How I Made Over $15,000 in My First Real Estate Opportunity

Are you looking to find a real estate opportunity with the potential to make you some CASH? They are everywhere if you just know how to spot them. Today I want to tell you all about my first real estate opportunity where I not only put down only $10 but walked away making over $15,000!

If you have been following me on social media or reading my blogs, you know how much I ADORE lease options. They are the most amazing slice of creative financing that exists, in my opinion. I have not stopped using them since I first learned about them years ago. And, they have not yet begun to stop bringing me a great real estate opportunity.

How I Made Over $15,000 in My First Real Estate Opportunity

I jumped in whole-hog when I first got wind of lease options and creative financing. In fact, this deal I want to tell you was my first one after I graduated from an investing boot camp! I was brand spanking new, barely knew what I was doing, and still nailed a deal!

Just a few weeks after graduating from the boot camp I was in the seller’s kitchen talking to them about this property. They needed to sell it because they had just bought it a year before but life circumstances had recently changed. Their grown daughter had come back home, pregnant, and they needed to move into a bigger house. They purchased their current house as their retirement house and were not expecting to raise a child in it. So, plans changed.

They listed it for $135,000 on Zillow, of all places, and I found it as a new listing almost immediately. I called them and set up a time to go talk to them after work later that day, which was February 28. When we talked I got the specifics of their mortgage situation. They still owed $122,000 on the property and their monthly mortgage was $800 or so.

I looked at their situation and told them how I could help them out of it.

Since there was very little equity in the property, I told them I would be able to work out a lease option with them for this real estate opportunity. I would buy the house at the price they still owed, $122,000, and would take over their $800 monthly payments. However, I was not going to make my first payment for three months.

This meant that the seller would still pay the monthly mortgages for March, April, and May. So, my first payment was not until June. I also told them that they would need to remove the Zillow listing, too.

The next day, I listed the house on Zillow for $145,000. Almost immediately I had a call from a couple in Chicago who had seen the price change in one day. They really loved the house and asked me to hold it for a week until they came down to see it. I told them I would still be advertising the house but they were welcome to come see it.

The couple called to set up a time to come see the house, which we set up for a few days later (March 15). I then started advertising on Craigslist that I was going to have an open house for anyone to come to see it. I figured if I was going to spend the time showing it to one person, I could show it to everyone else who wanted to see it.

This couple was determined though. I had 4-5 people say they would come, but only this couple showed up.

When they showed up they were already ready to figure out how to move in. They explained that they had already put their house up for sale back in Chicago and needed a place to move into quickly. The situation was awesome.

Whitney Nicely quote: "I always want to help the seller. I look at their situation and tell them how I can help them out of it."

I told them that since I already had the house under a lease option I could also sell it to them on a lease option. And, while I had raised the price of the house to $145,000, I was willing to honor the original $135,000 price that they had seen. Then, while they worked on selling their house in Chicago, they could move and just pay me $1000 monthly rent for the time being. But, we agreed to have the lease option time to a year, so they had time to cash me out.

They LOVED it. This was a total win for everyone!

Now, let’s look at the math again.

On the day the couple arrived, they gave me $3000 to seal the deal on their purchase of the property. $2000 was towards two months of rent and $1000 was towards their purchase price of $135,000. This meant they had paid for rent through May 15 and that they now owed $134,000 on the property.

Remember, I did not owe on MY first payment to the original seller until June. Lease options are such a great real estate opportunity! I LOVE it. Do you see how sweet this deal is?

Well, don’t you know that on the NEXT day, the Chicago couple called to tell me they had an offer on their house and should close in the middle of May. I reminded them they’d likely have to deal with inspections and that the purchase might not go through. So, we decided to keep the lease option in place to make sure they had what they needed to work out any kinks that might come up with their closing. They said, “not a problem”

Again, the lease option provided a protection for them.

If we removed the lease option and just renegotiated the deal as a normal sale, they could be left in the red if their house did not sell on time. The lease option we had set up was a perfect real estate opportunity for them because they would still have a place to live in the meantime. And, if things went wonky with their Chicago house, they had time to work it out.

Over the next few months, the couple moved in, got their Chicago house under contract, and things moved smoothly.

On May 13, we closed on the property and I got a check for $13,160 and some change. This was in addition to the $2000 that I had from two months of rent. So, in less than 3 months I made over $15,000! I never had to make a payment to the seller. The work was probably just a few hours of my time overall. And I walked away with a beautiful chunk of change.

It’s that easy. You can find a great real estate opportunity if you know where to look!

This sale went so smoothly, it is ridiculous. The Chicago couple could have decided to not cash me out for the entire year and then I would have also made that additional $200 profit from the monthly rent. But, that’s okay. This was still a great deal.

I love lease options for a real estate opportunity like this. If I had been a real estate agent with this house, I would have walked away with only about $8,000. But, I am not. I am an investor, and I made double what I would have made had I used my real estate license.

Are you prepared for an amazing real estate opportunity?

Here’s the thing, preparation meets opportunity. So, you have to ask yourself if you even know what to do if you find an opportunity like this. Do you? Are you prepared and knowledgeable about creative financing and lease options? If not, make sure you check out my FREE masterclass to get you started as an investor so you can be ready for the next opportunity. Go to getyourfirstdeal.com for more information.