Thank you Josh Dorkin and the BP community

[Sonny Ruckstuhl]

17 weeks

17 weeks ago I finally took action with my BP membership. I looked yesterday and I found the website in 2013 and became a member. And I stopped.

In spring of 2016, my son expressed an interest in RE investing and so I did one webinar, became a PRO member, and stopped again.

Then, 17 weeks ago, I received notice of a small amount of money (or large depending upon one's point of view) from an inheritance and it coincided with my first podcast listen.

17 weeks later, I just finished listening to my final podcast and am now current.  I have taken in many lessons and wanted to write it out here. 

The most consistent lesson was persistence or grit.  This lesson manifested itself with a regular assessment of RE deals (not at Brandon's suggested rate of 3/day, but close). 

The next lesson was take action.  This has included offering on and purchasing a duplex and fourplex that were pipedreams 17 weeks ago. 

Expecting and overcoming obstacles with a long-term plan such as a BRRRR strategy had me look at these properties with their long-neglected structures as opportunities. The calculators helped me know that these were solid singles and may turn into doubles.

Another lesson was relationships and just letting people know what I am doing. It led to the 2nd property (the duplex) and seller financing all thanks to the PM I retained on the 4plex and my mentioning to him I was looking for distressed or burned out landlords.  The community feeling of BP allowed me to help the realtor on that property find a buyer for a rehab that was way outside of my scope but set up a BP member I have still yet to meet in person to obtain a project he is excited by (at least he is as of this writing).  Another BP relationship led to consideration of a commercial property.  Not able to pull it off, but that I feel competent to pursue these sorts of things is staggering.

Finding my why was another lesson as it crossed into my ideas of how to be an ethical landlord. My wife and I have spent a good deal of time in our jobs with families and children who are likely to be, for the most part, perpetual renters. We want to use our RE strategy to follow Marcia Maynard's motto of providing Safe, Clean, Quiet, and Affordable (may get the exact quote wrong but it was over a 150 podcasts ago) living spaces for our customers.

Finding local mentors has led me to two different REIA groups in my area where I have found experienced and willing mentors along with a network of potential partners and investors.

I have read six different books from the BP catalog as well as three others from podcast suggestions.

Among the information from these books, I was led to move my 401k into a self-directed, checkbook control trust that I am still considering the possibilities for, and look forward to using those monies more freely than I had.

All in all, I have a great big thank you for Josh Dorkin for putting all of this together. Other people to thank are Brandon Turner, Mindy Jensen, J. Scott, Brian Burke, Ben Leybovich, Serge Shukhat, Michael Blank, Michael Quarles, Brian Murray, Chris Clothier, Matt and Liz Faircloth, Amanda Han, the Syrios clan, and all the other folks who lent their stories to the podcasts. 

The accumulated wisdom on this site, the participation of the community, and the resources from the calculators, the marketplace, the forums, the blog, and the podcast are everything that anyone interested in pursuing RE could hope for.  All for an amazingly low price.  Free.  I am happy to pay the PRO membership. I get value from it with the unlimited use of the calculators (my main use to this point). But the PRO membership is not necessary for any of the things I have done in the past 17 weeks.

Now, I have to go over to ITunes and leave a 5-star rating.

sonny

P.S. Tomorrow I am going to look at a short sale, interview owners and renters in a townhome complex where I may be purchasing, and going to look at a duplex that could be commercial, VRBO, residential buy and hold, or a flip.