We’ve all heard the old adage, “You have to spend money to make money.” Nowhere is that less true than in real estate. While you do have to spend something to get started in real estate investing, it does not necessarily have to be tons and tons of cash. Nowhere else is sweat equity, in the form of time or effort invested, better rewarded than in our sector.
Here are three ways you can start investing in real estate immediately without having to write a large check right off the bat:
1 | Borrow Outside the Box
Yes, getting financing for your deals is expensive. Many investors resign themselves to paying 20 percent down for a mortgage with a big bank or shelling out for sky-high interest rates with private and hard-money lenders. In reality, there is a much faster and simpler solution: seller financing. Seller financing expert Larry Harbolt has been leveraging this strategy for decades in his own business after he bought his first investment property in 1984. “I teach people how to grow their own money tree and never depend on a bank again,” he said, adding that seller financing is largely recession-proof and is even an option for investors who are currently bankrupt.
Harbolt will be revealing the inner workings of his seller-financing system, including how he buys 10 houses in a week, at the Triangle Real Estate Investors Association (TREIA) Conference & Expo powered by Think Realty in Raleigh, North Carolina, on August 26-27, 2017. Click here to reserve your spot in that session.
2 | Don’t Forget About Credit
Many investors and homebuyers write off the idea of owning their own home or owning investment properties because they make the assumption that their credit scores are too low to purchase a property. As a result, they don’t even explore the option! Creative real estate investors soon realize that these self-titled “credit challenged” individuals are often fully willing, able, and eager to purchase a home using creative financing that does not rely on banks, such as lease options. A lease option can actually help a tenant repair their credit while they build up a down payment to pay you, and if you have that property under contract using a fast-track option like seller-financing, you could be the proud owner of a rental portfolio in far less time than you think.
Don’t forget about your own credit, though! Investors can get far better terms than most realize if their credit is good. “If you want to leverage your financial reputation toward wealth and prosperity, you need to optimize your credit,” according to Merrill Chandler, CEO and Chief Strategist at CreditSense.com. Chandler’s company does not just repair credit; they optimize it for use in improving your business and investing. Chandler will be presenting at the TREIA Conference & Expo powered by Think Realty as well. Click here to reserve your spot.
3 | Know What to Say to Sellers, All the Time, Every Time
Many investors find themselves stonewalled when they attempt to purchase real estate creatively because they simply do not know what to say. They end up alienating the very people on whom they must rely to do deals: their sellers. Saying the right thing to sellers from the start, and saying it the right way, is vitally important to your success in any type of creative real estate endeavor.
“You need powerful and conversational scripts to close deals,” explained Brian Wolff, half of “The Wolff Couple.” He and his wife, Lynette, not only teach Ron LeGrand’s Pretty House Boot Camp, but they also have a thriving business buying and selling houses and negotiating terms. They’ll be presenting at the TREIA Conference & Expo powered by Think Realty, as will Ron LeGrand. Click here to reserve your spot in those sessions.
Whether you choose to employ some or all of the strategies you’ll learn at the TREIA conference, you can be confident that you have options for getting started in real estate even if you do not have a lot of capital to work with. In real estate, if you are willing to put in the capital of your time and effort, you truly can get started immediately with very little capital of any other sort.
Carole Van Sickle Ellis is the editor for Think Realty Magazine. You can contact her at cellis@thinkrealty.com.
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