How many properties have you purchased with $0 down?

[Gabriel A.]

How often do you successfully close a deal with $0 down?

Thanks!

Gabriel

[Don Konipol]

Once you accumulate a substantial net worth the question is not nothing down but one of liability. I'd much rather put up a down payment with a non recourse loan rather than a nothing down deal with a large full recourse loan. Often nothing down deals involve the assuming of risk larger than that justified by the profit potential. I guess a case can be made for taking on these large risks when your net worth is low and you have little to lose. However, the very concept has been beaten, distorted and misused by many "gurus" starting with Robert Allen.

While on the subject I might as well throw in my 2 cents about tools and techniques of acquiring property in general. Successfully being able to obtain control or ownership of a property by utilizing a "tool", (nothing down, owner financing, subject to, option, etc) accomplishes nothing by itself. One must purchase or control real property that either can be sold for more than the purchase price or that will provide a profitable annual retun through rent or other income payments. Utilizing these tools may be neccessary for a successful purchase should you be cash short, but make no mistake about it; you will pay a higher price for the property utilizing these tools. The person selling for nothing down is accepting nothing down because the price he can obtain for cash is significantly lower that what he can obtain with nothing down owner carry. Same thing with the other "tools" The lowest cost and most profit will be when you can pay all cash, or when your credit rating is so good that your cost of money borrowed is very low.