Buying with Soul-Crushingly Bad Credit

[Mark Vejnar]

I am currently seeking opportunities to flip properties, but my credit is blasphemous and I sort of feel that no sane persons would partner with me in my ventures. My current marketing plan consists of driving-for-dollars and networking. What would you do in my situation? Here's the rub - Three years ago I made some impossible choices for the right reasons and am now curing my functionally obsolescent financial position. I knew the choices made would snuff out my glowing credit report and plunge me into the pits of collection-calls despair. Now my current household income has nearly quadrupled, and while the monstrosity that is the student loan balance eats up a significant portion of monthly earnings I am nearly at the point where each (three in total) written-off account shall be PAID IN FULL (!!! :-D HELLS YESSS SON!) - which, of course, is the only ethical option. My background is in real estate appraisal, though I'm not currently practicing. I'm committed to investing in real estate. I'm committed to building a portfolio of commercial and residential real estate. How would you proceed in my situation? Thank you for your blunt honesty and tactless but insightfully thoughtful responses.

[Nick L.]

@Mark VejnarWell you picked the right area of real estate for ****** credit! If you have great W-2 cash flow and can find the right opportunities, HMLs will be lining up to lend to you on flips. Credit quality is not a factor.

Since you're an appraiser by background, can you use re-activate your license and use it to find deals? I know an appraiser in my area who picked up 250 units in the last downturn. Every time a bank commissioned him to appraise a property before foreclosure, he asked if he could pick it up at a discount with 10% down. Enough of them said yes that appraising s just a hobby for him now.