Commercial Real Estate Investment Articles

Like many people that have come and gone and like some that still post on the mobile home forum every now and then, I bought Deals on Wheels and Making Money with Mobile Homes over a year and a half ago. I read them once; they made a lot of sense; but they went right back onto the bookshelf.

In less than ten days, I sold two of my three mobile homes for cash. For the first one, I made a purchase agreement with the seller for $1,000 on the condition that I give him ten weeks to wait for a place to open up in senior housing. I started advertising it for $4,000 cash and making a buyers list.

This is my latest success story. I hope it motivates you. This story will be unbelievable to some, unlikely to others, and “I wish I found that one” to those who know it can happen.

I hope my little taste of success will help other people get going on their real estate investing career. I was like most of the CRE Online visitors. I slaved over the >articles, success stories, and message boards over and over until I practically memorized them. I took notes and typed up pages of tips, strategies, other wisdom from the pros on the site.

Anyone can do this with just a little “want.” I am a full-time real estate investor. In all honesty, against what everyone told me NOT to do I did anyway. And this is where i am now.

Let me start by saying that I paid $3,400 for a “class” in real estate investing that turned out to be nothing more than a 30-minute per week phone call covering the very basics. Thankfully, the trainer mentioned several websites for self-study. CRE Online has been worth well MORE than my initial costs. Thank you for your complete guidance.

For those of you that think making this kind of profit isn’t possible in your market or that you are too inexperienced–think again!

I had a seller call on one of my signs in San Diego. The house was in a “not so great area.” I decided to set up a three-year lease option for market rent and a $30,000 discount in price.

I met with a woman in Fort Smith, AR who wanted to move back home (somewhere in Indiana), and she was very ready to leave. Her time frame to stay in the house was about a week. When I met with her, she showed me the property. It was a fairly small home with some very nice landscaping in the front yard, some rose bushes and other flowers, but inside was a different story. The floor needed replaced, the walls were studs and sheet rock, the counters all needed replaced, and it smelled foul.

My two partners and I raised $60,000 from a line of credit on one of the partners’ homes back in 1998. In 1999, at the age of 25, we bought our first apartment building in Winnipeg, Manitoba with 27 units in almost new condition. A year later, we took our cash flow and invested in an 11-unit foreclosure. (The first time we ever paid above asking!)

Well, here goes! My first trial at real estate investing was a huge undertaking. My partner and I bought a gutted row house that was about 2,000 sq ft. After six months and almost every weekend, we had finally finished it. We paid $55,000 for the property and had about $80,000 in repairs for a total of $135,000 in the house.

I love to talk about real estate. I always say, “If I don’t talk about it, how will anyone know what I do?” If the person you are talking to isn’t selling right now or doesn’t know someone that is selling, they eventually will. I want my name to be the one they remember, so I can get that all important “personal reference.”

We invested $300 into signs that say “I Buy Ugly Houses” with our phone number. The very first call we got was from a guy with an abandoned house on a street we’d driven down just the week before. We couldn’t figure out how we could have missed the house because we drive around every Sunday looking for vacant properties in hopes of finding the owners.

In October, I bought a “fixer-upper.” I paid $22,000 cash. I bought it from an executrix (female executor) who had never bought or sold real estate before. I sold it last week for $42,000. I owner financed it with $5,000 down, balance at 7% interest, amortized over seven years, balloon in five years. I’ll collect $558 per month.

I’ve been reading everyone else’s success stories for a long time; I just had to share mine. First, my local agent with whom I have dealt frequently called me about a motivated seller from out of town.

I send out several postcards every month. And in Texas, November and December always seem to be the hardest months to buy foreclosure sales because the holidays and work weeks are so short.

This is for all of you lurking on this site. This is a “get off the couch” (GOTC) story for you all. Success Stories like this one got me off the couch, and I hope my story will help you.

I’m thirty-six years old and bought my first mobile home park two years ago. It is eight acres with thirteen mobile homes and a mini-storage. I told the owner I would give her the full asking price of $200,000. I knew that would get her interest. After checking with the local banks, finding out their terms and the fact that they didn’t want to loan that much money for a small park, I asked her if she would consider owner financing.I’m thirty-six years old and bought my first mobile home park two years ago. It is eight acres with thirteen mobile homes and a mini-storage. I told the owner I would give her the full asking price of $200,000. I knew that would get her interest. After checking with the local banks, finding out their terms and the fact that they didn’t want to loan that much money for a small park, I asked her if she would consider owner financing.

I have an awesome success story here in San Diego. I have submitted four success stories, but this one is probably the most gratifying.

“You can’t make money having someone else do your work!”

I’ve read so manySuccess Stories on this site. Thank God for it! I stumbled onto Creative Real Estate Online at least five years ago but never believed I could do those deals. I worked at a major airline for a living. After the terrorist attacks, along with thousands of employees, I lost my job.

I began investing in rental properties in the summer of 1996. I was very involved in CRE Online and chat room at that time. I attended the CRE Online Convention back then in Las Vegas. It was wonderful.

I don’t know about you guys, but this year has been one amazing year! I started investing in real estate full time around this time two years ago, and I was struggling somewhat until November 2004.

When I heard about some apartments for sale in July, I almost walked away from them. For my first deal, I was looking for a two-bedroom/one-bath or a three-bedroom/two-bathroom home, something “easy” for a first-time deal and a novice investor. But I drove by and saw that they were two fourplexes, not a large apartment complex.

I just wanted to share my success story with you. I purchased Deals on Wheels by Lonnie Scruggs about four months ago. I knew right from the start that this was going to be my kind of business. I started telling everyone I knew about what I was doing and that if they found any deals for me, I would give them a commission.