Wolves of Real Estate — Capital Strategy
Property sold as-is

Understanding how to leverage credit

Run the numbers

Three ways to fund the same deal

Same property, same buyer, same closing date. The only thing that changes is where the money came from. Drag anything.

Who pays closing costs

On the card. Monthly payment is the minimum due in month one — it drifts down as the balance drops. Minimum payment formulas vary by issuer: most run interest plus 1% to 2% of the balance, some use a flat dollar floor. Call your card and ask, then set the slider to match.

On closing. Closing costs on small deals are mostly fixed — settlement fee, title work, recording, doc prep — so they are entered as a flat amount plus doc stamps, which are the only piece that scales with price (0.70% in Florida, 0.60% in Miami-Dade). The title certificate runs $500 upfront as a review deposit, with the total tiered on sale price: $1,000 under $10k, $1,450 to $25k, $1,950 to $75k, $2,200 above. The deposit is credited against it and the balance settles at closing, so it follows whatever split you agree to — the $500 stays yours either way. Each term insures six months; past that you extend for $100 for another six, and after a full year a fresh certificate is issued.

All cash
Your own money
Where every dollar goes
Resale price
Purchase price
Liquidation fee
Interest paid
Title certificate
Selling costs
Net profit
What it took from you
Buyer brings to closing
Cost of capital
Certificate deposit upfront
Cash out of pocket
Monthly payment
Return on your cash
Inside the promo
Liquidated · 0% intro APR
Where every dollar goes
Resale price
Purchase price
Liquidation fee
Interest paid
Title certificate
Selling costs
Net profit
What it took from you
Buyer brings to closing
Cost of capital
Certificate deposit upfront
Cash out of pocket
Monthly payment
Return on your cash
After the promo
Standard purchase rate
Where every dollar goes
Resale price
Purchase price
Liquidation fee
Interest paid
Title certificate
Selling costs
Net profit
What it took from you
Buyer brings to closing
Cost of capital
Certificate deposit upfront
Cash out of pocket
Monthly payment
Return on your cash

Cost of capital

Money you never see again

The liquidation fee plus every dollar of interest. This is spent — it's already subtracted from net profit in the block above, and no closing gives it back.

All cash has none of it. That is the only advantage all cash has on this page, and it's smaller than people expect.

Cash out of pocket

Money you have to be able to front

The most of your own money tied up in the deal at any one time. Most of it isn't spent — it's parked, and it comes back at closing.

This is the number that decides how many deals you can run at once. It's why one investor does one a year and another does four.

Why they overlap: interest and the certificate deposit appear in both — those dollars are a cost and a cash outlay. The rest of the certificate and your selling costs come out of the closing proceeds, so they reduce profit without ever leaving your account. The purchase price appears only in the second one, because you get it back when it sells. That's the whole distinction: the first block asks what the deal cost, the second asks what you had to have on hand to do it.

Skin in the game

This is the whole argument. Same property, same buyer, same profit — the only thing that changes is how much of your own money is trapped in the deal while you wait for it to sell.

All cash
Inside the promo
After the promo

What's actually inside the payment

The minimum due is interest plus a percentage of the balance. Interest is the part that's gone; principal knocks down what you owe at closing. Both are calculated off a balance that shrinks every month, which is why the payment gets a little cheaper as you go.

MonthStarting balanceInterestPrincipalPayment
Totals

The takeaway

Four things to say out loud

The math is the setup. These are the points people need to leave with.

Return is measured against your cash, not the price

A $5,000 all-cash deal that returns $10,000 doubled your money. The same deal funded on a card, where only a few hundred dollars ever left your account, returned many times that. This is the entire case for leverage on a short hold — and it holds even at full interest.

Two clocks, and neither one is the property's

The promo expires and the rate snaps to full on whatever's left. The certificate expires at six months and costs you to renew. Both are calendars you're borrowing against, and neither cares how the sale is going. Chase the 0% because it makes you move faster, not because it makes the deal safe.

How you pull the money matters

A liquidation that posts as a purchase gets the purchase rate, the grace period, and promo eligibility. A straight cash advance is a different product — higher rate, fee up front, interest from day one, and no promo coverage. Same card, very different deal. Make sure people know which one they're doing.

The exit timeline is the real variable

Everything on this page assumes the property sells roughly when you think it will. Drag the months slider out to eighteen and watch the interest and the certificate renewals stack up together. Nothing about this strategy breaks because of the rate. It breaks because the sale took longer than the plan.