Seeking (More!) Biggest Mistake/Lesson Learned Stories

[Melanie Stephens]

Hello BP investors!

I am looking for (more!) BP members to interview about their biggest real estate mistakes and what they learned from them for possible publication in BiggerPockets Wealth Magazine.

Stories will include details about the project, challenges it created, and lessons you learned.

If you have an interesting story to share that you think has some great lessons that others can learn from, please post here or email me directly at melanie @ biggerpockets.com with a few short details.

If it looks like it could work for the magazine, I’ll contact you for more information and then possibly a more in-depth interview.

Looking forward to hearing your stories!

Melanie Stephens

[Anthony Michael]

Good evening,

One of the biggest mistakes I made as a new investor was not having my legal structure in place. I was so eager to get started in real estate at the time that I actually started inquiring about purchasing rental properties off of Craigslist. Anyways, through craigslist I met a scammer little did I know at the time, it would be one of the best things that's ever happened to me. He was offering me an 18% return on my investment of $6,000 to help fund one of his rehabs. Seemed like a no brainer with me being military and strapped for time this was just the place to start making money. Long story short I never had a legal structure in place and never had his promissory note looked at prior to signing because I didn't want to spend the money on it. Please don't be cheap about legalities and legal business structure for your real estate deals, especially if you're partnering up with someone you don't know!