Commercial Real Estate Investment Articles

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

My husband and I arrived in America in 1995. We traveled for the first three years and settled down in Pennsylvania seven years ago. At that time we came across an ad for a real estate seminar where a “millionaire guru promises to show you how to make millions in real estate without any money.”

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.

Like so many others, I was inspired when I read, Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki in the spring of 2004. I immediately began to search out more educational materials on real estate investing and came across Creative Real Estate Online.

So what is the lease option market about? Well, I don’t know everything, but I can tell you that it works! I found a seller who was marketing his gorgeous $1.3 million house for $1.2 million. He was not able to sell if after three months and was making payments on a vacant house.

I attended the Ohio REIA Conference in Fall 2003. I saw Lonnie Scruggs speak about mobile homes. I didn’t buy his books at that time, but realized that their was a potential investing in mobile homes. After I got home from the conference. I opened up the newspaper to look for houses for sale. I decided to look at the mobile home section while I was looking.

I have successfully completed my first transaction. These folks didn’t have good credit. They were one month behind on their land contract and owed around $700 in back taxes. I took my time and did the CMAs and ordered an appraisal of the property.

Just completed my first deal and wanted to share my excitement! I had purchased Lonnie’s books [Deals on Wheels and Making Money with Mobile Homes] about a year ago, read them once, rode the speed bumps a couple of times, and then got “too busy” for this.

I just thought I’d share with you the recent success I’ve had. I started my dreams with buying my first rental in March 2004 with no money down. I took a home equity line of credit and used it for the down payment. I’m leasing my two-unit this week and should clear about $400 to $500 per month net income.

After writing off $39,000 a couple of years ago, I sold an investment property that I purchased for $70,000 with only $1,000 down. The seller let me write my own contract, so I tied up the home for three months with out giving him any payments. I then proceeded to rehab the home, and I had it rented out by the 90th day for $925 per month.

My partner and I formed D & B Assets, LLC to combine our thirty-six years of knowledge of landlording in order to buy distressed houses, fix them, and carry a more hassle-free income stream. Craving more knowledge, we discovered Creative Real Estate Online and decided to invest in further education by attending the annual convention.

I am very excited to submit our very first real estate investing success story. After raising three children and owning a house of our own, we became heavily in debt from our money mismanagement and ignorance of how to achieve financial stability–to say nothing of abundance creation.

I wanted to share my first deal with you to keep you encouraged. I have read the CRE Online Success Stories, read books, and attended meetings and seminars. The techniques that you read about on this website and others work if YOU work them.

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.

Owning a mobile home park has many benefits, but one of the best is having a direct line to tenants looking to sell their mobile homes.

Our first real “investor deal” was a comedy of errors–that worked! I called a Realtor friend and told her I wanted to get into “flips.” She said, as a matter of fact, she knew of a distressed owner who was ready to commit financial suicide with an investor who was going to steal her house at 1:00pm. Could I come over by 11:00am to view the property.

Well, I finally got my first deal done. I did a lot of things wrong, but I learned a lot, and it ended up “good nuff” (as Lonnie Scruggs would say). I paid too much ($3,500 for a 1983 2/1, 14 x 56), put too much money and work into it ($900), and took too little down and payments too small ($500 down, $175 month).

Nothing motivates a seller like a property that has been on the market a long time. I’d been watching the ads and saw an old office building that was originally listed for $65,000. The property seemed inexpensive for what it offered, so I created a file and added it to my properties to watch.

My wife and I were married in the late 1970s and have moved locally a couple of times since then. Each time we sold our present home, we always seemed to come out very well financially. So I figured that if we could make money on real estate without even trying, we might be able to make some extra income investing in property that was not our primary residence.

After renovating and flipping several multi-units, I was wondering what my next step in real estate investing would be. I had never given the mobile home market much thought, even after reading all the >mobile home articles and success stories written here on Creative Real Estate Online.