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.