Hello and welcome to my first ever blog entry. This is a new medium for me, but at the insistence of many of my close colleagues, friend's, family and business associates I hope to overcome my reluctant writer syndrome and hopefully in the process inform, educate and maybe even occasionally entertain you. 

For those of you that do not know me, let me introduce myself. My name is Damen Mitchell I am the President and Chief Operating Officer here at American Contract Buyers. American Contract Buyers is real estate investment firm specializing in the purchase of various debt instruments (i.e. promissory notes, mortgages, deeds of trust, land contracts etc...) I am often asked how I got into this business and honestly I got into this business the old fashioned way-through nepotism.

As a teen and young adult, I was often enlisted to work on and eventually came to oversee the construction and remodel of endless real estate and rehab projects my family was always involved in. In my early twenties I became a general contractor, received my all phase landscape contractor's license and became a certified arborist. It has always been my belief that if you are going to doing something, that it should be done whole heartedly. So, I dove in and learned as much as I could about every aspect of the construction business. After several years of renovating and flipping properties with my family,  I decided to obtain my loan officers license and originated loans for one of the nation's largest brokerage firms where I specialized primarily in Alta A residential loans and commercial property loans.

During this same time period I began purchasing properties, mostly single family homes and small multi-unit properties with the intention of renting them, building equity base and "passive" income. I say "passive" with a somewhat tongue in cheek grimace, because anyone that has owned multiple rental properties knows "passive" is a matter of perspective and rentals properties must be managed or you run the risk of watching your equity evaporate.

Although, I only worked in the prime lending market for a few years the knowledge I gained would later prove to be invaluable as I began upgrading and selling many of the properties I had acquired. I suppose this would be a good time to point out that most of the properties I have purchased over the years, have been purchased with seller financing.

There were a few rules I used when buying real estate (which I will go into greater detail in future postings). First and foremost you must "make" it on the buy, Secondly, I would never under any circumstances buy a house that I would not live in, and finally it has to pencil. So when the real estate market became "hot" and everyone and their brother was buying real estate (hoping to double their money), I took the opportunity to sell. I sold a great deal of my rental inventory and was able to really make my money "work" for me investing in well structured, good performing notes and mortgages. Now this is true passive income, with great yields and a heck of lot more stable than the stock market and IRA's.

Until next time and wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,

Damen