Evaluating Information you Hear, Read & Discover

[Jeff B.]

The Internet is a marvelous tool - - enter the right search terms and you can find almost anything. 'Google' is a mathematical term, not a search engine per se. It means "Something beyond comprehension". So we search and find enumerable results.

When we do find something of interest, we owe it to ourselves to ask some critical questions:

* who wrote this
* what are their credentials
* sometimes, we need to as, why was this written?

Anyone can create a website, or publish a video on zooTube and the quality of the information varies greatly. Every wonder WHY people publish using social media? Because they can - period. There's an old adage
"Any news is good news", which evaluates to 'at least my name is in the press and people are talking about ME'! The above questions directly apply.

BP has a marvelous membership and a lot of experienced members. It also has a large population of of those just beginning their person trek in Real Estate Investing.
The latter are "drinking from a fire hose", as they say, with lots of info flying in their face and which atoms of information are useful to themselves is hard to determine. Just TMI(too much information).

But just who has credible experience vs just plain theory, opinion or arbitrary comments?

Take myself; as openly disclosed, I am a Buy & Hold investor. Starting with a SFR, turned into a rental and subsequently 1031'd into a 6-unit MFU, held and operated now for 18yrs. So I have some experience in being a Landlord, an Asset Manager and dealing with tenant issues. Now if I wander off into Tax issues like a 1031 Exchange, I only have an introductory background in the subject. My comments on 1031's should only be seen at best as background IMO. One should continue to seek a better qualified opinion. Likewise, I personally have zero experience in flipping. My comments in this area should cause you to raise a great many questions - - they could only be seen a theoretical at best.

The BP profiles give good information on the background of BP members. When we read a comment, especially a surprising one which might not be expected, how can we get a cursory insight to the possible credentials which produced it? Right-Click on the avatar of the member commenting and go to the profile in a New Tab.
There's lots of good information there, such as Intro, Experience, Real Estate Goals, Currently Seeking and Interest & background. Understanding the profile should help you walk in the shoes of this member.