I am a work at home mom that spends hours looking at real estate properties. Is it possible for me to beome an investor with no money and bad credit? Honesty is welcome.
Your best bet would be to start bird dogging. This would allow you to learn the business while making some money and woking on your credit. You do not need stellar credit to be effective in REI, but it sure opens some doors.
Your best bet is to find a local REI club and go to a few meetings. Make some contacts, find out what they are looking for.
Good Luck!!
It is absolutely possible and I agree that bird-dogging is the best place to start.
wesavehomes,
In my opinion, it is extremely difficult to start a real estate investing business (or any other business) with no money and bad credit. Yes, you could birddog (find deals) for other investors, but I don’t know a single person that has been successful doing so. Birddogging is nothing more than a low paid job in which you hunt down properties for other investors and it would take a steady stream of these deals to have any impact on your financial situation. I think bird-dogging is more of an urban legend than a reality.
Wholesaling is another possible method of getting started, but your reputation will rapidly be ruined if you don’t have the cash or credit to close when your buyer falls through (which happens all the time). While this method generates more money than bird-dogging, again I don’t know a single person who does this full time (although I do know a few people who wholesale AND do a more traditional strategy).
The real money in real estate investing is either buy-rehab-sell and buy-rehab-rent (the traditional methods). However, both of these methods require money and/or credit.
Of course, another way to get started would be to get your real estate license. You could work as a realtor (mostly a home based business) and use your connections to help find properties that you could buy once your financial situation improves.
Good Luck,
Mike
Thanks for all of your replies. It gives me alot to think about.
I agree with propertymanager. You need good credit but all you need is 650 or so. You don’t need perfect credit to get started in real estate. One thing to think about is that bad credit is not a financial issue it is a behavioral issue. What it means is that you are living above your income. Instead of waiting until you can afford a thing you are buying it now. In order to catch-up you have to live below your income for a significant period of time. That means that you have to not buy some things that you can afford until later. This is where behavior comes in. Most people can’t do that. You have to remember that you pay for a place to live, food and then bills. You don’t buy anything other than food and a place to live for a year or so. I pay all my bills on the internet, and all of them are set up on autopay so that no bills ever get paid late.