Posted by Berwyn on December 17, 1998 at 13:17:01:
This summer I finally ordered the Carleton Sheets course. I was skeptical, but considering how much I spend on books annually, it wasn’t out of line.
About halfway thru the course, something dawned on me. “My Gosh”, I said to myself. “This is exactly how I bought my house.” And that was in 1979, before anyone had ever heard of Carleton Sheets. Here’s how I did it, unwittingly using a number of techniques covered in the Sheets course.
In '74, when I was a poor college student I moved into a basement apartment in a small house. Five years later, I heard the house was for sale. I contacted the landlord, and he agreed to credit me for ALL the rent I’d paid over the last 5 years. I “borrowed” a down payment from my parents, and they were able to write it off as a gift over a couple years. I got bank financing for the rest at 11 3/4%, a bargain in the Carter years. The seller, being elderly, was liquidating all his properties and planning to move south. When the move fell thru, he became my tenant for the next 2 years until he passed away. (Soon as he moved in, I raised the rent.) I continued to live in the basement and rented out the main floor for the next 13 years. Rents covered PITI with enough left over for some improvements over the years.
Finally, the loan was paid off, I terminated the rental, and moved upstairs. I now own a home valued at about $75,000, and the only thing it cost me was utilities.
Now I realize most of you don’t wasnt to live for 20 years in a basement, but I’m a bit of a hermit so it worked for me. The point of this is to show that yes, Virginia, the techniques given by Carleton Sheets and others really do work.
Berwyn