Realistically, Who Gets 30+ Unit Apartments With No Money Down?

[Jeff G.]

I'm reading How to Make Big Money in Small Apartments by Lance Edwards. Informative or not, it has definitely got the "written by a real estate guru" vibe. Please level with me, folks. Who realistically gets 10-30 unit apartment complexes with "no money down"? I have definite interest in the small apartment space in that unit range. I'm skeptical.

I get that "no money down" nearly always means other people's money (OPM) and only very rarely means seller financing with no actual down payment on the part of the buyer. Also, any real deal will surely require incidental expenditures such as paying for inspections, some form of marketing budget, etc.

For those of you who have actually done this, how did you get the deal? How was it structured at closure? How was the income distributed going forward?

Lastly, what am I not likely to read from a book that I really should know going into a deal like this?