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All Forum Posts by: Henry Clark

Henry Clark has started 196 posts and replied 3792 times.

Post: Failed Leadership is why California is on fire.

Henry Clark
#2 Commercial Real Estate Investing Contributor
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  • Posts 3,863
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Quote from @James Hamling:
Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:
Quote from @James Hamling:
Quote from @Ned J.:

Oh god... just stop. 

CA didnt send any help to TN/NC??.... oh please

CA ran out of water...... do you have ANY clue what kind of water delivery system would be needed to handle multiple wild fires of this magnitude?.... with 50-80 mph winds? NOT POSSIBLE.... NOT A SINGLE state has a water delivery system to combat fires and condition's of this magnitude

Stop listening to all the blatant misinformation being dumped in SM and certain "news" stations....99% of it is complete BS and been disproven, but the lies just keep spreading as "fact"

Give me a  F'in break....... now all the RE experts are fire management experts

"CA ran out of water...... do you have ANY clue what kind of water delivery system would be needed to handle multiple wild fires of this magnitude?...."

Yeah, I do. 
The empty ones already in place in CA, neglected to, ya know, have water in em. 

Hey, how about that genius move to turn OFF the power, including to the water pumps. Has CA never heard of generators? Did nobody ever stop and say "oh, hey, maybe we should keep water pumps going because, ya know, no electricity no water pumping, NO WATER". 

Ran out of water, LMAO. That's the drunk driver saying the car just wouldn't drive straight. 

its common practice at least in northern CA to turn off power to the whole grid when they are getting hot dry windy weather.. if you look @Brian Burke post  those fires that wiped out so many in Sonoma Napa and Lake Counties were generally caused by downed hot power lines and PGE was sued and I think lost billion or multi billion dollar law suit.. I like Brian lived in the same area as him for most of my life and these fires were about a once every 20 year event.

with some whoppers back in 1980 to 1985  big ones in Lake co and Atlas peak in Napa went up mid 80s.. but there were not as many homes in the areas.. The one where Brian lived what was unique is it got down into the flat land and burned up subdivision homes which is still pretty rare. 

So thats why the power gets turned off.


I totally get that. 

What baffles me is in a fire zone, where it's a normalized thing to need to turn off power grid for safety sake of fires, is there really nobody who thought of having generators at the water lift stations? 

I mean, come-on, that's rather obvious isn't it? 

You need water to fight fires. Need pumps to keep water going. Seems rather obvious to have backup power generation given a policy to turn power off in fire risk instances. 

There was the 1 guy in the middle of the fires who stayed and saved I don't know how many homes, several, because he ran around with a dang garden hose. I am betting via a home generator and a well. 1 old man and a garden hose..... 

So yeah, I question what could have been if someone put there thinking cap on and took a mobile generator to the lift stations so the hydrants would have had water....... 

That guy and his son pre bought a normal trash water pump.  They pumped from their swimming pools. 


Believe I noted in an earlier post.  My brother oversaw fire efforts south of LA to the border one year with the military. But when their resources weren’t need they helped LA and up to Washington state.   For LA specifically they gave them a recommendation to put pre filled water tanks up in the hills.  From there it was gravity fed pressure through the fire hydrants.  LA did not want to do it.  

Post: First Commercial Biz. Help with Process Needed.

Henry Clark
#2 Commercial Real Estate Investing Contributor
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  • Posts 3,863
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OP. 

See if a new Chiropractor came in the area.  Assume the other retired.


Reach out to your closest Chiropractor schools.   Interview current and recent graduates.  Set up a good startup lease deal with option to buy after 5 years.

Post: Which multifamily type you will prefer: potential appreciation or 1% higher cap

Henry Clark
#2 Commercial Real Estate Investing Contributor
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OP.  I would disregard cap rate in those two situations, actually in all situations.  They are both very high from a price standpoint.  Example for a grade of A. What is the difference between a 97 versus a 99?

As mentioned just above look at the specific market dynamics, the location dynamics and then the actual deal dynamics. Growing communities, school systems, location within the community, can you ADU or split a lot off, which has lower current rental rates compared to that local market, which has more or less Capex coming due, etc. etc.

Who gave you the Cap rates?  I would challenge the numbers unless you developed them.  Plus is this based on their asking price, or what you would pay?

Post: Real Estate Inheritance

Henry Clark
#2 Commercial Real Estate Investing Contributor
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OP your major issue will be the owners transition from home care to a retirement home.  

Since they are wealthy.   Could live for 6 or 7 years.  Normal folks $6,000 to $10,000 per month.   This person could be $15,000 to $25,000 per month.   If funds get used up then government goes after assets such as the house.

Recommend power of attorney just over the house once they go to a retirement home.  You will want set aside funds and a standalone account do house upkeep.  Otherwise you will personally fund maybe with no recourse.  

Post: Where do you park your money if you want to retire by 50 or 55?

Henry Clark
#2 Commercial Real Estate Investing Contributor
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OP.  Would need to know your resources, skill sets, risk tolerance.

Looking at your background your in Texas and are a real estate agent?

Your objective by 50 55. You're not going to get there parking our money. Your going to have to make it in your families living costs and I would say REI since your an agent.

1.  Family living.  Want you to build or buy a small storage location.  Build a managers living quarter big enough for your families needs for the next 5 years.  You’re going to sell and move at the end of 5 years or sooner.  Then build bigger.  This will give you cheap deductible housing and all support costs.  Even your water hose can be deducted.  

2.  Food and clothing.  Look for one of my posts or responses on this.  Cut your food and clothing costs to a 1/4 of your current costs.  


3.  401k your going to lose money for the next 5 years.  

4.  Real Estate agent will be kind of da generous unless your the top 5% to make a living.  


5. REI- approach. Appreciation, cashflow, cash snowball. You need to focus on Cash snowball approach while looking for the other two approaches.

6.  Texas is the greatest state for property total sales.   Learn the rules.  Do just “off list” tax sales.  Don’t go to the auctions.  Buy for $5,000 sale for $25,000 example.  Dont worry about paying taxes.  As you accumulate cash start adding Appreciation and cashflow assets.  

7.  Research paying for college.   Either Texas college fund or see if you can join the Reserves and College may be free at Texas schools.   Check this. I know for military but don’t know for Reserves.  
   
8. Start attending REi meetups. Don't tell anyone outside your REI acquaintances your plans or objectives. Not even your family or coworkers.

Keep learning. 

Post: Qualified Intermediary choice

Henry Clark
#2 Commercial Real Estate Investing Contributor
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OP ask your local realtor for suggestions.  Then go sit down with them.  Tell them your plan. Then have them educate you. 

Post: Biggest Challenges with Syndications

Henry Clark
#2 Commercial Real Estate Investing Contributor
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OP recommend you take a different approach looking for weaknesses.  Your background shows Financial professional and you have already invested. 

Make your failures on paper first.  See the path ahead of you versus when you hit it.  Grab a spreadsheet and make an outline.  Then post here and ask people to help expand it.  Make both a deal analysis checklist and a Syndication outline.  

Your objective is to narrow down your potential failures to smaller items.  This will also help in the investor side. 

We do developments and not syndication.

Make an outline.  Then make sub categories.

Deal analysis.

Legal needs.

Execution.

Investor communication

Exit plan

Financial management

Stress tests

Market study- competition, occupancy levels, demand, pricing, amenities, location, etc

Financing- who and how, match the financing to the exit plan, 

Sales pitch- the deal, your teams experience, your skin in the game, 

COO, permitting, zoning, inspections,

Materials- what if-stress test.  inflation, availability, leadtime, tariffs, China, Canada, 

Once you have this done who is on your team, strengths weaknesses, stress points, timetables, 


Use the lookup function and read all of the syndication posts.  

Post: Is a 1031 exchange a good idea in this situation?

Henry Clark
#2 Commercial Real Estate Investing Contributor
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OP. Sit down with a Qualified 1031 Intermediary and tell them what you want to do. 

1.  Let’s say you sell for $100k.  Let’s keep simple and forget selling costs.  You then have to buy for that same cost or higher.  Say you buy for $110k.  You have to bring $10k to the deal.  
2.  Same as above. But you only find a new property for $90k.  The $10k difference is all considered incomes.  No cost basis is applied.  
3.  Say you sell then want to buy 2 properties.  Understand the time frame to identify the two new properties.  It is pretty tight.  You won’t have as much leverage to walk away from a deal.  Thus you won’t make as good of a deal.  
4.  Compute the difference between selling and 1031 versus using your current investment as cross collateral for your new purchases.  You would need to stay with your same lender.  
5.  You could do a reverse 1031.  Buy first then sell.  Since you control selling your property takes some of the timing pressure off.  But you need to work with a lender since you won’t have the cash available to make the purchase.  

Post: Biggerpockets and AI

Henry Clark
#2 Commercial Real Estate Investing Contributor
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Quote from @Katie Miller:
Quote from @Henry Clark:

 Thank you.  Steven S.

@Moderators.  Please pass on to BP development team.  

BP realize you’re worried about accuracy and liability.

  Accuracy- you’re not guaranteed any of us posters are accurate.  So put a waiver on the AI response.   Also other posters will follow up with additional or corrective comments which already happens.  

Liability-  as mentioned put a waiver.  If needed add a Topic section called AI search.  Tied to a waiver process.

Monetization.  Pick a track that suits BPs model.  At the end of the response direct them to podcasts, BP books, vendors who also pay you for advertising, require them to get a ???? Membership after 5 AI responses, etc etc. 

 @Aaron Breckenridge is a BP developer on this thread! so consider it passed on :) 

But I do agree with Crystal's point that lots of our top content contributors and forum posters are in it for the personal relationship development and don't mind the 1:1 interactions or perhaps repetitive content. You'll find the same type of interactions on any forum-based site (like reddit since that was mentioned earlier) with regard to repeat topics and same ol' but slightly different answers. Sometimes folks just want interpersonal connection


 Please provide a poster breakdown.  1 to 10; 10 to 20 since they have used BP.  Ghost their own posts.  Definitely agree with you two, the posters want personal interaction without using the lookup function.  And some of the regular posters like personal interaction or enjoying sharing their experience. 

But a Base level AI response that is both repetitive in nature and more complete would be a great place to start since the info already exists.  Then the experienced poster can build on that AI response.   Also, it is about Monetizing BP, for any change for any company to be made.  I think the AI response with a follow-up on the monetization ideas I noted above would be more beneficial to both the poster and to BP.

The AI solution already exists as evidenced by the two posters above.  So, it becomes a vetting, execution and monetization issue.

Post: Biggerpockets and AI

Henry Clark
#2 Commercial Real Estate Investing Contributor
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Quote from @Steven S.:
Quote from @Henry Clark:
Quote from @Steven S.:

 https://chatgpt.com/share/67e35b44-352c-800b-b9d8-79e44e703c...

@Henry Clark So do you see how ChatGPT can utilize BP posts to answer your Q's? It's really simple and takes <30 seconds!

But you might be getting confused... Carlos said "But it's good if BP started to have its own AI LLM feature" and that is what I am responding to. It's actually stupid for BP to make their own chatbot, as Carlos was requesting, because it's a waste of time & resources. The large AI companies already provide this.

That example is great.   Now forget what both of you said.   How does BP set up and automate a response on their forum posts.  Move the conversation past you two and to BP.   People are lazy.  How do you automate it as part of their BP post?

@Henry Clark Sure, after thinking about it:

1. When composing a post (in the editor), have an automation to take the currently written content every 15 seconds, and send it to an AI with a system prompt like:

"Analyze the content below into summarized search terms and then check only bigger pockets forum posts from biggerpockets.com that you see on search results, and return me the top 5 most similar most recent posts. If there's nothing similar, you should only output "NO_MATCHES".   {USER_POST}".

If NO_MATCHES is returned, then loop again and try in 15s.

When matches are found, you can display these similar posts with the citation tags for sources (just like in the ChatGPT example), hover over sentences to see different posts & provide links to posts at the bottom of the editor.

This will allow those basic posts to be answered immediately, before they even get done writing their post.


2. Create a 'BP Expert' bot that identifies those surface-level posts or things that have a straightforward answer, and comments "This post has been identified as basic so I'll try to answer it for you. XYZ explanation. 123 sources." This will answer those basic posts or questions, and point them towards the other posts/sources.

This bot would also apply "Beginner", "Intermediate", and "Expert" tags (with their own colors) to each post below the title of each post so people could easily know what level each post is at. Some people like only expert level discussions, some only beginner, etc.


These two solutions avoid excessive API cost since it's not like a general chatbot anyone can just type things into, whilst still providing a lot of value to the community from beginners to experts. BP Pro members (subscription fee accounts) could get access to a chatbot or something that has custom system prompting/memory trained on BP posts (obviously with usage limits, I would make it like 50% profitable, i.e. charging 1.5x the cost of the API tokens they use).

I could think of more but I don't get paid to do this for BP lol

 Thank you.  Steven S.

@Moderators.  Please pass on to BP development team.  

BP realize you’re worried about accuracy and liability.

  Accuracy- you’re not guaranteed any of us posters are accurate.  So put a waiver on the AI response.   Also other posters will follow up with additional or corrective comments which already happens.  

Liability-  as mentioned put a waiver.  If needed add a Topic section called AI search.  Tied to a waiver process.

Monetization.  Pick a track that suits BPs model.  At the end of the response direct them to podcasts, BP books, vendors who also pay you for advertising, require them to get a ???? Membership after 5 AI responses, etc etc.