Black Sheep Convention Blog

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  • Real Estate Training Events for Agents That Pay Off

    Most real estate training events for agents teach confidence. I’m more interested in what closes deals.

    Picture this deal. I’ve seen versions of it across Texas. Seller owes $240,000. The house is fetching $215,000 in a softening DFW market, inventory up 12.3%, days on market at 99, prices down 4.6%. She won’t short sale. She can’t bring cash to closing. She’s stuck.

    I know what most agents do here. They try to talk her down on price. She says no. The listing dies.

    The agent I have in mind came through our training and took a different route.

    She’d spent two days learning subject-to structures with operators who’d actually closed them in Texas. In the room, working through the questions that matter in practice: What does the due-on-sale clause actually trigger versus what it says on paper? How do you write the seller’s disclosure so you’re protected? What’s the seller’s credit exposure if the investor stops paying?

    Our agent had those answers. So she brought a different offer.

    An investor takes title subject to the existing $240,000 mortgage. Seller owes nothing at closing. No short sale approval timeline. No cash out of the seller’s pocket. The investor picks up the property at current market carrying the existing note at a below-market rate. Our agent earns a commission on a deal that was heading to zero.

    That’s a deal structure. You either know it or you don’t.

    Subject-to is one tool we go deep on, and it’s not the only one. Seller financing, wraparound notes, acquisition strategies built for a high-rate environment. We cover the toolkit that works when a straight cash offer or conventional financing doesn’t. I keep coming back to subject-to because the knowledge gap here is the most expensive one I’ve seen. I’m not talking about obscure edge cases — I mean the deals filling every active MLS in a correction cycle. Upside-down sellers, tired landlords, inherited properties with high equity and complicated motivations. These are the situations where creative structure wins and where agents who know the tools walk away with a commission their competition never understood was possible.

    What Real Estate Training Events for Agents Should Deliver

    My frustration with most events in this space comes down to this gap. We teach scripts. We teach CMAs. We teach agents how to deliver bad news professionally. What we don’t build is the skill that changes the outcome. I’ve watched good agents lose deals like this one, not because they didn’t work hard, but because nobody ever showed them what subject-to looks like when you walk it into a house.

    I started Black Sheep Convention because I was tired of watching that happen. We bring 12 operators to San Antonio (people who are actively doing this in Texas right now, not people who did it once and now charge to talk about it) and we spend two full days on real training. Ten classes. Ten hours of Texas CE. Five class periods with two tracks running simultaneously, so you pick what fits your business.

    We built this event around one rule. Every minute on stage has to produce something you can use Monday. All access in person is $399. Online is $99. That’s the complete price. You’re paying for training, not for access to a sales funnel.

    Back to our deal. The structure was half the job. The harder half was the conversation.

    “Subject to the existing mortgage” sounds alarming to most sellers. I’ve watched this conversation go badly when an agent hasn’t practiced it. Our agent had. She knew exactly what to say about credit exposure, contract protections, and what happens if the investor doesn’t perform. She walked in confident because she’d trained on this with people who’d already closed it.

    That’s what I want for every agent who comes through our training. A conversation you’ve already practiced because you learned it from someone who’s closed it.

    One more thing I’ll say. I hear agents worry that a real estate license complicates an investing business. I think that’s mostly wrong. When the cash offer fails, you can list the property instead of walking away. When your investor client needs to move a deal you can’t absorb yourself, you have options. The license keeps you in the room.

    What deal walked out of your office last month because you didn’t have the right structure for it?

    Black Sheep Convention is September 25–26 at the Hilton San Antonio Hill Country. Twelve operators. Real deals. No pitch fests. $399 in person. $99 online.

    Black Sheep Convention tickets are on sale now.

    Get your ticket

  • Solar Lien Real Estate Training in Texas

    Solar panels are the 2020s version of the 1990s water softener lien. I teach that in my CE classes and I mean every word of it. The agent who freezes when they see “solar lease” in the TREC disclosure is the same agent who walks away from a commission that was already sitting in front of them.

    Have you ever watched one of these deals fall apart over a solar disclosure? I have. More than once. The panels are on the roof, the paperwork hits the buyer’s inbox, and suddenly everyone acts like the deal is unsolvable. It isn’t. It’s a lien. Liens have payoffs. Payoffs are negotiable. You either know the numbers or you don’t.

    Here are the five steps I run on every solar lien deal I touch, with the actual figures that make each one work.

    Step 1: Identify the Contract Type (20 Minutes)

    Three solar situations exist in Texas right now: leased systems, Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), and financed or owned systems. My experience in suburban Texas markets puts 60-70% of solar deals in the lease or PPA category. The TREC-required solar disclosure tells you which one you’re dealing with, but you have to actually read it.

    My rule: I ask for the solar contract on day one. Not after option period. Day one. Reading it takes 15-20 minutes and tells me everything I need before I write a single number on an offer. The mistake I watch constantly is agents waiting until the repair amendment is already in play, then scrambling to figure out the payoff. That’s backwards.

    Financed or owned systems are the easiest case I deal with. The lien is on title, I clear it at closing like any other lien, and it’s done.

    Step 2: Pull the UCC-1 Filing Before the Offer Gets Written

    For leased and PPA systems, the solar company almost always files a UCC-1 financing statement. I estimate 85-90% of Texas solar leases have one on file. I pull it from the Texas Secretary of State’s UCC search before I write a dollar amount on an offer. Takes 10 minutes.

    Why do I care about that step? Because I’ve watched deals stall 2-4 weeks over one problem: the entity on the UCC-1 doesn’t match the name on the seller’s disclosure paperwork. These companies get acquired and rebranded. You need the right legal name to send assumption paperwork to, or the solar company’s assumption department won’t process your request. Wrong name equals lost time you don’t have.

    Step 3: Run the Assumption vs. Payoff Math on Both Sides

    I’ve watched more money get left on the table on this step than any other. Agents treat solar as binary (seller pays it off or buyer assumes it) without running the actual numbers on both sides first.

    The math I run looks like this. A typical Texas solar lease is 20-25 years. Take a system installed in 2019, 20-year lease, $150 per month. A buyer who assumes that lease takes on roughly 13 more years of payments, around $23,400 total. A buyout from the solar company might run $15,000-$22,000 depending on contract terms and how hard I push.

    That spread matters. I’ve seen sellers absorb a full $20,000 buyout when the buyer would have gladly assumed the lease because $150 per month was less than their current electric bill. Run BOTH sides before you open your mouth in a negotiation. Always.

    Step 4: Know What the Lease Does to Your Buyer’s Loan

    FHA and VA have different rules here, and I’d bet fewer than half of Texas agents know either one. What happens if your buyer is FHA and you find out at closing?

    FHA includes solar lease payments in the buyer’s debt-to-income calculation. A $150 per month lease can knock a buyer at the edge of qualification off the loan entirely. If my buyer is FHA, I run DTI scenarios with and without the lease payment before we write the offer.

    VA is trickier. The VA requires a consent-to-assume letter from the solar company, and some companies quote 30-45 days to issue one. If I have a VA buyer and a 30-day close date, I’m calling the solar company’s assumption department the same day we go under contract. Not the week before closing. Same day.

    Conventional is the most forgiving situation I deal with. Fannie and Freddie treat leased solar as disclosed personal property with lease obligations documented in the purchase contract. My buyer’s lender still needs the full contract, the payment schedule, and the assumption terms before they’ll close.

    Step 5: Build Solar Paperwork Into Your Timeline

    Title needs the solar contract, plus either a UCC termination (if my seller pays off) or an executed assumption agreement (if my buyer takes over the lease). I build 10 business days into my timeline for assumption paperwork as a baseline. That’s what the solar companies quote when I call them directly.

    Tight close? Most solar companies offer an expedite process that costs the seller $150-$300 and cuts the timeline to about 5 business days. I ask about this on day one, when I still have time to use the answer.

    Whatever the payoff is, the payoff is. Whatever the house is worth, it’s worth. My job, and yours, is to know those numbers before anyone else in the room does.

    I Teach This Live at Black Sheep Convention

    I cover solar lien deals at the Black Sheep Convention, September 25-26, 2026, at the Hilton San Antonio Hill Country. We have 10 classes, 12 operators, and 10 hours of Texas CE credit.

    We bring real deals, real contracts, and real numbers from people who are in the trenches closing right now. No guru from the stage selling you a $50,000 mentorship package. No back-of-the-room close.

    All-access in-person is $399. Live online is $99.

    If a solar lien has ever killed one of your deals, or if you’ve been guessing your way through these disclosures, come to San Antonio. I’ll be there.

    Black Sheep Convention tickets are on sale now.

    Get your ticket

  • Debt Forgiveness Real Estate Training: 5 Myths Killed

    I’ve watched good investors walk away from deals they should have closed. Not because the numbers were wrong. Because they believed something false about debt forgiveness, and nobody ever corrected them.

    That’s the real cost of skipping debt forgiveness real estate training. You don’t fail a quiz. You leave deals in the ground.

    Here are the five beliefs I run into most often across Texas real estate circles, at workshops, in Facebook groups, at closings. Every single one is wrong.

    Myth 1: Forgiven Mortgage Debt Always Creates a Tax Bomb for the Seller

    The logic sounds airtight. Bank forgives $40,000 in debt, IRS treats it as income, seller owes taxes on $40,000. Seller panics. Your deal dies before it starts.

    I get why this one survives. It’s partially correct. Forgiven debt CAN be taxable income under 26 U.S.C. § 61. But “can be” is doing a lot of work in that sentence.

    What I’ve found, and what we drive home in our StepStone training, is that the IRS insolvency exclusion under § 108 is the exit ramp most investors don’t know exists. If the seller’s total liabilities exceeded total assets at the moment of forgiveness, the forgiven amount is excluded to the extent of that insolvency. Most distressed sellers owe more than the property is worth. They’re insolvent by definition. That 1099-C they’re terrified of? Frequently zero tax owed.

    I’m not a CPA and I don’t give tax advice. But I know enough to tell a scared seller “talk to your CPA about the insolvency exclusion” instead of watching them walk away from my offer.

    Myth 2: Debt Forgiveness Only Matters in Short Sales

    If your business is subject-to and seller finance, this isn’t your problem. Debt forgiveness belongs to the short sale specialists.

    I’ve heard this from investors who should know better. It’s backwards.

    Subject-to is exactly where my team leans on debt forgiveness literacy the most. When I take over a seller’s existing mortgage, I need to know how much is owed, whether there’s deferred principal from a prior loan modification, and what the seller’s real exposure is if the loan ever goes sideways. Their underwater position doesn’t disappear because I wrapped a creative structure on top of it.

    Seller financing has the same exposure. A seller who owes $150k on a $130k property can still seller-finance that deal if we structure it correctly and they understand what happens to the $20k gap. I’ve closed deals that other investors walked from because they didn’t know how to have that conversation with the seller. Do you know how to walk a seller through that math at the kitchen table?

    Myth 3: Banks Don’t Negotiate on Debt Anymore

    I’ve been hearing this since about 2017. The market recovered, foreclosures dried up, servicers stopped being flexible. The short sale and debt negotiation window closed.

    The deal volume did drop after 2012, and I understand why people drew that conclusion. Fewer opportunities, fewer deals, and it looked like the whole system shut down.

    It didn’t. Foreclosure filings have been climbing since post-COVID moratoria lifted. More importantly, servicers still operate under CFPB’s Regulation X loss mitigation requirements. Before any servicer can proceed to foreclosure, they’re required to review the borrower for alternatives. That review is a negotiation. A servicer who skips it faces regulatory exposure.

    The window didn’t close. Our industry convinced itself it did, which means the competition thinned out. That’s a better market for us.

    Myth 4: A License Limits You in Debt Forgiveness Deals

    This one drives me a little crazy. The argument is that licensed agents carry disclosure obligations in short sales and debt-involved transactions that unlicensed investors don’t. Stay unlicensed, stay flexible.

    Our position at StepStone on this is consistent, and I’ve made this case in front of hundreds of investors: the licensing limitation is almost entirely myth.

    In a short sale, my license lets me represent the seller, earn the commission on the closed sale, and negotiate the short payoff with the lender. My commission gets paid from the proceeds before the lender gets theirs. An unlicensed investor in that same deal can only earn on the spread, with less control over the timeline and zero commission income.

    I’ve watched investors avoid getting licensed for years over this fear. Every one of them left money behind.

    Myth 5: You Can Learn This From YouTube

    Free content is everywhere. 1099-C breakdowns, negotiation scripts, insolvency worksheets. What does paid training give you that YouTube doesn’t?

    Real deal experience. I’ve sat in loss mitigation calls where everything I thought I knew hit a wall because the servicer was a community bank holding its own portfolio, working from a completely different decision framework than a Fannie-backed servicer. There’s no YouTube video that covers that specific conversation.

    My team has navigated botched 1099-C arrangements, sellers who signed structures their attorneys built wrong, and second lien holders who didn’t respond to a single contact attempt for 90 days. Those scenarios don’t come from slides. They come from doing the deals. What our training actually transfers isn’t vocabulary. It’s the pattern recognition that keeps a deal from dying three weeks in.

    Come Fix This in San Antonio

    Black Sheep Convention runs September 25-26, 2026 at the Hilton San Antonio Hill Country. We’ve got 12 operators, 10 classes, and 10 hours of Texas CE. Five class periods, two classes running simultaneously, so you build the two-day schedule that matches your actual business.

    My promise: no pitch fest. Nobody on our stage selling a $20,000 coaching package. We bring in operators who are doing the exact deals they’re teaching. If they’re explaining debt forgiveness mechanics, they negotiated one recently.

    All-access in-person is $399. Live online is $99.

    If you’re doing creative financing in Texas and you’ve been guessing on the debt forgiveness piece, September 25 is where we fix that.

    Black Sheep Convention tickets are on sale now.

    Get your ticket

  • Off Market Real Estate Deal Training Myths, Busted

    Every agent who hears “off-market deal” pictures a cash buyer waiting in a truck outside. I’ve spent years watching that picture kill perfectly workable Texas transactions before anyone even sat down.

    Off-market isn’t a buyer type. It’s a situation the seller is in. Our entire approach at StepStone is built on that distinction, because it opens up strategies most off-market deal training never touches. And most of what gets sold as that training is either a marketing funnel dressed up as curriculum, or a two-day runway to a $10,000 coaching close. I’ve sat through both. We built Black Sheep Convention to be neither. Here are four myths I run into constantly, and the mechanisms that break each one.

    Myth 1: You Need Cash to Buy Off-Market Deals

    This one survives because it’s partially true. If you’re wholesaling to a cash end-buyer, yes, that buyer needs cash. But I teach subject-to purchases, seller finance, and hybrid wraps, and NONE of those require you to show up with $200,000 in a briefcase.

    Subject-to is the mechanic I come back to most. The seller deeds you the property, you take over payments on the existing note, and the loan stays in their name. You don’t qualify with a lender. There’s no cash-to-close requirement beyond whatever equity gap you negotiate directly with the seller.

    I’ve closed subject-to deals with $3,000 in total acquisition cost. My seller needed out. The bank wasn’t in the conversation. That was an off-market deal, and there was no all-cash offer anywhere near it.

    The myth survives because wholesaling courses dominate the off-market training market, and wholesaling centers on a cash buyer. Our creative financing track doesn’t start there.

    Myth 2: You Need $3,000 a Month in Marketing to Find These Deals

    The skip-trace, direct-mail, cold-call stack is real, and I’m not dismissing it. For high-volume operations, it works. But I’ve watched new investors burn through $15,000 in marketing spend before their first closing, and in my experience, that’s not the only path.

    What I’ve seen close deals more consistently is understanding what situation creates a motivated off-market seller before they hit the MLS, and then being the right person when that situation shows up in your existing network.

    Estate situations. Job relocations. Landlords with problem tenants who stopped paying three months ago. Sellers with existing financing that doesn’t fit a traditional sale. None of those require a cold-call list. They require you to know what to say when the conversation finds you.

    Is your off-market deal training teaching you to recognize those situations, or just showing you how to buy a better data list?

    Myth 3: Having a Real Estate License Hurts Your Off-Market Investing

    I hear this constantly from investors who think the license wraps their deals in compliance risk. The story goes: fiduciary duties, extra disclosures, one complaint and your license is gone.

    Here’s what I actually see in the field. Our licensed investors at StepStone close MORE off-market deals, not fewer. When the creative structure doesn’t work, they don’t walk away. They list the property instead.

    When a subject-to offer doesn’t close because the seller wants more than the numbers support, my licensed investors can pivot to a listing agreement on the spot. My unlicensed investors call me to refer the lead out. Those are two very different financial outcomes on the same conversation.

    How many deals have you referred out this year that you could have structured or listed yourself?

    If you’re an agent who’s been treating off-market investing as someone else’s territory, I’d like to change your mind. Your license is a second option. That’s worth more than most agents realize.

    Myth 4: “Convention” Means Two Days of Sales Pitches With Better Lighting

    I understand why people are skeptical. Real estate conventions spent 20 years earning that reputation. Hotel ballroom, emotional buildup from the main stage, back-of-room close, “buy tonight.” I’ve sat in those rooms.

    Our model is different by design. Black Sheep Convention is 10 classes, 10 hours of Texas CE credit, 12 operators who closed deals this year, and ZERO back-of-room pitches. Five class periods, two classes running simultaneously. You pick your track. You’re in a room with someone who got off a call with a seller last week, not someone who cashed out six years ago and now sells the story.

    Angie Rhea, our Designated Broker at StepStone, sets the standard plainly: “We’re not going to be here for you to pick our brains. If you want our time and attention, we want to be included in the deal.” Every presenter in that room operates by that expectation.

    What Real Off Market Real Estate Deal Training Looks Like

    September 25-26, 2026, Hilton San Antonio Hill Country. Ten classes. Ten hours of Texas CE. Twelve operators active in deals right now.

    $399 all-access in person. $99 live online. If you’ve been waiting for off-market deal training that doesn’t end with someone asking for your credit card from a stage, this is it.

    Black Sheep Convention tickets are on sale now.

    Get your ticket

  • How to Run a Title Company Short Sale HUD Payoff Test

    Most agents hand their short sale file to whatever title company the seller already uses. I’ve watched that kill deals that had every other piece in place: the listing, a cooperative BPO, a buyer under contract. The deal died because the title company couldn’t write the HUD correctly.

    I run one test before I commit any short sale to a title company. Ten minutes. If they fail it, I’m gone.

    Step 1: Run the Litmus Test Before You Open Escrow (10 Minutes, Zero Cost)

    Here’s what I do. I call the title company and ask for a preliminary HUD with the remaining seller funds applied to the first-lien payoff.

    Then I watch where they put it.

    If they route the lender’s payoff to “cash from seller,” they don’t understand short sale HUDs. I don’t schedule a training call. I don’t explain what they should have done. I hang up and dial the next company on my list, because any title company that runs short sale files regularly knows this structure cold.

    The consequence of skipping this test is real. A title company that misroutes the payoff on the HUD can blow the lender’s approval at review, or close a deal in a way that creates disclosure and tax exposure for your client. That’s not a risk I’m willing to take on a 90-day file.

    Step 2: Know What “Short” Actually Means in the Payoff

    How many agents have you heard call this a “quick short sale”? I hear it constantly, and it’s wrong. “Short” refers to the payoff to the lender, not the timeline.

    The lender accepts a payoff that falls short of the full balance owed. Your seller owes $250,000. The lender agrees to accept $200,000 and release the lien. That $50,000 difference is forgiven, and your seller needs to understand the potential 1099-C implications before they sign a single thing. My rule is that conversation happens at the listing appointment, not at the closing table.

    Plan on 60 to 120 days from accepted offer to close on a clean, well-run file. If the lender’s BPO comes in wrong or their negotiator gets swapped mid-file, add another 30 days. I’ve seen files stretch six months. Short sales are a margin play.

    Step 3: Find the Payoff Line on the HUD and Verify It Before Escrow Opens

    The litmus test from Step 1 comes down to one line on the settlement statement. I’m looking for the first-lien payoff listed as its own clearly labeled item, showing the exact amount the lender agreed to accept, with seller proceeds applied directly to it.

    What I refuse to accept is the entire transaction collapsed into a single “cash from seller” entry with the payoff buried inside. When I see that on a prelim HUD, I know the title officer is treating our short sale like a conventional listing. They’re not accounting for the lender’s net approval figure, the deficiency release language, or the BPO-to-payoff reconciliation that happens at closing.

    Our team keeps a short list of title companies we trust on short sale files. When the prelim HUD comes back wrong, I don’t correct it. I call the list.

    Step 4: Structure the Release of Option B Correctly on the HUD

    Not every short sale in our portfolio is a straight arm’s-length flip. We work a structure called Release of Option B, and here’s exactly how the numbers run on a typical deal.

    The lender approves a short payoff at $200,000. Our processor partner, operating as principal in the negotiation, locates an end buyer at $210,000. That $10,000 spread becomes a release fee, fully disclosed to the lender and every party before closing.

    The $10,000 splits this way:

    • Agent who brought the lead: $4,000 (40%)
    • Processor: $4,000 (40%)
    • Brokerage: $2,000 (20%)

    Every party sees every number. The lender approves the structure in writing before escrow opens.

    That release fee has to appear on the HUD as its own disclosed line item with a clear label. A title company that’s never seen this structure will either refuse to write it or nest it somewhere it doesn’t belong. Both outcomes kill my closing.

    My $4,000 share doesn’t exist if the title company can’t write the HUD correctly. That’s why my test comes before my deal.

    Step 5: Pull the Final HUD 48 Hours Before the Close Date

    Even on files where I’ve already pre-qualified the title company, I pull the final HUD 48 hours before close. I check three lines.

    One: the lender’s net payoff must match the approved short sale letter exactly. If the number changed after approval, something went wrong and I need to know before the wire goes out, not after.

    Two: the release fee must appear as its own disclosed line item. If my title officer “simplified” it by nesting it somewhere else, I call them before closing day.

    Three: cash to seller should be zero, or close to it. If the final HUD shows unexpected seller proceeds, I check the approval letter. Some lenders prohibit any cash to seller at closing, and that provision doesn’t announce itself.

    I do this review in about 15 minutes on a file I know well. New title company, new deal structure: I block 30. That time is free. Unwinding a closed deal that went sideways is not.

    I teach this structure live at the Black Sheep Convention, September 25-26, 2026, Hilton San Antonio Hill Country. My fellow operators and I run 10 classes over two days, 10 hours of Texas CE, and every class is built around real deal structures you can use the following week.

    All-access in-person is $399. Live online is $99.

    If short sales have felt too complicated to touch, you’ve probably just never had someone walk you through the HUD line by line.

    Black Sheep Convention tickets are on sale now.

    Get your ticket

  • Texas Seller Finance Deal Training Done Right

    Most Texas seller finance deal training teaches you to close. I want to tell you that’s the wrong goal.

    Closing is easy. Building a note worth owning is the skill gap I keep seeing, even in people who’ve done dozens of these deals. I’ve been structuring owner-finance transactions in Texas for years, and the most expensive mistake I run into has nothing to do with contracts or disclosure forms. It has to do with one step most of us skip because we think we can.

    Where Texas Seller Finance Deal Training Falls Short

    I hear this constantly in my classes at StepStone: “The RMLO isn’t legally required on this deal, so we’ll skip it.” I get the logic. The fee lands on the buyer. It adds a step. If the law doesn’t mandate it, why add the friction?

    A seller finance note without RMLO documentation is worth less on the secondary market. Not a little less. Note buyers want two documented qualification components: ability to repay, meaning income, debts, and ratios, and willingness to repay, meaning credit history. The seller sets their own standards. They’re the lender. But a properly documented RMLO underwrite is what turns a note into an asset that institutional buyers will actually bid on.

    My rule on every deal I’m involved in: use an RMLO even when we don’t have to. The buyer pays the fee. Our seller gets a note they can hold, service, or sell with real marketability. I’ve watched sellers walk away from notes we didn’t RMLO-document and take 76 cents on the dollar when they needed liquidity. I’ve watched sellers with properly documented notes get 89 to 91 cents. On a $250,000 note, that gap is roughly $32,500. The RMLO cost the buyer about $1,000. How many deals are you doing a year where that difference is just walking out the door?

    I’ve never seen this in standard Texas seller finance deal training. We teach it at Black Sheep.

    When we talk about seller finance deal training in Texas, the full conversation has to include note construction, not just note origination. Two weeks after you close, the close doesn’t matter. What matters is what you built.

    What Most Training Covers Instead

    The courses I’ve sat through (and I’ve sat through a lot of them) teach the paperwork. The promissory note structure. The deed of trust. The TREC forms. That’s all useful. But if our entire training stops at the instruments and never explains the asset those instruments create, we’re teaching people to open a business without explaining how it makes money.

    I sit with sellers and their attorneys after deals close and I see the same pattern: the note is technically legal and practically unmarketable. The interest rate is slightly below market. The balloon is five years out with no rate adjustment clause. Nobody reviewed serviceability. It closed. It just can’t go anywhere.

    Every seller finance note we put together has three possible futures: holds to term, sells to a note buyer, or gets paid off when the buyer refinances. Do you structure your deals with all three exits in mind? Most people doing their first dozen notes don’t. If you build only for the close, you’ve already ignored two of the three most likely outcomes.

    When the Conventional Advice Is Right

    I’m not here to argue that seller finance works everywhere. It doesn’t. If our buyer qualifies conventionally, we go conventional. Conventional financing is cheaper for the buyer and less complicated for the seller, and I’m not going to dress up a creative structure where none is needed.

    Seller finance genuinely solves real problems for buyers who can’t qualify traditionally. I believe that. My issue isn’t with that use case. My issue is with treating RMLO qualification as optional overhead rather than the foundation step that makes our note worth something to anyone other than us.

    Black Sheep Convention: Work This Out Live

    Black Sheep Convention is September 25-26 at the Hilton San Antonio Hill Country. Twelve operators. Ten classes. Ten hours of Texas CE. Our format runs two classes simultaneously across five class periods, so you pick the track that fits your business.

    We don’t run a guru pitch-fest. We don’t do a back-of-room close. We don’t do five-figure mentorship upsells from the stage. What we do is walk through real deals, real numbers, real structures you can take back and use Monday morning.

    In-person all-access is $399. Live online is $99.

    If you’re doing seller finance deal training in Texas and nobody has told you that an RMLO-documented note is a fundamentally different asset than one without it, come to San Antonio on September 25. That’s our room. I’ll see you there.

    Black Sheep Convention tickets are on sale now.

    Get your ticket

  • Texas Hands-On Real Estate Events: 4 Myths Busted

    Texas hands-on real estate events have a reputation problem, and honestly, it’s earned. Every investor I know has sat through a “training” that turned out to be a 45-minute pitch for a $25,000 coaching program. You know the format. Motivational opener, a few slides, then someone strolls to the whiteboard and tells you the only thing holding you back is the right mentor.

    I built Black Sheep Convention because I was done with that room.

    We run September 25-26, 2026 at the Hilton San Antonio Hill Country. Twelve operators. Ten classes. Ten hours of Texas CE. Five class periods run two sessions at once, so you pick what your business actually needs. $399 puts you in the room. $99 gets you the live online feed.

    Here are the four things I hear most from people on the fence, and why each one is wrong.

    Myth 1: Every Texas Hands-On Real Estate Event Is Just a Pitch-Fest

    This one survives because it’s usually true. Most convention business models are built around stage access: speakers pay to present or take a cut of back-of-the-room sales. The “training” is lead generation. The real product is whatever closes you during the break.

    At Black Sheep, our twelve operators walk into that Hilton to teach. That’s it. There’s no program they’re pitching from the stage. Your ticket is the only thing we sell. You walk out with 10 hours of CE and deal structures you can put to work Monday.

    If that sounds too simple, you’ve spent too much time in those other rooms.

    Myth 2: Agents and Investors Need Separate Events

    I hear this from both sides. Agents assume investor events don’t count toward their business. Investors assume CE-heavy programs are theory and no action.

    My own experience breaks both. I run a Texas brokerage and I actively invest. My license doesn’t limit my deals. It gives me an exit when the cash numbers don’t work. A motivated seller calls, the ARV doesn’t justify my offer, and most investors walk. I list the property instead. That’s a transaction most unlicensed investors can’t touch.

    Do I close every one? No. But I stop walking away from deals my competitors pass on entirely.

    At Black Sheep, we put agents and investors in the same rooms on purpose. Agents pick up acquisition strategies their investor clients use every day. Investors see exactly how listing access changes the math on deals that don’t fit a cash buy box. Our ten hours count toward Texas CE, so agents leave with required credit they actually needed.

    Myth 3: CE-Approved Classes Can’t Cover Creative Financing

    This one makes me laugh. The assumption is that TREC approval means content has to be watered down to “consult your attorney before proceeding.” Most CE classes are exactly that, so the assumption makes sense.

    TREC approves delivery format and instructor credentials. It doesn’t limit what you can teach. I cover subject-to transactions, seller financing structures, and short sale negotiations in TREC-approved settings. The material isn’t blocked. Most CE providers just don’t know it.

    Our due-on-sale training is a good example. Agents and investors both treat due-on-sale like a trip wire. There’s no due-on-sale police and no due-on-sale jail. The actual mechanism, the actual lender behavior, the real risk profile on a subject-to deal: all of it belongs in a classroom. We put it there every year. The CE stamp doesn’t water it down.

    Myth 4: “Hands-On” Just Means Worksheets

    What do I mean by hands-on? My short sale training doesn’t explain what a short sale is. We walk through the specific deal types our team actually works: missing owners, solar panel liens, IRS holds, estate complications. I call these the “total train wreck” deals. Most Texas agents send them straight to the shredder. Done right, our team is delivering six-figure debt forgiveness to real sellers with no other exit. That’s not a worksheet exercise.

    The person sitting next to you in that San Antonio conference room might have closed the same deal type in a different Texas market last month. That conversation has a different quality than anything you’d find on YouTube.

    Twelve operators teaching ten classes means our room carries real transaction experience across multiple deal structures and multiple Texas markets. You’re not getting a framework. You’re getting real deals with real numbers.

    Black Sheep Convention is September 25-26, 2026 at the Hilton San Antonio Hill Country. Ten hours of Texas CE. Twelve operators. $399 for full in-person access, $99 to attend live online.

    Registration is open at blacksheepconvention.com.

    Black Sheep Convention tickets are on sale now.

    Get your ticket

  • Find Real Estate Investors in Texas: 5 Myths

    Every agent and wholesaler I’ve talked to who can’t find active investors in Texas is running the same broken playbook. I ran parts of it myself, and it took me longer than I’d like to admit to figure out what was actually wrong.

    These myths survive because they sound reasonable. Your colleagues repeat them. They’re comfortable enough to keep believing while your pipeline stays dry.

    Myth 1: Facebook groups are where real investors hang out

    I’m in several Texas real estate investor groups on Facebook. Thousands of members. I check them sometimes, mostly to see who’s asking the same questions I was asking five years ago.

    That’s not where I’d go to find a buyer for my next deal, and I’d bet it’s not producing results for you either.

    Working operators, the ones closing 10 to 20 transactions a year across Texas, are not debating ARV in a comment thread on a Wednesday afternoon. They’re walking properties, sitting at the title company, talking to sellers. Who has time to moderate a Facebook thread when you’ve got three deals in escrow?

    If you want to find real investors, go to events where they have a reason to show up with something real on the line.

    Myth 2: Real investors only do all-cash deals

    This assumption is costing Texas agents real money. Our market has plenty of properties that won’t qualify for conventional financing, and the idea that without a cash buyer there’s nothing to do is exactly wrong.

    There’s subject-to existing financing, seller financing, wraparound mortgages, lease options. The investors who’ve actually scaled in Texas know all of them. Cash is one tool in the box. There’s no due-on-sale police and no due-on-sale jail. We say that in our classes because most people in this industry are still too afraid to.

    Have you ever walked away from a distressed property because you assumed no investor would want it? I’ve done exactly that. I’ve since watched those same types of deals close through structures I hadn’t learned yet. Foundation issues, solar liens, estate complications, deferred maintenance. A creative investor is often MOST interested in the deal the conventional buyer couldn’t touch.

    Myth 3: You need a buyer’s list before you can wholesale

    I’ve watched new Texas wholesalers spend six months building a “cash buyer’s list” before they’ve gotten a single property under contract. They’re cold-calling hedge funds, trying to get on approved vendor lists, building spreadsheets full of people they’ve never transacted with.

    How many months have you spent building a list instead of getting a deal under contract?

    The sequence is backwards. A real deal is its own advertisement. A below-market property under contract pulls serious buyers in. My buyer relationships, and the relationships of every wholesale operator I’ve trained with, got built transaction by transaction, not before I started.

    Find the deal first. That order doesn’t change.

    Myth 4: Licensed agents and investors don’t mix

    This myth frustrates me more than any other on this list. Part of the Texas market still treats agents and investors as opposing teams. Agents assume investors will cut them out. Investors assume agents don’t understand creative deals.

    Our position at StepStone, and the reason we built Black Sheep Convention around it, is that we want to bring creative real estate into the mainstream. Investors are legitimate, important participants in the market. They absorb distressed inventory, they renovate houses no bank would touch, they put sellers in situations where no traditional buyer would ever go.

    For licensed agents reading this, I’ll say it plainly: your license gives you a second shot at every deal. When the cash offer doesn’t land, you can list the property instead of walking away with nothing. The “licensing issue” you’ve heard other investors warn about is mostly myth. We say that out loud. Most people in this industry won’t.

    Myth 5: Serious investors only show up at expensive masterminds

    I’ve been to events marketed as “access to high-level investors” at $5,000 a seat. Those rooms tend to be full of people who paid to meet other people who also paid $5,000. The working operators closing deals in Texas are somewhere else entirely.

    They’re at training. Actual training where someone walks through a real transaction, shows you how it was structured, and tells you what they’d have done differently. The presenter who’s most useful to you isn’t the celebrity keynote. It’s the one who can pull up last month’s HUD and walk you through every line item.

    That’s a different room, and I can tell you it costs a lot less to get into.

    Where to actually find Texas investors

    September 25-26, 2026. Hilton San Antonio Hill Country. That’s where we’re holding the Black Sheep Convention, and it’s the event I’d point any serious Texas agent or investor toward.

    Twelve operators. Ten classes. Ten hours of Texas CE credit. Five class periods, two tracks running at the same time, so you pick what fits your business.

    Our presenters are working deals right now. They’re closing subject-to transactions, structuring seller financing on properties conventional buyers couldn’t touch, and working what I call total train wreck deals: missing owners, solar liens, IRS holds, estate chaos. Most agents in Texas walk away from those. We teach them, because they’re some of the highest-margin opportunities in this market.

    In person: $399. Online: $99. Two days, twelve operators, ten classes.

    If you’re serious about finding real estate investors in Texas who are actually operating, that room on September 25-26 is where to start.

    Black Sheep Convention tickets are on sale now.

    Get your ticket

  • Texas Continuing Education for Real Estate Agents

    Most agents treat CE like a parking ticket. Pay it, forget it, move on. I used to think the same way.

    Then I watched a guy in our office lose a $350,000 buyer because he couldn’t explain what a subject-to deal was. An investor was willing to structure it that way. Our agent nodded, smiled, and had no idea what was happening. The deal went to someone else.

    That’s a training problem. Most continuing education for real estate agents in Texas was designed to prevent lawsuits, not to help you close the deals your clients are actually bringing you right now.

    The CE Industry Is Keeping You Small

    TREC mandates 18 hours every two years. Most providers fill those hours with legal updates, ethics refreshers, and contract checklists. Useful stuff for staying out of trouble. But if that’s ALL you’re doing, you’re training to be a better paper-pusher, not a better deal-closer.

    Investor clients do not suffer fools. If you can’t speak their language, if you freeze up when someone asks about a wraparound mortgage or a land contract, they find an agent who can. Then they stay with that agent for years, through multiple transactions every year.

    I’ve watched agents leave $50,000+ in annual commission on the table because their CE didn’t teach them anything about how investors actually operate. Not because those agents lacked hustle. Because their classes didn’t cover the material.

    There’s a buyer-side version of this problem too. Zillow shows principal and interest only. Add Texas property taxes (around 2.7% statewide average) and insurance, and a buyer who thinks they can afford a $450,000 home might only qualify around $280,000 once you run real PITI numbers. Can you pull up a mortgage calculator with today’s rates and actual county tax data in front of a client right now? If you’re hesitating, that’s the gap worth closing.

    And don’t get me started on evictions. Agents who work with landlord clients get asked about them. An uncontested eviction in Texas runs 4-6 weeks minimum. Contested ones run longer and always cost more than people budget. An agent who can’t speak to that timeline loses credibility with a serious investor before the first showing.

    Compliance Training Isn’t Enough Anymore

    I’m not going to pretend legal updates don’t matter. They do. But conventional financing is harder to qualify for, creative structures are more common, and investor activity in Texas markets is significant. Your clients are navigating subject-to, seller financing, and wraparound mortgages whether you understand them or not. Are you useful in those conversations, or just along for the ride?

    The agents I see building real business with investor clients made one consistent choice: they stopped treating CE as a tax and started treating it as training.

    What Continuing Education for Real Estate Agents in Texas Should Actually Look Like

    It should feel like a room full of operators who have closed the kinds of deals your clients are asking about. Real structures from real transactions, not PowerPoint recaps of textbook chapters.

    That’s what I built the Black Sheep Convention around.

    September 25-26, 2026 at the Hilton San Antonio Hill Country. Twelve operators. Ten classes. Ten hours of Texas CE, all in two days.

    Five class periods run back-to-back, with two classes running simultaneously each period. You pick the tracks that match where your business is right now. Every presenter is a working operator teaching from real deals.

    We are NOT a guru pitch-fest. I’ve sat through those events. I’ve watched the back-of-the-room close. I’ve heard the “for only $29,997 you can join our mastermind” speech more times than I care to count. Black Sheep is built on the opposite premise. You’ll leave with structures you can use Monday morning, not a sales pitch you’ll resent by lunch.

    In-person all-access is $399. Live online is $99.

    If you’re going to take CE hours anyway (and you are, because TREC requires it), make those hours count. Spend them learning what your clients are already doing, so you can actually help them do it better.

    We’ll see you in San Antonio.

    Black Sheep Convention tickets are on sale now.

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  • The Investors Waiting for Rates to Drop Are Watching the Wrong Number

    Every time I’m at an investor meetup in Texas, I hear it. “I’m just sitting on the sideline until rates come down.” I’ve been hearing it for two years now. And every time I hear it, I want to ask the same follow-up question.

    Waiting where, exactly?

    I’ve closed deals where the seller gave me 0% interest, took $0 down, and handed me a 30-year note. Their motivation wasn’t desperation. I showed up with a structure that solved their actual problem, and nobody else did. The rate environment never came up.

    Here’s a specific deal. I bought a $100,000 house on seller financing. The seller had owned it for decades. Their cost basis was almost nothing. They had three offers on the table. Mine wasn’t the highest number. Mine was the call they returned.

    What I understood that the other buyers didn’t: their problem wasn’t price. Their problem was taxes. A straight cash sale would have triggered capital gains on nearly the full $100,000 in the year of the sale. But if I spread my payments over 30 years, they could spread that taxable income too. That’s a standard IRS installment sale structure. It’s been sitting in the tax code the whole time.

    The 0% interest was their idea, not mine. They weren’t trying to earn yield on the note. They wanted the property off their books, cash flowing in monthly, and their tax liability stretched into the future. I put $0 down. We set my payment at $1,000 per month, pure principal, 30-year amortization. They said yes. My tenant paid the $1,000.

    Four years later, my tenant had paid down about $48,000 in principal on a house I’d never written a personal check to acquire. My property was worth around $180,000 by then. I was sitting on roughly $128,000 in value, and my out-of-pocket was ZERO.

    My seller wasn’t desperate. My seller was calculating. I was the only person in the room who ran the right calculation.

    The Part I See People Get Wrong

    When I write a seller-financed note on an owner-occupied property, Dodd-Frank applies. My note cannot negatively amortize. That means my monthly principal and interest payment has to be at least equal to the monthly interest accruing on the note balance. If I let my payment fall below that floor, I’m in violation.

    I multiply the note balance by the annual rate and divide by 12. On a $180,000 note at 7%, my floor is $1,050 per month. Standard 30-year amortization clears that automatically. The deal I described had 0% interest, so my floor was zero. That’s one reason why I pushed for 0%: it simplifies the compliance math considerably.

    Math. I know. Not the most fun section. But I’ve watched deals blow up over this, and it’s not worth it.

    I also always set my first payment to the 1st of the month following a full month after closing. It keeps my day-count math clean and avoids partial-month accrual problems right out of the gate.

    Who I Think Wins From Here

    My honest read is that high conventional rates actually improve my negotiating position as a buyer who understands seller financing. When a conventional buyer is carrying 7.5% debt and struggling to qualify, and I come in with an installment structure that solves a seller’s capital gains problem at 0%, I’m not competing against easy money. I’m the only offer that makes practical sense for that seller.

    The investors sitting on the sideline waiting for rates to normalize are going to watch this window close. My experience is that the sellers with the biggest capital gains exposures are often sitting on the best properties — bought decades ago, fully depreciated, managed by someone who’s tired. Those sellers exist in every Texas market right now.

    Do you know what to say when you’re sitting across from one of them?

    Where I Teach This

    I don’t care about theory. I want to put real deal structures in front of you that you can copy Monday morning. That’s what my team built the Black Sheep Convention to do.

    We’re at the Hilton San Antonio Hill Country on September 25-26, 2026. Twelve operators. Ten classes. Ten hours of Texas CE. We don’t bring keynote speakers selling you a $20,000 mentorship from the stage. No pitch-fest. No five-figure back-of-the-room close. We bring practitioners who are working real deals and teaching what actually produces income.

    In-person all-access is $399. Live online is $99.

    The sellers with capital gains problems don’t have a calendar alert set for when you feel ready.

    Black Sheep Convention tickets are on sale now.

    Get your ticket