You say “It is very hard to find a seller willing to cooperate with any of the commonly toted “creative” methods.” Yes, you are right. But the secret of success is persistence.
Read the postings on the main bulletin board for lots of little hints on how to talk to the potential sellers. Learn how to quickly sort through the prospects and drop the time-wasters. There are only a few who will work with you. But, if you do it well, you will have too many good deals coming at you to even stop and breathe. Remember Rome was not built in a day. Your fortunate will not be built in a year. You should expect to work for about 10-15 years to become financially independent with real estate. Maybe less if you become full-time investors. But not much less. You are in an area with good low prices that will allow you to get positive cash flow even with very highly leveraged properties. Study and do it.
I own a townhouse in Florida where I live with my fiancé. We want very much to invest in real estate but having problems finding financing. Most lenders are asking 10-20% down for any investment property (under my fiancees credit since our mortgage is in my name only). This is just not possible for us right now. We are looking at affordable condos and single family town homes 50-60k. It is very hard to find a seller willing to cooperate with any of the commonly toted “creative” methods.
My question is this?Are we better off trying to get a mortgage for another house for us to live to get favorable terms? (Maybe an FHA in her name with me as co-signer?)
Then hold the existing FHA on the town house and rent that out instead. This would put us in favorable cash flow since our mortgage payment is $939 and we could get at least $1400 in rent. But I am not sure if the bank will see this as any different since we would not be selling our previous residence. We are only living here 5 months and we could also refinance in a few more months increasing cash flow…