Investing Strategies

[Jonathan Morris]

After researching endlessly to figure out the best strategy to begin my real estate investing career, I have some thoughts on the types of deals investors will come across. Personally, I want to start out by wholesaling and move into rehabbing while at the same time wholesaling the deals I cannot do myself (b/c of lack of time, finances, etc). Ultimately, I want to build up enough money through wholesaling and rehabbing to purchase buy and hold properties to have cash flow each month to cover my living expenses. This general plan is clearly a long process and not an overnight thing. I think lessons learned wholesaling will help my rehabbing, and lessons learned wholesaling and rehabbing will help my buy and hold investing. Through this whole process, I think there will be three basic scenarios when introduced to a motivated seller: (1) seller is upside down on his loan, (2) the seller has little to no equity, or (3) the seller has a lot of equity. In each of these cases, it seems that there may be ways to profit. If the seller is upside down on the loan, there is the possibility of a short sale. For the seller with little to no equity, there is the possibility of the "lease option" or "subject to" transactions. And for the seller with plenty of equity, a straightforward purchase could be arranged. I am sure other strategies exist. Is my line of thinking correct? ...as long as you have a motivated seller, there is the possibility of profit? One scenario may be more difficult then the next. But if I understand this, then I am not passing up on plenty of deals instead of just looking for the perfect one that fits my criteria. Does any one have any thoughts on these types of scenarios or experiences with them?