No liquid cash

[Jason Garrison]

Any ideas on how to get into real estate with no liquid cash to purchase or inject into a property?  

[Anna Buffkin]

Jason, I respect you desire to get into real estate, but feel you may want to focus on saving for the unexpected first.   Be sure you have a personal emergeny fund. Once that is established, look at you finances to see if you could weather a bad real estate situation.  Even the best deals can turn bad quickly.  It's the unexpected cost of ownership that will get investors in trouble. 

 You did not say above what segment of real estate you were in, so I will use my situation for example.  I own 3 properties purchases 5% down, $5k down, and no money down.  The entry to ownership is "cheap", it's the unexpected that will get you.  I have a older 3/2/1 in a great school district. It's never vacant and rarely have a tenant issue. The mortgage and escrow is $539 and I estimate I am "all in" at $625 based on average other expenses.  The rent is $950. Sounds good, clearing $325 a month, and usually it is, but Feb 2014 I renovated, my choice I could have rented as is as done in the past.  6 weeks later the a/c goes out.  That summer, the tenant calls said the couple had split and she can't afford rent.  I hate eviction and the husband had no intention of paying rent.   Convinced them to leave but lost a months rent.   With that house I have had 3 years of good and profitable experiences, but i had a 6 months stretch where that house was sucking me dry both financially and mentally.

Normally things go well otherwise none of us would do this, but you have to have a reserve to cover the unexpected especially when just starting out.  Hope I did not offend.  I gave the same advice to a friend recently who wanted to invest in rentals with very little in the bank.