Commercial Real Estate Investment Articles

I love to talk about real estate. I always say, “If I don’t talk about it, how will anyone know what I do?” If the person you are talking to isn’t selling right now or doesn’t know someone that is selling, they eventually will. I want my name to be the one they remember, so I can get that all important “personal reference.”

I started visiting CRE Online in November 2004. I read it just about daily. I bought both Lonnie Scruggs books (A real heartfelt thanks to Lonnie for writing them) and started driving the speed humps.

I began investing in rental properties in the summer of 1996. I was very involved in CRE Online and chat room at that time. I attended the CRE Online Convention back then in Las Vegas. It was wonderful.

I am very excited to submit our very first real estate investing success story. After raising three children and owning a house of our own, we became heavily in debt from our money mismanagement and ignorance of how to achieve financial stability–to say nothing of abundance creation.

I just thought I’d share with you the recent success I’ve had. I started my dreams with buying my first rental in March 2004 with no money down. I took a home equity line of credit and used it for the down payment. I’m leasing my two-unit this week and should clear about $400 to $500 per month net income.

After attending Tony Colella’s mobile home boot camp in September 2005 we started looking for properties to expand our Lonnie Deal portfolio

The prices of mobile homes in Riverside County, California are ranging from $20,000 on up, so I haven’t done any deals in parks lately; instead I’ve been doing land/home deals. Before Christmas, I was with my daughter buying some equestrian stuff. We had some time, and I decided to go through this park I knew nearby, just for kicks.

After writing off $39,000 a couple of years ago, I sold an investment property that I purchased for $70,000 with only $1,000 down. The seller let me write my own contract, so I tied up the home for three months with out giving him any payments. I then proceeded to rehab the home, and I had it rented out by the 90th day for $925 per month.

Just thought that I would share my success story with everybody, since previous success stories have offered me so much inspiration. I am 24 years old and have FINALLY broken into real estate investing. After several years of busting my hump, trying to sell real estate as an agent, I decided to take the long awaited leap and invest myself.

I wanted to share my first deal with you to keep you encouraged. I have read the CRE Online Success Stories, read books, and attended meetings and seminars. The techniques that you read about on this website and others work if YOU work them.

Now that I’ve found Creative Real Estate Online, maybe I can get something done! I have had a slow start to my real estate investing career picking up only two properties in eleven months. I had no idea there were so many methods out there.

Our first real “investor deal” was a comedy of errors–that worked! I called a Realtor friend and told her I wanted to get into “flips.” She said, as a matter of fact, she knew of a distressed owner who was ready to commit financial suicide with an investor who was going to steal her house at 1:00pm. Could I come over by 11:00am to view the property.

Well, I finally got my first deal done. I did a lot of things wrong, but I learned a lot, and it ended up “good nuff” (as Lonnie Scruggs would say). I paid too much ($3,500 for a 1983 2/1, 14 x 56), put too much money and work into it ($900), and took too little down and payments too small ($500 down, $175 month).

Nothing motivates a seller like a property that has been on the market a long time. I’d been watching the ads and saw an old office building that was originally listed for $65,000. The property seemed inexpensive for what it offered, so I created a file and added it to my properties to watch.

My wife and I were married in the late 1970s and have moved locally a couple of times since then. Each time we sold our present home, we always seemed to come out very well financially. So I figured that if we could make money on real estate without even trying, we might be able to make some extra income investing in property that was not our primary residence.

After renovating and flipping several multi-units, I was wondering what my next step in real estate investing would be. I had never given the mobile home market much thought, even after reading all the >mobile home articles and success stories written here on Creative Real Estate Online.

I live in Northern California. I started looking at Creative Real Estate Online in 2001. When I began to explore real estate investing, I had closed a business on the east coast and returned to northern California to care for my mother and support other family members who had cared for her during a long illness.

Last Fall, I started hearing about using your IRA for real estate investing. In the past, I haven’t invested much in retirement accounts because I didn’t think there was much flexibility to invest my cash. Once I heard about the possibilities with a Roth IRA and real estate, I knew I had to try it.

Just wanted to post a success story. We just completed our fourth mobile home deal in the last eight months. Here’s how it went: My wife and I were out riding the speed bumps when we spotted a 14×70, 1986 2-bedroom/1-bath mobile home in our favorite park. It was listed by a Realtor we know, so we called and found out the asking price was $8,900.

I own a quadraplex apartment and was finally remodeling the last unit with my husband. The day was nice so we had the front door open. A young couple pulled up and asked if the apartment was going to be for rent and when. They owned a place and were trying to sell with no luck.

Thank you, CRE Online, for providing such a valuable resource. This site is a blessing for those of us who want to learn from others who are so willing to share their insights.

I’ve been promising to write my story for a few months. I’ve been on the message boards as Mike (Seattle WA) for a while, so now it’s time to give back more. I started coming to this site just over a year ago. After a week or so of absorbing information, I decided that this was for me.

I just wanted to share my success story with everyone out there because I believe that with the help of Creative Real Estate Online, I am on the way to establishing a financial security that I never would have done without the help I have received from this forum.

I live in Central Tennessee and not in a metropolitan city. In the past six months, my wife and I have helped three different people who were in pre-foreclosure avoid foreclosure, deficiency judgments, garnishments, and bankruptcy. In the process, we have made $20,000 and used less than $25 out of pocket to close.

My husband and I arrived in America in 1995. We traveled for the first three years and settled down in Pennsylvania seven years ago. At that time we came across an ad for a real estate seminar where a “millionaire guru promises to show you how to make millions in real estate without any money.”