Most people fear venturing into real estate investing thinking they need a lot of money to start. Others fear the “No money down” scams out there. S
Can you really invest in real estate with little or no money? Let us explore this topic in this article.

The traditional method of buying real estate is having cash, or getting a loan which also involves putting a sizable amount as down payment.
This can be too expensive especially if you are looking to do many deals.

Let us explore alternative methods of buying real estate with little to no money:

1) Wholesale real estate investing
Flipping real estate involves looking for a highly discounted property, then putting it under a contract. You then turn around and get a real estate investor to buy it at a wholesale price.

You can do a contract assignment to the new investor, or do a double closing where you buy and sell the property at the same closing table.

If you assign the contract, you just need earnest money to put the property under contract. Typically this is between $100 to $500.

The real estate investor buyer must produce earnest money to get into the deal, meaning you do have spent no money.

A few things can happen in a simultaneous closing. You can use cash from your buyer to close the first transaction. The second transaction is closed with the same cash. The difference between the two transactions is your profit.

In this transaction you spend no money.

In simultaneous closing, you might need transactional funding to close the first transaction. You can get it from hard money lenders, usually spending no money of your own.

Again, no money of your own is spent.

2) Seller financing
Sometimes a seller can accept monthly payments instead of all cash for their property.

Some down payment might be needed to make this happen.

You then turn around and look for a buyer who will also be making monthly payments, typically higher than you make. Their down payment is typically higher than yours, meaning you end up spending none of your money.

Such deals are owner financing, lease options, rent to own, etc.

In this case you will need the down payment to make the deal happen.

3) Partnership
You can get a money partner who finances all your real estate investing transactions. Of course you spend no money of your own, but you have to share the profits as agreed.

4) Financing
You can finance your real estate transactions with an equity line of credit.
You will pay interest, but again you spend no money of your own.