No Money Down and other 'Creative' Real Estate Investment Methods

For many years, investors have seen the traditional real estate investment methods described in Part 1 of this article as a lot less than desirable!

They began looking at the prices of houses and finding methods of bringing the price more in line with making more money in a faster way.

These savvy investors developed ways to get loans on properties that allowed them to pull money out whenever they buy a real estate investment (cash back at closing) and lower their payments to build up their cash flow ('creative' investing).

They even developed methods of determining a Sellers motivation for selling - and bought the property at a discount price.

These creative investors also saw that some Sellers were not able (for whatever reason) to sell the property at a discount price, however, they still needed to get rid of the property, as they didnt know how to manage it as a landlord, or make money from it - not that it couldnt be done, they simply lacked the knowledge of how to do it.

The Seller just never learned how to profit from a real estate investment.

These investors understood how to make money from such properties, and did.

They bought the property on discount terms, and made money from the spread by selling it at retail price and/or terms (certainly one of my favorite methods of real estate investing).

Buy Every Real Estate Investment via Discount Price or Discount Terms.

Several years ago (actually, it really took off in the 1980s), Real Estate Investment Experts began seeing the potential for making money in bringing this treasured knowledge to the public in the form of home-study courses, seminars and Boot Camps.

They found that it wouldn't create competition for themselves, as many people, even though they purchase real estate courses and attend seminars and Boot Camps, will not actually take the information and utilize it to make the hundreds and even thousands of dollars possible for anyone serious about Real Estate Investing.

These Real Estate Investment Experts (being dubbed 'guru') found that this side of the business was lucrative often making more income from teaching about real estate investing than the actual real estate investments themselves.

It is important to understand that these real estate investment gurus learned early that they can only teach others what to do, not be responsible for the other persons success.

Providing the information to those that choose not to use it is very similar to the old adage "You can lead a horse to water, but you cant make it drink".

Yes, these real estate investment gurus got wealthy from selling this information, but their theories, principles and techniques taught thousands of others (those that take action on what they learn) how to realize their dreams utilizing their tried and true methods of real estate investing.

From home-study courses and seminars, to boot camps and one-on-one training, these methods have been proven to be not only interesting to millions of people, but capable of bringing massive wealth to those that take action on what is taught - those that go on and actually make real estate investments

Knowledge changes things...

This knowledge of no money down real estate investing techniques being known by thousands of Sellers has made changes in the industry.

By bringing the Seller into the knowledgeable realm of Real Estate investing, Sellers now know many of the methods that the gurus teach.

This is both a blessing and a curse.

To the talented investor, these knowledgeable people are more likely to work to create a WIN-WIN situation.

Investors that avoid the tricks and stick to the basic real estate investment techniques and terms that have been proven to work over and over again, have proven these powerful real estate investment strategies work even with these informed Sellers.

Oh, yes, many of these real estate investment techniques work today, as they have for many years. So much so that it is almost possible to say they have become principles; things that work, over and over, the same way no matter what happens - like gravity.

However, sadly, they are not really principles, as several of the real estate investment methods and techniques that worked in the 1980s and even through the 1990s are today not as powerful, nor do they work as often as they did before (although some 'gurus' are still teaching the same methods - even after 20 years...).

Some of this decline is due to a more educated society (due to the flood of real estate investment information available via books, tapes, home-study courses and the Internet), while some of it is due to simple changes in policies and laws.

It seems like a wave started late in 2003, the FHA announced that flips (transactions where investors buy houses cheaply and sell them at or near market rates) are "illegal". (Note that illegal in this context is not a legal term, but one that has been adopted from "you are not allowed to do that and do business with us".)

The FHAs announcement started a wave of concern (if not panic) throughout the Real Estate investing community.

Title and Mortgage companies began to tighten up their reigns. Many of these companies, in lieu of direct information, began simply not completing any transactions that did not follow the traditional real estate investment system. This made it hard for investors to complete transactions that involved simple buy-then-resell agreements (as they are not really real estate investments, but a rather nice way to make some fast CA$H!).

In rapid appreciation areas (California and Nevada, for example), the ability to flip a property all but stopped (became 'illegal'). All the 'traditional' creative real estate investing methods were virtually put on hold.

Ingenuity to the rescue, other methods of real estate investing always seem to pop up. After all, "Necessity is the Mother of Invention", and "Where there is a Will, there is a Way" are absolute principles.

Investors have to make a way to get things done - a way to keep their real estate investments profitable, and even more creative real estate investing methods were developed - to keep real estate investors, and the love of real estate investment, alive forever.

The Lazy Investor

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Steve Majors - The Lazy Investor
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