates money. There’s a reason why they do all these things in government, and corporate has learned from government. If you put the two together, that’s where data analytics should come in. You can start analyzing and seeing the trends. Honestly, I saw lists from HUD years ago when COVID hit, and they’re already projecting. They already know where it’s going. It hasn’t rolled out as they thought years ago, but it’s slowly trickling.

Introducing SAMI: The All-in-One Asset Management & Trading Platform

They’re coming out. Some things are a little bit slower in some cases, but it’s starting to come out. Let’s talk about SAMI. I know that’s your passion, and you’re diving into this. Let’s talk about how awesome SAMI is for note investors out there and hedge funds that have assets. 

SAMI was created based on my frustration with a $3 billion hedge fund. Why can’t I see what I want to see? I want to see it with a click of a button. I don’t want to wait on somebody. I like being self-sufficient. SAMI is an asset management and trading technology. The goal is that everybody is in one system, whether it’s the investor, the hedge fund, the team, the vendors, or the buyers. Manage your assets. You have a document repository. You have your workflows, bankruptcy foreclosure, loan servicing, marketing, and ROI analysis. You’re managing your assets within the system. You’re managing your team within the system.

When you want to sell an asset, you can go there. It’s a tape and technology. You can say, “I want to sell all the non-performing New Jersey assets.” You can cherry-pick which assets you want. You can put those on a tape. You can invite your buyers because they’re users. The buyers can go in and do their due diligence in the system without anybody pulling anything to Dropbox or without anybody doing anything else. It’s all in there. We had a problem with the trade desk selling assets off when we were in the middle of rehab. I was rehabbing because we were in loss mitigation at that point. I was maximizing our dollars. It shows you, “Clearly flagged assets in a trade. Don’t sell off.” It gives full transparency and full control. It allows you to make more money.

Let’s talk about rehabs. Another trend in this industry, on rehabs or renovations, is that we’re going to do the cheapest renovation possible. Does that maximize your dollar? I did renovations because I wanted the buyer to walk in and say, “We’re not leaving without putting a contract on this home.” Ninety-nine percent of the time, I hit over market values when I rehab because I was giving people what they want. It’s all about, “What do you want?” What do you want as a homeowner when you’re going to buy a house? You want what you want.

Renovate it smartly, but also, people are scared of that because they don’t understand the construction piece. I do. I have that background. I have my own renovation company. I thought about developing, too. I’m still toying with that idea. That’s why I went back and got my Master’s of Engineering because I love that part of it. I have my broker’s license. I love all pieces of this industry.

There are a lot of them. I love the network. You talk about bringing everything in one spot, because so many people are using spreadsheets and sticky notes, trying to go, “Who’s buying?” You lose money on the delays.

You lose money by not valuing it right. You lose money on people doing the same thing five times and four different people. It’s 10X-ing your people, processes, and technology. That’s what it is. It amazes me how change-resistant we are as a culture. It’s a habit. We’re comfortable. I get it because I was comfortable with my Android. I didn’t want to move to iPhone, but I did. I love my iPhone. I get it.

 

In that comfort zone, you’re not growing. Technology is growing exponentially, with the creation of AI and the leveraging of those tools. I hate to say this. You have a lot of investors who are stuck in years ago. We won’t name any names, but you have to embrace change, leveraging tools, and leveraging software to help you take your business to the next level. Otherwise, if you don’t, you’re going to lose more money and get outbid because people are going to run circles around you. You’re not only doing yourself a disfavor. You’re doing your investors a disservice as well because you’re not keeping their money in mind to find the best deals and maximizing the velocity of capital.

Investors are losing billions. I guarantee you that across all these investors, they’re losing billions because of what they don’t know and not having the proper technology. I’ve seen it, and there’s no way around it if you’re doing the same old processes. That’s one of the things I hate to hear. “We’ve always done it this way.” I guess I’ve always been a leader because I have never accepted that answer since I started my corporate career at 22 at Ernst & Young. I was given the conservative approach on how to do business. I know enough to be dangerous.

The Ideal Client: Streamlining For Growth

For the SAMI Network, is there an ideal client or ideal investor that you’re looking for on that? Is SAMI starting off brand new? Is it ideal for somebody who’s got a little small portfolio looking to revolutionize or to streamline things? What’s the ideal client, loan number, and asset number that you’re looking for in SAMI?

Originally, I built it from the investor hedge fund perspective, but it’s morphed. I was very adamant about it being a flexible technology that we could roll with because of all the existing technology out there. They’re outdated, and so they’re hard-coded. It’s hard to change. They’re siloed into pieces of it. You have the REOs, and that annoys me. The other thing I don’t like is clicking twenty clicks down to get to where I need to go. I can’t stand that.

When you have a non-performing asset that has multiple paths, exit, curative, or whatever, you don’t have time. That’s another time-waster. It’s for anybody. We’ve had attorney networks managing their attorney network on it. We can do an investor who does trading because it has a trading portal on it. With hedge funds, if you’re a small investor, one or two assets, you don’t need technology at this point. You need to get a little bigger, and that’s okay.

That’s something you’re growing into. You and I both know that a lot of people who do get into note investment are not looking for 1, 2, or 3. They’re looking to grow to 40 to 100 and beyond that. Preparing for the future is one of the things I always say. You build like you’re going to grow at some point. Start putting systems in place so that they are streamlined, more so once you do get that bigger spot. Most note investors or people in distress can manage about 15 to 20 assets. After that, it goes downhill really fast if they’re not embracing technology in their business.

I’ve been the contractor. I’ve been the investor. I’ve been in the hedge fund. I try to come out at pricing-wise from a perspective of, “How can I help that investor maximize their dollar?” A lot of your technology charges a monthly fee or charges per asset. If you’re using the trading portal and you’re trading assets as they all do primarily, then there will be no asset management file fee. It will do a little trading fee on the trade, and the buyer can pay that. They don’t even have to pay a dime. That’s another thing to get through. Some people in the industry don’t understand that. There are broker fees on all those tapes going out manually. It’s the same, but it’s different because we’re not charging that. We’re charging a trading fee.

That’s nice to help folks out with it. Everybody is a buyer, a seller, or a funding source, and every note investor is buying or trading assets as the note matures. Is the strategy going from non-performing to re-performing? Going from non-performing to REO definitely changes. What’s your focus for the next 12 to 24 months, Hillary? Besides growing SAMI Network and stuff like that, what’s some of the stuff that you’re focused on in the next couple of years?

I am building a hedge fund. I am building a tiny home development. There’s so much on my plate, including technology, developments, growing a hedge fund, and a European windows and doors company.

I love that because when you’re growing multiple assets and growing big enough, it makes sense to be your own vendor for windows, granite, appliances, or HVAC. Adding all those auxiliary services not only serves you but also saves money and turns into a profit center.

I love thinking outside the box. I love negotiating, too, so when you’re selling a property, I love it. Thinking outside the box and connecting the dots are two of the things most people are missing. That’s what you need. You need to be able to do that. If you can’t connect the dots or think outside the box, then you need somebody you’re partnered with, or you’ll hire somebody to do that for you, because it’s crucial. You can’t just be, “Blinders on, off the shelf.” It doesn’t work in this industry, not if you’re maximizing your money.

You mentioned you are originally from Texas, but you’re living down in sunny West Palm Beach, Florida. Are you focused on some of the opportunities taking place in God’s waiting room or some of the trouble? As we can say, issues that the state is having with insurance and condos, and other things?

You have to really dig in and understand the market—every community is different, and what works in one bubble won’t work in another. Share on X

I’m watching the market down here. It’s still a strong market. Florida didn’t experience COVID. They experienced a lot of money, and it’s still holding strong. I’m keeping tabs on it. I’m very active in the community with the real estate brokerage companies. I’m all over this community. I watch it. It’s interesting when we go back to saying, “You need to know your demographics.” I’ve lived along the whole coast of Florida. This community is different than the rest of the coastline, and it’s great. It’s a beautiful community, but your other communities are bubbles.

You have to dig in and understand the market. When I was renovating a house in Waco, one block was great, and one block was bad. It was on the same street, but you wouldn’t know that unless you’re boots on the ground. It’s interesting to see that I’ve lived in Washington. I’ve lived in New Jersey. I’ve lived in Texas. I’ve lived in Florida. When I was very boots on the ground at the hedge fund, I was going and looking at those assets. I was determining if we’re going to renovate them, if we were going to dump them, or if we were going to sell as is.

I was all over the US, predominantly on the East Coast, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Florida. I was all over Indiana. It is a different story. Ohio is a different story. It was always interesting that California was a great market. For all that you hear about California not having money, we may have had one that went to foreclosure out of 26,000 assets. We have performing but non-performing didn’t stay. Those didn’t last.

Somebody gobbles them up if it’s a bit of a discount. It is surprising how overpriced some of that market is, but people, that’s California. They’ll overpay in a lot of cases. What is the best way for our audience to connect with you to follow what you’re doing or check out SAMI?

I’m very active on LinkedIn. I have a big group community on LinkedIn. You can always get hold of me. I don’t have anybody managing or doing marketing for me. It’s all me. Whatever I post out there is me. I’m the one responding to the messages. LinkedIn is the best way to get hold of me.

Hillary, thank you so much. I know you’ve been busy. You’ve been jet-setting back and forth with your daughter’s graduation. I hope you enjoy the weekend doing nothing. Just relax and enjoy the sundown there in West Palm Beach.

That’s why I’m here. I’m enjoying the beach.

One of the first commercials I bought was in West Palm Beach, Florida, right across from the National Guard Armory and the Boys & Girls Clubs. It was one of the first counties in Florida to show up at a foreclosure auction or foreclosure trial against the borrower as well. I spent a lot of time down there. We bought a lot of assets in West Palm Beach. Great area.

I’ve already been scoping out. I’m like, “This area is about to go up. I’m watching this area.” That’s what I do. I can’t help it. I know that the tax sale process here. This is a tax lien state, so you buy a tax lien for two years, and you foreclose on it. I never wanted to hold that, but I keep my thumb on the pulse for sure.

Good stuff there. Enjoy your weekend. We’ll catch up with you soon and have a glass of wine or something.

Thank you for having me on. I appreciate it.

Same here. That’s going to wrap it up for this episode of The Note Closers Show. There are a lot of great nuggets from Hillary. Go out there and grab that book. Get you a copy of that. You’ll learn some stuff. If you didn’t learn anything from this, the one thing you should learn is to grow. You’ve got to grow not only your systems and your software but also in your mind.

If you go from 100 assets to 1,000 assets, you’re going to be doing different activities. You’re going to have a whole different business model than trying to do it all yourself. One of the biggest mistakes we as investors make is that the inner control freak has to control everything. Take yourself off. Be a leader, manage your team, and you’ll grow not only your returns but also your assets. Go out, take some action, and we’ll see you at the top, everybody. Bye.

  

Important Links

• SAMI Network
• Hillary Vitovsky on LinkedIn
• The Hedge Fund Guidebook: A Humanistic Approach
• SAMI Network – About Us

 

About Hillary Vitovsky

Hillary Vitovsky is the visionary Founder and CEO of SAMI (Strategic Asset Management Intelligence), bringing a dynamic blend of experience in finance, law, construction, and real estate. Previously serving as Chief Administrative Officer at Rocktop Partners, LLC, she played a pivotal role in growing the hedge fund from inception to $5 billion in AUM and over 26,000 assets.

Hillary has also held multiple leadership roles and led multiple real estate ventures focused on tax foreclosures, renovation, flipping, and rentals. Her deep industry knowledge and frustration with inefficient “widget processes” inspired the creation of SAMI—a comprehensive, tech-driven solution for the secondary mortgage market. Hillary is known for cutting through complexity, optimizing ROI, and building collaborative, results-oriented teams. She holds a Master’s in Engineering (Construction Management), multiple Managing Broker’s License, and is the author of The Hedge Fund Guidebook: A Humanistic Approach. Guided by the mantra “Be the change you wish to see,” she is committed to empowering others to unlock their full potential and achieve lasting success.

 

Want to talk to Scott? Book a call with him HERE

---

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!

• Here’s How »

• WeCloseNotes.com
• The Note Closers Show Facebook
• The Note Closers Show Twitter
• Scott Carson LinkedIn
• The Note Closers Show YouTube
• The Note Closers Show Vimeo
• The Note Closers Show Instagram
• We Close Notes Pinterest