Commercial Real Estate Investment Articles

Over the past ten years, I had “successfully” built up an aviation facilities management business. After ten years of hard work, in February of 2001, my wife and I decided it was time to “start taking money off the table.” That is to say, after ten years of reinvesting in the business, it was time to take some money out and put it into other investments like real estate.

My wife, Deb (who has sold real estate for over 15 years), and I have had so many “light bulb” moments over that past six months reading CRE Online and www.RichDad.com that we just about can’t stand it. But we’ll try.

I thought I would send you a short note. You are always asking for comments and Success Stories. I have been visiting CRE Online for about a year now. I am an American civilian who has lived and worked in Germany for the last 33 years. I love this site. The information is priceless. There is something for everyone.

It’s time I told my story…To all those who helped me get started back a couple of months ago when I was a newbie: Thank you, thank you, thank you. You know who you are: gals and dudes who were real cool with their time and experience to help me with some questions I had to get me started.

My name is Andy Martin. I am a Project Manager for a construction company. I work full-time and run a window cleaning company on the side while looking for houses to rehab and flip.

My story starts out in January 2001. I was 25, sick of my job, and hungry for money. I ordered Carleton Sheets, the course arrived, and I completed the course in one day. About an hour after completing the course, I hit the Internet. While searching for the Carleton Sheets website I stumbled upon CRE Online. This was not good, seeing as though I was now obligated to review every last page of this site.

I’d like to thank J.P. and Terry Vaughan for this awesome site, everyone at the CRE Online Convention who was so caring and supportive and everyone else who contributes to this site. It truly is an amazing resource!

What a RUSH! After starting my investing career back in 1998 and acquiring 13 properties, which I still have, I was recently introduced to a real estate agent that lived in MY BOX! He understood almost everything that I wanted to do. Finally!

I just wanted to tell you about the deal that I got yesterday. A motivated seller has a house in great area in my community.

I already owned eight properties with a partner when I decided that I would like to venture on my own in December 2001. I was finishing my finance degree, working as a server at a Longhorn’s Steak House, and in my first year of marriage. I was not pursuing real estate investing because I just didn’t feel I could make any money, since I would be moving in four months.

It’s time I told my story…To all those who helped me get started back a couple of months ago when I was a newbie: Thank you, thank you, thank you. You know who you are: gals and dudes who were real cool with their time and experience to help me with some questions I had to get me started.

My minister at church gave a sermon about how we should do what we are good at and what has worked for us in the past. Duh. The light bulb went off and I realized that over the past 20 years, what few real estate investing deals I did always turned out good. So I decided to begin to look for possible rentals.

I’ve been visiting CRE Online for about a year now, and I can’t tell you how motivating it is to me. Last year, we finally decided to take the plunge and buy our first real estate investment.

I wanted to thank Creative Real Estate Online for being a extremely good source of information and motivation. We thoroughly enjoy reading through all the information here and learning from it. We finally made it and have our first success story to share.

Two years ago, in Spring 2001, I was a first year law student at Fordham Law School in New York City. I really enjoyed law school, but I was beginning to realize there was a decent chance that the 80+ hours per week I would be working when I graduated (if I got a job at all) would only have me bring home around $50K per year.

Thanks for all the hard work that goes into CRE Online. The info you provide has enabled me to change my life! I’ve been investing in real estate full time for nearly four years. I had always read about investors finding great deals on houses and selling to other investors for a quick profit (wholesale flipping), but I had never really searched out these opportunities.

My name is Brad Hawley. I am a Specialist in the United States Army. As a soldier in the United States Army, I have not had a lot of free time lately, but I wanted to share my first no money down deal.

We made our first real estate investment about six months ago. We bought a two-family foreclosure for $5,000. It was a mess: holes in the wall, broken windows, the gas lines running to the house had been cut–you name it. My husband put a few weeks’ work and about $6,000 in it. We now have a fully rented home for $425 per unit!

As Ed Garcia put it: “You’re driving by the gold on your way to the silver if you don’t have the knowledge to really know what it is your looking for in the first place.”

This post is for all of you that have asked me to share my experiences with you. I hope you find it interesting and inspirational.

Today, I went to the escrow office to pick up the check for my first flip. I got the property under contract for $100,000 and flipped it (double close) to my seller for $123,000. There were a lot moments where I worried a lot about not being able to close the deal.

I walked into the mobile home park manager’s office, introduced myself, and spoke like I knew what I was talking about. She gave me a list of homes that were going to be tax auctioned, she gave me a list of repos, she gave me the confirmation that she would basically approve a tenant if I would approve them for a loan.

I was a recently laid off tech worker with over 10 years experience in the field. Even when I had a cushy, high-paying job, I never felt I had job security and hated relying on others for a paycheck.

My partners and I have been searching for handyman specials since late August. After looking at about 40 or 50 properties we ran into a junker that was a bank REO. The property had been on the market for two months when we found it. The price of the property was reduced from $44,900 to $38,900.

After finding CRE Online, I attended my first real real estate conference the CRE Online Convention in Dallas a couple of years ago. To say it took me places I have never been is an understatement. I now know that an old dog can be taught new tricks.