3 Ways to Get Started in Property Without a Lot of Money

I bought my first property when I was 17. I didn't have a lot of money; what I had were the skills necessary to make money! The property industry, and business in general, isn't about how much money you have. Rather, it is about how much knowledge you have. That's why practically anyone can get started in property and begin to earn a reasonable income from a property business with the correct training. It's really just about knowing exactly what to do and how to do it.

With the correct knowledge and skills, you can employ strategies to get started in property regardless of the amount of capital you may have.

Of course, there is always going to be some money required: You're going to need money for gas to drive to wherever the property deals are, phone credit to make calls to estate agents and, inevitably, you're going to need a small amount of money for everyday business expenses. But you really don't need the hundreds of thousands of dollars that many people believe you do to get started.

Related: 3 Ways to Make Passive Income With Other People's Property

Here are three ways you can get started in the property industry with no money, or very little money, down.

1. Co-deal sourcing

Deal sourcing is where you find properties for investors for a fee. Co-deal sourcing is where you work with a fully legally compliant deal sourcer to find deals that they can pass on to investors. While it takes some money to get fully compliant as a deal sourcer, as a co-deal sourcer, you don't need to worry about that, as you are just finding deals and passing them on to a deal sourcer who is already regulated correctly.

The key here is to get good at finding exactly the type of deals that investors are looking for. In many cases, this will be "Buy, refurbish, refinance, rent" (BRRR) or "Rent to rent" deals. You should begin to attend investor meet-ups and networking events to talk to investors and get a sense of what they are looking for. Once you have done this, you should start visiting estate agents and looking at properties to assess whether they would make good deals for investors. If you are confident that you have found deals that investors will be interested in, you should begin contacting fully regulated deal sourcers and offer to pass on your deals in return for a share of the fee.

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2. Joint ventures

Another way to start in property with little money is to start doing joint ventures. A joint venture is where you find a partner who is either willing to put in the time to find properties and manage them, or has the money to invest in them. In your case, you'll be looking for people willing to put in money to invest in property while you will have the time and knowledge to find and look after these properties.

This will require that you gain the knowledge to know exactly what deals investors are looking for and how to find them. When you're starting out, you probably want to ask for a very small percentage of the profit, just to get your first deal off the ground. Remember, when you're starting out, a testimonial and some experience is much more valuable to you than making the best deal in terms of percentages.

3. Rent to rent

This strategy requires a little more capital. At minimum, you will normally need a deposit to put down and a few months’ rent (but you can negotiate deals with no deposit and a rent-free period in some cases). You'll also need to form a limited company. Rent to rent is where you make a deal with the current landlord whereby you take on the property and its maintenance, then rent it out, either by the room or on short lets (via platforms such as Airbnb).

You'll also need to make sure you have the right sort of contracts and that you fully understand the local market. You will need to put a "break clause" in the contract so that if the property doesn't work out, you can let it go without losing too much money.

While these strategies can be utilized with very little money down, they do require quite a good deal of education and knowledge. Before you get started with any of these strategies, you need to get educated — whether that is through books, courses or mentoring. So get learning, but then be sure to take action!

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