A Belated Thank You to BiggerPockets

[John Chapman]

Okay, so this post has probably been a longtime coming and is probably a little long. Over the last few years, I have made a number of very important (and profitable) connections through BP, and I’ve never actually taken the time to sit down and give credit where credit is due. Though I’ve had a number of amazing experiences as a result of BP, this post is about a recent joint venture I’ve entered into with @Jerry Puckett , @Grant Kemp, and @Ronald Walker regarding sub-2/owner finance deals, the results of which have been nothing short of amazing. At bottom, though, this is a shout out to Bigger Pockets, without which none of this would have happened

I first connected with Jerry almost 3 years ago and partnered with him on a number of mailing campaigns. Before working with Jerry, I had a pretty significant lone ranger complex and what I would call investor tunnel vision. I refused to work with anyone, and I’m a buy and hold guy at heart, so I would look at every property through that narrow lens. The result is that I would turn my nose up at anything that did not meet my narrow criteria. Jerry continually beat on me to open up my eyes and realize there are many, many ways to make money in real estate. It took a while, but Jerry and I started doing a number of really good deals. (We did some true equity discount deals, an amazing owner finance deal, and some great long term rental deals.) I could go into more detail but I’ve been working with Jerry long enough that it would take forever. BTW, I consider Jerry to be a marketing genius; his work is the best I’ve ever seen and his integrity is beyond reproach. He’s one of the few people with whom I would ever feel comfortable partnering with, and it was mainly his reputation on BP that made me want to initially work with him.

Anyway, that’s the background. The main purpose of this post is to talk about the joint venture that Jerry, Grant, Ronnie and I have recently entered into. In fairness, it was Jerry’s idea. Basically, Jerry proposed that we all partner up to try to obtain sub-2 deals/owner finance deals using direct mail. (These are the types of deals that Grant discusses in Podcast 70.) I had heard of Grant for about a year, and, like Jerry, his reputation was sterling. I literally never heard a bad word about him, and other investors raved about how much he knew and how he can make money on almost any deal. His BP podcast is what sealed the deal for me as it was the first time I ever heard sub-2 and owner finance explained in such an articulate way. (Again, this is an example of BP bringing people together.)

Jerry got the three of us together for lunch and we hammered out the rough terms of what we would accomplish. I would fund marketing and assist in acquisitions. Jerry would produce the marketing and generate the marketing list. Grant and Ronnie would provide the infrastructure and know-how for how to do the deals. We started mailing 3 weeks ago, 500 letters a week, and we have already locked down 3 deals sub-2 deals with more hot leads still being worked. I also threw in a lead that I got from my own personal direct mail campaign, and Grant and I worked it together. (read: I tagged along and watched Grant get the property under contract.) In sum, in three weeks, we’ve locked down four deals. I’ve been in real estate over seven years and these results are, quite frankly, unbelievable. (As an aside, please, please don’t use these numbers as a basis for judging your own marketing or Jerry’s if you use him; I’ve sent tens of thousands of letters and every campaign is different.)

The experience has been absolutely amazing and really shows how partnerships with reputable people can produce returns far beyond what one can accomplish on his or her own. (Grant and Ronnie, for example, run an amazing business that hustles like nothing I’ve ever seen.) Everyone is very happy with the arrangement, and we are all working well together. Again, though, none of us would have gotten together if it had not been for BP.

Sometimes, I think it’s easy to forget how much BP does for investors. I’ll occasionally ask myself why I’m still messing around on the forums or commenting or whatever, and ask if it’s really worth it. I think this is probably because meaningful connections take time to develop, and once you’ve made a connection with someone, it’s hard to remember that the only reason you made the connection in the first place was because of BP. In other words, it’s really easy to take BP for granted. It’s my hope that with this post we all (myself included) can keep in mind just how great this site is.