When is enough enough? FINAL THOUGHTS/UPDATE

[David S.]

Hi folks, your friendly BP socialist here! First off, thank you all for your responses and input! What a lively discussion!

I wanted to close out my last thread with some heartfelt clarification which I had posted but got burried in the 130 and counting responses.

Regards my comment on antitrust regulation...

 I’m going to take a step back and admit that the government should not regulate this. I would have been wiser to not make the knee jerk antitrust comment in my original post, nor do I feel that's a reasonable course of action nor the government's business. I do feel that there may very well come a point where that could be an interesting point of discussion with regards to the corporate side of things, such as the 82k units I had mentioned. We're certainly not there yet however.

To sum up my frustration and the use of that dirty word GREED...

I stand behind my use of the word, but a better way of putting it would have been to say that one should really consider their motives in scaling up as much as possible, even after they've attained significant scale. My heart in this is not a socialistic ideal but rather a discernment of what's good for the community/society. We're so incredibly focused in this nation on dollars and success, titles and achievements, we often forget we're in it together. There's certainly an undertow of greed prevalent in the world and this industry is not immune to it; and for that reason I ask, when is enough enough? I'm not calling every person with more than X doors greedy, I'm asking them to question their motives to ensure they're not falling into greed, because I assure you there are many who are. That's just the human condition. Always has been, always will be. There are plenty who do things to help raise up their communities, and of course naturally when you get into apartment complexes large numbers come with the territory, but so does syndication which tends to water those numbers down again.

In the end of the day one obviously needs to self-regulate their goals, intentions, etc. I hope to at least get some thought going at the individual level as to why we do what we do, especially when some have long ago attained their goals. The motives are important to say the least.

And finally, I do still find it somewhat ironic that many highly successful investors want to sincerely help others in their real estate pursuits, yet they'd be the first one to jostle over the next property that comes up for sale. That makes sense when one is still early in the game or mid stream, but why do that when you don’t need to and want to see others succeed behind you? I'm struggling to wrap my mind around that one, but let’s call it an open ended question/rhetorical, I’m not looking to stoke a big debate here. 

Again, great discussion! Thanks much to the BP community! And yes, I’m happy to be a socialist if that’s what it makes me. ;) 

Cheers