In this conversational YouTube episode, host Christian Osgood interviews Washington‑state broker Brandon Vuklich to demystify how novice investors can acquire real‑estate with little or no cash down. They discuss traditional low‑down options such as VA and FHA loans, creative financing methods like seller financing, and the use of private capital and second‑position loans (e.g., Flynn Family Lending). The dialogue clarifies how brokers can earn commissions on zero‑down deals, often by embedding fees into the purchase price or receiving seller credits. A step‑by‑step framework—deal first, then debt, then equity—is presented as the preferred order for structuring acquisitions. Practical examples include a triplex transaction with an equity partner and a $900k seller‑financed purchase. The conversation also emphasizes the importance of rapid, clear communication and commitment from buyers when working with brokers, warning against half‑hearted investors. Contact information for the broker is provided, and the episode concludes with actionable advice for beginners seeking to start investing without personal capital.
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Hey YouTube, welcome back to the channel. Today I am joined again by Brandon, best broker in Washington State, which is actually going to be really helpful for this video because we're going to be talking about how as a beginner you can come in and buy real estate no money down. You don't need a ton of experience, which a lot of people think you do, and people get really weird about do I use a broker, do I not use a broker, how do I do this, is it all direct to owner like Cody and Christian like to do. So we're going to get into all of that today. So Brandon, welcome back to the channel.
Thank you.
Now, Brandon, have you done a lot with seller financing, creative finance, low-down deals? Talk a little bit about your experience. You've done everything, right?
I've done everything, but mainly my clients are financed buyers. I've done a few, including you guys, you know, where seller finance opportunities. And I want to clarify for the viewers, right, when you say zero down, it is zero down, but you still may have some expenses on doing your due diligence, right, or paying for inspections and things like that on property. Right, so very fair. Can't be totally broke and go in and buy a property.
Well, and I would argue you might be able to because it doesn't have to be your money. You can have capital partners, but some money will change hands to pick up a property, and it'll be monthly payments. There's no such thing as free real estate. There is zero down. Now, as conventional goes, you've done a lot of low down, right? FHA, VA.
Yes.
And VA is a traditional zero down product. I know you've done some of that, so talk a little bit about that because that is an option if you served builder. That is.
And some VA buyers— and you can buy multi-family properties up to 4 units as a VA buyer. So yes, you can get in with those zero down through a traditional process with a traditional lender. There are VA fees involved, and you know, you want to put down some earnest money. So again, you may have to have $5,000, $10,000 just as earnest money for part of the process.
Now when we get into the creative stuff, this is where Cody and I really thrive.
Yes.
However, you were our broker on triplex that was— we had capital partner who came in, funded the deal. We had you negotiate it. One of the big questions we get all the time with brokers is people talk to a broker on the phone and say, hey, I want to do the seller finance transaction. The broker gets kind of weird and goes like, oh, well, how am I going to make money on this? Let's just dispel that myth right here, right now.
Yes.
Um, so first of all, on that transaction, did you get paid?
I did get paid.
Okay, how did that actually work?
So the seller paid our firm a commission, a buyer broker commission.
Huh.
Yes.
Okay, now on a zero-down deal, because you actually can do them without a down payment, it's rare but it happens. If they, or me being the buyer in this case, if I come in and say, hey, I'm going to do this deal, um, your commission's $30,000 and I'm putting $20,000 down, how do you get paid in that scenario hypothetically?
A couple different ways. So you can build your commission, the commission for your broker, back into your purchase price, and that seller can credit that at closing.
Okay, so, so it's effectively coming from me on a traditional— yes. Okay, so I'm going to cover a little bit of the down. So it's now not zero down, now I'm at $10,000 has to come out of pocket.
The seller just has to come up that cash at closing. Okay, for the closing costs.
So there are situations where the seller may actually have to pay a little bit of money to sell the property because there are title fees, escrow fees, right?
Uh, in Washington we have excise tax, the seller's got to pay that. Mm-hmm.
Well, that's a huge hurdle and it comes up all the time is, hey, when I'm working with a broker, can brokers help me with a seller finance transaction? The answer, as we proved here, is yes. We've done it, you've done it, and I get it.
So a lot of people feel like brokers kill deals because they're so caught up about how am I getting paid, how am I getting paid. I, and I swear I tell this to all my clients, Christian, you guys probably can speak to this, that I tell them I don't want my income to prevent you from getting the deal that you ultimately need to get. Yeah, we'll worry about that later. We'll figure it out some other way down the road. I'm not gonna get my income as part of the challenge to this deal, and it always works out one way or another.
So, so we've already mentioned VA is an option. Yeah, FHA is a low down. You're talking like 3.5, 3.5% now. It's close to zero down.
That's pretty good.
Uh, we talked about a deal that we've done together where it was we just had an equity partner. So we found a deal, we negotiated it, 10% down, seller finance, $900,000 purchase price. And we just had to come in with a little bit of capital, investment partner or two, and you all split the equity. Now another way you can do it is with private capital. Funny enough, on the other side of this wall is one of our favorite capital lenders, uh, Flynn Family Lending.
Yes.
Um, and there's a whole bunch of people just like this out there. I don't know anyone who will use second position loans as often as Flynn will. They're fantastic to work with. Um, totally happy to plug them here. They're amazing. If you're in Washington State, they're your person to call. However, uh, you can also raise it as debt. So if you don't have the money but you have the deal— and that is the main thing here, the order is always, as we say on the channel, it's deal, then debt, then equity. So the first thing you do is you find your deal. And no matter who you are, you can find these deals on or off market. You can call your broker, Brandon Vuklich, What's your number? Do you share your number?
Sure. 206-250-6961.
There we go. So there's one step right there. You can call your broker.
Yes.
You find your deal. You talk to your private money lender or the seller and you figure out, like Cody and I like to, a seller finance transaction. If you can't do that, talk to private money and go, hey, I have a deal and this deal makes a ton of sense. This is why. Let's sit down and talk about it. And you talk about the story of the deal. This is why you start with the deal. People try to start with the money, and you're going to buy exactly nothing doing that because you have nothing to bring money into. No one has any interest. Find the opportunity, then talk to private lending, figure out the debt, and if there's money left over that's still needed, that's really where you start looking for an equity partner. But if you can do deal, then debt, then equity, none of that says you have to bring your own cash into the deal, right, at any level.
It's amazing how quickly capital will flock to a good opportunity.
Now, I figured this out at 28. I was buying conventional deals. I bought one, um, 5% down, owner-occupied duplex. Then I bought one 100% funded by private capital. Wasn't the Flints for that one, but they could have been. 100%— 101% funded, actually. I got paid 1% to buy that deal. Funny enough. Then we do, um, you know, how do we figure out the equity? I need partners. Cody figured this out at 19, took me till 28 to do that. But when you figure out, okay, the deal comes first, what does the debt look like, and how do we figure out the rest of the money? If you have money, invest it. Like, people get weird about doing every deal needs to be zeroed out. No, it doesn't. If you have the money, it needs to go somewhere. I'd put it in real estate. But if you are sitting here with No money and no experience. Cody could start at 19, I could start at 28. There's no requirements for this. It's not a job, right? It's an investment. Uh, don't add any steps to that. No need to add steps if you can do it. It starts with the deal. Yeah. Yeah. Now I want to end on when you're working with the broker, since we have the master here. Um, when you're working with a broker, you're working with a new buyer who wants to get in low down, what are the things that they really need to focus communicating to you? What do you want to see from them for them to actually move forward and buy a property?
A couple of things, and it sounds really simple and easy, is good communication, right? If I send you a deal, don't kick it around for a week and get back to me 3, 4 days later. Like, get back to me within 24 hours max.
Time matters.
Time matters because if you're not very serious, I've got another line of people that I know are more serious that will take that deal in a second. I'm trying to help you out, give you give you a leg up. And two, be committed to the process, right? Once you make that offer, you're not forced to buy that property. You can still do your due diligence. Maybe it's not the right deal after you find out through that, but be committed to the process and trust the professional. This is the other one that drives me nuts, Christian, is people that, you know, are part-time investors spend 30, 60 minutes a week looking on websites and stuff like that and watching YouTube videos. And then they come back to someone like me who does this 6 days a week, 10 hours a day almost, you know, and questions the process or questions the, the type of deal. And I don't send crap to people just to send them crap, right? I'm trying to send them stuff I would take pride in owning myself. And so if you start to question what I'm sending you as a good opportunity, then that may not be the right partnership for us. So does that help?
Yeah, no, that is exactly what— Cody and I had a, uh, 10plex where the time between when a broker called us and when we said yes to the deal was about 4 minutes. They brought it up to me, Cody was outside the car, I was like, Cody, get in here. And Cody knew the owner, he was familiar with the property. They gave us the price, Cody's like, wow, that's actually less than I would pay for that property. We're a yes. And due diligence went really well. Like we went through that due diligence process, everything lined up actually a little bit better than we expected. Units were a little bit bigger, a little bit cleaner. And we just bought the deal.
And you're compounding that credibility with that broker too, because you went like that.
And guess which broker calls all the time when he gets a great deal out there? Yes, there you go. It's the exact same guy.
You're on the VIP list now.
Yeah. But that's how you do it. Make decisions quickly, make them confidently, and still do your due diligence. But if you have a deal and you love the sound of it, you think it's going to work, go ahead and trust your broker and move forward. Yeah. Fantastic advice. Thank you. Yep, that's why I have Brandon here. So if you found this helpful, hit the like and subscribe button. We will see you guys next week for another episode of Multifamily 101.
