Let’s be honest.
We both know why you’re here. You put naked in a search engine, (not that there’s anything wrong with that*), and somehow found yourself on my site. The Naked Investor is about real estate investing. Specifically, real estate investing with a safe and flexible strategy known as lease options. Also called lease purchasing and rent-to-own, this is the safer, easier way for the new investor to begin their real estate investing career. Smart investing: controlling real estate without the hassles often associated with ownership.
I began investing in real estate back around 1990. More accurately, I began talking about real estate investing around 1990. I didn’t actually start investing until about three years later. Why? Because like most every new investor, I procrastinated for any conceivable reason I could imagine. All were just excuses based on fear. I wanted to know everything before I did anything. Three years later I was still talking BS about being an investor. . .Paralysis of Analysis. I had a few false starts along the way. Got lucky and made about $30K on a bank foreclosure during the Resolution Trust Corporation days. I recall taking a $20K cash advance on my credit card to use as the down payment! With more balls than brains and feeling invincible I quickly purchased another foreclosed property from the bank. This deal didn’t have such a happy ending, however. I ended up selling this property to a smarter investor. How do I know he was smarter? He purchased it for $25K less than I did! Ouch.
Mistakes aren’t a bad thing if you learn from them. Making $30K on one deal opened my eyes to the potential in this business. Losing $25K on the next made me understand I knew just enough to be dangerous to myself. It was time to get serious and get smart. For me, that meant finding a strategy that posed minimal risk and required minimal capital and, ideally, finding someone who was already successful doing what I wanted to do. It was a winding path. I tried bidding on foreclosed properties on the courthouse steps. I was a goldfish amongst piranhas. I bought a junker in a war zone to fix and flip. Every hammer I have ever picked up has found its way to my thumb. Buy and hold? You mean, tenants and toilets? Rent collections? Not my thing. The only collections I saw go smoothly were done weekly, and that was by my Uncle Tony. No, for me the light bulb moment was when I stumbled across an article in a magazine about an investing strategy called Rent-To-Own. I had seen the light! I tracked down the author, sat at the foot of the wise man who became my mentor, and thus began my 30 year run as a real estate investor.
Most of you have probably heard that the best way to break into this business is wholesaling. I’m here to tell you it isn’t. In theory, it’s the ideal investment vehicle. Buy a property for .40 on the dollar, then quickly flip it to the next guy for .65 on the dollar. Profit, repeat. How much will you make this weekend? $5K, $15K, $50K?? It all depends on which guru you're listening to, I suppose. The more expensive their crap, the more profit potential, they will tell you. Real world alert: most experienced investors can’t find properties 60% below market with any consistency. How will you? And on the rare occasion that you do, it will typically be the worst house in the worst neighborhood. That’s the type of property you’ll be “investing” in. Did you think you’d be wholesaling that pretty house with the perfect landscaping in the A rated school district?
That leads us to lease options. I’ll start by admitting my personal bias: I believe that options and lease options are the best way for most n00bs and investor wannabes to break into this business. A bold statement? Perhaps. But, my bias is based on many years of experience as an investor and as an instructor. I work from my home office, (hey, you can’t beat the coffee or the commute), and have no dress code. . . I’m called The Naked Investor for a reason. With some specialized knowledge I can generate a steady volume of deals each and every month. Some are short term for smaller, quicker profits. Other deals are held longer term and can generate much larger profits. But all generate upfront cash. As a new investor isn’t this what you’re looking for? And you can do this without needing large deposits of cash, without begging the bank for a loan and with your personal credit never being a factor. Newbie Nirvana!
Take a look around the website. Visit the forums which, although inactive, I have decided to keep online because the information they contain remains relevant and invaluable. . .and oftentimes humorous. . .we had fun back in the day. Cost of admission? Nada. Grab an adult beverage or two, sit back, and prepare yourself for many hours of reading and entertainment. Looking for a complete, real-world overview of lease options? Consider The Naked Investor manual, the most straightforward, real-world based book on lease options since Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, (that's 1440 for you history buffs). As we speak a new, second edition is in the works. Don't ask me when because I've already blown through one self imposed deadline. Hey, the beach is nearby, the beers are cold. . .can you blame a guy??
For those of you who are serious about starting their investing careers and shortening their learning curve, I offer personalized, one-on-one training and mentoring. An overview on my program can be read about here.