Commercial Real Estate Investment Articles

Four years ago I, like so many others, FINALLY broke down and bought the Carleton Sheets course. After being exposed to the numbers involved in real estate investing, I knew that if there was one field to make big money working for yourself, real estate was it.

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:

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.

I am not a big fan of so-called creative financing only because it requires so much work and a lot of risk. However, creative financing can work, though I have never done a “no money down” deal.

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.

I’m a part-time real estate investor. I frequently read the success stories on CRE Online to gain knowledge and for the motivation it provides to me.

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.

I have been lurking on this site for five or six weeks. I executed a couple of mobile home deals as per the numerous postings here, with good results. Then I read Ben Innes-Ker’s $5 Option/$30,000 Profit Success Story last week and decided to run an ad in our local paper saying: “I Buy Houses.” I did not expect to get any responses as this is a mostly rural area with a few towns of under 20,000 people scattered widely apart.

This is a deal that many of you here on Creative Real Estate Online helped me with, so I wanted to submit it as a success story. This deal actually took about two weeks to put together. It started when I called an ad for a house for rent in our local paper.

Susan and I recently attendedBig Profits wtih Lease Options Workshop. I thought you might like to have an update on what we’ve done in the few months since these workshops.

I can’t believe the deal that fell into my lap a couple of months back. I was helping my parents sell their home “for sale by owner.” At the open house, an interested buyer said he was interested in the larger home, but they needed to sell their house first.

I have always wanted to invest in real estate ever since I had to sell my New Hampshire home during a divorce and made $51,000.

As many of you already know, I started my real estate investing venture on June 21, 1998. At that time I had not done one deal. I was going through a very difficult time in my life and went for broke. I quit my job, I had no money, and I had bad (but improving) credit. I had my bills covered for one month.

Just had to send another “thank you” for all the assistance I’ve gotten from this site. I have a purchase contract and a sell contract signed and escrow was opened today on another deal.

I received a call one afternoon from a woman named Leanne. She was married with three grown children. She wanted to sell their house, so I went through the process of screening the call and getting the relevant information about the house, the mortgage balances, and what they wanted. It was a nice house, 3/1, 1300 sf, basement, on 2.5 acres, no repairs needed, just outside a town called Spencer, Indiana.

First I would like to thank everyone who shares their secrets and ideas on this incredible site. I have found a wealth of info almost every day.

In less than three years, we have gone from nothing to owning 26 mobile homes that are owner financed and a mobile home park with another 25 units. We have done all of this using less than $2500 of our own money. The rest was OPM–other people’s money. We also did this part time because I am a full-time paramedic, and my wife works full time for the state of Alabama.

January 31, 1999 – I called a manager of a local mobile home park to see if a certain mobile home could stay in the park. I had talked to the owner and he said, “Sure, it can stay.” I asked him if he knew of any others that might be for sale. He said the park had one for sale for $500.

On Christmas Eve, I did my first lease option deal on a beautiful single family that I will be living in myself. I gave them contract, and they signed it, no problem. They were actually happy that I saved them the attorneys’ fees! The deal worked out like this:

I read JP Vaughan’s How-To Article, several times to really understand what she was saying.

I went to a local real estate auction where about 30 mobile homes were being auctioned off. Before the auction, I previewed 27 of the 30 mobiles. Some were dogs, but many were very nice. This was an absolute auction.

It all started about a year and a half ago when I decided it was time to own my own home. I did not want to pay a lot. I am a painter by trade and know many people in the other trades.

One year ago, my wife and I were living paycheck to paycheck. I was working a job I didn’t want to be at while she was attending college. On January 10, 1998 I quit my job (family business) out of frustration. Having no job and no income gave me the motivation I needed to dive into real estate investing.

Several months ago, I was talking to an owner facing a foreclosure on his home that had considerable equity. He was hoping to refinance and get cash out. However, he was self-employed and could not substantiate any income, so refinance was just not possible.

To everyone who asked me about bank REOs (real estate owned), this is an answer to all. How do I get REOs? Three ways: