Basically, when I get a call from a seller, I look for a number of things to help me determine what sort of deal to offer. If the seller is willing to take a good discount from the appraised value as their sales price, I can do a cash deal. What I do with that depends on a number of other factors, but I'll give a few examples.

One of the first deals I did in Ottawa involved a property that was worth $225-235,000. The seller told me that they were willing to take $175,000 for it so they could just get rid of it fast. They did not want any sort of payment deal (such as lease option or contract for deed) and wanted to get cashed out quickly.

I agreed to pay them $175,000 for the property and then offered it for sale at its full market value with owner financing. The idea was to create a new mortgage, then sell that mortgage at closing to a mortgage buyer for my profit. (Yes, I know, complicated-sounding deal, but I go into detail in my course.) Any way, a cash buyer came along and negotiated with me to buy the property from me for $195,000, instead of using the owner financing that I was offering.

What happened was that I simply set up a double closing with my lawyer. The buyer would bring the funds to the closing table and my lawyer would use them to pay the seller the $175,000 I had agreed to pay. This means I would then own the property. Immediately after, I would sell the property to my buyer. I would then walk away with the difference between what I had paid out and what the buyers brought to the table. It should have been $20,000, but I did have to pay for some closing costs because of my lawyer not being all that great. However, I still walked away with a sizeable profit.

This was indeed a "no money down" deal for me. I put NO money into this deal in any way, shape or form, yet still walked away with several thousand in profit. The sellers got their "fast cash" as well.

Another way of doing a "fast cash" deal is by simply assigning a purchase agreement to someone else. If you have signed up a purchase on a property at a good discount, you can simply assign the agreement to another investor or buyer for an assignment fee. It is then their responsibility to close on the deal and give the seller their cash. Again, this is a "no money down" deal for you since you do not have to spend a penny on it, yet can walk away with several thousand as your "assigment fee"

There are other ways of offering a seller "fast cash" that are still true no money down deals as well, but that's the basics. I hope that helps. Let me know if I can help any further.

Matt Bowman
Related link: www.REItoolbox.com