To start building your real estate wealth in detached single-family homes, take these eight easy steps:

1. Decide on an area in which you want to invest. At the start, it is usually best to invest locally, if there are suitable properties available and rentals are a common way of life.

2. Look for suitable properties. Do this by looking in the Real Estate Section of your local Sunday newspaper for Homes for Sale. Also check any local weekly newspapers. Many of these will list lower-priced houses that are suitable for rental income for you.

3. Try to find homes having ads that say: Zero cash down, No money down, 0 down, or, Financing available. Most such ads are a tip-off to a motivated seller who would be willing to work with you to help you buy the property with minimum cash outlay – either from your own pocket or borrowed money.

4. Check the rental situation in the area. Do this by looking in your Sunday paper under Houses for Rent. Make notes of the rent charged for two-, three-, and four-bedroom homes. This is important because it is the rental income that will pay for the home you buy on borrowed money and give you a Positive Cash Flow EVERY MONTH.

5. Pick one or more homes you think will make good rental units at the going rent in the area you selected. Visit each home and get full information on it. Thus, you must get the following:

• Asking price
• Down payment wanted
• Annual real estate taxes
• Annual fuel cost
• Annual electric bill
• Annual water charge – if any
• All other expenses of the property

6. Set up a Real Estate Riches Success Book with a file. Add any remarks concerning the

• Condition of the house
• Favorable or unfavorable aspects of its location
• Rental potential based on your study of the area and the particular property
• What deals you might make on the down payment
• Your analysis of whether the seller is anxious to sell, or willing to wait until he/she gets the asking price
• What the lowest down payment you think you could negotiate to get the property is
• Your rating, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most desirable, of your opinion of the suitability of the house for your wealth-building
• Your personal thoughts on whether you really do or do not want the property in your portfolio of single-family income real estate

7. Make an offer on the detached single-family home if it measures up to your requirements in terms of rental potential, down payment requirement, and profit you can earn from the home once you won it. YOU MUST HAVE A POSITIVE CASH FLOW FROM EVERY SINGLE-FAMILY HOME YOU INVEST IN! Enter the full details of your offer in your Real Estate Riches Success Book.
8. Acquire the property and rent it to a suitable tenant. Wait at least three months to get some experience with the property (real estate lenders call this “seasoning”). Then go on to your next single-family home to expand your wealth building.