Commercial Real Estate Investment Articles

I enjoy reading the Success Stories on CRE Online, and I would like to share this one with the other readers. I track all the bank foreclosures in my area (Baltimore City) of which there are about 350-500 filed every month. Of these, only about 5-7% have enough equity to make them worth considering, which means about 18-35 per month. I wait until a day or two before the auction to make sure it is still on because most of these are canceled.

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.

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 was a cop for almost a decade. I had become burned out, and most days dreaded going to work. I knew there had to be something else for me, but did not have a clue as to what. All I knew my whole adult life was law enforcement.

In January 1997, I found myself on the streets without a job and very disillusioned with the prospect of going back to work in corporate America.

I got a call from another member of our REIA [Real Estate Investment Association] group in another county, and he said someone had just called him wanting to sell their house and 1.5 acres for $15,000–quick sale! As soon as I hung up the phone, I called the sellers and made an appointment for the next day.

I am pleased to announce that I just landed another one! I think your website has done me good–much good. It has given me that old enthusiasm again knowing that if I have a question or just want to chat with fellow CRE Onliners, I can come here. My wife enjoys the results but doesn’t really understand the “lingo,” nor appreciate “the kill.”

I always wanted to invest in real estate. I started reading books in the 1980s. I bought my first rental property in November 1996. I bought two more real estate investments in December 1996. My renters are buying my properties for me.

When I moved out west after my mom died, I fell into quite a depression. My girlfriend and I were broke and living in a cruddy basement apartment with a shared kitchen and bathroom. Ick! I was about to turn 25 and finally decided I could not cope with a corporate job or any job for that matter.

About two months ago, I was on this site re-reading many of theHow-To Articles and course descriptions. My wife happened to look over my shoulder while I was on JP Vaughan’s article How to Buy Real Estate for 1/2 Price.

You gotta love bank foreclosures! Recently, my partner and I purchased a two-family home from a bank, post-foreclosure. Prior to the foreclosure, the bank was trying to sell the property for $133,000 (the outstanding mortgage). No offers. They then took the property to the county courthouse to auction it off for an opening bid of $30,000. No offers.

Several weeks ago, I was stopped at a red light when I noticed the driver next to me motioning me to pull over. When I did, she told me that she saw my “I BUY HOUSES” sign on my car and asked if I would follow her to her house which she wanted to sell. Since it wasn’t far away, I agreed.

Once again, Creative Real Estate Online has provided the knowledge and information to help us make a very nice profit. Here is a copy of the e-mail I sent to Frank Bucholtz yesterday.

I live in a rural area in north central Missouri. The typical town here is about 6,000 to 15,000 people, and they’re all about 15 to 20 miles apart. Each town seems to have it’s own little newspaper. I put a black-bordered display ad in about six of those little papers that says: “I’ll buy your house,” and I just let them run continuously. I get a few calls every week.

In January, I saw an ad in the paper for a 4-family house that read: 4-FAMILY. MUST SELL. $15,000 CASH!! I called the out-of-state number and asked a lot of probing questions and found out they owned the house free and clear, were in desperate need of fast cash, and just wanted to dump the place for cash as fast as they could.

John and I have been expanding our real estate investing business into foreclosure homes. This is the best deal we have done since we started:

I purchased tax certificates in Waterloo and Harlan County, Iowa, and the profit margin was substantial. I must state here that I am not an accountant nor a bookkeeper, so I can’t give you exact percentages and figures. But in Harlan, Iowa, I invested about $2,600 and made about $14,000 on two real estate investments I eventually owned and sold.

I made a lot of mistakes on this deal, but still ended up with $16,000 in equity and a $300 monthly cash flow. I purchased a 4-bedroom fixer from FNMA for $34,500.

Peter and I have just recently started investing in real estate and have learned so much from Creative Real Estate Online. Just thought I’d share what we’ve been up to…

I wrote you before about a success story that made me over $20K in 30 days and I had to share another one with you. [See $23,000 Profit in Less Than 30 Days.] I purchased a two-family house at the local tax auction for $6,500 last month. Fourteen days later, I sold it with no money down to a first-time home buyer.

In December, 1994 I was literally on the brink of bankruptcy. I had $25,000 in credit card debt, plus I was working a job that I hated. I was able to scrape together the money to take Claude Diamond’s one-on-one lease purchase mentoring program.

I’ve been following this website for about six months now, and you’re to be congratulated. This is a great site and service. Thank you. I finally got the nerve to do my first deal, which I think went very well.

I have been reading everything posted on this site for several months. Last month my wife became upset because I was not doing anything with all the information that I was getting off the site. She said she wanted to have another child! I said not until we do our first deal. So she went out in her zeal and tried to find us a deal.

My name is Frank, and I am from Charlotte, NC. I just had to drop you all a note and tell you about the events of the last seven days in my life. First let me say I have no real estate investing experience, whatsoever.

About 30 days ago I paid $159 for Terry Vaughan’s Cashing In course. Every instinct in me said this is going to be a waste of money. You see with all my years’ experience and training in real estate and mortgage brokerage, dealing in mobile homes (trailers) was beneath me. Even if this Vaughan was doing deals, his claim of 75% yields had to be stretching the truth.