This isn’t a rags to riches story. This isn’t to sell books or courses I’ve written. This isn’t to impress you. It isn’t even to feel better about myself or what we’ve accomplished. This is fact, nothing more. JP has requested my story a couple times already, and I’ve promised I’d get it done. So here it is.
First of all a little history about me. I’m a high school graduate. After school, I managed to get in the optical business here in Texas. After spending about 19 years in the business, I still didn’t own my own business, and working for the other guy in that business doesn’t pay well in east Texas.
My dad had been a builder when i was young and I had dabbled on the side in buying/selling building materials as well as mobile home parts. This helped, but still didn’t get me where I wanted to be.
Being a computer nut, I tried desktop publishing for about three years, but when six of my clients all bellied up in the space of about six weeks, leaving me hanging with a pile of accounts receivables, i found myself facing foreclosure on my house, two new cars, and bills stacking up everywhere
We did lose the house and cars, wound up living with other people until I located some land and built enough of a structure for us to have a roof over our heads.
I tried everything I could think of for about six years and failed miserably at all of them, primarily because I had no credit and no funds to back what I was doing. The stress of it all finally killed the marriage, and I found myself in December 1997 basically penniless with wrecked credit and just about lost as to where to go next.
I had been watching the Carleton Sheets infomercials off and on for several years, but figured it was a hoax or just some other way to separate me from my hard earned money, so I had never ordered the course.
Finally, I figured, “What the hell?” and was just about to order the course when Denise suggested we check it out on the internet to see if anyone was claiming it was a scam or just to find out if any of it even resembled reality. My search landed me on the Creative Real Estate Online site.
I read. And I read. And I read more. Here were people claiming they were making money on real estate and using little, if any, of their own money. Being in east Texas (lots of mobile home buyers around) and having very little funds available to spend on any courses, I decided to try Lonnie Scruggs’s books out. [Deals on Wheels and Making Money on Mobile Homes] I figured I could lose $60 and survive.
I called JP and ordered the books sent overnight. Because of one factor or another, I didn’t get them for about four or five days (JP, now you know why i was pestering you so much for the books. . . I needed to make some money, quickly!).
The morning I got them, I sat down immediately, started reading and didn’t stop until I had finished both books. By the time I had gotten through, I had little doubt that this deal would work.
Within a couple days, we had spotted an ad for a mobile home in a park, listed for $2,500. I called, asked the woman what her best “cash price” was and she said $1,800. We met her at the mobile home and were surprised to find it in almost perfect condition, definitely livable just like it was.
I wrote up an agreement by hand, put up a $100 deposit, telling her I needed to check with the park manager to see that the house could stay there and also needed time to check whether there were any taxes owed on the house.
The next morning, Denise and I drove to the park to see the manager. There was a vehicle parked in the space of the mobile home we were buying. They had called on the ad the day before we had and were just getting there to see the house.
I went to talk to the park manager, and Denise visited with the couple that came to see the house. By the time I got through with the park manager, Denise had the house sold, at least everything except signing an agreement and taking a deposit.
Within 20 minutes, I had a $100 deposit from our buyer and a contract to sell for $4,500 cash. We wound up paying some back taxes on that mobile home, but when the smoke cleared about 10 days later, we had $1,800 profit.
During this 10 days, we weren’t just sitting around. We had visited with a couple of the mobile home dealers who had some older homes on their lot and developed a pretty good rapport with one. He called one day and told me about a mobile home in a nearby town that could be bought fairly cheap.
Then he gave me the name of a couple that needed a house but couldn’t qualify for financing through him. He told me the seller of the house was pretty desperate and the buyers were desperate. I know an opportunity when i see one.
By the next morning, we were the proud owner of a $350 mobile home. Within five days, we had a $500 deposit down on that $350 mobile home and had a $3,000 @ 15% for two years note written. (I gave the mobile home salesman $150 for the leads.)
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. Within 10 days of receiving Lonnie’s books, we had created $1,800 profit and a $3,000 note. And we have absolutely none of our money tied up because of it. We’ve done more deals since these two, but this is what got us started.
I still haven’t ordered Sheets’ course and doubt I will. Not because I think it’s a scam, but when the guys on here that I have determined to be the real players talk, I listen.
They tell me that I can get better information for less money, or at least more complete information for the same money right here on this site. I’ve ordered and received Joe Kaiser’s foreclosure course, and I’m convinced that we’ll make money using the information from his material.
Do I feel I owe Lonnie anything? Lonnie doesn’t. We were fortunate enough to have the moxie to go out and use the information and create money out of thin air. Besides, if Lonnie found out I thought I owed him something, he’d want to finance it for me at 12.75% for two years in 24 easy payments of (you get the idea).
For the first time in almost seven years, I can see an end to my financial situation. People who didn’t think they would ever get paid will now get paid and I will once again own my own home, this time without a mortgage on it.
My children will not do without as they have in the past and life will return to a more peaceful existence for us all. If you ask me whether Lonnie’s course is worth it, I’ll coin his phrase and say if you buy them and put them to work, you’ll do “good enuff.”