After getting engaged two months ago, I realized that I would like to buy a house some time in the future for my new family. I have had terrible credit for a few years now due to poor money management and reacting poorly to situations that life has given me despite being an intelligent person.
I did some searching on the internet to find a site that could give me “creative” ways of buying real estate, so that I could find a way to buy a house for myself eventually. That search led me here. I read through all the how-to articles, money ideas, and success stories. I became excited after reading the articles by Lonnie Scruggs, but I was very skeptical as well.
I have been scammed before, a few more times than I care to recall, looking for the solution to my financial problems and have learned that there are way too many people who love to prey on those in a desperate situation. However, at the same time, I saw that so much of this information was free, and even though various courses were for sale, there was a wealth of detailed, in-depth information at no cost.
I took Lonnie’s advice and purchased, Rich Dad, Poor Dad and things changed completely since then. I went on to scrape together the money for Lonnie’s books [Deals on Wheels and Making Money with Mobile Homes] and read every little detail. I have been living from paycheck to paycheck for as long as I can remember and, even after getting a new job at $10,000 more a year, would still be bouncing a check or two right before payday.
I took the principles of those books to heart and, all of a sudden, somehow produced $1,600 after about three weeks that I turned into $1,900 on the stock market. (I know that isn’t related to real estate investing, but it relates to the lifestyle change that produced my real estate investing success.)
I started advertising in the newspaper that I had mobile homes for sale that I would finance and got about 35 calls. Still, there was just a little bit of me thinking, “Am I wasting my time? I have been scammed so many times before by being made to feel excited about something and ended up even more poor.”
I found mobile home after mobile home with all the right qualifications, but I was still doubtful. I went to see a few places, talked to potential buyers, found mobile home note buyers, but I was still hesitant. I slowly crawled along until a bolt of lightning finally hit me in the butt!
I responded to an ad for a mobile that said, “Was asking $3,000 or best offer, will take $1,500 firm.” Gee, I wonder if anyone on this site would call an ad like that? I called and said, “Hi. I’m calling about the mobile home you have for sale,” and the woman on the other end talked for 15 minutes straight!
Without ANOTHER WORD from me, she lowered her price to $700!! The problem was that it had to be moved and had a bad hitch. I had three buyers who wanted homes that they could move to their own land, so that problem was solved. Since this woman wanted to sell because she had moved out and was paying lot rent AND her new mortgage, she agreed to pay for the new hitch.
I called my buyer, she filled out a credit application, and wrote out a check for a $400 down payment on her new $4,000 mobile home!
Can someone tell me what a $3,300 return on a $300 investment over 26 months yields? My calculator just spit out some kind of black sludge.
[Editor’s Note: If Matt used Lonnie’s “Industry Standard” interest rate of 12.75%, his yield is about 1,181%.]
I cannot thank the helpful people that I found on this board enough. I have always assumed that “investing” of any sort was for the people who had plenty of money to start out with. I really could go on and on with more details, but I’ve taken up enough space. Thanks everyone. I’m on to the next one.