Avoid These Costly Mistakes in Creative Finance Transactions

January Batten (00:00)
As soon as that contract is signed, we go and we open escrow and we’re now communicating with the title company and the seller. If there is a private money lender involved, we’re reaching out collecting documents. ⁓ And so while we’re connecting and gathering all the information that’s needed to make sure this is a you know, watertight deal, ⁓ our clients are able to go make more calls with sellers, go lock up more deals, go knock on more doors. ⁓ And so, yes, we’ve had we’ve had a couple of our clients come in with, you know, like they were getting the contract locked up, then they were walking that entire contract through the escrow, ⁓ you know, system constantly.

Reaching back out to title, Hey, is there an update? Where are we at with this, with this file? Whereas I, I take that file and I’m the one reaching out to title and I’m collecting documents from the seller. And then I let my client know, Hey, just so you know, title’s been ordered and we haven’t gotten the commitment yet back, but we’re still moving forward. And then

Another thing we do is we are checking all the documents. We are just another set of eyes making sure that everything, you know, is spelled correctly. Eyes are dotted, T’s are crossed. And especially when it comes to that settlement statement, I’ve never seen a single settlement statement come back that didn’t need to have some kind of adjustment, whether minor or $60,000 worth of major adjustments.

We’ve seen that we’ve helped save our clients thousands of dollars from the mistakes on the settlement statement ⁓ before they get to closing. So we’re double checking everything before anybody signs.

Michelle Kesil (03:29)
everyone, welcome to the Investor Fuel podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil And today I’m joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with. We have January Batten, who’s been making serious moves in the creative financing space. So really glad to have you here with us, January. I think our listeners are really going to take something away.

from how you’re approaching creative financing transactions and helping your clients close more deals with success. So let’s dive in.

January Batten (04:10)
Awesome. Thank you first off so much, Michelle. I have been looking forward to joining you here on the investor fuel podcast. ⁓ ever since Mark’s ad popped up in my feed, ⁓ I’ve been watching the investor fuel podcast, you know, here and there and just been loving all the great information that y’all share on the YouTube channel.

And I’m excited to just be a part of that group of people who’ve been able to just share a little bit of our expertise.

Michelle Kesil (04:45)
Amazing, so glad that you found it valuable and now you get to add your share as well. So first off, for people who may not be familiar with you and your world, just give the short version of what is your main focus these days.

January Batten (05:51)
All right. I am one of the partner owners of Finish Line TC Services and we are a transaction coordination firm looking to help our investor clients have smoother, faster transactions and help them make sure more of their deals get to the finish line and close than otherwise.

Michelle Kesil (06:16)
amazing and what markets do you operate in?

January Batten (06:20)
Actually we TC files in all 50 States plus we also do them in Puerto Rico. So for anybody who’s looking to go do spend a little island time, we can help you get investments down there too.

Michelle Kesil (06:34)
Amazing. Yeah. So can you share a little bit more about what this process looks like for someone who may not be familiar with it?

January Batten (06:45)
Absolutely. Right now, creative finance is just on fire because you can’t get these amazing interest rates through traditional lenders at the moment. So when one of our our clients gets a contract with a seller and that seller has agreed to the negotiations and and they say, yep, I’m going to sell my house to you.

our client brings us that signed contract and we start by opening escrow. And from that point, we are just controlling and coordinating that entire package. We are basically project managers for our clients so they can go talk to more sellers and get more, more deals locked up. And we are concentrating on getting this other one to the closing table. So,

That’s where, you know, that’s kind of the process. We are keeping timelines and compliance and making sure that our clients’ deals don’t just die in title.

Michelle Kesil (08:00)
amazing and would you say this works for like all types of investors or are there like their specific sector that this is benefiting?

January Batten (08:12)
Now this works for everyone. I’ve done so many, if you’re a single family investor, sub two is amazing. If you’re a multifamily investor, sub two is fantastic in that arena. And you know, there’s some nuances with multifamily, but it’s still a great option. If you’re looking to buy RV parks, mobile home parks, if you want to sub to a Tesla,

We have done all of that ⁓ and not just sub two. We also help in the arena of, you know, seller finance or if you’re doing novations and doing a little profit split with that seller, we’re helping with those contracts as well. And of course, there’s the the acquisitions of the stack method or equity bridge or, you know, it has like 60 different names.

But we also TC those in the right way to make sure that’s a legal transaction that a lot of people are starting to look at in investing today.

Michelle Kesil (09:24)
Amazing, that is so exciting. yeah, what like is your business most looking to solve or scale next?

January Batten (09:38)
⁓ So, you know, I like to say I provide my clients white glove service. ⁓ We’re looking to try to keep our level of service high, like our clients expect to, but also help to serve even more individuals. ⁓ So that’s one of our things we’re working on right now. How do we scale? How do we get that? ⁓

you know, increase the number of investors that we can serve because we are, you know, we’re proud of our, of the work that we do and our clients agree with us. Our clients, you know, just love working with us and keep coming back. So we want to be able to help even more investors in that way. And we’ve had a number of clients who have, you know, they were struggling with one or two deals, maybe.

you know, a month or every other month. And when they brought us on board, we were able to help take that burden off of their plate so they could focus more on what they do best. And we have saved our clients on average about 20 hours per transaction.

Michelle Kesil (11:35)
That’s amazing. Yeah. Can you share an example and like expand upon how you’re able to save someone so much time?

January Batten (11:45)
Absolutely. ⁓ So we have, you know, like I mentioned earlier,

as soon as that contract is signed, we go and we open escrow and we’re now communicating with the title company and the seller. If there is a private money lender involved, we’re reaching out collecting documents. ⁓ And so while we’re connecting and gathering all the information that’s needed to make sure this is a

you know, watertight deal, ⁓ our clients are able to go make more calls with sellers, go lock up more deals, go knock on more doors. ⁓ And so, yes, we’ve had we’ve had a couple of our clients come in with, you know, like they were getting the contract locked up, then they were walking that entire contract through the escrow, ⁓ you know, system constantly.

reaching back out to title, Hey, is there an update? Where are we at with this, with this file? Whereas I, I take that file and I’m the one reaching out to title and I’m collecting documents from the seller. And then I let my client know, Hey, just so you know, title’s been ordered and we haven’t gotten the commitment yet back, but we’re still moving forward. And then

Another thing we do is we are checking all the documents. We are just another set of eyes making sure that everything, you know, is spelled correctly. Eyes are dotted, T’s are crossed. And especially when it comes to that settlement statement, I’ve never seen a single settlement statement come back that didn’t need to have some kind of adjustment, whether minor or $60,000 worth of major adjustments.

We’ve seen that we’ve helped save our clients thousands of dollars from the mistakes on the settlement statement ⁓ before they get to closing. So we’re double checking everything before anybody signs.

Michelle Kesil (13:51)
Yeah, that is such important work. I love that. yeah, like, what would you say that the most common, like, obstacle people faces that you support them with?

January Batten (14:10)
⁓ so when somebody is willing to sell their house subject to, usually there’s some kind of a pain element there. They’re either going through, you know, a divorce or they just lost a parent and inherited this house. There may be, you know, foreclosure cause they lost their job. And so the, you know, we are there to

help explain a little bit more clearly for the sellers just so that they understand the process that we’re going through. you know, if my clients had to go find, you know, deal with the seller to hunt down a death certificate, that takes time away from my client doing what they’re supposed to be doing. So I’m helping in that way, just just getting those extra documents necessary.

in order to get closed. So I find myself talking to divorce attorneys, ⁓ you know, to county vital statistics offices, to a lot of different parties, to some of these sub two deals, ⁓ making sure that everything we need is finally gathered so that title is satisfied. They can pass on a clear title to…

my client at closing. So, you know, there’s, there’s a lot of little nuances just depending on what that pain element is in the transaction. And I’m there to help get those extra things gathered so that we can get us to that closing table.