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From: dgh@sun.uucp (David Hough)
Newsgroups: net.followup,net.invest
Subject: Re: Real Estate Investments??
Message-ID: <2286@sun.uucp>
Date: Sat, 8-Jun-85 16:39:06 EDT
Article-I.D.: sun.2286
Posted: Sat Jun  8 16:39:06 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Jun-85 01:27:53 EDT
References: <626@homxb.UUCP>
Reply-To: dgh@sun.UUCP (David Hough)
Distribution: na
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Lines: 30
Xref: sun net.followup:4552 net.invest:688
Summary: 

In article <626@homxb.UUCP> 5432dh@homxb.UUCP (David Himber) writes:
>Last night I attended a "free" 2 hour seminar 
>[to learn] how to buy real estate for "little or no money down".

There are lots of people charging ridiculous fees to teach you the secrets of
instant wealth in real estate.  You can get the same message in any of numerous 
books in the business section of any bookstore for a lot less money.  
Here's what seems to be the key concept: seller financing.  
Find an idiot who will take a note instead of cash.  Buy his house and give
him a note.  Fix it up as necessary and if it increases in value, sell it,
pay off the note, and have fun with your profits.  Here's the catch:  if
for any reason it doesn't work out, you walk away, leaving the seller with
his house in whatever condition you left it.  Of course, you only secure the
note with the property being bought, never with any of your other assets.

This is fine for the buyer, except there are a lot of people who have gotten
this idea from books and seminars, so there is not too much chance of finding
a desirable property at a particularly attractive price except by working
long and hard.  However, seller financing is a bummer for the seller unless
he can get the buyer to guarantee the note with all his credit and assets...
not likely.  Notes from no-money down buyers can't be resold because they
are usually worthless.

These comments are condensed from a very interesting article in a recent issue 
of Real Estate Investing Letter 
which compared seller financing notes unfavorably to corporate 
junk bonds.

David Hough