What if you had the means to acquire any piece of property without taking a dime out of your own pocket. It sure puts a smile across my face. Wouldn’t this change your approach to real estate investing ? Wouldn’t you be aggressively looking for the best killer deals, and accepting nothing less? Wouldn’t you be a ruthless negotiator, because you had the means to do the deal, but only on your terms. And wouldn’t this strategy be the surefire way to make you wealthy?

If you answered yes to these questions (and I hope you do), then why aren’t you pursuing this strategy. The most likely reason is that you don’t feel the you “have the means to acquire any property you want.” Aside from learning techniques, and understanding the real estate investing business, isn’t this what the whole world of creative real estate investing is about? So, let’s consider our options.

Creative Ways to Get Property – The Seller Pays

This probably is the way most investors start off learning . For example, in taking over a property subject to, you’re using the seller’s financing to acquire the property. There are other ways to: - seller financing for all or part of the purchase price. Now, you can get really creative here. You don’t have to restrict yourself to 30 yr amortized monthly payments. How about interest only payments? Or no interest principal only? Or no payments at all until you sell the house.

In our first real estate deal, Richard actually asked the seller to pay us $15,000 to make up for her upside down mortgage. I was shocked and embarrassed. I thought she’d just kick us out, but she agreed to it! You just never know what a seller is willing to do until you ask.

And here’s another powerful strategy if the seller wants cash. Have the seller finance the purchase with a note (or a 1st and a 2nd) that you set up, with the appropriate terrms. And then at closing, arrange for the homeowner to sell that note to a note buyer for cash. When the dust setlles,
• you own the property for no money out of your pocket• the seller gets his cash and ends up holding a small second mortage
• and you make payments to the note buyer (your new lender)

An option is another way the seller pays (at least indirectly). In this scenario, for a small option fee, the seller agrees to give you the right to buy the property for a given price for a given period of time. This gives you the time to find a buyer or otherwise use the property, while the seller pays the carrying costs.

Then there is the lease-option or sandwich lease option strategy. In this strategy, you lease the property from the owner with an option to purchase at a given price for a given time. Meanwhile, you find a tenant-buyer who gives you a larger option fee, and makes a lease payment larger than the one your paying. Then when your tenant buyer exercises their option to buy and cash you out, you exercise your option with the seller, and collect the difference.

The beauty of this arrangement is that the mortgage obligation stays in the seller’s name and you have the flexibility to lease out or sell the property as you desire. And if you think finding the right tenant may take some time, try negotiating with the seller that the your lease payments don’t start til you find your tenant buyer.

Other Creative Ways to Get Property with None of Your Money

If you like some of these suggestions, you’ll be happy to hear that we have a lot more to share with you. In subsequent issues we’ll be writing about other strategies to acquire property with none of your own money including:
using your buyer to finance the purchase
Hard money lenders
Conventional lenders & non-recourse loans
Lines of Credit
Construction Loans
Private loans
And much, much more…

WHERE TO FOLLOW UP WITH MORE INFO

Richard’s written a wonderful training manual (called “Show Me the Money") that details all the ways we know to fund your deals without using your own money. It goes into a lot more detail than I’m able to do in this email. In this manual, Richard not only describes the strategies and how-to’s, and also answers the “yeah buts” that some of you may have been thinking about in my descriptions above. And, Richard has included his unique, and effective Deal Evaluation Tool, that allows you to calculate your profit, cashflow and financial risk in every deal, and decide the best strategy (including the walk away strategy). It’s helped us tremendously, for just about any kind of deal from single family to multi-family, rehabs to rentals, short sales to pre-construction. You can find out more at http://www.PrivateLendingGuide.com

Author's Bio: 

Richard Odessey, Ph.D. started his career as a Professor of Physiology, became an entrepreneur helping to found a successful biotech company, and has been successfully investing in real estate since 1999.
With his wife Michelle Odessey, they founded www.InvestorWealth.com , one of the premier sites for creative real estate training.
Early on, Richard realized that a primary key to success is being able to fund every profitable real estate deal you find. And he has become an Expert in Techniques of Real Estate Financing without using any personal funds.
He is now sought out for advice and training on obtaining:
*Private Lenders and Private Investment ( www.PrivateLendingGuide.com/blog ),
*high level funding sanctioned by the SEC from Angel Investors and high-net worth individuals,
*Unsecured Business Lines of Credit ( www.BusinessCapitalConnection.com )
*Creative Real Estate Funding Techniques ( www.PrivateLendingGuide.com )
*and Creating Multiple Streams of Income ( http://richardo.smallbusinesscreditalliance.com )