"How I Used Real Estate to Earn $40,000 Working
Part Time from Home While Caring for my husband
who was Sick and Waiting for A Liver Transplant. "
(With No Cash and No Credit)

but it is absolutely true. In April of 2004, my husband finally received
a liver transplant after 3 1/2 years of liver disease brought on by
hepatitis C. I am happy to report that he is doing very well.

I do not announce this event to get your sympathy, but rather
to make an important point. It really is possible to use real estate
as a vehicle to generate significant amounts of income while working
from home or working very irregular hours, without using your
own cash or credit. I know because I HAD to do it.

In December of 2000 I my husband suddenly fell ill.
In one short day we went from being a two income family to
virtually a no income family.

I found myself in the difficult position of having to care for Gary around the clock. He needed almost constant attention during the first sixmonths. 
Liver failure causes some rather difficult and dangerous
health issues that made it impossible for me to work. At times we
had to go to the hospital on a moments notice, and be there for
hours or days.

I had to figure out a way to earn a sufficient living while being a 24
hour a day caregiver.

I was already involved in real estate. I had been a realtor for
several years prior, and I had also been working a good bit in
real estate wholesaling.

I was aware that well established investors need people to
help them locate property, negotiate deals, find buyers and
get deals closed. I set out to make something happen.
I knew that I could not just go get a job. I had to be
more creative in order to meet the demands of the situation.

When I first started in real estate, I had called on every "we
buy houses" sign I saw. I would just call the number and ask
the person who answered if they were willing to pay for deals
that I found. Practically all of them said yes.

One night I got a call from a real estate investor who was doing some networking of his own. I happened to remember his name from talking to him several years before, when I was calling those signs.

I wound up scheduling a face to face meeting with him. He told me of his need for people to find properties and buyers to sell those properties to. Here was my chance. It was all commission, as no one gets paid until a deal closes, but this was a major investor with great access to funding. I decided it was a good opportunity, all things considered.

The biggest advantage I had going for me was my knowledge of the

numbers. I knew how to handle the major points of the business:

I had to work hard, but at least I could work from virtually anywhere.
All I needed was a cell phone, transportation, my computer and
an internet connection. I even worked at times with my laptop
connected to a dial up in a hospital room. I remember running a
25 foot phone cord across a hospital waiting room. I had to
tape it to the floor in order to keep people from tripping over it.

Sometimes I worked every day, when Gary was feeling better,
and sometimes I could not work for a solid week. It just depended
on how he was doing and how much care he needed. But I did
manage to make a living. The key was in providing valuable leads
to real estate investors who need those leads to sustain their
business.

But, in order to succeed you have to know the fundamentals of
finding and evaluating a deal. You can't just send professional
investors a list of property addresses you pulled off the HUD
website and expect to get paid. People who fail at this always
try to take a quick, easy route. That will not work. 

The key is in finding the 10% of leads out there with a motivated seller
who will agree to a deal that an investor can make money on.
You will get a percentage of that profit.

I believe that this is one of the basic, entry level opportunities
available to anyone, regardless of their credit score or how little
cash they have. It is one of the true ways to get started and do deals 
with no cash, no credit and no risk.

The bottom line is there are many large, well established investors
out there who need all the deals you can find. Plus, you can gain valuable experience by working with these professionals. You learn lots of things you won't hear about in seminars.

I found that I learned at a much faster rate than I would have on my
own, because I was not only exposed to the deals I was working,
but I heard lots of details about other deals and how they were
handled. Some investors even provide office space, computers, tax software,
phones and week to week meetings to help you.

You can make extra income to supplement another job, or you
can build it into a full time business, once you learn how to produce.

As you build your reputation within the industry, you will get to
know the well established investors. Over time you can build a relationship with many of them. Adding value will get you noticed.

You will find that private sources of funding become easier to locate. 
To get cooperation from people with cash to invest, they have to know you. 
They have to trust and respect you.

If you build your skills, and make yourself into a valuable partner for others, 
you will find that others will become valuable partners for you.

If you do have experience and you know how to evaluate deals correctly, 
you can email your leads to me for a quick response.

If you want to work with investing professionals, but you have
no real training or experience, please click below to find out
how you can jump start yourself by utilizing the home study
course taken from the original live class I taught on this topic.

http://www.realestateinvestorhelp.com/HomeStudyIntro.htm

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There are certain rules that always apply to any legitimate
real estate deal. If you break those rules, your chances of
having a bad or non-performing deal on your hands will
increase greatly.

There is nothing inherently wrong with getting a property without
paying anything down, but the key is deal structure.
Many nothing down techniques involve creating second
mortgage notes on a property to cover the cost of the down-
payment that you are trying to avoid paying up front.

Second mortgages make it easier to get in, but can make it
very hard to get out. They tend to have higher than market
interest rates. If you get into a jam and need to sell fast,
you will likely lose money. Leverage is a beautiful thing
until someone quits paying their rent.

Robert Allen is one of the best known real estate "gurus" in the
United States. His book, "Creating Wealth" was a real estate best
seller. It had a heavy emphasis on creating 100% financing by
giving sellers full price for a property, if they would take a
second mortgage for the downpayment. It was all about
using second mortgage notes to "create wealth".

But, just a few years later, Mr. Allen was filing for bankruptcy.

It's not that you can't buy property with no money down, but some
investors get so hung up on buying with special terms, they don't
even realize that those terms could create some potential hazards.

It is possible to structure a deal that appears to be great on the
surface, only to find that the income can't cover the expenses.
Or, your payoff is more than the property is worth.

The real estate investing "hype", would have you believe
that any deal with creative terms is worth doing.
That is hardly the case. 

I have seen "subject-to" and other sorts of creative financing deals 
that were not profitable because the real costs were ignored 
in the excitement of doing a creative deal.

When you buy the front end of a horse, you are also buying the back
end too. Sometimes, no matter how careful you think you are, fate
will intervene with circumstances that make for a difficult time.
Creative deals can turn into big trouble, as Mr. Allen found out.

A creative deal is not necessarily a good deal. You have to think
through the long term effects of creative financing choices. If you
are not sure how to run the numbers on such deals, get help from
someone who can advise you. Paying for an expert assessment
on the front end is much cheaper and easier than trying to get
out of a bad deal.

Make sure you understand the implications of any creative financing terms 
you undertake. High leverage and low equity can be a dangerous combination.

I am looking for your questions. If you have a topic that has been burning in your mind, and you would like an answer, just email me and I will try to address your question in the newsletter. As long as time permits, I always try to answer all of your email questions.

send them to mailto:drobinson@reihelp.com

Donna Robinson is also available for consulting and deal evaluation.

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Reprints and Quotes are permitted as long as this link is included: http://www.reihelp.com

Copyright Donna Robinson 2004 All rights reserved.

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