Commercial Real Estate Investment Articles

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 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.

In November 2000, I bought a 1065 square foot, three-bedroom, two-bath house for $40,000. This was on Thursday. I placed a “fixer-upper” ad in paper to run Sunday, asking 58,000. Many people called, and I sent them to look at outside of the house and neighborhood because the owners were still in house.

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 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.

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.

I was a wannabe real estate investor for several years, watching from the sidelines. I finally got the nerve to go out and test the market after many hours of studying and reading. The information and encouragement at CRE Online has been invaluable.

This story is not just about a great deal, but rather an attempt to help you realize one of many ways by which your dream of may be achieved. To those of you who are acquainted with what I have been doing since 1995 let me say this: Thank You. You’ve been a great support system. To those I haven’t met yet or who are just beginning down the road to financial freedom and do not know what I’ve been doing, this story is for you.

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.)

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.

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

I still consider myself a “newbie” in the real estate investing world. I often hear the “gurus” say to find a technique and perfect it before moving on to a new one; that will keep you from trying to do too many things at once. It seems like the deals that come my way, though, each require a different approach.

A few months ago, I purchased Ron Legrand’s, Quick-Turn, Fast-Cash Real Estate, course from this site. I studied it, then tried to apply it. After a short time, I gave up. It wasn’t until about a month ago that I gave it another try. This time, I struck gold (literally and figuratively). I completed my first lease option deal. Here are the terms…

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.

This past May, I purchased Deals on Wheels from this site. When it arrived I read it all at once. After reading the book, I decided to refinance two of my rental condos and use the cash to buy some mobile homes.

After seeing a recent post on the Main Real Estate Forum, I thought it may be nice to share what I have been able to accomplish as a new investor working the real estate investing arena part time while holding a full-time job in the military. The six deals I will outline all took place in a 58-day span working part-time hours.

Many people say that you can’t make a dollar on every deal, but my very first deal proves them wrong. I was a new real estate investor with nothing but ambition when I found this beautiful new home in an affluent suburb of my county. The home was built by a local builder who was unable to sell the home and the bank foreclosed.

This success story has a few beginning points. This whole process makes more sense when you know what those points are

Today, I walked out of the title company with a check for 12,081.50. I have done several deals, including, but this is my biggest deal yet. (I am still a newbie.) I still can’t believe it. I simply put this property under contract for $50k and sold it to an investor for $63.5k. At closing, I netted about $12,000!

I am not sure if you would consider this for your “Success Stories” or not but, if nothing else, I wanted to write it as a “thank you” to you and all the inspiration that I have seen on this site. I have been silent for the most part for the past two years or so, but I read all the messages on the at least every other day. I have asked a few questions, and have always learned from the answers.

I still consider myself a “newbie” in the real estate investing world. I often hear the “gurus” say to find a technique and perfect it before moving on to a new one; that will keep you from trying to do too many things at once. It seems like the deals that come my way, though, each require a different approach.

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.

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.

Please accept a heartfelt “thank you” for this awesome site. I sincerely believe it is the extra encouraging push I sorely needed to do my first deal. I first became interested in creative real estate investing a little over a year ago when I ordered the Carleton Sheets course.