As Ed Garcia put it: “You’re driving by the gold on your way to the silver if you don’t have the knowledge to really know what it is your looking for in the first place.”
I would like to thank all of the people who have shared their experiences, their techniques for putting the “deals” together, and their time with me so that I could recognize some of those deals when they were presented to me! Here’s a quick look at 19 deals I’ve been able to put together in my first six months as a real estate investor:
Purchased 6 homes (3 REOs, 1 VA, 2 private seller) as rehab projects. Have cashed out of 4 and have sales contracts on remaining 2. I partnered on 2 of these deals.
Purchased 4 homes (1 REOs, 1 VA, 2 private seller) and flipped these houses to other investors. I partnered on 2 of these deals.
Purchased 9 homes (2 REOs, 1 HUD, 6 private seller) have lease optioned all for top market value, all with $ 2,000 non-refundable lease option deposits. I have partnered on 6 of these deals with a good friend.
I have received about $ 41,000 cash, have over $ 200,000 in the equity in the lease optioned homes and will receive over $ 22,000 within the next 5 weeks on the remaining two rehabs when we close.
There is still so much I have to learn and I still consider myself a “newbie”! I have been blessed with a great team of professionals (mortgage brokers, title companies, good private money lenders, fellow investors, etc.) who don’t mind “picking me up and dusting me off” once in a while.
I would especially like to thank Zack Wiest, a 25-year-old real estate Mad Man! Zack is the most intense, focused, goal oriented, real estate investor a person could ever meet! He is also the person who first brought me to CRE Online, introduced me to other successful, driven investors, and suggested I come to Atlanta for the CRE Online Convention. And what a time it was!
I have been toying with real estate investing for 20 years. What I mean is that I have been procrastinating about becoming a real estate investor for 20 years! All those years I could have been doing this! God only knows where I would be right now if I would have started when I was 21 years old. Well enough said!
If I can offer the newbies out there who have not yet done their first deal any words of wisdom, it would be: There is never a right time, and there is no such thing as the perfect property! You can read as many books and absorb as many courses as you want, and by-the-way you should do this, but eventually you just have to get out there and “just do it”! Thanks