Was paid $15K to buy my first house
It was 1997 and my then wife and I learned she was pregnant. We were both college educated, making good money (I was 25 and she was 23), but we hadn't saved any money. 1997 was the middle of the 1989-2201 real estate crash in the Antelope Valley (Palmdale and Lancaster), CA. I saw an ad in the newspaper for a 4 bed, 2 bath house for $110K, FHA assumable. I called the guy and he explained that he was a bachelor who wanted to move and he owed $130K on the house. He was going to make a final payment of $20K to the bank to bring the balance to $110K, then the new owner who assumed the loan could refinance. I told him I did not have a problem making the $1,100 per month payment, so instead of him paying the bank $20K, give me $15K and he gets to keep $5K.
He of course loved the idea, but I didn't know him (or trust him) and we couldn't include the $15K transaction in the escrow. So we created a second escrow independent of the assumption escrow, but they closed concurrently. He funded the $15K and I received the $15K upon closing the first escrow. I told my them wife that we had to stay in the house for 5 years since it was upside down. We stayed there exactly 5 years to the month, sold it, took the $10K in equity and purchased our next house in 2002. Now here comes the fun part.
We purchased our second house in May 2002 for $200K with the $10K cash from the first house. We then signed a purchase agreement to purchase a third house in March 2003. At this time our first house was appreciating at $5K per month. We put $3K down on to purchase a $400K house that they hadn't even broken ground on. it took them 18 months to construct and close on the house. When we closed in September 2004, the second house was worth $350K (we had $150K in equity) and the third house was worth $600K ($200K in equity). So we had $350K in equity from these two house, all of which came from the $15K that I was paid when I bought the first house.
So yes, it is possible to buy houses with no money (or get paid to buy someone's house).