The Best Way To Get Started as a Real Estate Investor
Here are a couple of ideas that should help you get started in the right direction and answer how you can do a no money down deal with no cash, no credit, no income, no nothing, except having some general knowledge backed with a desire to succeed by going out there and taking ACTION!!!
The way most people make money in this game is by using creative techniques to solve one person's problem while being able to structure the deal to where it makes you a profit.
The key to finding a lot of deals in this game is to look for the MOTIVATED SELLERS.... forget about looking for houses, that's a waste of time and requires way too much work!!! Narrow it down to dealing with "MOTIVATED SELLERS" and make fewer offers that result in getting more offers accepted!
Let me give you an example on buying a house for full market value, with no money out of your pocket, picking up a quick $5k up front, some positive cash flow every month, and a nice payday on the back end.... plus where talking about dealing in NICE homes....NO junk properties!
Mr. Seller has a newer home he purchased about 2 years ago. When he purchased the home he put about 5% down and was able to qualify for 95% financing. After closing cost he had hardly any equity left.
Mr. Seller ended up buying a new home a couple years later. He's been trying to sell this home before he has to close on his new home. He can't even afford to list the home with a realtor because he doesn't have enough equity in the property to even cover the 6% - 7% commission he would have to pay a real estate agent.
Now the Seller's new home is finished, ready to be moved into and he needs to close on it. He closes and figures he'll sell the old home soon, but soon enough doesn't seem to be coming. Now the Seller is starting to have some financial problems because he has to start paying two mortgage payments until someone buys the old home. The Seller has a problem now because he can't afford to make two mortgage payments. If something doesn't give pretty quick, he's going to fall behind on the payments on the old home. He's going to pay the new homes mortgage first. But he doesn't want to be late or get behind on the payments of the old home either. The Seller is worried about damaging his credit if he misses any payments.
This is where I would come along and be in a position to SOLVE HIS PROBLEM! I can put a stop to the Seller's worry and stop the bleeding TODAY! All the Seller needs to do is agree to my TERMS and I'll even pay him what he owes on the property, which is pretty close to full market value. The Seller knows he wasn't going to get any money out of it after paying off his mortgage and closing costs, so all the Seller wants and all he NEEDS, is to get out from under his mortgage payment!
I agree to take over the Seller's mortgage. I take it over "subject to", which means I assume the Seller's loan without even qualifying through the lender that holds the Seller's mortgage. The Seller will deed the property over to me. I now OWN the home. The Seller is still on the loan that has the lien against the property. The Seller remains responsible to the lender for that loan until I pay it off! Usually within a few years when my tenant ends up exercising their option that I will give to them under a lease option agreement. I won't be liable for the loan on the property to the lender. The Seller's bank can't come after me if something where to go wrong. The loan is in the Seller's name, not mine! However, I will be liable to the Seller to perform on our contract agreement to make his payments and pay off that loan eventually, but my liability is to Seller, not his bank.
The Seller deeds the property over to me. The house is worth $150k. The Seller's loan balance is about $145k. I agree to start making the payments in 30 - 60 days from today! Now I have 30 - 60 days to market the property before my payments start. The payments are $1400 PITI
What is the FASTEST way to sell a property? Sell on TERMS!
So I run an ad in the paper.
NO BANK QUALIFYING!!!
RENT TO OWN
NICE! 4bd/2ba House
Call xxx-xxxx
The phone starts ringing off the hook!
I find a potential Buyer that has $5k to put down and says they can afford to pay $1700 per month. ($150k homes in the area would rent for $1200 - $1400 per month, so getting $1700 a month on a $1400 rental when offering an OPTION TO BUY, will bring a premium rent and people will gladly pay it, because no one else will even finance them because of one reason or another) I agree to give them an option to buy the home for $165k in one or two years. YOU get a premium on the sale price because you're offering TERMS!
I collect the $5k up front as "Non-Refundable Option Consideration" and "IF" they exercise the OPTION, the $5k will be deducted from the purchase price of $165k, leaving my Tenant/Buyer with a balance owed of $160k. If they don't exercise the option the option money paid is non-refundable and is lost by the Tenant/Buyer!
I get the $5k up front, plus first month's rent of $1700. Since I was lucky and found this Tenant/Buyer in the first week, I get to keep 100% of the first two months rent since my payments won't start for 60 days! So I collect $5k + $1700 first month rent up front, for a total of $6700. The following month I collect the full $1700 for rent and the 10 months after that I collect $300 per month positive cash flow. At the end of the year, IF the Tenant/Buyer exercises their option, they will pay $160k. After paying off the underlying mortgage of $145k remaining on the Seller's mortgage, I'll collect another $15k at closing.
So lets see, that's....
$5k option money up front
$1700 first months rent
$1700 second months rent
$300 x 10 months rent = $3k
$15k at closing ($160k - $145k = $15k)
That's $26,400.00 over 12 months total PROFIT!
Now what happens if my Tenant/Buyer doesn't exercise the option in a year???
WONDERFUL!!!!!!!
Now I get to start all over again! I get to collect another option fee, raise the rent after a year for inflation and get a higher selling price for the option the next time around!
I just keep repeating the process over and over again until someone eventually exercises their option!
Assuming every tenant was to exercise their option in the first year.... how many deals like this would you have to do each year to make $100k???
Just FOUR deals like this one and you're making $105,600 per year!
How many hours would that work out to be to find and structure a deal like this and get a Tenant/Buyer in the property? Not very many!
How many hours per week would you have to put into working at your job to make $105,600.00 per year???
One thing to remember is that the typical homebuyer or seller does not understand any type of creative real estate buying or selling. They typically use a realtor to buy or sell. When that realtor doesn't sell that home or when that buyer can't get that loan.... that's where motivation starts to set in. The Seller starts getting motivated to sell and the Buyer starts getting motivated to buy. In either case they both either, just want to get out of the property or buy to get in. The Seller will just let the property go to get their problem solved and the Buyer will gladly pay any price to just get in if you can solve their problem.
Motivated Sellers are those that have been trying to sell but haven't been able to for one reason or another. Or they may be facing foreclosure. Or they may be in a divorce situation. Or they may have been transferred with their job and need to move on, but they don't want to leave the house empty or deal with renting it out to renters being so far away. Or they may have lost their job and can no longer afford the home and need to find something less expensive. Or they may have purchased another home and are now stuck with two mortgage payments. Or for whatever other reasons, they just need to get out from under their mortgage payments.
The Buyers just need someone that will sell to them. They can't get a bank loan or some just "think" they can't get a bank loan and they only care about two things! How much down and how much per month? If they can afford the payments and have enough to put down in order to allow them an opportunity of owning a home, price doesn't matter to them as much. They just WANT to be able to buy a home!
Your job is to become the "PROBLEM SOLVER!" Instead of thinking in terms of, I'm looking to buy properties, or I want to be an investor, or how do I buy properties with no money, or how do I get financing, etc...
Start thinking in terms of being a "problem solver". Your job is to find SOLUTIONS to fix someone else's problems! Your job is to sit down with these people and find out what their problem is. Once you figure out what their real problem is, you now know what they NEED! They all WANT an all cash sale. They WANT full price and WANT someone to just waltz in and buy their home the traditional way. But your job is to find out what they really NEED! Once you find out what their PROBLEM is, then you can determine what their NEED is. Once you know what they really NEED, then your job to get the deal closed is to just come up with the SOLUTION that will get them what they NEED that will SOLVE their PROBLEM!
You are not a real estate investor, you’re a PROBLEM SOLVER! You find SOLUTIONS to solve anyone's PROBLEM! That's how you make the deals come together!
Take Very Good Care,
HuntMan1