Carleton Sheets

Carleton Sheets Quick Facts

Carleton H. Sheets is the best-selling author of the No Down Payment home study course as well as other

real
estate books, and video and audio programs. He has sold more than 3 million copies of his programs in the United States alone. His programs
and books emphasize education and training strategies to help people
make millions in real estate. As of late, his programs are available
online at CarletonSheets.com.

Personal History

Carleton
H. Sheets (often misspelled as Carlton Sheets or Carlton Sheet) was
born in a small town in Illinois, where he and his younger brother were
raised by conservative parents. When Carleton was 10, his father was
transferred and the family relocated to Ohio. Near the end of his first
summer in Ohio, Carleton decided he wanted to make extra money by
mowing lawns. He asked his mother to loan him the money to buy a mower
and he repaid her in installments after mowing a few lawns. Purchasing
the mower with no money down became his first “no down payment”
venture. He did so well mowing lawns that he asked for another loan to
buy a bicycle so he could deliver newspapers—his second “no down payment” transaction.

After
graduating from college, Carleton made his debut into corporate America
when he accepted a job at the Armstrong Cork Company in California. He
was later transferred to North Carolina, and then to Georgia with the
company. During this period, Carleton married and had two children. After
eight years with Armstrong Cork Company, he accepted a position as
Director of Marketing for the Lykes Pasco Packing Company in Florida.
Two years later, the company—and Carleton—realized that he was too
inexperienced for this job and he was fired.

The Early Years of Investing

Carleton
then began to investigate self-employment opportunities. A friend urged
him to get into real estate and, in a short period of time, he got his
real estate license. After investigating several real estate
opportunities, his first listing was an apartment building, which he
was unable to sell. Recognizing
that the building had potential, and realizing that he didn’t have any
money or any credit, he talked with two friends about purchasing the
building. Each friend put up half of the down payment, and Carleton
received an ownership interest for putting the deal together. It was a
successful first venture. After 18 months, the partners sold the
building and split for the profit. Carleton
began putting together more partnerships, gradually building a
reputation for making money in real estate. His specialty was
“rehabbing” the properties. Within five years he owned almost 500
rental units—with and without partners.

In
addition to his growing real estate career, Carleton began teaching
local real estate courses for the National Association of Realtors
(NAR), and was the sole author or author-in-partnership for at least
three separate courses for NAR and the Real Estate Securities and
Syndication Institute. He provided real estate education as an
instructor, and after awhile eventually created his own home study
programs. These programs were based on his experience in using creative
financing techniques to invest in real estate.

No Down Payment and Beyond

In
1984, Carleton partnered with the Professional Education Institute
(PEI) to distribute his message nationally. His No Down Payment
television infomercial won numerous awards and is now accredited as
being the longest running of its kind, spanning 25 years. He has
appeared on other television talk and radio shows, and he has
personally lectured to over 500,000 people on the subject of creative
real estate investing and real estate investing basics.

During
his career investing in real estate, Carleton has twice been invited to
Washington to meet with key congressional members to discuss creative
real estate financing and the rights of property owners. He also has
been featured on the covers of Income Plus, Income Opportunities,
Opportunity Magazine, Home Business Connection, and Opportunity World