All Forum Posts by: Michael G.

@Evan Parker

1st, thank you for the thoughtful question.

However, there are numerous in-baked premises & presumptions in your question.  To respect the readership, I will use bullet-points.

• Gentrification need not be, and I respectfully posit, is NOT a bad-word.  As long as it doesn't come too quickly, it delivers significant net benefits.
• Almost ALL asset-classes are expected to appreciate over time. Equities, Bonds (via implied interest-rate), Art, Fine-Wines, and especially Real-Estate. The phenomenon of 'ascendancy, improvement, appreciation' is agnostic to race, color, ethnicity or socio-economic class. It is simply a function of living on this earth, and driven by a reality which is inflation.
• As an example of the above, don't all salaried employees expect or - at least "appreciate" (apologies for the pun) - a raise each year? Of course they do! Do they deserve it? For the most part, Yes! They do! The cost of living goes up each year after-all, doesn't it? Pesky inflation again!  And so, holders of real-estate are no different. They, too, deserve a "raise."
• Towns, villages, and of course neighborhoods are living, breathing, moving, changing, evolving things... constantly in motion... like life. The people in them move-around too. No one should expect things to remain the same (or rents, costs, etc to remain the same) forever.
• As an example of the above, many New-Yorkers were 'priced-out' of Manhattan over the last 15-20 years. And do you know what that caused? A massive & rapid ascendancy of Brooklyn as the "go-to" hotspot. So actually, the "gentrification" that "plagued" Manhattan, thought-of initially as a 'negative,'  actually turned out to be a huge positive for Brooklyn.  And when Brooklyn's turn is up, Staten Island might be next. That's just how life goes. People are mobile, they adapt, and move.  
• So no neighborhood should rightly be expected to remain exactly the same as it's always been for the last 3 generations or 80 years... Can you imagine going back to a neighborhood where all the shops are old & tired looking, there are no credit-card machines, the awnings are all faded & torn, the houses are worn-down, the yards neglected, the store-fronts empty. 

Absent "gentrification," you'll get stagnation, and that's just sad. And way, way worse.

"Mazel Tov"  as they say!   Nice work!   

How long did it take from start to finish, if you don't mind my asking?

@Jeffrey Douglas

Jeffrey:  Did you ever get the chance to compile a Google spreadsheet for us with the  Titles, Names of the Authors for all the hundreds of book suggestions you rec'd? (Would be an incredible service to the BP community)   Can you share the link? 

Thanks!

@Jason Bible

Tks for quick reply - Would you be ok to DM it to me?  (or can I DM you?)

The question is germane, I believe,  to know what all of the hard-work & effort you've put into Real-Estate over the last few years has amounted to - in the real world...    

And, you did offer to 'Ask you Anything...'        :-)   .... 

@Jason Bible

Hi Jason! Thanks so much for transparently putting yourself out there. It's genuinely appreciated.

Given your level of real-estate activity in the last ~ 5 years can you share:

1. What is your current NET WORTH? (Using conservative estimates of the equity in your real-estate holdings)
2. How much TOTAL INCOME (EBITDA) did you earn, in aggregate, from all of your real-estate investments & activities  A.) over the last 12 months?  B.) in 2018?   C.) in 2017?   D.) in 2016?  E.) In the last quarter?
3. For what amount of money did you sell your Wholesaling & Flipping company?

Thanks!  (and wishing you much continued success!)

@Jeffrey Douglas

Jeff - Would you kindly ping me when you've posted the XL sheet with the list of all of these books?  Hard to track all of these awesome suggestions... They keep rolling in too fast!  Thx!

@Jeffrey Douglas

Hi Jeffrey - Great thread! Thanks for thinking of it!  As they say... knowledge is power!

Can you assemble a GoogleSheet or XL spreadsheet  with all the book Titles / Authors / Any pertinent notes for all of us to access & download / print?   Maybe via a  public Google-Drive link ?  

Would be so awesome ... !

Also, shouldn't the offer of 5% for a 1st time, short-term, hard-money loan between 2 parties who've never even worked together before have been a huge red-flag? Aren't loans like this usually in the 10-12% range?

I personally dont like it when service people - especially electricians - charge "per-point" or per job. Any job can be broken down to 2 things: Materials & Labor.

I actually find that the best strategy is to find a good handyman you trust who charges by the hour, and just pay her/him for the labor. (and reimburse  - without padding or markup - for any materials needed)

For ex, I know that changing out a faucet shouldn't take more than 45 mins, so if a handyman tries to charge $ 150 (excluding the faucet itself)  for this simple task, i might feel exploited.

Depending on where you live, quality reliable handymen can fetch between $20-50 per hour  (vs federal min wage is less than $8/hr) so this is pretty good for work that doesnt even require a high-school GED IMO.

@Sheri Lowrance

Thanks Sheri. This detailed, thorough write-up is an extremely useful, if unsurprising, review. Oh lord, why is it that the "fanciest," most "expensive" products - especially the ones that expect you to fork out thousand$ up-front  -  are the most useless?