I have been investing in Real Estate for about a 1 1/2 years. I have accuired about 8 homes and am currently renting them. I am a stay at home mom with 4 kids age 7 and under and we are considering having another. I am getting frustrated being a landlord and would like to consider learning more about Short sales and possible lease to own options.
HOw much did you spend to learn more details about this? I found this web site with listings of courses to buy and the price is reasonalble,but I wonder if they are more of a tease to get you to spend thousands on Mentor type programs or do they really give you enough info to get started???
We are equity rich/cash poor right now and would love any suggestions. Thanks.
Short sales are just a method of buying properties. I have found it to be the method of purchasing a property that has the lowest probability of success.
“Selling” a property with lease-options is really just being a landlord. The majority of options are never exercised and then you are left with a property to rehab and re-rent, just like any other rental. If you don’t like being a landlord, you won’t like selling with lease options.
You should not have to spend a lot of money to learn to do short sales. There are many inexpensive books and courses on the subject.
If you can line up ‘all cash’ buyers/investors in advance, and can get any banks to give you very short term options, you can make decent money quickly. Maybe not large amounts on any deal, but if you can offer deals to investors at 20% under market value and make 2-5,000 from a few phone calls, and a couple of signed documents, I’d say it’s all good.
I wouldn’t advise spending more than $100 on material related to the subject, personally. You’ll glean just as much information by asking the right questions here, and at other investing forums.
Just remember, that in my experience with people investing in these types of properties, the banks aren’t usually willing to come down much in price, unless cash is offered, and/or the properties have been on market for a bit to test the waters.
Thanks for the advice. I purchased Short Sales Magic from Tom Butler and It makes it seem like such a great deal and you get all worked up wanting to learn more about it and then get suckered into the mentor program. I figured I should do a bit of research before spending too much money. Thats how I found this website. Now all I can say is why did I not know about this place when I first started buying houses??? I’m looking forward to getting to know some of you better and learning from all your experience.
…and I will not be purchasing a mentor program.
Thanks again.
I haven’t seen any “program” that was worth the actual costs. Not one.
I have heard of many success stories, but many are luck, and many are the result of having learned much from various sources, and then applying one simple item gleaned from a course. Then credit is given to the expensive course that was purchased. Albeit that much of that given credit is to alleviate the guilt feelings or to justify to others having spent the money foolishly.
I haven't seen any "program" that was worth the actual costs. Not one.
I disagree with that. Although I have only purchased three courses that were over $100, I thought they were all worth the money. My first course was the Carleton Sheets Course which I thought was an excellent beginner’s course. The thing I like about it is that it covers everything in a logical order and can help someone with no REI experience get the basis education they need. My second course was Pat Tarr’s Armour and Camouflage, which is an entity structuring course that makes it possible to establish your own LLCs and Land Trusts. It has saved me many times the cost of the course. Finally, I purchased Donna Bauer’s Note-Buying Course. The course cost about $800, but I made over 8 times the course cost with 2 note deals that I did shortly after buying the course.
When I needed to learn to do short sales, I found a course on the internet for about $40 that was excellent. The same is true of doing sub-2 deals - again I found an e-book for about $60. Both of these courses had all the forms and contained the information that I needed.
So, while I agree that a LOT of the information in the GURU courses could be purchased cheaper somewhere else, I would also say that the info is worth the cost if it provides information that you need.