All Forum Posts by: Jim K.

@Jonathan Greene

That's exactly what I was thinking all through the crackpot initial person exchange in your thread. The gurus just make money by stroking your ego all day long and telling you that you can do anything you set your mind to. I've told this story a dozen times here on BP, but it bears repeating.

A few years ago, I went to a very well known three-day guru seminar. We were supposed to learn how to flip houses on the last day. So in the middle of the session, without a word of warning, the seminar leader calls for volunteers to come on stage. Once he gets people up there, he tells them they're going to do a dance-off.

Yes, it happens. The winner of the dance-off is congratulated and told that they don't need to worry about flipping houses. They did a dance-off! In front of all these people! Of course they can handle a silly little flip!

And that was how we were taught how to flip a house.

@Chris John

That sounds wonderful. 37 doors, part-owner in another business, and not all your time is spent on making sure your property managers don't steal you blind. It turns out you were dead right on refinancing and acquiring during COVID.

Are you still teaching at 37 doors?

Quote from @John Mason:

No need to be obsessed

For me the reason I do it is 5 years down the line I will start working part time on my w2 and get more into real estate like maybe as a private lender and also doa  few flips and a  few joint venture deals

Intention is to not have the 9 to 5 ratrace etc and also work  from anywhere

 Thank you, John. So how are you doing it? If the goal is to be working part-time in your W-2 five years down the line, how are you getting there today? I'd like to know your plans for long-distance flips, that you could do from anywhere. How's it working now, how do you see it working in the future?

Something that @Don Konipol recently pointed out in another thread of mine is that successful real estate investors from all walks of life really do seem to share a unified trait: THEY LOVE REAL ESTATE.

They're obsessed by it. They talk your ear off about property given half an opportunity. It's a lifestyle for them, not something they pick up in their off time and leave off easily when there's something else to do that occupies their interest. NOTHING ELSE occupies their interest in the same way.

So this is an informal poll: does anyone here in the BP forums do real estate purely on the side and doesn't wish they did it full-time? Is it a contained interest for you, and you could either take it or leave it? If you day-trade or read the tea leaves for hot stock tips or play the ponies or simply put your money in index funds, do any of these things occupy your interest like real estate?

Ultimately, does anyone really ever set out to do real estate as a minor part of their life's ambitions and succeed in it as a side hustle that they spend a carefully limited amount of their time and energy on?

Or do you simply have to be obsessed to even have a chance to make it in this business?

Quote from @Taylor Barlow:

I want to leave my 9-5 ASAP.

Does anyone has anyone they can recommend as an agent to help guide me (answer millions of questions) through all the steps?

I just want to mention that real estate investing and this life goal are typically not compatible, although many people these days initially come to REI with the express goal of quitting their 9-5 job immediately. I'm a good example. It ended up taking me 13 years to fully quit my job and replace it with work related to our real estate business.

I'm not saying it isn't possible at all, I'm just saying that people starting in real estate investing usually find that a quick transition  from full-time employee to full-time real estate investor really isn't practical for them. Real estate usually ends up being a lifestyle and ends up as a slow but sure progression to self-employment or a very slow progression to full retirement.

The second statement you make is a clear appeal for a coach or mentor, in your case, you envision such a person would be a real estate agent with a lot of answers. This also usually isn't practical. People who end up paying for basic coaching to save time more often than not regret it. To my mind, at least, it's far better to spend some time now, read through a few books (or a few dozen), work through some of the resources here and form your own picture of the sort of investing that you might want to do in the future.

In any case, good luck to you going forward.

Quote from @Michael P.:

As a newbie myself, I am grateful for people like you. I currently own a food truck/restaurant and real estate is my next career move. I only say this because when I let people try my food it does me a disservice if people "fake" enjoy it. I prefer brutal honesty. For example, maybe I let 10 people try a new menu item. If all of them taste it and its too salty, but they don't want to hurt my feelings so they jus tell me "it's good!" then that actually hurts me instead of helps me. Next thing you know my customer base writes bad reviews, stops coming, etc. You get the idea. 

Give me the brutal truth, always. Not all of us have paper thin skin. When someone gives me a negative review on something I've made, I thank them for the honest feedback and take it into consideration. 

Next Step: Adjust accordingly. Sometimes people don't know what they're talking about. But once something is said it must be considered and thought about objectively. 

Looking forward to joining this community of meanies and bullies....hahaha

Exactly! It's just an opinion, one opinion, about the food! We have not employed the Divine Alembic to separate your soul from your body and deliver the Culinary Judgment of Ages upon you!  

Quote from @Peter W.:

We can forget what it can be like to no nothing. When I bought my first house (primary) I needed a lot of hand holding. Backed out of one contract mainly due to cold feet. When I bought my first investment property it was much easier on my real estate agent (and me) primarily because I had rebuilt the kitchen and bath in my primary by myself. I had repainted the floors felt with hot water heaters and broken hvac systems. 

Writing the first lease was difficult because I didn’t know how to protect myself. Fortunately there are lots of good resources.

This business isn’t particular complicated, but when you don’t know it, it’s hard to know where to start. It’s especially unhelpful because there are many people trying to fleece inexperienced investors.

Very true. It would be nice if there weren't so many sharks circling and it wasn't so easy to feel like you were chum in the water!

Quote from @James Hamling:

Quote from @Jim K.:

Quote from @James Hamling:

GRIT....

I believe it all, everything, boils down to WHO has more Grit, you or life. And there is no alternative options. 

Either you have MORE grit, and are the one wearing down life to shape into you're design....

Or life is grinding down you. 

That's it, that's all. Anyone can "fight" this as much as they can "fight" the sun rising or setting. Some things just ARE. 

And Grit is just busted up "hard stuff" that stuck, becomes part of you, a new layer, that you can do nothing with, or put to work for ya. 

If this nation continues AWAY from an appreciation and pursuit to and through what is difficult, hard, painful....    I fear the suffering to come from refusing the journey of "pain". 

I don't know about all that.

I honestly believe I was born to be a failure in life, and that's what I am in many ways. But I am OK with being a failure, even knowing it in my soul. I'm just not OK with the specific act of giving up. There is something in me that will not stop, that isn't even capable of stopping. I don't think that thing is grit. I've been beat down hard too many times to call it that. And I've just regrouped and come back enough to know that regrouping and coming back are a lot more possible than what they seem to be in our worst moments, and that experience, sure, that's a personal resource.

Perhaps it's just a sickness.

 Well, yeah.

Quote from @James Hamling:

GRIT....

I believe it all, everything, boils down to WHO has more Grit, you or life. And there is no alternative options. 

Either you have MORE grit, and are the one wearing down life to shape into you're design....

Or life is grinding down you. 

That's it, that's all. Anyone can "fight" this as much as they can "fight" the sun rising or setting. Some things just ARE. 

And Grit is just busted up "hard stuff" that stuck, becomes part of you, a new layer, that you can do nothing with, or put to work for ya. 

If this nation continues AWAY from an appreciation and pursuit to and through what is difficult, hard, painful....    I fear the suffering to come from refusing the journey of "pain". 

I don't know about all that.

I honestly believe I was born to be a failure in life, and that's what I am in many ways. But I am OK with being a failure, even knowing it in my soul. I'm just not OK with the specific act of giving up. There is something in me that will not stop, that isn't even capable of stopping. I don't think that thing is grit. I've been beat down hard too many times to call it that. And I've just regrouped and come back enough to know that regrouping and coming back are a lot more possible than what they seem to be in our worst moments, and that experience, sure, that's a personal resource.

Perhaps it's just a sickness.

Back in the 1990s, that statistic I read was that 80% of graduating high school seniors expected to become millionaires in their lifetimes.

@Nicholas L.

VERY MUCH SO. Somehow, the general population got the impression that master plumbers are poor in America. I don't think it's all about work ethic, as Mike Rowe likes to say. As long as they're getting paid and feel they're doing worthwhile work, there are plenty of Millennials and Gen X who will sleep at their desks. But they do seem to expect DESKS to do much of their work. The nineteenth century idea that the wealthy only work with their minds while the poor must work with their hands seems to be reasserting itself in our society.