Commercial Real Estate Investment Articles

I’ve been pretty quiet lately, really hustling at building my business. I just thought I would drop a line about a recent success I had.

I know that fear is not from God, but I am walking away from a profession that I have been in now for the last 16 years. About three years ago, I sat at my desk wanting an opportunity to create freedom of time, wealth, happiness and, more importantly, choices in my life. I asked for direction for these things and I was led to real estate investing.

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.

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 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.

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!

I’ve been pretty quiet lately, really hustling at building my business. I just thought I would drop a line about a recent success I had

I know that fear is not from God, but I am walking away from a profession that I have been in now for the last 16 years. About three years ago, I sat at my desk wanting an opportunity to create freedom of time, wealth, happiness and, more importantly, choices in my life. I asked for direction for these things and I was led to real estate investing.

First Two Mobile Home Deals in Two Months

After reading posts on CRE Online and after finding motivated sellers then screwing up the deal, I have finally met with some success. After about a year of looking and trying, I landed three deals in three weeks. Here are the deals, the specs, and the current situation:

Marilyn and I just closed another mobile home deal. We found a “don’t-wanter” 1991 16 x 80 Gateway. After having two family members die during the time the lady owned it, she was ready to sell the memories.

I am a 25-year-old school teacher in the sunny state of Florida. I always have my hands in something that generates profits on the side. I play a lot of tennis, and thank God, because one night I was in the club house chatting with someone who really knew how to make a living in this creative real estate stuff.

We purchased a 5-bedroom/2.5-bath house for $87,000. We spent $6,000 in rehab (interior paint, all new floor coverings, misc cleaning and yard work), and put the house on the market for $119,900. Similar houses in this plat are selling in the $130,000 – $150,000 range, and we put this one on the market at a price to sell quickly. In three days, we had a full price offer, and the deal with the buyer closed today.

Last fall, I found a 10-unit apartment building in a suburban town just outside where I live that was being used by an elderly lady as a single family residence. She had purchased it a few years back so some of her children and grandchildren could live with her (in their own apartments) as she got older and needed their help.

Just sold my first investment property for $37,000 net profit. Man, I’m fired up about this business. Here’s how it went down

All the appear to be written by men, and women only come into it as partners in the deals. I’m not walking out of closings with money-back checks. I’m not doing simultaneous closings and being paid for being in the right place with the right knowledge.

I am about to close on my third “Lonnie Deal” and my yields are improving significantly. My partner and I purchased a 3BR/2 BA, 1983 mobile home in fair condition for $1,400 cash and the two lots for $16,000 with $2,000 down and owner financing for the balance at 7% and payments of $200/month.

If you haven’t read my first story, then you don’t know that I’m brand new at this stuff. You do now. My friends haven’t figured out whether I’m a budding genius or a blooming idiot. I lean towards the former, naturally, but most think the latter is closer to home.

It has now been two months since we moved. However, unlike the rest of our friends, we are now getting PAID to live in our house! We moved into a triplex and keep the other two units rented out. The rental income pays for the mortgage and taxes and puts a bit aside for upkeep. Every month we get our checks for $1,400 and all we have to do is pay our own utilities. (Tenants also pay their own.)

Several weeks ago, JP Vaughan entered the chat room, and I promised her that I’d write a when I did my first deal. And so, I’m going to write about my deal that I did last week. The numbers wouldn’t astound you. But it’s not the numbers that count. I’m writing the kind of success story that I wish I’d seen earlier.

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.