First flip funds problem

[Michael Caro]

Ok so I need some of your opinions guys plz!

I’m just turned 20, I have been studying for the last 4 months on real estate investing and I’m now at the stage where I’m trying to systemize everything to make the process faster. But now I’m having trouble with the funds part.

Originally, I was gonna get a 100% funded investor which turned out to be a MLM company. My credit is around a 660 and I make about 2k per month. I have zero of my own money to put into a deal.

So I tried hard money loans and private investors but they all want at least 20%. Credit unions won’t give me enough for the 20% and I do not really have family with money. I’m having trouble finding joint ventures because there are not too many out looking for workers who can’t bring money into the deal

What should I do? It looks like I need to save up more money before I can flip which is the last thing I want to do if I’m being honest. I have put so much work into this and prolonging the process is driving me insane.

So any thoughts or tips will help thx!!!!

[Michael Ealy]

Originally posted by @Michael Caro:

Ok so I need some of your opinions guys plz!

I’m just turned 20, I have been studying for the last 4 months on real estate investing and I’m now at the stage where I’m trying to systemize everything to make the process faster. But now I’m having trouble with the funds part.

Originally, I was gonna get a 100% funded investor which turned out to be a MLM company. My credit is around a 660 and I make about 2k per month. I have zero of my own money to put into a deal.

So I tried hard money loans and private investors but they all want at least 20%. Credit unions won’t give me enough for the 20% and I do not really have family with money. I’m having trouble finding joint ventures because there are not too many out looking for workers who can’t bring money into the deal

What should I do? It looks like I need to save up more money before I can flip which is the last thing I want to do if I’m being honest. I have put so much work into this and prolonging the process is driving me insane.

So any thoughts or tips will help thx!!!!

 Michael,

I feel you man! I was in your situation after losing everything in early 2000s. I started with $0 but has acquired over 1,000 apartment units. Here's Part 2 of my story (How I rose up from losing everything):

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/55/topics/692382-from-bankruptcy-to-1-000-units-part-2-rising-from-the-ruins

Hopefully that inspires you. But here's a suggestion to answer your question:

Focus on finding good deals for an experienced investor and then "sell" your deal in exchange for getting equity (or ownership) in the properties you find.

By doing this, you do it with NO MONEY coming out of your pocket.

You then rinse and repeat - until you have $50K cash or more in your bank account. The advantages of approaching it using "Mike Ealy's HUSTLE Way" (the above way) are:

1. You become really good at finding deals (which is, the most important skill for a real estate investor, right up there with raising capital)
2. You generate cash that you need as downpayment to do your own deals later on
3. You gain experience (HMLs will allow you to borrow 90% of the project cost when you have experience)

Hope this helps!