Name of your website?FastNoteOffers
Your name?
Pat Friedl
Your Location (city, etc)
Olathe, Kansas
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Our site provides a one stop location for people interested in selling their privately held mortgages or business notes. We offer a free, informative Note Owner's Manual and resources for submitting quote requests for getting a lump sum for their cash flows.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
With the mortgage industry and housing market in a tailspin, we wanted to reach out to as many note holders as possible and offer our purchasing services.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
I launched my own personal consulting site way back in 1999, and it is www.nebulus.org. It's currently closed due to the other projects we're currently working on, namely FastNoteOffers.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
There are note purchasers on the net that use the standard names "Capital Funding", "A+ Funding", stuffy names like that. We've found that note holders are looking for very fast turnaround when they decide to sell their cash flow, so we settled on FastNoteOffers. Our phone number even reflects our attitude towards fast service: 866-OK-B-QUIK.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
We buy all kinds of cash flows from private mortgages to business notes and structured settlements. One thing that really sets apart is that we can even purchase BAD or defaulted debt. There are virtually no companies that will consider buying bad and defaulted mortgages or notes, due to the high risk nature of those cash flows. We don't shy away from that at all.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
This company is in it for the long haul. As long as there are mortgages and notes to be bought, we'll be here.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
We spend a great deal of our time connecting with our clients - getting the particulars of their deal, working up quotes, and closing the paperwork. However, the return on investment is very healthy for us.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
We'd definitely ramp up our staff to provide more epxanded informational resources, possibly a blog, question and answer forum, and live chat for current and new clients.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Absolutely!
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Marketing is always the big factor. The marketing landascape changes so rapidly that it does take a lot of research to make sure we stay visible for our clients. SEO, direct mail campaigns; all of that takes more time than closing the deals with our clients!
What has been your biggest challenge?
See above.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Small text ads, some Google ads, and believe it or not, direct mail to individuals that are currently holding paper. We like to introduce ourselves as directly as possible to our potential clients, and even with all the technology, you still can't beat a well placed sales letter.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
Not much at all. With a heavy IT background, I knew what the challenges were before laying out the design and copy for the site.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
We launched the site back in August. I don't ever forsee not having gains in traffic or income just due to the industry we service. As I mentioned before, the mortgage and real estate industry is seeing some major aadjustments and downturn. As with any cyclical economic slump, people prefer to have liquidity over cash flow ever time.
Conservative estimates keep the real estate slump heading into 2010, so we don't forsee a slowdown in business any time soon.
Replace this with a question of your own
Thanks very much for the opportunity to interview!
What is your website address?
FastNoteOffers
