Commercial Real Estate Investment Articles

This past February, I found myself “self-unemployed” and two weeks away from not having any income coming in (not good, but I was there). I’ll spare the details of how this happened, but it wasn’t on purpose! I have an awesome wife and two fantastic boys who look to their daddy for food, home, clothes, and Taco Bell money!

Just made my first deal on the purchase of an old “cheapo” mobile home, and it was easier than expected. I drove around about 12 mobile home parks last Saturday looking for signs offering homes for sale and found one that looked interesting. Turns out, it is a 1982 14×60 in a pretty decent park. Owner was asking $5,000 and in the process of evicting a tenant. Looked at it a couple of days later and it was trashed, needing lots of repairs (I figured it would cost about $2,000 to fix up).

I have just purchased my first mobile home on Christmas eve, and I am closing with a buyer on New Years Day! I purchased for $1,000 down and $131 a month for two years, and I am selling for $210 a month for three years after my down payment.

I would like to share a wonderful success story with you. One afternoon while driving in through a mobile home subdivision, I decided to take the flyer from the real estate box on the property. I had noticed this mobile home several times because I had sold three homes in this subdivision and decided to take a closer look at this one.

Reading all of these success stories has me jealous so I figured it was my turn. In ’89 I purchased the Carleton Sheets No Down Payment course and did NOTHING WITH IT. Then, in ’94 I bought the course AGAIN to get the updated info.

When my wife and I first started our real estate investing career a year and a half ago doing “Lonnie deals,” we never thought so much could happen in such a short period. Because of all we have learned here on the website, the Main Forum, and especially the seminars that CRE Online and its affiliates put on, we have shaved years off our learning curve.

I just wanted to send you an email on a recent success I had. I was trying to purchase a home that was up for estate sale. After inspecting the house, I decided I could pay up to $35,000 for the house. So I decided I would offer $30,000, since it was only on the market for an hour and they where asking $45,000.

In December 2000, I purchased Bill Bronchick’s How to Create a Real Estate Cash Cow course and had listened to the tapes, and then attended his Business Organization seminar.

While speaking at the Creative Real Estate Online Convention in Atlanta last March, I met Steve at my round-table discussion. During a brief chat after the meeting, it became obvious that Steve is bright and ambitious.

Here is my short success story, small but hugely exciting for me. I ordered Ron LeGrand’s Cash Flow Systems around October 2000. Read the material, went through my doubts, and then really started around December 2000.

I have a great inspirational story about how we purchased our first real estate investment. I hope this will help encourage anyone who is having ignorant opinions forced on them by negative people. I have changed the names of the people involved in case anyone reading this happens to know any of them.

As a licensed real estate broker, I thought I had learned all the angles about buying real estate. Boy was I wrong. Thanks to Ed Garcia and Terry Vaughan, the How To Get Lenders Fighting To Give You Money Workshop has opened my eyes.

This might be helpful for someone starting out…I began learning about real estate investing January 2000. By August or September, I felt comfortable enough to take the plunge. During that time I got a partner, saved money, and secured financing. A note on our financing – it is at 12%, no points, simple interest, no payments until we sell the house. We can get a check with one day’s notice, and is secured by a Deed to Secure Debt.

I would like to share my experiences with others to further reinforce that you CAN buy property with little or no money down.

Hello everyone! Just thought I would share a (long overdue) success story with all of the wonderful people on this site who have helped me along my way. In January, I put four houses under contract through my Realtor. Each one was scheduled to settle in mid-to-late February. The details are as follows:

First of all, it has taken me a long time to submit this success story. The reason why it has taken so long, is that I never thought that what I did was anything out of the ordinary. I have had hearing problems all my life, becoming deaf in my left ear by the time I was 10 and having worn hearing aids in my right ear since I was 8. I have had a great deal of difficulty on the phone since about 1990, and thus have had others making calls for me.

I thought I would go ahead and write my success story. I guess I was waiting for my story to turn out and look a certain way. I would have to say that I thought about real estate investing for ten years and, with the exception of my house, I didn’t do anything.

JP, I told you I would write as soon as I conquer that mountain, well here it is!

First Two Mobile Home Deals in Two Months

I bought a house that was in foreclosure in June 2000. I paid $2,000 to catch it up. The unpaid balance was $22,000. There were tenants, who were paying $480 per month rent. The loan payment was $220 per month. Every month I had a positive cash flow of $260, which I earned from June 2000 to March 2001.

I had heard from a real estate broker friend of mine about a ranch house fresh on the market on a street/route I sometime do my daily run on. So I decided to run past it and saw it was in great condition. As I’m running by, the owner happens to pull up and we chatted. She asked if I wanted to see the place, so I took the nickel tour.

While attending the Creative Real Estate Online Convention in Las Vegas this past March, I had the luck of running into a friend I hadn’t seen in many years. Ben Moye and I were introduced approximately ten years ago in middle Georgia. Ben is in the commercial sign business. I contacted his firm to build a sign for one of my business locations.

I had bought Bill Bronchick’s Big Profits with Lease Options and had been procrastinating about getting started. One day in Home Depot this person I had not seen in quite a while asked me how I was and if I was still in the contracting (fence and deck) business. I responded that I was, but I had also started investing in real estate. She says that I should buy her house.

Well, I feel like my real estate efforts have come full circle, and I can clearly see my future path ahead of me. On Thursday, I closed on my first apartment building and walked away from closing with an $11,000 check! If you have read my other success stories ($24,000 cash, $138,000 Equity and More and My Second Success Story), then you will notice that my deals usually come in pairs. This one is no exception.

I have been in the restaurant business for 20 years. One night, after a 14-hour day, in a motel away from my family AGAIN, I was still up at 2 am. For what seemed like the 1000th time in the past few years, I was watching the Carleton Sheets infomercial on the television. Once again I was thinking, “If those guys can do that, so can I.” But this time was different, this time I picked up the phone and ordered the course.