where do you live? I know a guy who got rich off of section 8, but you have to really know what you're doing (says he)

5% for what?

We are not taking traditional home (real estate financing).

If you are talking 5% down payment on a home purchase check what the government guaranteed loans require (if you are in the USA). VA loans require 0 down payment -- you got a cousin that was in the Army ;) VA loans are assumable by the next buyer.

If your question is: Is it possible to do a deal with $10K acquiring a property that is worth $200K -- It's hard but can be done. But you are not going to get a new mortgage loan in the conventional financing market for $190K

I owned a few double-and-triple decker houses before I got sick. All in good areas, all kept up and modernized. Insurance was a killer. Plumbers, electricians, central air guys, etc were a killer. I came out ahead but it wasn't easy.

Buy one house, rent it, pay the mortgage monthly, vet the tenants seriously and after a year of dealing with it, decide if another property is wise. A year of solid payments will go far with a bank for financing another house.

You could also flip a low-priced house. Find cheap but qualified workers, put up cheap curtains and cheap rugs (there are lots of warehouses and job lots stores) to make it look homey, and flip it for triple what you paid -- or more.

Buy a house near a college (I did) and rehab it into rooms for rent. Check zoning laws first. Turn the basement into a living room/party room, turn the living room into a study room & bedroom or two, add toilets/ shower stall, etc. It's an investment but near college it will pay off. Let them share utilities but pay for cable, phone and internet.

Make sure to get first and last months' rent, key deposit and, if needed, utilities deposit. No pets including snakes, mice and other creepy animals.

Buy a pay washer and dryer and charge what the laundromat does. Maybe a little more for the convenience.

All cooking in the kitchen ONLY. No room microwave, toaster, hot plate or anything that can cause a fire.

It's doable and though work at first, soon you'll be buying more property

A buddy of mine was doing that about to 20 years ago the big issue was repair cost and the building managers kept getting murdered

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh let's hope the OP is successful in his endeavor :1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

Sounds like me, bad backs are an occupational hazard of working online.
Mines fine, except that first 30 minutes of the day.

Buying bargains
 

I used to have a couple of clients that had me scout out houses for them to fix and flip.
To get the best bargain never buy For Sale By Owner. They want to pay off the mortgage, usually that's close to full market value.
Same thing buying at foreclosure sale or making a distressed owner an offer.
Cheapest properties are tax sale properties. But many places have few for auction and many buyers bidding up the property. Where I live, there's plenty of houses at auction. Got one client 2 houses for $17,000. He lived in one for 3 years while working on the other. Sold #1 for $24,000, then moved into #2. He be buying more but his drug habit again got the best of him. He used to be homeless. Lived in a dumpster. After he cleaned up his act, his family loaned him the buy money.

After tax sales, buy properties after the foreclosure. Before the foreclosure the cheapest are short-sales, where the bank will take less than the mortgage, let the homeowner live there to keep the property up, in return for a moving payment if the house is undamaged. But the rising market short sales are few.

Buy after the foreclosure. Recent house was sold at foreclosure for $81,000. Bank then listed it at $51,000. Dropped the price to $44,0000. Sold for probably less than that. Looked at it. Needs $50,000 in repairs. Probably get $900 rent, quiet neighborhood. 2 bedroom on 1/2 acre.
Another house was appraised at $150,000. 3 bedroom on 1 acre same neighborhood. Probably needed $20,000 in repairs plus new septic tank & laterals. Bank asked $79,000 the $65,000. Ended up on Auction.com selling for $22,500. To buy from the owner pre-foreclosure would have cost about $90,000. The bank did a cleanout, some repairs and interior painting. Never saw that before. They usually just sell as-is

Section 8
 

Yes you can and yes you need to know what you're doing.
Guy I knew has a section 8 that as soon as they move in they quit paying rent and get evicted after 3 months. He once had a family that lived there for 4 years. Otherwise it was 3 and out

:1orglaugh

We made a lot of money off some properties we owned which we rented exclusively to section 8 tenants. but this had more to do with section 8 subsidy rates - finding properties in the right areas in Seattle with unfinished basements, where we could add another 2-3 "bedrooms" to fall into a higher (much higher) subsidy bracket.

I would say it really depends on the city and area of the city. the simple truth is that you are renting in some areas to the absolute lowest forms of humanity and they will destroy the entire property both inside and out. the conditions and demographics have to be right and you have to have properties which are built for this sort of abuse - and of course, it helps a GREAT DEAL to be a contractor as well as have cheap sources for everything (appliances, flooring etc). generally speaking, it will not happen for anyone unless you are a contractor and don't want to rent to... uhm... i mean, if you require a criminal background check and credit check.

Generally speaking, renting to section 8 tenants is a newbie move, enticing because you know there are people ready to move in, you'll get paid market rates or a little above but where a lot of VERY HARD lessons will be learned very quickly.

Years ago, when I was involved with owning, rehabbing, then renting or selling properties -- we operated our own contracting and some of the maintenance functions.

The best way to sell a property was often to a good *seasoned 2 yr +* tenant, then sell to the renter on a rent purchase agreement / land contract.

We collected payments and they took care of the property -- worked out well in most cases -- a win-win for everyone.

We could try and cash out of our land contract later or assist the contractee (homeowner) in getting a government backed re-fi loan in the future. It became easier with a few years of payment history and increased home equity to get new financing -- cash out ;)

One thing I know for sure is you gotta love doing the work. I get stressed just thinking of dealing with people's shit, even if they're good tenants for the most part.

I'm sure the right person will make some good bank off a good business plan, especially the more money you have to start, the better.

You can buy a 4plex 5% down if you live in one of the units and have paying occupants. You gota live there 3 years though.

Yeah that's where I learned some words like appurtenance and life estate and JTWROS and shit like that- as soon as I heard about life estates I invented reverse mortgages but someone else apparently had already thought of it.
My idea was to offer lump sum cash for old people's house when they're dead since so many of them have garbage children who hate them anyway. It was a total of 40 hours and I went a few extra days for some extra shit somewhere else.
The first part the 40 hours wasn't at a college but it was a guy named Dave Gosha - he was awesome. He explained that most of what we learned would not be all that useful on the street and taught us some extra stuff about how shit really works.
I'm not aware of any limits but we did talk about some downsides to having your license when you're dealing in property in most ways. Having to disclose this having to disclose that, having to be careful when dealing with so called unsophisticated investors, shit like that

You BETTER know what the fuck you're doing with SEC8 ... I mean you damned well better. I would do it to rent to fucked up people because they tend to be thankful and a good person and not tear garbage to hell - PLUS - making things handicapped accessible in most areas that will keep your shit rented at all times always
But most section 8 trashes are GARBAGE
Look it at the building I live in, it is not even section 8 it is called section 42 -- the owners get a tax break and the rent is a cunt hair cheaper, I'm paying $700 for a $900 apartment, BUT - - - all of the cockroach welfare fraud GARBAGES do something through HUD and rent for literally $100 per MONTH. PLUS they give these scum trashes monthly cash, FOOD, and MORE
Yesterday I was in the store, busy putting back some of the chicken I was buying, and I see the feral pig from down the way filling its cart up to the brim like it was nothing. All that cunt DOES is bother EVERYONE IN THE COMPLEX and then when I would not let it come in or force its way in here ONE TIME VERY POLITELY it went insane MAKING WILD ACCUSATIONS and screaming all up and down the property like a maniac calling ME a lowlife
These ass trashes run up and down the stairs at all hours, tap dance on top of my head, run water for 24/7 half of the time (God HELP who ever owns this place), and I heard one of them had gotten a hold of a HAMMER the other day. Christ only KNOWS what it did to its dwelling up there :(
They have torn the stair well lumber up, I know they are destroying their dwellings, the owner will have a CORONARY when she sees this month's water bill, YOU CAN NOT EVER SLEEP HERE AT ANY TIME and everyone is always making noise outside and coming and going 25 times through the night (they're some of them out selling dope)
AND THIS IS NOT EVEN SECTION 8 --- - THOSE COCKROACHES ARE EVEN WORSE. THEY DESTROY ALL GOOD IN EVERY WAY

Next thing will be these fuck tards will be trying to serve dope on property
When they try that I'ma go fucking nuclear because I AM NOT HAVING IT
So I may be posting from a cell at some point I suppose
But like I said I ain't having it here
Meanwhile YES you better know EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE DOING BECAUSE IT'S A GOD FORSAKEN FUCKING NIGHTMARE

This all sounds like good wisdom but I think one single thing seems a little off - if the cost of carrying the property are killers in terms of cash flow being thin or negative, you are too far into the property money wise - - You have to put an extreme huge amount of work into finding deals that work and you can't pay what people think they should
You sound like you make sense though and know what you're doing- most people would run screaming and bash real estate as an investment forever. Sounds as if you stuck it out through some hard times which definitely must have been a lot of work and scary at times

Cool
I am glad that it got better
I like you
(Means a lot coming from me)

Wow I'll be damned
I've never heard of a bank doing any more than cleanup
That sounds like ethat last one was one hell of a deal
Sales here are interesting - you can pay nothing or way too much (my grandmother bought some at the sheriff sales and got raped on one and did great on a couple other ones. She has no IDEA of what she is doing AT ALL)

Yeah some pieces of shit make a living doing that - especially in states where the law helps them do it the most

My mother is like that
Never wanted to be in management for that reason
Me I would rather deal with some mental work or difficulty than end up digging ditches or fucking myself with a burger flipper handle for the rest of my life

Say what? You can?

I am in Kansas over here :(

Fucking FUCK
I am so fucking mad right now
I was THIS CLOSE to having my first property

i recommend not buying a slum! it seems like the lower the cost of the house and the lower you charge rent, the more likely you're gonna be stuck with shit tenants and plenty of repairs. Hopefully the laws in Kansas are a little friendlier to landlords than they are in Quebec.

My next revenue property will definitely have higher rent in a better part of town. Even if the potential ROI on paper appears lower, I'd rather deal with the predictability of a tenant who can afford higher rent in a nice part of town.

I would buy properties in the $100-$300 range if I wasn't fucked sideways in hell
In the interim if I can buy a prop for a few dimes and get hundreds back monthly I'll take it and be thankful for all of the problems which come with it
Much rather babysit fuckgarbages who rent that shit than I would work for $11/hr at some soulhole, you know?

And of course trailer lots and self storage properties
And of course commercial office properties
IF I COULD

Especially duplex properties in ICT!!!!!!!!