Financing Advice

[Robert Akens]

Hello. I am in a bit of a corner. I was misguided when I started my own home improvement company. This led me to using up the majority of my personal credit to find my personal and business expenses. Now I am having difficulty obtaining a loan. Company is too young and credit utilization is too high. I want to pursue investing in real estate because it is familiar to me and I know it is one of the few career paths that can help people reach financial independence. Everyone has heard the "no money needed" jingle before, but I want to know the truth of it. Is there really a secret out there ? Did I miss the memo?

[Hattie Dizmond]

There are several podcasts and blog posts that deal with this very issue.  I recommend you check those out.  In the meantime, yes, you can get into the world of real estate investing with no money, but it isn't at all as easy as the gurus want you to believe.  First, unless you can find an investor or partner who will put up the money for a down payment, you're probably limited to wholesaling.  Wholesaling can be done with little to no money.  However, you'll need to be very hands on to make that work.  If you have no money at all to put into it, you're going to be limited to driving for dollars, Craigslist calling, scouring local court filings for Notices of Default and other foreclosure proceedings, and/or probate filings.  Then you can either try to find phone numbers for those property owners, knock on doors, write individual letters, etc.  If you have a little money to put into it, you can look at bandit signs (only where/if they are legal) and/or direct mail marketing for deals.

Again, there's lots of information on BP, and I would start with the podcasts.  For a take on no money house flipping, start with podcast #50.