HOW TO GET A FREE HOME IN FLORIDA
         ...OR ALMOST ANYWHERE ELSE YOU WANT TO GO

              The secret of this strategy is arbitraging the
         difference between local and tourist rental rates.
              Typically, business and vacation travelers pay
         much higher rental prices than locals.  You have only
         to contact an agency to find the truth of this.
              In Florida, for example, an especially attractive
         spot for visitors, it can cost a lot of money to rent a
         house.  But as a friend of ours discovered recently,
         not much of that money ends up in the hands of the
         landlord.  Our friend paid $4,000 to rent a house.
         While there, he made friends with the landlord, a man
         who lived nearby.  The landlord only received $1,500 of
         the rent our friend paid.  The rest went to middle men.

              Houses in that part of Florida sell for about
         $100,000.  So, here's the obvious strategy.  Buy the
         house and use your connections to rent it out.  All you
         have to do is to run ads in specialized travel
         magazines...in your local newspaper...or in foreign
         travel and lifestyle publications to reach tourists
         visiting the U.S.
              Here is how the numbers work.  You pay $100,000
         for the house. Just to keep it simple, borrow the money
         from your local bank...maybe using a home equity line
         on your dwelling.  You might have to pay about $12,000
         a year to pay off that loan.  But look, if you can rent
         the house for just three months of the year at $4,000
         per month -- you've done it.  You've got the house
         FREE.  Plus, you have free use of it nine months of the
         year.
              Or perhaps you could rent it for another couple of
         months and make a profit of $8,000.  Or maybe you'd
         rather lower the rent to get a more steady tenant...and
         be content to acquire the property FREE over the period
         of the mortgage.
              We have used the example of a house in Florida.
         But it could be almost anywhere you'd want to go.
         Because if you would like to travel somewhere, chances
         are, others would, too.  The only hitch is that the
         place must have a two-tiered rental market that you can
         take advantage of.  In top, prime resort areas, the
         local rental rates and the tourist rental rates tend to
         run together.
              In that case, you'll be lucky to get enough in
         rentals to cover the mortgage.  But in many, many
         places...you will be doing your fellow tourists a big
         service by letting them rent your property at two to
         three times the going local rate.