How can someone get started in real estate without credit?

Question

I made poor decisions as a younger man. I therefore have no credit. I do have $5K - 10K in cash to get started with. Any enlightenment would be awesome. Thanks.

Michael Wagner · Answer

No Credit or Poor Credit?  There's an important difference!

Also, how much younger were you when you made these poor decisions.  As they say, time has a way of healing things;)! $5-10K is a good bit of savings but if you're looking to go straight into storage (which I wish I had done rather than messing with Residential RE first), You'll need to pair that money with some "sweat equity" and also find someone who is willing to look past your past financial indiscretions.  You'll need to overcompensate for some past bad decisions by proving you've changed your ways AND that you are SUPER SMART around this new venture. To me, your situation is a good one for "seller financing" on a very small storage facility 2000-6000 square feet just to get your feet wet.  Once you've established a track record of success, subsequent deals will be much easier to fund.

William Goodpaster · Answer

No credit. Nothing good or bad. I made poor decisions for many years. Addiction issues. Been clean and working my back side off for 15 years. Have a 9 month emergency fund in MMA. We have saved some money in other accounts auto replacement, etc. I have not used credit for about 25 years. My wife has not in 15. We are just beginning to repair our credit. Looking for perspectives I may not have myself.

Nicole Heasley Beitenman · Answer

Start hanging out at your local REIA and make friends!

William Goodpaster · Answer

I should add that my goal is to own self storage facilities. But am not ruling out other options.

William Goodpaster · Answer

I'm passively beginning to take notice of who might be a great candidate for partnership. I have more cash but our investing money is divided into 2 categories. Passive capital, and active capital. The first for index funds etc. The second for other things. I'd like the other things to become real estate. Do you have any guiding advice?

Melba Chambers · Answer

@William Goodpaster Do you have someone that you can partner with? With that amount of cash what are you looking to do? You may want to look at saving more capital.

How can someone get started in real estate without credit?

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