My Dilemma

[Cheryl Butler]

Okay, I’m just starting out in this whole real-estate investing venture, Needless to say, I don' have a clue as to what I'm doing. I'm giving myself a goal of 30 day to generate some sort of income. Of course, my credit is bad and I don't have any money to invest.

My dilemma is, I’m not sure what path should I take.

Should I start off first with bird dogging?
This way I can make some money without really have to spend a dime of my own money and seems like the safest and easiest way to make money.

Or
Should I wholesale a property?
I can potentially earn a large sum of money, if I find a property to put under contract within the next 30 days and then assign it to a buyer, but I'm still struggling to understand to logistics of doing this.

Last
There is a property right next door to me. It’s in foreclosure for about 19,000. I knew the former tenants who was renting. They have been gone for about 2 months now. I am aware that there are some issues such as mold, and few other things. The tenant didn’t pay their water bill so I do know that water bill was extremely high and the water was cut off just before they move. Is this something that I would have to take care of? Here is the description:
3 bedroom brick and frame ranch with a spacious yard, detached garage, rear patio. Sold as is. buyer to take on city repairs & put up escrow if required. no disclosures, no survey or termite provided. present detailed pre-qualify or proof of funds with offer. em certified funds only( what do that mean?). I live in a very nice neighborhood. Actually this is the only house on the block that is vacant right now. The foreclosure estimate on zillow for the property is $76,000 the zestimate is about $ 79,000. Since I don’t have any money, my guess is that I would have to deal with a private lender, but I’m not sure if any private lenders would let me finance a foreclose property to flip and I might be missing out on some other details that might be relevant to this situation too.

Now that you heard my spill. What do you think?

[Prashant P.]

Welcome Cheryl,

I picked up a couple things from your post.

1. You need to learn more about investing in real estate and identify what path you want to take. I would spend some time reading Biggerpockets, reading some books and attending a local REIA meeting to gain some more knowledge.

2. Real estate is not a way to make quick cash no matter what you see on TV. You need to know what you are doing and give yourself some time or your going to get burned.

3. You say you have bad credit and don't have any money. If I were a private investor I would not give you a penny. Most private investors want you to have some skin in the game.

4. When analyzing a property, Zillow is not the best method to use to determine market value. Real estate comps will give you a more accurate measure of value. Zillow is basically a big average that doesn't take into consideration key facotrs.

If you want to get started in real estate, balance your personal budget to save some money and improve your credit score. In the mean time do alot of research and attend a REIA meeting. You might meet an investor there that will pay you some money to find a deal for him, ie bird dogging