hahaha not trying to start a silly internet war. BP is a great site and not a place for bashing. i agree, i could have stated my case a bit more eloquently earlier. what i write is not an attack or a personal affront. it is my opinion. i will try again here:
to be fair, i think it's perfectly acceptable to offer a counter opinion and a bit of a warning to a newbie investor who is asking for honest and unbiased advice (which was the beginning of this post). someone selling an investment should be able to handle a bit of healthy skepticism of their model if they are trying to sell others on the model for their own gain. i have nothing to sell here. i don't even work with clients at all. i only deal with my own properties for my own gain.
while in law school i became fascinated with various turnkey investor schemes that ended up exploding and taking down numerous innocent parties. i have looked at thousands of pages of filings with courts and the arkansas securities department when they've gone after these kinds of schemes. again, i don't know you personally or the inner workings of your business, so i am not pointing any fingers. however, i am keenly aware that certain types of investment schemes (for lack of a better word) tend to end badly....occasionally with out of state investors holding the bag with a loan they've guaranteed on a house that is truly worth maybe half of what the appraisal says (btw, i am not a fan of appraisals...). i've talked to the bankers who ended up taking huge losses trying to recover the assets. so it's not, as you say, that i am "behind the curve".... i am very familiar with the model. i simply think that there are flaws which, when exposed to a newbie investor, may make them think twice about what they do with their $ and credit. and BP is a perfect place to have all views out in the open, even when those views aren't of rainbows and butterflies. if you're interested, i can point you in the direction of some of the cases/filings. they make for a thrilling late night read over a cup of mylo's coffee (although i myself am not a fan of their coffee...i am a bit of an espresso snob)
it seems you have a great business model - for you - which is what counts - for you. i know many investors from places like california that get googly eyed at the cash flow available from properties in little rock and similar types of cities. but those are on paper... i have owned hundreds of properties and i know better. in real life, those paper deals seem great, but they're not. more power to you if you can make $ doing it.
i see on your page that you show properties renting for $1050 that should legitimately rent for $650-$700. i have owned (and may still own) houses on the same streets on your site, so i know the areas. no sane person would ever pay that kind of rent for any house in some of those areas, and no sane person would ever buy houses in some of those areas at those prices - no matter what kind of countertops the house has. and to then base the "value" on that super-inflated rental price and market those prices/rents to out of state investors who have no way of knowing better? brilliant? maybe. setting people up for failure? possibly.
i would never outright bash a profitable business. but do i have my doubts about how great it is for all parties? yes. should you care what i think? probably not if you are making money. should newbie investors care what i think? up to them, but i would be remiss if i didn't at least put it out there for them to weigh the options and decide for themselves. i have nothing to gain by doing it.
i do know that i love buying houses at foreclosure auctions when investors (turnkey as well as others) fail and can't deliver what they've promised with their elaborate guaranteed returns/rents. i see it a lot. and i get great deals on their houses when it all blows up.
"There are a million ways to make a million dollars." -EP (i just made that up, but i think it's catchy)
