Oh my!  Almost 5 months since my last post.  Sorry 'bout that.  I've been toying with foreclosures and have made a few bucks.  Nothing huge by any means but enough to sustain my interests.  The foreclosure deals were actually homes bought from the owners for the amount they owed - which I was able to recoup when I sold plus a few extra bucks.  I still cannot figure out why people in this situation don't just sell on their own but I won't complain too har... (more)

So this guy says he has a house that is in an OK neighborhood, 4BR, 2BA, 1 CGA.  3BR's in that area go for 175k or better in average condition.  I was expecting to hear a 200k asking price but when he unleashed his figure he had my undivided attention. He tells me 97k is all he wants for this house.  What?? I proceeded to ask my standard questions.  In this case I was really wanting to know what the heck was wrong with the place.  In all honesty, I was expecting a whol... (more)

Maybe I have just become accustomed to the size of my last few paychecks or maybe I am just a money junkie, but I have found myself rather bored with the selection of houses for sale around here. A couple thousand here, a couple thousand there.  Nothing fun.  Nothing interesting.  Just "ho hum". Don't misunderstand me, a couple grand is nothing to sneeze at, it lines the pockets well, but I so enjoy the rush of a huge paycheck and I am looking forward to the next one. ... (more)

Oh my!  It has been a while... Regarding the house from my last post:  I wanted to take on the cosmetic jobs myself to see if I could reap the benefit of the increased value.  My major obstacle was figuring out how to do this safely without ever owning the house.  To date I have yet to actually own any of the homes I have made money on.  I have simply been selling my contracts. The other thing that concerned me is finding a buyer.  The people I have been... (more)

I've never heard of anyone buying a house at a garage sale before, but yesterday, I did just that. When I was a kid, we would go 'garage saling' just about every good-weathered weekend.  We would spend hours going from sale to sale and rummaging through other peoples' unwanted stuff.  Every now and then we would come across something that my mom deemed to be 'a steal of a deal' and it would become the primary topic of conversation for a better part of the week that followed. ... (more)

I guess you can't win them all. Last week I found another dump and got it under contract in hopes of assigning it to the the two-man investor team I met earlier.  To be politically correct, I shouldn't call this house "a dump".  I suppose instead I should say that it is "vertically challenged".  When you look at it from the street, you can tell that it leans a bit.  Not much mind you - just enough to notice. Well, turns out that no one around here wants ... (more)

I know real estate investing is a profitable business, but is there really a need for seasoned investors to try to intimidate newcomers?  Apparently, one of the investors that tried to buy the last house I flipped decided to talk with the seller to find out who bought the house.  When he heard how the sale took place he actually told the seller that what I did was illegal.  (NOT true!) The seller wasn't mad at me or anything - he was just glad to be out of the house -... (more)

OK, so I still have some of the money left from my last deal but I am getting frustrated with the online REI communities where everyone has their own opinion on how I should spend it.  (This course, that bootcamp, etc.)  I think they are just telling me what they would do with it if they had it to spend. There are so many people who are determined to make $20,000 a month by investing in real estate.  Don't get me wrong, I am all for making money but I am not so sure I want to eat... (more)

This morning I made six thousand dollars just by being in the right place at the right time.  I am officially hooked on the real estate investing business.  No courses, no books.  Just dumb luck. I don't normally go out to breakfast, but this morning I got a call from a girlfriend I hadn't seen in a long time so we decided to meet at a restaurant in a small town in between where she lives and where I live.  I wasn't going to be out for long because I was had to mee... (more)

I am starting to think a book or a course is not the way to go.  I didn't need it the first time, so why do I feel the need to get one now?  I'll look a little bit longer for something that pertains specifically to flipping but so far the reviews suggest that there is not one book/course out there that doesn't leave you hanging and in need of more 'education'.  (At a much higher price no doubt.) Still nothing definitive on Texas law so I will be contacting an attorney soon to get... (more)

WOW there's alot of stuff out there about real estate investing!  I fell asleep at my desk last night... or should I say this morning.  Oops!! Note to self: desks do NOT make good pillows! I did come across this article, but still nothing definitive on what I can and cannot do in Texas.  I will look more into the artcle's author as soon as possible. I also found a few pages with literally hundreds of links for real estate investors.  Definitely worth looking at but I ... (more)

I stumbled into real estate investing accidentally and made a ton of money in a matter of days.  I am now quite eager to repeat the process though I must admit that it was solely my lack of knowledge that made it so easy the first time. Now that I have done a little research on how to make a living at this I am finding myself getting more and more confused and second guessing myself.  The phrase "ignorance is bliss" is starting to make a whole lot more sense now. I am inter... (more)