Commercial Real Estate Investment Articles

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.

Never in my life did I have the closing as difficult as this one. Using ideas from Joe Kaiser’s course, Totally Dominate Your Foreclosure Marketplace, I spotted the pre-foreclosure property, and the owner called me after receiving my little card in the mail.

I just wanted to thank Terry Vaughan for a great idea I got from his Paper Into Gold course. Although I purchased this course a couple of years ago, I hadn’t really tried all the ideas and strategies that the course contains. But the ideas I have tried have proven wonderful for me!

I began following this website about three months ago and became interested in the mobile home deals Lonnie Scruggs was talking about. I purchased his book, Deals on Wheels and noticed an ad in the paper a few days later for a $1,000 manufactured home.

As I wrote about my story, I came to a realization that I want to share with you because–it is my failure story. People learn from their successes AND their failures. I am guilty of having made some successful real estate investments and then stopping. Just plain stopping!

I thought that maybe I could tell you about the first deal I did (that actually made money) around about the time I discovered this website, which I think was shortly after it was created. Because I get so much from this site, I feel a little guilty for not contributing more.

I ran an add that said: “If you have found the house you want, but the bank won’t give you enough money, a private person can help: xxx-xxx-xxxx” The phone rang off the hook. Here is one deal: The house appraised for $100,000. Original sellers would let it go for $80,000 because of divorce. Buyers couldn’t qualify with local bank for more than 80% of $80,000. The buyers had $8,000 for down payment and closing costs.

It took almost three weeks to complete the deal, but my first Lonnie Deal worked out just fine. I know that those of you who are thinking about investing in mobile homes have lots of questions (like I did and still do…) about how to do this “start to finish.” I’ll try to explain how this one went.

It has been my total pleasure reading and digesting all of the solid material at Creative Real Estate Online. A few years back I got started in this whole real estate investing ball game through the Carleton Sheets No Money Down program.

I had a very nice transaction that made me very happy. I found an ad in the Boulder, CO newspaper that stated: $500 down NQA on a 2-bed, 2-bath condo in the Boulder Country Club area. I was the first to respond to the ad.

I was an out-of-work welder. I had some real estate investing experience. I had started learning with Ed Beckley years ago and attended several seminars. I like to learn, and I find creative real estate interesting.

I have been asked a lot lately about my experiences with local real estate clubs. These experiences may be similar to clubs you have in your area, or they may not. I got involved with a real estate lunch club that met twice a month at Denny’s. The first thing I noticed was that the club President spoke badly about Carlton Sheets, Ron LeGrand, and all those “TV guru crooks.”

Driving through any just about any neighborhood, you will find homes that have overgrown, unkempt lawns, a stack of freebie newspapers on the front steps, no curtains in the windows, and basically just a “nobody lives here” feel to them.

I applaud all who come to this web site for the value of the postings and responses, which help not only the beginners but all of us. This is probably the best free resource on the Internet for those of us in this business. We all continue to learn from the postings here.

Here is some more motherly advice I forgot to say to the newbies in my earlier Advice for Beginners (Part One)

I posted this in response to someone asking how to find a good real estate lawyer. It can be hard to know whether a lawyer is worth the money you’re being charged, and it can be a lot of money to waste!

Okay, so now you have a general idea on how this stuff can work. But how do you get started with all this? Start by going to the top of the main page on this site. On the left side click on the link that says Success Stories and read every one of them at least three times.

If you could easily and cheaply acquire a tool to turbo blast your real estate investing career, wouldn’t you do it?

Looking for private investors? It is not easy, but it is completely possible. Private money is an amazing thing, and it will make real estate investing so much easier once you find it. If you find a deal–I mean a real money maker, the money will always be there.

If you are new to real estate investing and considering buying foreclosure properties, you need to be realistic about what you are facing. If you feel more sober about foreclosure investing after reading what I have written below, I will have accomplished my goal.

Donald Trump makes billions of dollars purchasing run down or vacant properties and building fantastic structures on them. Warren Buffett makes billions of dollars buying “troubled” companies and turning them into financial powerhouses. Little ol’ me makes millions of dollars by purchasing hard-to-sell houses and making them dream homes.

Savvy landlords will need to learn or re-learn how to file evictions AND collect their money in the coming days. Many landlords know how to get the judgment, but NOT how to get the money!

Okay, here it is. Now get ready to laugh your butt off. I’m a foreclosures expert, right? So I’m asked to speak to a group of recent seminar graduates who, after finishing the program, really don’t know all that much. The chairperson of the group asked me afterward if I would be interested in going in with her on two real estate investments that she had found. I would put up the money, and she would do the rehab work.

So you wanna be a rehabber? Before I give you my Top 10 List, I want you to know that I have been an active real estate investor for only two years. I started by visiting Creative Real Estate Online. It has been crucial to my success.

I do rehabs in Baltimore and have done about seventy in the last six years. I read Jonathan Mednick’s Rehabbing Houses Top Ten Tips, and thought I’d chime in with my perspective. It was generous of him to take the time to share his views.