Experience level:Green Excitement level:Red Hot!

When I was 18 or so, I stayed up late one night(many nights) and became entranced with this info-mercial about buying properties with 'no money down'. I think the guys' name was Carelton Sheets. He seemed totally sincere....and his house looked AMAZING. I was like, 'hey, I have NO MONEY, this is perfect!' So, I ordered the set of CDs. I listened to them immediately....but didn't gain much knowledge of how go around town scooping up properties without any money. I did, however, become very interested in real estate. 

Up till this point in my life, I had been working part-time jobs, like most 18 yr olds. I think my annual income was around 12k. I was a great saver though. At 19, I had about 9k in my bank account. I had no idea where to start, so I called a real estate agent to look at a house. It was listed for 52,000$. In 1998, that could still get a cute little place in Modesto, Ca. So, the guy meets me at the house, and is seriously the most condescending a$$ I've avoided doing business with! He looked at me, looked at my car(87' Chevy Nova) and did everything but roll his eyes. The house 'tour' consisted of him standing in the living room pointing towards the kitchen and hallway and backyard, explaining where they were. l think it was safe to say he was certain his time was being wasted and didn't care what my opinion of him was. Just so you know, it was....unfavorable. I hope you read this Robert :p.

Anyway....the house was a mess.  More work than I wanted to get in to. So I started scouring those little real estate magazines(I don't even think Internet existed yet!) . I found a condo that was near my mom's house listed for 44k. I called the listing agent(how nice of me) and he met me at the property. His name was George Orsua, and he was the nicest man. He was surprised to be meeting with little ol me as well, but his reaction was the opposite of Roberts'. I remember him complimenting me on my courage to buy my own place and being impressed that I was doing all this on my own. He, not only set me up with a lender, but showed me a few other properties that were within my price range as well. 

I ended up buying the condo, for asking price...with seller paying all of my closing costs. The loan I got was perfect for me. It was called a "20% no income qualifier" . It was thru world savings and loan....which has since gone the way of the dodo, sadly. What I did was: put $8,800 into a cd at their bank....and they funded the loan 100%. When the equity in my place reached the amount in the cd....I could cash that out, plus what ever interest had accrued. It was a pretty sweet deal. My mortgage pymt was $245. There was an HOA fee of $125. My total utilities for my 'totally grown-up' 2bd 2ba condo.....around $150/mo. Oh, and I had a roommate paying $200/mo. I was 19....and I. Was. Awesome.

I held on to that place for 3 years and sold it for 105,000.  I was officially the richest 22 year old I knew. Except for my friend Jess, who sued Walgreens for  $90,000 for giving her the wrong Rx which made her grow a beard. She blew through that in 2 years though. BOOM....richest 24 year old!