Free-ish money

[Hoan Thai]

Money seems to always be the thing that holds people back from investing. It's an oxymorons, if I had money I would invest but I don't have money because I don't invest. Well there are little secret money pockets people overlook. One is your credit card. I got the idea when my back was against the wall, my investor asked for their money back on the due date and not be reinvesting because they were buying a house, I was completely cash-poor because it was tied up in the construction of a property, and I hadn't refinanced out yet. I said I will pay them back on the date agreed then I scrambled to find the money. That same day a letter came in the mail with credit card checks. I usually throw them out without even reading them. This day was different...obviously. It read that I could use these checks to pay off whatever I needed at 0% interest for 19 MONTHS!!! The was a 4% fee I would have to pay up front, but could roll that into the loan. I wrote myself a check for $20,000 and paid $800 for it. The 4% fee breaks down to 2.52% annual interest rate when taken over the 19 months. That was actually way less than what I was paying my investor so I made out by using my credit card. Another thing I did was increased my credit limit prior to writing the check so I would still have credit on my credit card to buy stuff. Since then I've increased it one more time. I plan on using and paying down a second card and ever so slowly increase that limit as well. Eventually I will have over 6 figures in buying power from credit cards alone. ATTENTION NEW INVESTORS: Just because you can afford a deal doesn't make it a good deal. I still invest a lot of time and money into my education so that I know what a good deal looks like and when one comes around I do a lot of due diligence to make sure it is a good deal. Once you feel comfortable in identifying a good deal now money won't be a barrier to closing on it. 

[Steve Vaughan]

Glad it worked for you that time, Hoan. Good thing your credit was good enough  at the time to receive a lifeboat in the mall so you didn't default to your investors .

I've purchased a few of my seller carry houses using cc checks back a long time ago. It worked until it didn't. In '04 my revolving credit lines were over $140k and I was feeling a- ok. Watch out world!

Next thing I know, I went from 0% to penalty rates of 24%+ on one card, then another . I was still in the introductory period and never ever missed a payment . What the heck was happening?

The cards have a lot of fine print. They checked my credit randomly and decided I had too much credit available. Like a house of cards (lol), my sophisticated idea crumbled and left me scrambling,  I ended up putting a large mortgage on my free and clear rental in '06 and paid them all off.  Thankfully I had that option.

If you play with snakes long enough, you will get bit . Make sure you have an anti-venom action plan when it does. Cheers and thank you for sharing!