I would like to share with you my personal story on how I got started with real estate which was purely by
accident. By the way before I get started, I wanted to mention that I was flat broke when I purchased my first real estate
property. One day I decided to take my family out on a road trip. We decided to go on a trip with no particular destination
in mind. We packed the car and the kids and left town. While driving on US 41 heading westbound I saw a sign that said Marco
Island next left. I told my wife that I had never been to Marco Island before. She advised that she had been there once before
when she was in High School, so we agreed to visit Marco Island.
My son had an obsession with Pokemon cards
so my wife asked me to stop at a local store which sold them. While she and my son were shopping for the cards, I decided
to window shop at a realtor's office that was next door to the store. I started looking at the listings at the top of
page and they were selling homes for a few million dollars. As I went down the list I noticed that there was also vacant lots
for sale which were much cheaper than the million dollar homes. I noticed some vacant lots for sale, priced in the twenty
thousand dollar range. Since I had no money, there wasn't much of a difference between the twenty thousand lots and the
two million dollars homes to me. I couldn't afford either one of them.
I showed my wife what I was looking
at. My wife was intrigued with the twenty thousand dollar lots. We both went in and asked about the listed lots. The Realtor
asked me what price range were we interested in, and I told him that we were looking for the lots in the five thousand dollar
price range. He politely smiled at me, and said sorry we have nothing in Marco Island in that price range. My ego was a little
hurt, so I told him that I was interested in the twenty thousand dollar lots. He printed out a list of about ten lots that
we decided to look at. When we finally agreed upon one, we went back to his office, and told him which one we wanted to buy.
He looked at his list, and said sorry guys this one that you like is under contract, and is not for sale. We were disappointed
and thanked him for his help.
As we were leaving the realtor's wife was coming in, and she introduced
herself to us. She told us about another great lot that she knew of, and wanted to show it to us. We both liked the lot, and
wanted to purchase it, but there was only one big problem, we had no money to buy the lot.
I then asked my
wife if she wanted to buy it, and she said "Yes" which was not the answer that I wanted to hear from her. The Realtor
was a little pushy, and she wanted us to sign the contract right away, and for us to make an offer on the lot. At this point
I asked my wife to step outside so we could discuss this in private. I asked her are you sure you want to buy this lot? And
she said "Yes" for the second time. I then asked her how are we going to pay for this since we have no money? She
said don't worry we will find a way.
We then went back into the Realtors office and signed the contract.
Funny thing is that when the Realtor asked us for a deposit we had no money or a checkbook with us to give her a down payment.
She then said "Ah don't worry about it just mail me a check when you get home.” We were then able to finance
and purchase the property. Today, that twenty thousand dollar lot is valued at nearly half a million dollars, not bad for
our first investment.
Real estate is one of the sure ways to reach your financial freedom. However, most people
will not reach their goals because they are afraid to take risks. The most common thing that all successful people share in
common is that they all took risks to reach their financial success. Don't be afraid and reach for the stars. If you are
thinking of different ways to finance your property, let me give you some advice on the best methods that worked for me.
I have used several different methods to finance my properties. Some 401 A pension plans will allow you to take
out a loan and you pay it back with the interest. If you own your home you can apply for a Home
Equity Loan or a Home Equity Line of credit similiar to a second mortgage on your home. Most banks will approve Home
Equity Loans or Home Equity credit lines before they will approve you a regular loan to buy land. Some banks will not even
entertain loans for buying land, so you will have to use the above methods I mentioned to finance your properties.
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