Has anyone on here done all four and could recommend which sort of rei pays the biggest cash flow and the quickest? I would love to save myself years of mistakes because I feel as I could do any of these but want to start with most profitting rei. :beer
wholesaling is definitely the quickest way to getting income, but it also requires you to continue to find deals forever. With rentals, there is a much smaller short term income, but long term has the potential of residual income.
First, remember that everyone is going to have their own opinion and ALL investment strategies have pros and cons, risks and rewards.
With that said, I prefer lease options/sub2 deals over any other method. You get immediate cash in the form of option consideration money (3-5% of purchase price), monthly income (for 1-3 yrs) and get a nice check when you close. It’s like landlording without most of the traditional landlord headaches. You can work with just about every possible seller as well. You also don’t have to go around trying to “steal” houses from people for 50-60% of ARV. As long as they are willing to wait for their money, you can help them. And chances are, in this market, they have already been waiting 6 months or more, so what’s a few more months? Add all of that to the fact that you never have to get a loan or use your money and it really is a safe way to make money with no money out of pocket.
Good luck.
:banana 
banana :elephant :banana banana banana :elephant :banana banana :elephant :banana :elephant
It all depends on the numbers of each deal. Do you have all available to you right now? I’m guessing not. How do you plan on finding the deals? I would take what you can get, and make money however you can. If you have excellent credit and no money you should do just fine. If you have no credit and no money then…hm wholesale would be only option? There are so many ways to make money in realestate and there is not just one majic quick money maker. You can make a lot of money- you have to look at each deal sep. to decide which is the best $ route.
What if I leased optioned and then with these hard times couldn’t find a buyer/ Do you always say you will lease option it monthly and if you don’t find a buyer by 3 mths then stop leasing it? If you couldn’t sell it then you wouldn’t get a referral from them:} Thanks for help. I can’t decide which way to go and devote all mny time to.
T/B’s are NOT hard to find. They come a dime a dozen. Plus you would NEVER lease option a place unless you had a buyer in place first. Your contract will give you a 30-90 day window to find someone. If you can’t find someone in that time just move on. Plus the agreement that you give the seller is a non-exclusive agreement so you are NOT tying up their property like so many other “investors” do. Good Luck
:beer
T/B's are NOT hard to find. They come a dime a dozen.
I completely disagree with that. People who are willing to “buy” lease-options by definition have poor credit. After all, if they had good credit, they would simply buy a house and save the extra expense associated with lease options. Since they have bad credit, the vast majority don’t have any cash and will not be able to pay the first month’s rent, security deposit, and an option premium. While you’re waiting for this tenant-buyer with bad credit but a big pile of cash to appear, your unit is sitting vacant. It is often more profitable to simply rent the house instead of waiting for a tenant buyer to appear.
Additionally, while many people try to turn tenant-buyers into owners and make them pay maintenance, that is not legal in most states. If your tenant gets mad at you, the result is that you can be in trouble for violating your state’s tenant-landlord law.
Finally, tenant-buyers are first and foremost tenants, with all the bad habits and poor choices that tenants have. In the majority of cases, they will NOT end up buying the house. In addition, you will often get the property back with a LOT of deferred maintenance - the very maintenance that you were illegally trying to get the tenant to do.
While what I said may sound negative, I am not against lease options. In fact, I do lease options from time to time, but I think you should at least go into it with your eyes wide open.
Mike
Which is exactly why I don’t sign any l/o with sellers unless I have the t/b lined up.
Good point. Everyone considering l/o should know that at least 50% of the t/bs don’t come through. Knowing this fact is why I always get a 12 mo. l/o with at least 1, if not 2, renewal periods. If the first one falls through chances are the second one, hopefully, won’t. (The odds are in my favor). If all fails and all of my t/bs fall through I would elect NOT to exercise my option then me and the seller would part ways. (Haven’t done this yet). If you can’t find someone to go through with buying the property in 3 years chances are you are doing something wrong (background checks, interviews, etc.).
Thanks for the great points propertymanager. :beer