Now what separates a creative investment strategy from the tradi- tional methods can usually be found in one of the three major aspects of the process, which are finding a property, arranging for financing, and the actual purchase. Up until now, buyers had to go through a real estate agent who would find potential properties by doing an MLS search. The agent would then schedule showings until the client hopefully found the right property. However, in the age of creative investing, buyers are not limited to going through a real estate agent. Now they can interact with wholesalers or work directly with the seller. There are even numer- ous apps that let purchasers bypass everyone in the middle. Then when it comes to financing, you’d think that there’s not much room for creativity, but times have changed and so has this part of the process. Normally, financing involves saving money to go towards a down payment and going through a bank to apply for a loan. Then there’s the documentation like tax returns, pay stubs, asset statements, etc. Finally, a would-be buyer had to cross their fingers and hope they would be approved. With creative real estate financing buyers can get financing from the seller directly or turn to alternative lending channels, like a private money lender or transac- tional funding. In most cases like this, the documentation process is different and more often than not, a lot simpler than with a bank. Lastly, we come to the purchase and the close. Here is where cre- ative investing gets really interest- ing for potential investors who can’t or don’t want to operate within the framework of traditional real estate
“More people than ever before can now successfully invest in real estate. It just takes some creative thinking.”
Before crowdfunding, those types of properties were limited and were only available to the giant firms and financial institutions. Now, investors can earn interest on the amount that they invested while experts do all the work. Plus, crowdfunding gives buyers access to properties outside their market and that’s just one of the advantages of this type of cre- ative investment strategy. It’s easy to do, you don’t need a lot of income to get started, you don’t have any long- term responsibilities, and you’ve got the buying power that comes with having crowdfunded a record-setting amount of money which measures in the hundreds of millions. For obvious reasons, I am partial to one particular type of creative investment strategy because it has paid off so well for my investors and me. However, all of the new out-of- the-box investment techniques being introduced into the market have their advantages. With a small amount of capital, some due diligence and some work, more people than ever before can now successfully invest in real estate. It just takes some cre- ative thinking. •
investment. Before creative invest- ing, a person or family would pur- chase a property and a real estate agent would oversee the process, which was how they would earn their commission. Now, creative invest- ing methods make it possible for a group of everyday people to combine their finances to purchase a property together which would otherwise be out of reach for them individually. There are a few variations on this strategy including investing in a REIT (real estate investment trust) or with a fund like Cardone Capital, where we do all the work from locating a property to closing on it, so all the investor has to do is sit back and wait for their monthly check. With out-of-the-box options like owner financing, rent-to-own homes, house hacking, wholesaling, and REITs, there are more ways to invest in real estate than ever before. Thanks to technologies, no lon- ger are interested investors forced to choose between the two major investment strategies. Instead, it is possible to earn money while sitting behind your computer. Another creative investment strategy that has become popular (and I should know) is crowdfunding. This involves using an established real estate investment platform to invest in current projects being run by an experienced real estate management team. My real estate fund allows people to invest small amounts of money in the same multifamily rental units I invest in.
Grant Cardone owns and operates seven privately held companies, and a $1.8B real estate portfolio as the Founder and CEO of private equity real estate firm,
Cardone Capital. Cardone is also the founder and leader of The 10X Movement and The 10X Growth Conference, which is now the largest business and entrepreneur conference in the world. Moreover, Cardone founded the Grant Cardone Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to mentoring underprivileged and troubled youth in character and financial literacy.
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