Santa Says: Lots of Little Deals Ad Up

Folks, for those who believe in Santa and Dean (and even those disbelievers), I can tell you you don't need a lot of money to get started.

Wholesale properties can be purchased for SUCH little money without partners, assigning, or methods you might not feel comfortable with to start out. Fannie Mae's website is full of them from coast-to-coast.

My first deal involved purchasing a property from a wholesaler WITHOUT title insurance, and it's a lesson I learned hard and well. Now, I wouldn't even let someone GIVE me a piece of property without title insurance. It could be riddled with liens, back taxes and/or encumbrances, and could cost you a fortune to extricate yourself out of. I was fortunate to get out of that situation.

From there, I decided to buy cheap REOs directly from Fannie Mae and/or the banks, so I went through escrow, bought title insurance, closing costs - the whole nine yards. The banks and Fannie will give you covenant or warranty deeds, which are often more valueable than quitclaim deeds. In most counties, if you want to transfer property using a warranty or covenant deed, you need to first send the new deed to the county treasurer, who verifies there are no outstanding liens or back taxes, and then you are able to record your deed. If you merely try to submit a warranty or covenant deed to the registrar, it will often get kicked back for this defect.

There are MANY ways to skin a cat, so to speak and often property without encumbrances is transferred merely using a quitclaim. I'm just a legal-kind-of-gal and title insurance is SO CHEAP, you can't afford not to buy it.

This is exactly why Dean recommends over and over again to form LLCs to protect yourself and your assets from debt riddled properties. Your assets could be levied, and attorneys' fees (as if you didn't know) will quickly eat up any anticipated profits.

So go legal, form a LLC, buy title insurance and these types of issues won't haunt you. In my case, I started slowly, bought properties dirt cheap from Fannie/banks, and believe me, the little deals add up and start building wealth!

Don't be scared! PLEASE read Dean's books to make sure you have a great foundation of knowledge. And if you ever have any Qs, there ARE tons of super nice people on this site who WILL give you direct answers to your Qs.

Best wishes to all for this holiday season and a prosperous New Year as well!