I began my career as a real estate investor last march. I bought one home and rehabbed it and as a result built up a $25,000 equity in about 7 weeks. I did put in about 450 hours to get that. Now a have a positive cash flow of $250/month from the rent.
I did better on my second house. I bought it and put no more than 40 hours into it. I flipped it and made a $13,000 profit after owning it 3 weeks. You calculate the hourly rate.
My third property I bought and will take possession of it at the end of the month. I got a motivated seller and bought it $20,000 below market value. No work is required on this house. I plan to rent it and will get a $200+/month net positive cash flow.
I plan on looking at another property this week which is a two unit. If I buy the property at the asking price I will make $350/month positive cash flow.
From the properties that I have bought in the past six months, I have put $13,000 cash in my pocket, have $45,000 in equity and will have $450/month positive cash flow from two properties.
I’ve worked hard to make this kind of progress in 6 months, but it isn’t anything that anyone else couldn’t do if motivated.
By the way, I have taken the Carlton Sheets course, read 6 books on real estate, and joined an investors club also in the past 6 months.
You can get rich at real estate, but it isn’t without effort.
SOMEBODY PLEASE ANSWER THIS QUESTION!! (SHEETS) - Posted by Justin, WY
Posted by Justin, WY on July 12, 1999 at 01:39:17:
OK so I’m 17 and I’m going to be 18 on august 4th…I was just wondering if the Carlton Sheets program really is as good as everyone keeps saying it is…I think it sounds like a good way to make money…Keep in mind that I’m in a band and I’m looking for something that would allow me to make good money w/ short hours and low risk…Is this course right for someone my age?? Is now a good time to start?? OH, GOD PLEASE HELP ME!! I would be so incredibly thankful for any advice that anyone could give me!!
I have gone through Carleton’s course. It is a very solid basic overview of Real Estate Investing. He has no magic info that you could not otherwise find however, it is an excellent collection of material that is very well taught. The 3 methods of reinforcement help to instill the education. You read the course, listen to the audio tapes and watch the video. You could find all the same info in different books. It would just take more time finding and reading them. I believe that the courses on this site are of very high quality and more directed at individual investing techniques. Buying the CS course may be a great intro but I would encourage you to continue your education by following up with courses from this site.
As for your age. Your success, in my opinion is not conditioned upon your age but upon you maturity. If you present yourself as a professional, you will be treated as one. It will take some time, but every Rookie stumbles regardless of the age at which they start anything. My concern is your impression that this business is low risk and short hours. Yes, some deals take very little time. Risk can be reduced by your diligent efforts in gaining as much info as you can before making a decision. This is balanced by how fast you can act upon decisions. Deciding to jump and jumping are two different things.
The CS course infomercial may have lead you to believe that you read his course, then spend 4 hours a week and become a millionair. To be proficient in anything it takes time and dedication. Think about how you ended up in your band. Did you pick up an instrument yesterday, spend a couple of hours practicing and then go on tour? Real Estate Investing can be done on a part time basis but it takes dedication.
To overcome the age issue: I believe that you should spend your remaining time diligently studying courses, adds and make some practice calls. Wait until you are 18 to actually make legally binding documents. Use your time now to be creative and find the niche you wish to pursue. It is up to you. Your efforts now can determine your future. The younger one starts in anything, the greater advantage they have. I commend your interest at a youthful age. Decide what is important. Spending some money now to educate yourself and create a Real Estate Investing business may allow you the financial freedom to continue with your band long into the future instead of having to quit the band to make ends meet performing some JOB. By viewing this as a business and preparing for it everday, I have no doubt that you could be successful. But looking at this business as a short hours, low risk business will only get you a dusty CS course sitting on your shelf.
Re: SOMEBODY PLEASE ANSWER THIS QUESTION!! (SHEETS) - Posted by H Jason Dollar
Posted by H Jason Dollar on August 16, 1999 at 12:20:54:
So, In your experience, how many hours would need to be spent on the average in order to enjoy a comfortable living doing nothing except real estate? Quite obviously, when starting out, more hours will be spent than are needful, because the knowledge of how to accomplish tasks efficently only comes with practice.
But once the underlying fundamentals of REI are established, approximately how many hours would be necessary to maintain a comfortable living? (If you need specific numbers, let’s say. . . 40K a year for a single adult) I would hope the number of hours needed would be less than 40 hours/week.
I would assume that most people, like myself, who work a JOB, would want to only change careers if they perceive a measurable advantage the new career enjoys over the old one. The easiest way to measure would be in the area of number of hours worked versus amount of money received for that work. In the number of real estate courses I have perused, that has been the common thread throughout the examples given.
“On this one deal, I made X dollars in only Y months”
“I made X dollars for around Y hours of work”, where Y is a ridiculously low number, and X is a ridiculously high number.
Now I want to clarify something: I fully realize that these deals DO happen and exist, but I also realize, in a bout of exuberance, people rarely in the same breath mention the full weight of the work involved in such a task. So, if you who are experienced in these things would be so kind as to honestly assess the amount of hours put in each week as to the net payout of monies received for these hours, I would greatly appreciate it.
Good luck!