BiggerPockets

I may be asking for to much but,I need someone who can and will help me to learn how to do HUD deals.
A bit about me. I am a 70 year old widow living on SS. I do not have good credit and I do not have any money. I desperately need to make extra money. I do have experience in buying and selling mobile homes and parks. I learn quickly. I do have a bad back so can't do to much walking (ie,inspecting properties) So,if theres anyone that would like to help me just give me a shout. It would be best if I could do most everything from my computer and phone. Thank you ahead of time. Doni

What sort of help is it you're looking for? If you're actually looking for deals, or someone to partner with, please post in the Marketplace forum.

Bad credit and no cash is going to make buying a HUD difficult. There's no possibility of owner financing. Conventional financing is going to require a significant down payment, typically 20% these days. And you will need good credit and income to qualify for the loan. The real kicker is that financed rentals don't generate much cash. A few hundred a month would good for a rental.

I guess I didn't make myself very clear. I need to make some extra money NOW.
And how come I keep hearing you can buy hud homes,commercial properties and any kind of homes with NO money and NO credit? I don't get it.
I want to flip some properties and I know about mobile homes and parks have lots of experience in that.
I'm confused

Looks like you'd like to get into wholesaling. In short:

1. Find a property that is a good deal.
2. Lock it up in a contract (option) for as long as possible.
3. Sell (assign) your contract to another interested party for more than your contract purchase price.

There are LOTS of wholesalers out there, and you can find many that blog on here. There are probably MANY in the Atlanta area and you can start by meeting them, asking what they could use for help and partnering with them. I'm almost certain MOST would be happy to pay you a fee for seller leads they close.

It's hard to wholesale HUD properties though can be done. You'll have a small window of time to sell the property and to get the type of deal you need; it'll be a numbers game for you making as many low offers as possible. To do HUD contract flips you'll need a little cash to tie up the property and you'll need places to send those deals quickly. I don't know how long you can lock them up but doubt you get it for longer than 45 days...probably more like 30 to 45. I may be wrong but you'll probably need proof of funds. I'm a realtor but don't do much work with that. Other investors would be able to tell you more.

Hope that helps.

P.S. I would go to as many local real estate investor meetings as possible and meet all the wholesalers and investors in your area. Ask them how you can help them. You'll find buyers there and you'll find other wholesalers that may need help making offers. I know a guy in my area that did that and teamed up with a big investor. His job is now to make offers on the computer all day - he got himself hired and is making good money doing it.

@Doni Healy, I'm going to be honest with you. There's nothing you can do with either wholesaling (getting houses under contract then immediately reselling them to an investor) or doing fix and flips that will make you money right now. Both are time consuming processes. Both require some amount of cash. Wholesaling will require less, but you will still need to have some amount of cash to do marketing and find deals. Finding good deals is REALLY HARD! Most people have a pretty good idea what their property is worth and they want something close to it. A really good deal is one that's at a substantial discount to its current value. That means you have to do something to find those very few desperate sellers who are willing to sell at a substantial discount. They're out there, but it takes work to find them.

I do know a person who does wholesale HUD deals. Its a complex process. HUD (and many banks who sell their repossessed properties) puts restrictions in place specifically designed to prevent wholesaling.

Yes, there are lots of people out there who will say "I'm a wholesaler". I'd hazard a guess that 99% of them have never and will never do a wholesale deal. The ones that are successful put a lot of time and a significant amount money into this business.

It might be possible to do a fix and flip with little of your own cash. That typically involves using a "money partner". The money partner puts in all the money. The active partner (you) find the property, buy it (using their money), supervise the rehab and then get it sold. In other words, they put in all the money, you do all the work (though, usually with contractors, you don't need to swing a hammer) and then you split the profits 50/50. Doing that means you need to be able to actually run this project. And you need to find this money partner. That's a task in itself.

Finding someone who will lend you 100% of the money you need to do a fix and flip is almost impossible. Most of these lenders, "hard money lenders", want some of your cash in the deal. Even the ones that will possible lend you all the money you need have lending limits that mean you must have an incredibly good deal to get to 100%. Those deals are very rare. Even more rare than the ones that would make good wholesale deals.

Sorry. Real estate is good for building long term wealth, but just won't produce a quick and easy paycheck.

I'll repeat that posts seeking money, buyers, partners or lender must go into the Marketplace form. This forum is for discussion only.

@Doni Healy no quick money, sorry just not how it works. You can do deals with no money and no credit, but they are few and far in between (least in my market) The biggest hurdle you face is learning the market in your area. What is a good deal and what is not, who are the buyers and what are they looking for in a deal. I am from ATL and last time I was there, their were a lot of big player in the wholesale market. Hard to compete with someone with 15 employees looking and big adv budgets. Plus to get the good deal you need some type of adv campaign. Which cost money I am sure you don't want or need to spend.

Call some of the "we buy houses signs" see if you can work as a property locator(bird-dog). Most of the smaller investor like myself love to have all the people we can looking for properties, and will even train someone on what we want and were. We also pay a fee to you if you bring a deal that works.

As to the REI meeting I am not so excited about them. Lost of newbies and sharks so be careful who you listen to. Good Luck, REI is a great business, you can make lots of money, but just like everything else, it is not get rich quick and no easy free lunch.

Originally posted by @Doni Healy:
I guess I didn't make myself very clear. I need to make some extra money NOW.
And how come I keep hearing you can buy hud homes,commercial properties and any kind of homes with NO money and NO credit? I don't get it.

Doni, you keep hearing about it because there are a ton of people out there selling courses on how to get rich quick. Some things never change. But they are selling a pipe dream, separating people from their cash. If it were easy, don't you think everyone would be doing it? But the easier they make it sound, the more courses they sell.

Wholesaling is hard....really really hard. People who are successful at it make it look easy, because when everything goes right, from the time the call comes in to the day of closing I might put about 2 or 3 hours into making my 5k check. But it took years to get my systems set up and thousands of dollars to build my marketing machine. And I have to put money into that machine every single month or it stops working.

No one on here is trying to discourage you, but what you get from this thread is a good cross sampling of reality.

@Sam Parkins,....good stuff man. Keep it coming!

@Jerry Puckett Thanks for the kudos, and great stuff all around from everyone! @R. Kerry Brooks @Jon Holdman

I am not the informational source on wholesaling/bird-dogging... There are probably (and have been mentioned) MANY big investors in your area and you should contact them to see what they can use. They'll give you a criteria and a plan of action to find the homes. Great point on calling the "we buy houses" signs and such. Look on Craigslist and see if you find multiple properties listed by the same investor. Google search to find investors in your area. If you googled in my area for mobile home investing it wouldn't be hard to find me and I would certainly line you up for bird dogging. Which is another excellent point, I have 1 or 2 bird-dogs looking for me and ALL real estate investors would be happy to pay for good property leads!

Maybe an investor in your area is running an ad in the paper for a seminar type deal where they would meet you on a weekend to explain the bird-dogging. Careful though as mentioned, there are a lot out there not doing what they say.

To close, many of the investors in your area should have a website. Just do as much due diligence as you can to find the "players" and then contact them to see if you can help.

Hi Doni,

It sounds like you have a great outlook on trying new things and working to make the best out of life. Your vision of real estate investments may have been a little misguided by "Easy Money Gurus" but now it seems like you have a better understanding of how you can provide real-value (within REI) to make yourself money.

I have one suggestion... It's not fast money, but it is cheap.

After you be friend and exchange phone numbers with a few active cash-buyers in your area you can start looking for motivated sellers. You already likely know many home-owners in and around where you live. Be a little nosy and start asking around if anyone knows of anyone that may need to sell quickly?? Start walking (as much as possible) and talking to your neighbors daily.

Being a good bird-dog does not necessarily require much skill, but it does require you find the seller before anyone else.

Wow, great comment and content by Sam, John, Jerry, and R. Kerry!

Best,
John Fedro

thanks Jerry: That helps a lot.