Before Real Estate Investing Went Public

[Don Konipol]

Before the late 1970s there were no real estate gurus, no real estate investment courses, no house flipping TV programs, no real estate get rich books, no real estate investment clubs, and what experience the general public had about real estate was limited to buying their personal residence. 
We who were real estate investors then, came across these strategies, techniques and methods haphazardly.  If we were going to buy a property and put it “under contract”, and a better deal came along, rather than pass on one deal we might present it to a fellow investor and collect a fee from the investor in the process.  No one thought of this as “wholesaling”, or thought of it as a stand alone business, or thought to provide seminars or mentorship’s on the process.  It was just a way to earn a few extra bucks when the circumstances proved right.

The same for subject to deals; loan subordination; purchasing of “discounted” notes, or hard money lending.  

What we did have in the way of real estate “education” was (1) the book “HOW I TURNED $1,000 INTO ONE MILLION IN REAL ESTATE IN MY SPARE TIME” by Bill Nickerson, (2) education provided by organizations to qualify for real estate brokerage licensing and (3) courses in real estate offered by colleges

I found that because of the type of education provided we were much more knowledgeable about real estate FUNDAMENTALS, FINANCING, AND LAW than investors are these days.  Even with all the information available on line today investors seem to concentrate on techniques and methods, and do not learn the fundamentals necessary for analyzing  investment deals.