About

Ellis San Jose: began learning about real estate investing at a very early age. Growing up in Southern California, his father taught him the skills of rehabbing & renting properties. When Ellis left for college, his father told him that he had taught him all he knew about real estate, & that he needed to learn more from other people.

While attending college, Ellis took his advice & worked for a partnership group that was a major real estate player in Los Angeles County during the 1980’s. They specialized in purchasing foreclosures at the courthouse steps.  He worked his way up to become their Operations Manager, and learned the principles of foreclosure investing & property management.  Ellis was instrumental in their success, by growing their portfolio from 10 properties to 200 in three years.

In 1989, Ellis graduated from California State University at Northridge, with a Bachelors of Science in Finance & Real Estate.  That same year Ellis bought his first investment property, a duplex at the top of the market, in Ventura County.  It took him over a decade to sell the property at a profit.  The power of market cycles, bubbles & timing was a valuable lesson he never forgot.

In 1994, he changed careers & became a licensed securities broker.  Ellis went on to work for top public & private investment institutions to manage portfolios for high-net worth clients.  He also completed the educational requirement for the Certified Financial Planners designation.  Although discourage from his duplex experience, he was determined to keep investing in real estate and in 1996 bought an interest in his first commercial property, a 31 unit apartment building in San Diego.

Inspired by working with wealthy clients he became increasingly disenchanted with being an employee.  Determined to achieve financial freedom, Ellis yearned to devote more time to the lucrative world of real estate investing. Because of the encouragement, financial support & inspiration from his wife Marni, to the surprise of his superiors & co-workers, he resigned from his job in 2001 at the age of 36 & became a full-time investor.

Since then Ellis has devoted his time investing in many types of distressed assets, single family homes, commercial properties, & non-performing trust deeds. He has been involved in over 60 real estate transactions totaling over $30 million dollars.

Ellis is licensed real estate broker in Los Angeles, a frequent public speaker on investing & real estate. He is focused on helping others in building their passive income portfolio by investing in income property & acquiring trust deeds & notes. He is constantly striving to further develop his skills as an investor.  Ellis loves to share his passion for investing with others, & seeks to surround himself with like-minded goal oriented individuals. Ellis resides in the Los Angeles area with his wife & three children. Ellis is also the founder & leader of several investment groups in California, Arizona & Texas.  www.meetup.com/losangelesrealestate

Current Positions: Managing Partner: The Note Guys

Gerald Lemoine: began investing in real estate in 2001 with the acquisition of several undeveloped lots in the Steamboat Springs, Colorado area. Eventually, the total number of lots acquired, grew to about twenty five. These lots did not have adequate roads or utilities at the time, so they were not buildable. We improved the roads and put in utilities to make them buildable lots, therefore increasing the value significantly. We sold all these lots over the next two years for an excellent profit.

A short time later, Gerald resigned from his position as a Project Manager with a large General Contracting company and began full time investing in the Southern California area. He began purchasing properties at the trustee sale or prior to the sale from owners. He would then rehab the property and sell it. He also acquired several rental properties as long term hold investments.

In early 2009, Gerald began buying Mortgage notes for the purposes of building a portfolio or selling to other investors. These notes are from institutional lenders who decided to liquidate these notes at significant discounts. These notes offer a high yield, very secure investment opportunity.

Prior to beginning his real estate career, Gerald was a Project Manager for a large, heavy industrial, general contractor, managing projects in the United States, Europe, South America and the Caribbean. He was directly responsible for profit and loss on projects up to $10 million and a key team member on projects up to $250 million.

Current position: Portfolio Manager ; The Note Guys