All Forum Posts by: James Dickens

It would seem that knowing the area and prices for labor and material for that area are part of the key to this and that investors that are working in areas they are not familiar with would have a problem using this strategy. Hence when they use what is provided and are taking a bigger risk +/- because of it. 

So knowing the area that you are investing in intimately in these times when so many people are competing for deals seems to be paramount. 

At least this is what I'm getting from the conversation!  

Still looking for people to try this great app out. Several UI changes made over this past week which really have things looking good! Great Resouce to see to make connections and see who may be doing deals in the area in which you want to work. 

Hey all! I'm a long time Bigger Pockets user/subscriber and have working with my friend Matt Marino Alpha testing a new application he has built and now we need more people to sign up and give it a try. I am not getting paid for this and the application doesn't cost anything.

The application is called Targets by Tower Hunt http://targets.towerhunt.com/ and we now need some additional users in the system. If you are a Broker, Syndicator, Lender or involved in any way with Commerical Real Estate this will be a great tool for you to give a try.

So, what does it do? You can set up target markets that you are looking for or have deals in. You can set up both Macro and Micro areas to focus on. If someone else has an overlapping area on their profile you will see who that is so you can see what areas, they are looking at and what deals they want to do.

You can also list deals much like you can areas. If you have done a deal you can list some of the specifics and list who else was involved in the deal. This will send out an email to that person and they can opt in to be listed on the deal.

Not only is this great for connecting with others but it’s also a great way to show what you have done and with whom.

Come and try it out at http://targets.towerhunt.com/ . It’s being built with Investors, Brokers, and Lenders in mind!

When you get to the page the first thing you will want to do is Sign Up (upper right corner). That's the best way to get started. If you try it out and have any questions please let me know. 

Welcome to BP Ty. We will take all the good Medical people we can here in Louisiana! @Robert Leonard is a great contact to have here and a nice guy as well. Enjoy New Orleans but don't forget there is a lot more to the state than just NOLA :) I hope your move goes well and you find what you are looking for in a great location.  

@Chase Johnson there are several that you can find if you look around. I like the one that I built using Justin Kivel's Udemy course The Real Estate Pro Forma Modeling Master Class. You can usually find a discount code or if you're a first-time Udemy user you can get a discount. I think I paid like $12 for this and another class. I liked taking the course as I learned a lot in the process but if you are in a hurry you can just download his template at the end of the series of lessons. 

@Tom Shallcross, @Gaspare U. and @Greg Dickerson thank you all for your replies. Lots of good information and it helped to resolve an issue I had but also solidify my thinking on this. I would say then that there is a general rule of thumb by class with a sliding +/- scale by age and or by building type. The area will also play a part due to hard and soft costs but that would be part of knowing your Regions/MSA

When running numbers on a property what cost numbers do you use as a rule of thumb for Cap-Ex per unit, per year, by Class?

I know this could be nitpicked to death with a lot of other factors such as year built, Roof Type, Heading and AC type, which is great if you want to add that information as well. However, I just wanted to get a feel for rule of thumb type numbers if you would like to share. 

Thanks!

Not trying to start a separate discussion or argue but how is that any different from your signature or many others? I see several items that would take me other places if I chose to click on them or copy and or paste. 

Maybe the topics in Marketplace need to be diversified at least, Review my podcast, looking for a mentor, looking for mentees, etc? Don't just ban hammer posts to Marketplace which is a cluster of crap to begin with on most days. May even make the mod job a bit easier if some of the topics that you have to send there had a place for people to put them in the first place? 

Food for thought.... 
 

The problem with this is that the Marketplace is not a catch-all. Yall did this to me on a post a while back as well and although it may not be for the general forum I was not trying to sell anything. When you get a lot of a type of post maybe it's time to start looking at creating a new section. 

The Ouroboros of CRE investing education. It's much the same in just Entrepreneur forums. It's all about becoming a thought leader or focal point in your space. Every podcast and book lately want you to become a podcaster or blogger etc to grow your Network. This bleeds over to any forums because it's about the funnel and numbers and conversions.

I have been coming around here for just over 2 years. What got me here? Morris Invests believe it or not. I saw some videos and listened to a podcast or two and thought this is great! The more I educated myself the further I moved away from the lure of easy money and realized that to do this right you need to know and understand a lot. In fact, I still haven’t done a deal, not even a % of a deal but I am slowly networking and trying to build relationships the right way with the right people. I see a lot of advice to jump right in but that's just not my style and I know that. 

I had a conversation with a Broker I have made friends with who has given me some great feedback and we spoke about this recently. I mentioned that there are so many new people who want to know now and not have to educate themselves and this was his reply which I think fits here. “I think the reality one has to face is you are paying for the content to be placed in your lap as someone else sees fit rather than having to go hunt for that value” and that is where we are at.

Guru’s for money know this fact that so many people who have some money want to know NOW how to do this Real Estate thing and it’s just not that simple, but yet hundreds each day sign up for this type of teaching with little or no due diligence because they want it simple and spoon-fed to them. BP just makes that easy to just that, it’s a target-rich environment.

I love BP and what it provides but at times it is hard to look through the forum due to these types of posts.

I did go back and look and if “Hotel Guy” is who I think it is I will say that I have gotten lots of good information from him and it didn’t cost me anything. I know that this individual and his people are trying to put together an education platform that will be able to teach people about investing with a low barrier to entry as they are doing the same thing with Multi-Family. They are also somewhat new at the education part so at this stage it’s still a bit awkward at times, but I think their heart is in the right place, at least right now.

It may be that BP puts up a forum for Educational Programs/Offerings? Maybe they have a pay barrier to be able to post in that space? Maybe make them put up a mission statement about what it is they are trying to do as far as educating others? I do think there has to be a better way though, BP and the Community should be proactive in finding a way to see if there is value in an offering both short term and long term to better advise newer people to what is good, bad and indifferent.