I hear from a lot of people that you just can’t do zero down investing in real estate.  Realtors will tell you that you have to have a down payment so you can get a mortgage.  Mortgage brokers will tell you the same thing.  Even some real estate investors that have had their opinions clouded by naysayers will say that zero down investing deals just aren’t out there.

Certainly not all of my deals are zero down investing deals.  Sometimes I have lease option deals where I put a small amount of money down or even spend a little in repairs.  But I will tell you that without question it is possible to do zero down investing!  You have to choose the right strategy however, like lease options.

There are two ways to do zero down investing with lease options.  The first is setting up a sandwich lease option with a home seller in which you pay the seller an option fee, but you don’t start the lease option until you find a lease option buyer and they pay you their option fee.  That way you can pay the seller their option fee from what the buyer paid you and hopefully have some left over.  You’ve just set up a sandwich lease option with no money out of your own pocket.

The second way is to not pay the seller an option fee at all.  Many times they won’t ask for it or even know to ask for it.  Again don’t start the lease option with the seller until you find a lease option buyer.  That way the option fee you collect from the lease option buyer is yours to keep entirely.  That’s zero down investing!  As a matter of fact, you are actually getting paid money at the beginning so it’s even better than zero down investing.

One thing I want to stress because it is Very Important.  Even though you are doing zero down investing lease option deals you still absolutely want to have cash reserves!  Your reserve funds will carry you through if something goes wrong, like the buyer moves out or even worse you need to evict the buyer.  During those times you are still obligated to pay the seller the monthly rent while you find a replacement buyer.  Having those cash reserves gives you protection and peace of mind.  There is nothing worse than having something go wrong and not have the money to carry you through.  I recommend at least 3 months of reserve funds.

If you’ve heard me speak before you have probably heard of my lease option investing student, Mack Payne.  I use one of his rent to own deals as an example when I talk about numbers.

In this clip Mack talks about how he has benefited from my lease options course.  He talks about little or no money down investing, creating a win-win-win situation for the buyer, the seller and the investor (and the real estate agent too!)  In fact Mack will be closing on one of his lease option deals very soon, to the tune of a $20,000 plus payday!  Not only that but it was a zero down investing deal on his part.  That’s right, no money down.

In this video clip Wendy Patton shows you things to look for when considering purchasing a house as a real estate investment. She inspects each home herself when deciding to make an offer to purchase it as a lease option or some other type of little or no money down investing. If her offer is accepted she will also have a professional inspection done. This allows her to get an accurate idea of costs.

When doing lease option investing it’s important to calculate your numbers as the beginning, this includes any repairs the property might need.