Financing Fantasies Let’s face it, not all properties can be bought for ‘no money down’. At some point you will need to secure some sort of financing, or get better at picking your lottery numbers. If you get really good at picking lottery numbers, you can become a HML, or a Hard Money Lender, as they are commonly known. And we’re not talking coins here. Anyway, banks are a good place to find money, but they have standards, and sometimes your standards don’t meet theirs. You might be looking for the smallest interest rate known to man, and they will explain to you how their CDs will give you that. But you need purchase money, so that won’t help. So let’s look at some alternatives. Anyway, rich relatives are a good source of purchase money if you have them. A lot of us don’t, but a lot of rich folks have no relatives, either. So it’s only a matter of getting yourself adopted into the right family. This is a lot easier when you’re young. You may want to start looking as soon as you realize there hasn’t been a new car in your driveway since you came home from the hospital. It takes a little preplanning. If you’re just starting out as a parent, you may want to give this some thought the next time junior throws those beans across the room. Anyway, there are other ways to get the financing, or the down payment, or both if you’re new to the game. Needing money can be a real wake-up wedgy. To make money, a lot of people used lemonade stands when they were little. When they got a little older, they held carwashes. When they got a little brother, they became entrepreneurs. The reason most of those enterprises failed, was they didn’t think big enough. Had they gotten their little brothers to sell lemonade AT the carwash, it would be a different story. You need to think big. So if there is no ‘Lemonade Mafia’ in your town, and you don’t see opportunity, you’re not thinking big enough. Anyway, kissing booths are highly underutilized in this day and age, and may be an overlooked source of revenue. If you try this approach you need to go where the money is, and that means people who have to pay to get kissed. Your local computer store will be a great location if they will give you some space. Shoe stores could be another gold mine if the sales force is large enough. If you’re lucky enough to be near the city that holds the annual Assistant Managers National Convention, you could probably become a HML after just a few days. Anyway, creative real estate isn’t always about subject to's and lease options, sometimes it’s about how many hot dogs will I need to sell to raise the down payment, and oh yea, would you like a glass of lemonade while my little brother washes your car? Cletus
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