The more you understand about conventional business finance, the easier it will be for you to understand the unconventional finance methods you will encounter in REI.Although you will see some people on here and elsewhere who use all kinds of formulas to analyze RE deals, it's really not any harder than 5th grade math.

I have a house in contract that I set up a rent-to-own agreement between buyer and seller as of last night.The two buyers (who I actually grew up with) want to open a small men's 3/4 house (transitional living/structured environment) for guys getting out of rehabs or 1/2 way houses.

These types of homes are year 2000 or newer, 3/2/2, 1700-2700 sq ft and about $120 ARV.This method has made me a lot of money, with very little headaches.So whats the problem?

Just get a quick contract between you and your friend that says something to the extent of:If the property at 123 main st closes between (buyer) and (seller) within 12 months, buyer shall pay a finders fee of $1000 to Leeta Song.You may have to change the language a bit, and I'm sure it will be 4 pages long, but that's the general method I'd go with.

As currently structured, the annual interest would exceed $600.

In as much, i've come to the conclusion that real-estate investing is probably one of the most solid investing methods to date, and now I have a problem.

Whatever method you use, look at your expected profit as a % of ARV.

I worked with Emilio on several projects in Milwaukee -- he did our permit drawings and helped us with structural and architecture issues on a bunch of houses.

I'm in the military, so we have dreams of renting this place out when I get transferred, buying a new one, and so on.In my perfect fantasy world, this method could yield me 3-4 nice single family homes by my mid 30s (in 10 yrs), a good passive income stream by my mid 40s (20 yrs), and a solid retirement foundation for 55+.I have a ton of research to do and this site looks awesome.

I overheard a realtor saying the guidelines are getting very tight on this method, I'm wanting to see if it's still possible to do.I'm purchasing a home for 13k putting 7k in it, I see the homes in the area are selling for 64k, and my mentor has 2 on the street that appraised for $67,000.