This subject, when answered by the knowledgable here will be helpful to many, I’m sure.
We have a bad Buyer’s Market here in West Michigan right now. There are up to 8 to 10 times more homes available for sale, than there are Buyers wanting to buy them. The homes are selling fairly cheap. The market should rebound soon, but no assurances.
If someone has bad credit, and no cash available, what would you suggest as the best avenue to make good money in this area?
Any input would be appreciated.
The very best way to make money with no-money and bad credit is to get a job. You have a better chance of hitting the mega-lotto than successfully starting a REI business in a buyer’s market with no money and bad credit.
I’d suggest working 2 full-time jobs until you’ve straightened up your credit and have some money in the bank. Then, you will be in a position to start with REI. In the meantime, study everything in sight. If you don’t have any money for books, you could even borrow the books to study at the library.
Good Luck,
Mike
propertymanager is right. Your credit is the main tool of the trade in real estate investing. Cash is very important when starting any business. The worst time to start a business is when you need the money from that business.
It is easier to sell to a person that is in need of the thing you are selling. The more the person is in need the easier it is to sell. That is why TV is full of people telling you how you can buy this course so it can show you how you can buy millions of dollars worth of real estate with no cash or credit. The people that actually have cash and credit, although more likely able to buy millions of dollars worth of real estate are not pressed and thus are a harder sell.
What my friend propertymanager is assaying is get a foundation first. It is s business like any other business. Get a stable lifestyle. I mean get a job with a salary and base your lifestyle on that salary and then start to buy real estate that replaces your income needs little by little until you are making as much from your real estate as your job and then you can quit the job.
Well, not the answer I was hoping you’d provide.
See, my question was intended to help some readers who might be in that situation. I’m not personally, but because of all the ‘self-help’ courses out there being sold, lots of these ‘needy’ people will end up buying the expensive courses you’ve mentioned.
I’m new to this forum, but not new to investing. There are methods available to help those without credit, or money. Three that come to mind are flipping, short sales, and options.
I’ve used all three, without spending any money or taking out loans (well actually spent about $100 on option fees), so I know it can be done. I also know that I probably didn’t go about doing things in the proper manner. Flipping made me the most money, but it might have been just the luck of the draw too. With my short sales, I had investors ready to buy the properties for cash, at about 80% of market value, and simply assigned my contract with the bank. I continue to use a special type of option that I created, but I ‘lost’ my special financier that assisted my credit poor buyers, so my Buyer market isn’t supporting my endeavor the way it used to.
I don’t want to share the exact details of the things I do, mainly because I know that some of them are not legal in many areas, for one reason, or another. Another reason is that I am a licensed real estate broker, and that gives me some extra ‘priviledges’ others might not have.
The wait until you have a job and credit suggestion just isn’t really an option for most people. Most of the same ones without money or credit, are in that situation because of ‘circumstances’. Those same people are not likely to obtain a job that provides enough extra income to be able to ‘invest’ the difference.
OH MY GOD! Where should I start…
I think it’s really great of you NOT to want to share your little illegal secrets with everyone, and the fact that you’re a licensed Realtor is beautiful! I’ve always said the list goes 1) MOST Realtors 2) Lawyers 3) Used Car dealers.
The reason most people never succeed in real estate is they are LAZY.
You were given some great advice. ie. Get 2 jobs, repair you credit, but that’s WORK. "I’m not interested in work I want easy. "
Please… Find another vocation. I hear there’s great money in all natural bowel movement cleansing vitamins.
Money problems are not financial problems they are behavior problems. People need to act their wage. These are the exact type of people that should not be in any business especially real estate. The first rule of the teacher is to do no harm then try to help somebody. This will hurt these people.
OOH. Some touchy people here.
I’m being misunderstood, big time.
When I say that some items may be illegal in some areas, it doesn’t mean that they are immoral, indecent, or scam, or anything of the sort.
Some states have differing laws on things. Flipping laws, for one, are much more strict in some areas than others, and the wording of the laws is hard for the layman to understand, and the laws are changing daily. Doesn’t mean that flipping is bad, or wrong, if legal in your area. I just don’t want to give some advice that someone make take and use, WITHOUT, checking for legality in their jurisdiction. We can advise that, but it doesn’t mean they will.
My earlier deals, before learning the laws on real estate in my area, may not have been done entirely by the proper process, as I had received erroneous info from other ‘investors’ who belonged to a Real Estate Investment Group, and while I checked for legality, I didn’t check thoroughly for all necessary details. While everything worked out alright for all parties involved, I was lucky not to get burned.
Exactly the mistake I don’t want others to make, and why I won’t give details. Some might see a shortcut available and take chances, and/or screw things up for someone, themselves, buyers, sellers, investors, etc.
The Real estate broker ‘privileges’ I mentioned are the ones that allow me to represent others in sales, be involved in unlimited numbers of deals, receive payment for services rendered, sometimes double-dip legally, arrange financing that some others may not be able to, and avoid the common “$10,000 per transaction penalty” that non-agents in some states sometime have to worry about because of semantics in the legal process. Some of my methods aren’t able to be reproduced, legally, by non-agents, and if details were revealed, some might try. That’s all. Nothing crooked, illegal, unethical, or immoral!
If you knew anything about me, you’d know that I don’t belong to the Association of Realtors, because their policies indicate I am supposed to be honest with the public, as long as it doesn’t conflict with the best interests of other Realtors. I know this because I have been punished in the past, by the Board of Realtors, for my blatant honesty with my customers and/or potential customers/clients. I responded with a respectful “Kiss my ass!” My honesty, values and integrity are beyond reproach, and a good reason why I don’t make as much money as some other real estate brokers. I’ll talk a buyer out of buying a home I don’t feel is right for them. There is no negative talk about me, regarding any business matter I’ve ever dealt with, and I intend to keep it that way. I am trusted and expected to do the right thing, in all matters, personal and business. I have no conscience and no need for one. I doubt the negative comment maker can honestly say the same.
So before being crude, petemfa, temper your comments with intelligent thought, regardless of the difficulty involved.
There are people who have gone through a divorce and gotten screwwed royally. Mutual real estate investments with that married couple are the number one reason why divorce causes bankruptcies. The judge can award property ownership, but not responsibility for the notes. The banks refuse to cooperate. As they see it, they are more likely to receive payment if there are two responsible parties, for the loan repayment. I’ve seen it over a hundred times. Good people with their credit screwwed by divorce. Now the same two incomes that were providing a decent living for one home, and allowing extra income for investing in RE, is split between two house-holds. Same good people, half the income. Desire to invest still present. Should they be automatically excluded from the ranks of RE investors because of an unfaithful spouse?
The blanket offcolor comments are irresponsible, and while building up the credit and saving for the next 7 to 10 years are a best case scenario, it rarely happens that way. Some of the investors here, and on other forums, have never really had hard times and find it easy to be ‘hard’ on others, since they’ve acquired ‘professional investor’ status, at least in their minds. They should try to be more considerate.
Honest, helpful responses please, not demoralizing comments.
Based on the info YOU gave, it was not just me who thought you should be doing something else. Read the posts.
Don’t assume the negative before asking a simple question or two.
I did read, but you got personal.
Here’s my final post on this subject.
I notice that you’re new here. Re-read your second post.
It sounds like a unethical real estate wannabe wrote it.
READ IT.
If you’ve been so successful and and of such high moral fiber
help these poor unfortunate, bankrupt, have no money, divorced people out by showing them all your tricks.
NEXT TIME PUT SOME MORE INFO IN YOUR POSTS IF YOU EXPECT MORE INFO OUT OF THEM.
I’M DONE.
Hi RFG,
I dont understand your motivation for the original post. I mean your not in that situation (broke bad credit) and you obviously already have knowledge of REI so why bother?
P.S. I do see your point on the negativity, but you also could have clarified a little better from beg.
HI RFG. IAM one of those divorce broke person who got screwed. iam finding a way to make rei work for me. ive started birddoging and my phone has been ringing but no good deals yet. i will keep trying.
Look, you can do whatever you want to do, if you truly are dedicated, have a passion and give it everything you can. With that said, most people in this world do not go after it, rather they expect it to come to them. They want others to take care of them, etc. It truly is an epidemic.
Yes getting your credit together is HUGE, it is important, and I suggest you find a person to help you with that. There are certain things you can do that will rebuild your credit.
With that being said, your credit is just one tool. Think about what you bring to the table, what are you assets. Most people think only of money or material things when they list assets. HOWEVER, I challenge that notion. Time, knowledge, skills, connections, etc These are all assets.
What do you have that someone with the money and/or credit doesn’t that you could work together to get going?
I suggest finding a local RE Club and see what you can do to help other investors. Let them know what they would gain. Do not think of yourself in that way. You need to present what is in it for THEM. What do you bring to them?
When do you do that, you could hunt down leads they get for a fee. You could hand out flyers for them. Maybe go to a RE Meeting with some flyers stating that they could pay you to put out Bandit Signs for them, anything.
Get creative. Where there is a will, there really is a way.
What I was originally fishing for was some input from ‘experienced’ investors, and users of this forum, to help out some of the less fortunate, although worthy, future RE investors.
We all know that good credit, being able to borrow whatever is needed, or spending available cash will help support the ideal “It takes money to make money.” But some of us here know alternatives to this ‘ideal’ do exist. I’m new here to this forum, for one. My motives are not to teach here. I make no attempt to hide my true identity in anything I do, here or on the internet. Something I’ve made a point of doing, and intend to stick by it. Advice done wrong, regardless of my intent, will lead someone back to my door, and possibly tarnish what I’ve spent a lifetime working for, mainly my name and reputation. So generic I must remain.
Others here may not have the reservations I do, and I was hoping that some of those people with the knowledge would be willing to share it.
Enough of that.
One thing that I can advise is that someone with limited financial means, but with some construction, or renovating experience can do a limited partnership arrangement (by limited, I mean to make sure that you are limited in your arrangement to losses of actual monetary investment, which in this case is zero) with someone else who has the money but limited time available to do the physical work. If you do the legwork to find the property that fits the investors requirements, and then do the physical work to rehab, or retrofit the property, (with investor supplying materials/supplies) you should be able to manage a 50/50 split on profits of the property when sold. (make sure you are in a good to growing market and get a decent CMA - comparative market analysis- to make sure of the likelihood of a quick sale. (if you don’t have a friend in the real estate business who can do a good CMA for you, pay a few bucks to have one do the CMA, who knows upfront that you WILL NOT BE LISTING THE PROPERTY WITH HIM FOR SALE. A good CMA is more valuable here than an appraisal, and a bad one can be easily skewwed by a realtor expecting a listing.)
When closing is done, you will have some seed money, and a starting point. I did this several times when younger, and it worked out fine. A simple ad like this worked for me to have a bunch of possible investors calling me:
"Ambitious, cash poor/knowledge rich real estate investor seeks
partner willing to invest cash in rehab projects."
Birddogging is good too, if you can find investors who actually pay. Never did it myself.
On another note, does anyone know of a good site, with very little, if any cost, that can walk everyday people through the real methods of credit repair/improvement. The key words here being “everyday people”, not seasoned credit/finance pros. I’ve heard of several, but my internet searches found only high priced sites wanting to do it for you, not show you the nuts and bolts.