They all said: You can’t do that any more, page 2

The first house I bought was an anniversary gift for my bride of five years at that time. I wish I had RealtyTrac available back then, but we had to do it the hard way. It cost $14,800 and took 120 days to build. I had put $100 down as earnest money and at the day of closing, on an FHA loan, we received $50 back.

I never again spent any of my own money on the purchase of a home.

Now you probably think I just kept doing this and made my fortune.

Wrong, I purchased our next four homes in this manner as I pursued a career in other areas.

I had my own company, things went well and times went bad. We lead a normal middle class life. I invested in stocks and in mutual funds, made money and lost money, like I said, normal middle class. When twenty-five years into our marriage, our youngest son had gone to a real estate seminar, while on a graduation trip to California. He came back all exited about buying properties, houses, for nothing down. He said; “why don’t we do that?” I said we do, that’s how I bought the home that we are living in.

He said; “no, I mean why don’t we buy houses and rent them out like this seminar teaches”. “I never thought of it,” I said, and we went out and rented books (public library) and purchased books, all told a total of over thirty books. RealtyTrac has the tools to get you going.

Realty Trac Page 3