Reality Check:Real Wealth in Real Estate.

[Charles A.]

Hello BP!

This is my first post in 3 years.

The market is in a very different place in that time.There has been a pandemic,and interest rates have doubled.

Social media posts from baby syndicators and operators have slowed,if not outright disappeared.No prizes for guessing why.

If you are a newbie reading this,you should never forget this cardinal lesson:

Real wealth in real estate is created with equity,not cash flow.And certainly not with transactions.That's why the maxim says "we make money when we buy,not when we sell".

It's because you run into all sorts of factors that may be outside your control WHEN you sell,IF you have to sell.

Equity builds over time.Slowly.Patience is a virtue.

It's why long term buy and hold will remain the king of the real estate game.Not Flipping,not syndication,and certainly not vacation rentals.

You must diligently prioritize buying and OWNING your own piece of dirt financed with LONG TERM debt,preferably conventional loan that is deliberately underleveraged in a niche unlikely to be legislated out of existence by sensible new city or county ordinances predictably aiming to protect the local economy.That's how you keep your assets in ANY cycle without having to close bad deals in order to make another buck for another day.

Even if you like the passive side of investing in syndications,you must be smart enough to understand you never actually OWN those units.So when someone tells you they own 2000 or 3500 units,call BS.

When prices and rents are surging with historic low interest rates,even a 12th grader can become a hotshot syndicator overnight with the right amounts of flashy social media posts with rented red Lambos,Richard Mille watches and private jets strategically inserted.

When rates rise,as they have,and projections and proformas head for the toilet,we see many who have been swimming naked.

The skinny bad deals closed in a blaze of hysteria and chutzpah circa 2017/2018 with 3% interest rates are coming up for refinancing or sale today.It's 2022.Many of them have 5 year balloons.That's the place the crash everyone has been debating to death is going to start.

Exit strategy in real estate is more complicated than can be taught in a 3-day bootcamp.No matter how much you paid for the course.

Keep it simple.Real estate is really very simple.