All Forum Posts by: Brandon Maxwell

 This. This times 1,000. We have all seen the picture where the contractor supposedly has two boats. One is an inflatable dingy with a 10 HP outboard motor. It is called "Original Contract". The other boat is a huge yacht that most of us can't dream about. It is called "Change Order".

I love working with contractors. Any chance I get to get out of the office and onto a job site, I jump at the opportunity. Most of them are great people doing great work. However, it is always wise to protect yourself from the few bad apples...

I agree the bid seems low; that is roughly $13/SF. However, that doesn't always mean it should be a warning sign. Sometimes contractors are just really hungry and are willing to 'buy' jobs. If that is the case here, and this contractor seems to have a track record for providing the type of quality and service you are expecting, then I would suggest to proceed, but cautiously.

As an architect, my clients ALWAYS use extensive language in their contracts and in specifications that protect them, regardless of the nature of the contractor. I do a lot of public work, which typically means the jobs are hard bid rather than negotiated. It also means that the owner usually has to accept the lowest responsible bidder, even if they don't particular like that contractor due to past experience. As such, they use many different tactics to protect their interest. I don't have much residential experience yet, but I have always wondered why the residential industry seems to get by with promises and hand shakes rather than contractual language to protect the various parties involved.

I say all that to so say, as long as you are smart about the contractor you are hiring and how you go about the process, you should be fine. Get references and follow up on them. I would recommend a 5% or even 10% retainage, depending on the legality of this in your state. Nothing is worse than having to hire a second contractor to finish the last 10-20% of a project because the first one skipped town after getting enough of the fee to move on to the next one. Good luck!

Thanks everyone again for the warm welcome. I am halfway through the Ultimate Beginner's Guide...man I don't think I have ever been this overwhelmed. Organizing my study process for my licensing board exams was easier than trying to digest all the various ways people make money in real estate.

My game plan for now is to finish up the Beginner's Guide tonight. Then brainstorm some on what niches I think are the lowest hanging fruit for me right now based on my income and financial situation. And then focus on learning as much as I can about those handful of niches. I feel that becoming as much of an expert as I can on one concept is better than learning just a little bit about a bunch of different ones. 

I'll go ahead and ask my first question here, but if it needs to be moved to another forum, I will do so. Is it advisable to do anything other than network, work a job, and pay down debt if your situation is that you have no capital of your own, relatively bad credit, and a fairly high debt to income ratio? 

I find myself in such a situation. I am the only breadwinner for my family of 5, and have had some bad luck/ignorance on my first property purchase. I bought my family a townhome in 2007 and it was recently sold in 2014 at a bit of a loss. I didn't want to sell it, as I was renting it out for more than I had in expenses. but the nature of the loan used to purchase required owner occupation. If I didn't reoccupy, they were going to foreclose on me, so I was forced to sell it. I don't have a mortgage currently, but my other debt is not what I wish it were. Consumer debt is around $12,000 credit cards (from moving expenses in 2012), an auto loan of $16,000, a 'bridge' loan that was used to pay closing costs when I sold my property earlier this year of about $7,000, $4,000 to the IRS for personal income taxes for 2013 due to an ignorant mistake on my W4, and about $60,000 in student loans between my wife and i. So roughly $100,000 in debt on a salary of about $65,000-75,000, depending on overtime and bonuses.

All that being said, what would your initial steps be if you little disposable income, bad credit, and a substanital amount of debt? I don't have very high hopes in being able to pay down the debt very quickly based on my income alone. Due to utilities, rent, etc. we don't have a lot left over for our 'debt snowball'. My goal for beginning down this REI path is that I don't see the type of financial future working for someone else as an architect, and I think I can better leverage the skills I've learned in more profitable ways working for myself. Rather than work for myself as an architect, I want to start a business investing in real estate. I realize the learning curve is steep and my situation is plagued by obstacles, but I am confident with time and dedication, I can make this work.

That being said, are there ways to make small amounts of money in real estate, considering the above? I am hoping to find some ways to leverage what I do have (industry experience, marketing skills, real estate photography business, an ability to learn, etc) to help me get what I don't have (money), so that I can then leverage both to make more money. I truly believe that real estate is the culmination of all my passions into one endeavor, and I am determined to make this happen for myself. I am not looking for a magic ticket, just looking for some general advice on what I should do, all things considered, as I begin. If I could find one little niche that makes sense to learn about and start wrapping my brain around, I would really appreciate the kick in the right direction.

Thanks!

Thanks everyone! I am very excited to start learning. Already, I feel that being in the architectural field has sheltered me somewhat to the broader reality of development. It is almost overwhelming to realize how much I don't know. But I have never shied away from learning and can't wait to jump right in. I am definitely going to take your advice of getting active in the forums, first by reading and absorbing as much as I can, and then hopefully soon by asking intelligent questions to help further my education. The podcasts seem a great place to start as well. 

Regarding your personal websites as mentioned, are these just blogs where you talk about your philosophies on investing as a way to share that knowledge? Or do the websites serve another purpose? I am thinking of starting a blog as a way to organize my thoughts and ideas for further digestion, as the blog format allows for the easiest chronological and keyword organizing. Thoughts on that? I literally have zero knowledge of real estate investing, so in the beginning the blog will serve mainly as my digital notebook/studyguide, and probably won't be helpful to others until I have time to polish it after gaining a certain amount of knowledge. Once I get it set up, I will add it to my signature.

I would completely agree (blasphemous I know!) that an architect is completely unnecessary for residential work. As an architect who has studied casually the evolution of my profession, I feel that architects have worked really hard at legislating their requirement on commercial projects, instead of working really hard at proving their worth on any project. Architects have the potential to help on just about any project due to their uniquely assembled skill set. If we collectively had worked harder over the last fifty years to not just make an architect a required piece of the puzzle but actually worked to make it a desirable element of the project team, things would be quite different for architects. Needless to say, my philosophies on the profession are at odds with most architects I have worked with.

Anyhow, enough rambling. I appreciate the warm welcome. I hope this community and the opportunity to get involved in it help demystify real estate investing and lead me to a more enjoyable and more profitable endeavor while still allowing me to maintain a close involvement in my passion of the building industry.

Hello everybody. My name is Brandon Maxwell and I am an architect in Blacksburg, Virginia. I have wanted to become an architect literally since I was 5 years old. The built environment and the process by which we alter it, has been my singular professional passion and one of my greatest personal interests for as long as I can remember. However, I have quickly realized in the 7 or so years I have been working since graduation that an architect, while skilled in the process by which great buildings are designed, very rarely has enough decision making power to have the positive impact that I desire. Becoming licensed in 2010 was a great achievement for me, but rather than a conclusion to something, it felt more like a penultimate accomplishment, second to becoming a real estate developer. I know in my heart that is where I want to go. I have the destination in mind, now I just have to make the journey to get there.

In addition to my desires to improve the built environment, I have found that I want to have my hands in more than just the design portion of a project. I want to learn about all the different aspects of a project, and gain as many of those skill sets as I can. I also believe that in many ways the architecture industry has lost some of the luster it once had and that many folks don't have much appreciation for what architects bring to the table, perhaps deservedly so. Rather than continue to be looked upon as just another hurdle to overcome in the process, I want to be the guy leading the whole team through the process. Hopefully, along the way I can offer meaningful additions to the infrastructure and built environment around me, and make money doing so.

I stumbled upon Bigger Pockets while reading some general real estate information on another blog. The community here seems robust and willing to help people learn and gain experience. I am basically starting at square one. I plan to spend some time reading through other forum posts and learning the lay of the land. I am excited to get started and hopefully I can quickly begin adding to the discussions where I am able.