At the outset, I must admit that I have made my fair share of bad business decisions over the years. Here are some of them: an investment in a three-bedroom flat in Pune ended in a bitter experience with care-taking issues; an investment in a residential plot in Belgaum turned out with a title deed problem; a computer literacy and skill development center in Pune had to be closed down after 3 years, a paying-guest business in Bangalore ended up in failure after a year, and a mobile fast-food restaurant in Kohima couldn’t take off. These are some not-so-pleasant experiences I’ve had, but one thing I have learned from all these is this: If you want to see your business succeed, you have to be available and present on the spot until your workers are trained well to run with it on their own (I was overly trusting that others could manage these ventures well even without me being physically present in India).
My business experiences in the United States have been quite different. Let me share three of them…even at the risk of coming across as bragging or blowing my own trumpet, which is not my intention. I’m only trying to illustrate how easy it is for anyone to make good deals with no money down.
How I Managed to Survive as a Foreign Student: Four months after I landed in the U.S. in 1987, I moved out from a student dormitory to a two-bedroom apartment which I furnished, so that I could gain control of the apartment and had other students pay me rent in exchange for providing them with a place to stay. And over the next 2 years, I had students from Japan, Korea, Singapore, Brazil, and Ethiopia. This was how I could survive without money out of my own pocket. Having noticed how I took care of these international students, the housing management at Dallas Theological Seminary granted me the privilege to manage two building complexes for their students in exchange for a free apartment for my family.
What am I saying? Well, it is this: Anyone can find a place to live almost anywhere in the world at no cost if he or she can be a little bold and creative. Last year I had someone find a house in Delhi, which I could have taken on rent without having to pay the advanced deposit. And if I wanted to, I could have possibly gotten a free room, created a job, and made some money by taking in travelers.
How I Managed to Pay for My House: First, I found a house which was taken over by the government from a man who failed to pay his property taxes. As soon as this house was offered for sale, I bid on it and won it at a very good price. However, within a few days I had to come up with the full amount of the sale price. So, my next move was to approach a financial company for a mortgage loan and get somebody else to pay the 20% of the sale price upfront as down-payment. In other words, I didn’t use my money to buy the house. But once I got the house, I renovated it and raised up its market value. Then after 12 months, I refinanced my house, took some cash out for myself, and paid back the gentleman who helped me with the down-payment.
Here again, the lesson is this: If you have a regular income to qualify yourself to get a loan and can find someone who trusts you enough to pay the down-payment for you, you can possibly buy whatever you want even if you are short of your own funds.
How I Launched My Real Estate Business: When I applied to register my real estate investing business in Texas in the early 2000s, it got approved in less than an hour at their government county office. Instead of shopping around with local real estate agents, I began looking for tax delinquent properties and foreclosure homes. When I found my first property, I needed to come up with the full payment within a few days. Again, I didn’t have money, but now I got a very great deal available for the taking. So, my next move was to approach someone to give me the cash and share the profit 50/50 with me, which we did after we re-sold it six months later.
Candidly speaking, I enjoy doing business with no money out of my own pocket. All I have to have is my personal integrity so that others I wanted to ask for help could trust me. Then, of course, I must find some very good deals out there while they are on sale so that my potential business partners will have the comfort of knowing that they are investing in some real, good deals.
Here’s the good news: If you have personal integrity and can find some good deals, you can certainly find a lot of people out there with lots of money, not knowing how to invest or spend it. So, don’t complain if you don’t have money. Get others’ money. Make some extra money for them, while you make some for yourself too.
