Commercial Real Estate Investment Articles

Picture this: A new investor with $15K college savings for kids learns about buying a second as the way to get a foreclosed property. He finds a vacant foreclosed property with a second note, takes kids’ college money (First kid going to college within a year. No problem; I’ll be in and out in 3 months), and buys the second.

Just like everyone else it seems, I read Deals on Wheels by Lonnie Scruggs and decided to give it a try. This, of course, was after going back and forth with the idea, going to look at some homes, and thinking, “I just can’t believe how some people can live.”

In June 2001, I had contracted to buy a duplex in a low-income area of town for $100,000 as one of two replacement properties in a 1031 Starker Exchange. After further personal examination of the property’s condition, I consulted with my agent, Jerry, to apprise him of what I’d found. He then “officially” advised me to get out of the deal.

I just wanted to write and thank Lonnie Scruggs and CRE Online for helping me get started. First, I want to say that I’m one of the biggest skeptics you’ll ever meet. But after ordering and going through Lonnie’s material, I did my first deal!

I bought Deals on Wheels back in early part of 2002. I did research by driving the speed bumps in mobile home parks in my area for a couple months. We finally realized we needed to just quit talking and do something.

Just wanted to let everyone know about my day. I just closed on a 4-bedroom, 2-bath single-family house on five acres with five rented mobile homes on the land. Original asking price was close to $100,000. I saw an ad that said, “just reduced.” Their buyer fell through at the bank, and they wanted to sell quick.

I wanted to give my thanks to Creative Real Estate Online for providing a place for everyone to learn how to do whatever they want in real estate investing. I started doing research when I was in high school. Then I moved out to Florida and kept doing research while I worked as a loan processor.

A local real estate agent contacted me recently. He had heard that I could possibly solve his problem. I told him that if I were able to solve his problem he would have to refer me to other clients. He said sure.

The How to Get Lenders Fighting to Give You Money workshop was the best thing I’ve ever done. I am a huge skeptic on these types of things and am usually reluctant to pay for them. But something caught my interest, so I called Ed Garcia.

Well gang, I am ashamed to say that I have been in the mobile home industry for over nine years either as a salesperson or a manager for large retailers. I went into the used mobile home industry three years ago and have had my own dealers license for the past two years. I have focused primarily on selling pre-owned homes in parks and getting them finance through lending groups (with the occasional land pack thrown in for good measure).

I should have written this a long time ago. I have been reading the CRE Online website for a couple years or so. There are several areas of real estate investing I am going to work on, and all of them I learned about from this site.

I wanted to submit a short example of two of the successes my partner and I have had “flipping” mobile homes. At the beginning of this year, we purchased a used 1975 mobile home for $800 and resold it on a contract for $5,000. As of next Monday, we will have recovered our investment and have a 50% profit already, and this is only the first six months of the contract!

I made an offer on a duplex that was trashed by one of the tenants, and the owners lived 40 miles away. Apparently, they were overwhelmed by the “problems” caused by the tenants.The asking price was $79,000.

I wanted to share a recent success story of mine. After reading a few books on creative real estate investing, I made the decision to try and go for my first deal in real estate. I was skeptical because I live in one of the most expensive counties in the U.S.

I started back in July 2002 trying to learn about creative real estate investing, but I did not go out and make any offers until February 2003. It was not until this week that I got my first deal done and under my belt. One evening, about three weeks ago, I was discussing with my wife the fact that I was frustrated with the “business.”

I just closed on a 1.23 acre parcel that I have been negotiating to buy for the last five or six weeks. The owner had agreed to a price of $8,000 ($2,000 down and $250 per month for 24 months with 0% interest, which Ernest Tew helped me structure).

I have been limping along with my 15 rentals for a while now. I also make good money for a corporation buying and selling electricity nationwide in realtime. It’s the adrenaline I like. So I still have my 50 hour/week job. I haven’t bought a property in 4 years–until this month.

I’ve netted over $30,000 after all expenses from my real estate investing business, wholesaling real estate in last six months just doing part time with my regular job. Not looking to “toot my horn” here in a success story.

Wow, where do I begin. I had a friend that had a property he bought at auction for $13,100. It was 1.3 acres of land with a well and septic on it. He was a friend of the family that had to sell it (estate auction).

My original plan was to buy and keep two or three rental properties per year for five years, for cash flow and equity growth. I was determined to find a property (or two) that would need a few cosmetic fixes for a few thousand dollars, in a good area, close to home, for a decent price, place decent tenants, and hold.

Since I wrote about the $27,000 Profit on My First Real Estate Deal, my opportunities have been growing. I’ve kept the three properties that I had purchased while I anxiously awaited the sale of that first deal. And in ONLY two months, since that sale, I’ve closed on the additional four properties that I mentioned were under contract, got another under contract, and BEST of all–got approved for a credit line!

One day on my way home, I decided to take a different road to my house, and I came across a overgrown house (actually a jungle), with numerous violations from the county posted on the door.The house needed some work on the outside, but it wasn’t that bad. I could not see the inside.

Here is a deal I did that made me a nice bit of pocket change. I went to see a house where the lady had seemed mighty motivated over the phone. But, after sitting with her and explaining the details of how I could help her, we both determined that she was not motivated.

Finding good deals really is the hardest part of this business, but sometimes, just by keeping your eyes open, one falls in your lap. That’s how I found my first deal, and here’s the story

Back in August, I moved my family to Billings, Montana from South Texas. As soon as I arrived I started riding the speed bumps, looking for mobile homes. I called on a manager of a mobile home park I drove by every day and inquired about any mobile homes for sale. I explained to her what I did, and she didn’t hesitate and gave the name and number of a gentleman wanting to sell his mobile home.