Can someone help me understand how to start up

[Michael Bell]

Ok when I viewed the path to purchase series I saw that on the expenses portion it uses a tool to calculate how much time it would take me to get 20% of I started with nothing, however it only came to $1800 in 18 months. I know that the houses out here are a pretty penny and I'm sure 20% would be far greater then $1800 so my question is, what am I basing this on? If my credit is great? If the house is only $100,000 or less? Is this tool not exact or should I really feel like it will only take as little as $1800 to get started? I have never owned a property and I am really interested in getting started and I have absolutely zero money saved right now and I want to change my financial status as soon as possible. Can anyone help me.

[Cortney Jones]

@Michael Bell   I'm not familiar with the path to purchase series you mention, but I can give you some guidance on getting started with nothing.  

There are numerous ways to buy property with no money down.  Really.  :-) 

I've bought hundreds of investment homes and never put 20% down on any of them. For starters check out biggerpockets.com/nomoney  a book by @Brandon Turner

If you want to stay conservative and traditional (and there is nothing wrong with that) and do the 20% down and bank loan traditional purchase then start with doing some homework on the area you want to invest in.  Look up some properties in the area to get a feel for what they are selling for.  That will give you an idea of the amount you're looking at.  

I would start by finding an amount you can comfortably begin to save each month for one, but simultaneously looking for someone you can partner with on a few of your first deals.  Reinvest all your profits into savings to buy more properties.  

If your first property is $150k then going the traditional route, you would need to save $30k in order to have a 20% down payment. You could go FHA with a 3% down payment, but you would have to live in the house for at least a year. If you can work with a partner, maybe you do the legwork to find the deal and you do any of the required work, etc. and they put up the money and you split the profits, you could get there faster.

Also, consider wholesaling a few deals to get your first down payment.  

My personal preference is buying no money down.  You will still need some money.  You'll often have marketing expenses to find the deal(s), also most houses will need some work before you can rent or sell them and often if you're buying no money down then you'll have some past due payments that need to be made up.  

If I were you I would start by learning about the various ways to buy and sell and the pros and cons of each. Then, decide on which business model you want to use that fits your goals and plans. Then, read everything you can about that - 3-4 books quickly. Don't let it drag out and use education as a crutch to not take action. Then, start looking for potential partners. Use the BP community, your local Craigslist, call We Buy guys in your area, go to local REIA meetings, etc.

Hope that helps you take some first steps. 

Best of luck!