Posted by spamahoy on November 22, 2008 at 15:09:30:
“There are some sites like John T. Reed’s that review the gurus but remember, everyone has their own point and view and may have an ulterior motive such as selling their own material.”
Yep. I think some people out there take everything Reed says as the Gospel truth and not stop to realize he’s selling his own books for about $30-$40 a piece.
I agree with most of his reviews. Ed Beckly for instance gave advice that was impractical (like offer someone 10 speed they could give to their kids for Christmas as down payment on a house. lol!)and some of it was unethical (no to mention illegal).
I think he’s too hard on Carleton Sheets. Sheets seems to try to motivate people more than anything, but he does seem to have some practical advice. With the buyer’s market in RE now, I’m surprised he’s not on TV 24/7 now. I do think it has some good ideas, and you can pick up used copies for next to nothing on Amazon and [a certain online auction website who’s name cannot be mentioned here that rhymes with freeday]. I bought a copy of his software that he hawks for about $90 for about $8 second hand (it was still in the shrinkwrap). I wouldn’t try his coaching program, because I’ve heard nothing but bad things about it. I also don’t think I’d buy anything directly from Sheet’s because a lot of people are complaining about being billed for things they didn’t order.
Reed also sems to think the Wrapwaround mortgage as something no one actually does, but from reading here, it seems some people are doing it.
If Sheets is weak on anything, it’s that it doesn’t give more details about seller financing.
If you notice, Reed only seems to endorse people who aren’t in competition with him. He endorses Nickerson’s “How I turned $1,000 into $5,000,000” book. Nickerson started in the 1950’s when $1000 was more like $10,000. It’s also been out of print for about 20 years or so.
To answer the original question, yes you can buy houses with zero down. My wife was looking at a house online in Kissimee listed for $159,000. It was a 2 story 7br 4.5 ba with 3 car garage. It was probably a $400,000 house a few years ago. The listing had the standard %20 down, but my wife called the agent and asked if it could be bought for nothing down. He told her it could. Someone snatched it up before we could get it. At that price it was bound to happen. That shows you there are $0 deals out there. Sometimes all you have to do is ask if the property can be bought for nothing down. But…there are still closing costs and monthly payments, etc., if the deal goes through.