All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Greene

Join us for our monthly meetup for real estate investors in Northern New Jersey. These are networking events. No pitching is allowed. We are here to build relationships and discuss real estate investing. This event is in Whippany, not Jersey City (BP only has two towns in New Jersey to tag, so it shows up).

Investors of all levels are welcome at these events. You can see videos from our past events here.

Sponsor: Robert "Bob the Broker" Snyder

Please RSVP: https://bit.ly/rsvpzen

1 Vote

Jersey City, New Jersey

Starting Out

Post: 2025 and Looking to Invest in Real Estate

Jonathan Greene

#5 Starting Out ContributorPosted February 03, 2025 05:17

Real Estate Consultant
Mendham, NJ
Posts 6,629
Votes 7,589

Quote from @Michael Klick:

Quote from @Jonathan Greene:

HELOCs are fine, but keep in mind that you really only want to use 50 percent of less (each) of your available equity just so you aren't creating a problem that you can't solve later if the value of your personal residences fluctuates.

If you both have W2 jobs though, have you looked into getting qualified together and just getting a loan, 10 percent down each? That would be a separate mortgage and not what amounts to a second loan on your personal residence, which if you have spouses, they might not be that into.

I know it has been a while since you posted this and while my partner and I have both established HELOCs, I have been thinking again about what you said here. With the HELOCs now set, we are curious as the best way to approach getting pre-approved for our first property while we search for the right fit. The plan was to utilize the HELOC as the down payment then getting a conventional loan to cover the remaining 80%. If I may, in your experience, is this difficult to accomplish with a HELOC already established? We are learning as we go here and I am curious on the approach others have used when going for their first property after getting their HELOC set up alongside an LLC and so forth. Any thoughts or insight would be appreciated.

That will be tough to use your HELOCs together to get another loan because of your collective DTI so it will depend on that.

0 Votes

Hartford, Connecticut

General Real Estate Investing

Post: Why You Should Never Take a Break as a Real Estate Investor

Jonathan Greene

#5 Starting Out ContributorPosted January 26, 2025 06:27

Real Estate Consultant
Mendham, NJ
Posts 6,629
Votes 7,589

Quote from @Becca F.:

I'm taking a break from buying and my previous approach of analyzing deals in inexpensive markets, looking at hundreds of properties on Zillow and running the numbers, which I spent hours each on each day and became really burned out. Buying RE is nothing like buying index funds or stocks - Google it for 15 minutes, click on buy shares. And the exit strategy with RE is much more difficult if you buy a property doesn't align with your goals.

I completely agree with getting reps in real life, walking properties, talking to contractors and investors. This is what I recommend to new investors who contact me asking if these numbers look good. I'm now figuring out how to maximize the return on current properties and add value, efficient ways to self manage, etc. I still attend local meet ups and talk to dozens of investors and am considering other strategies like Mid-Term Rentals or rent by the room. Taking a break from buying but not from learning and networking.

Yeah, that's it exactly. It's just not opting out of being a real estate investor. Sometimes there's nothing to buy. Sometimes analyzing is too time-consuming. So, we network and build, and then learn, based on our past experience, how to analyze more efficiently or how to shrink our buy box.

1 Vote

General Real Estate Investing

Post: Why You Should Never Take a Break as a Real Estate Investor

Jonathan Greene

#5 Starting Out ContributorPosted January 23, 2025 06:09

Real Estate Consultant
Mendham, NJ
Posts 6,629
Votes 7,589

Quote from @Jon K.:

Quote from @Jonathan Greene:

Taking action isn't only investing in real estate. You should take a break from buying if the deals don't match your buy box, you are out of money, or for several other reasons (partner isn't on board, over-leveraged on different properties, acting out of FOMO, etc.). Still, you should never take a break from looking, touring, vetting, and analyzing. You can't take six months off from reviewing properties and hop back in like nothing happened. Stuff happened.

If I were to sum up the one thing that I think investors aren't doing enough, it would be getting real-life reps. Real-life reps, to me, means seeing properties in person, whatever your asset class. What you see on the spreadsheet is a small part of every story. Boots on the ground, or lack thereof, are where the mistakes are made. Of course, the smaller the property, the more necessary that you see every inch of it because there isn't a business running on top of the land like large-scale multifamily, self-storage, industrial, and more. But even if you want to do large deals, you need comparable reps.

Technology has made it easy to "analyze" deals. Still, if you aren't whittling down the number you are analyzing financially to a small subset you see before deciding what to do, you are missing an essential part of getting to the tipping point of expertise in your field. The most successful investors have looked at thousands of properties in person in their lifetimes. So, even when the market is challenging, you can still see properties and stay current.

Don't take a break when the rates are high. Don't take a break when the weather is terrible. Don't take a break when others are taking a break. Removing all skills from the equation, if you don't take a break from participating as a real estate investor in some way each day, you will stay far ahead of everyone else who keeps subbing themselves out and then asking to get back in when the game is already out of reach.

I respectfully and emphatically disagree. Take a break when you need to take a break. Whether it's for a month, or 6, or a year. Burnout is a real thing and there are more important things than real estate investing. I don't care if I'm ahead or behind of anyone else because my goals are not relative to anyone else's progress.

I get your point that staying active keeps your skills sharp and that if you're active when others aren't you will have access to opportunities that they do not. You'll also continue to be building your brand, your network, your experience, etc. But if it's coming at the cost of your health or something else important than time with your family then it's perfectly fine to step back when you need to.

I think this goes without saying. If your mental health is compromised by looking at deals, you should stop. But that's not in any way what the post was saying. There was no pressure to stay in; it was about getting reps and not opting out. If your mental health is so fractured that you can't go to an Open House on a four-family down the block from you, that is something to focus on first. It's a commentary on those who take breaks because of market dynamics or because their buy box is too tight for the current market.

0 Votes

General Real Estate Investing

Post: Why You Should Never Take a Break as a Real Estate Investor

Jonathan Greene

#5 Starting Out ContributorPosted January 22, 2025 12:00

Real Estate Consultant
Mendham, NJ
Posts 6,629
Votes 7,589

Quote from @Charles Perkins:

Absolutely agree. I'm taking a break now only because I'm retiring. Over the 30+ years my wife and I have walked and pencilled well over a thousand possible deals. That was after vetting many properties eliminating them before starting out.

The more you do. The more experience earned, you gain insight into comparables, learn neighborhoods, get better and better in determining a real deal from a stinker.

Sounds like you earned a little break now!

0 Votes

Short-Term & Vacation Rental Discussions

Post: STRSearch Has anyone used them or have feedback? Any other competitors?

Jonathan Greene

#5 Starting Out ContributorPosted January 22, 2025 09:21

Real Estate Consultant
Mendham, NJ
Posts 6,629
Votes 7,589

Quote from @Vikas Jain:

Yes, I have already seen the buy-in, im less concerned about that part of it, but just want to make sure its legitimate (plenty of opportunities where buyin is high but it doesn't always mean the product is good, just been burned in the past by others so trying to do better due diligence this time around)

Their success rate, as of now, is 100 percent.

0 Votes

Short-Term & Vacation Rental Discussions

Post: STRSearch Has anyone used them or have feedback? Any other competitors?

Jonathan Greene

#5 Starting Out ContributorPosted January 22, 2025 06:46

Real Estate Consultant
Mendham, NJ
Posts 6,629
Votes 7,589

I think John Bianchi and Taylor Jones are both lights-out good in the space, but the buy-in to hire them is steep and it should be. I have the contract to use them sitting in my email now so I saw a preview of all the data and it's pretty incredible. They only operate in markets where their data can hedge an almost guarantee if you follow their protocol. It's worth doing the call with them because that's free. There are other players in the game to compare with like Kenny Bedwell at STR Insights or Bill Faeth's coaching.

0 Votes

Mortgage Brokers & Lenders

Post: Advice on working with a home buyer's RE agent using an hourly rate?

Jonathan Greene

#5 Starting Out ContributorPosted January 22, 2025 06:40

Real Estate Consultant
Mendham, NJ
Posts 6,629
Votes 7,589

You can't negotiate directly with a real estate agent about hourly rates because that's up to their brokerage. It's also not plausible because you will end up arguing about what constitutes time worked which is why the DOJ narrative that this should be done is so stupid. Travel time to and from each showing counts. Research time counts. Showing houses 30 minutes at a time counts. What's your purpose of hiring someone on an hourly rate? You should just tell them up front you think they have no value. In my market, almost all sellers are still offering buyer compensation so you could hire an agent hourly, pay them, and then the seller will also pay them comp on your behalf so it doesn't really make any sense to do and no good agents will do this in my opinion. And if they did, what's an hourly rate worth depending on their experience? The top agents would be charging like attorneys and make more money then the 2-3 percent they would get from the seller.

2 Votes

General Real Estate Investing

Post: Why You Should Never Take a Break as a Real Estate Investor

Jonathan Greene

#5 Starting Out ContributorPosted January 22, 2025 06:34

Real Estate Consultant
Mendham, NJ
Posts 6,629
Votes 7,589

Quote from @Ryan Irwin:

Quote from @Jonathan Greene:

x1000%! Little steps everyday moves the needle in a big way. I think this applies in all aspects (fitness, relationships, career, etc.). I'm a huge fan of habit tracking and I have found it's those boring, repetitive tasks done consistently is what are the game changers. These build the momentum which then opens to opportunities. Great post!

You nailed it. Boring and consistent = wealth in life and business.

2 Votes

Off Topic

Post: Are the forums on BiggerPockets getting worse and worse or is it just me?

Jonathan Greene

#5 Starting Out ContributorPosted January 21, 2025 15:15

Real Estate Consultant
Mendham, NJ
Posts 6,629
Votes 7,589

Quote from @JD Martin:

Quote from @Jonathan Greene:

Quote from @JD Martin:

Quote from @Jonathan Greene:

And let me just say that the true power of these forums is the people. I was unmotivated when I posted this and was blaming it on the site, but it was how I was interacting with the site, not the site. The site hasn't changed, literally not at all.

The people, my friends here, people I know, help change the perspective by doing what they have done for years, just posting and responding with words of wisdom and a 20,000 foot view. So thanks to the people that helped me adjust my mindset in literally one day of interacting on here.

I went into my Followed Forums and removed Starting Out and Wholesaling from that preference. That alone will help me not read what I don't want to read.

I can appreciate that. I think we all get fatigued from time to time, and I think it's worse when things are "slow" because of economics or demographics or whatever. I've lost interest in some of the forums I used to participate in just because my own focus has changed. At the same time I find myself participating in other forums I used to ignore, like the taxes and short term rentals forums, because those have become bigger focus areas (and pain points!) for me.

One thing I think we could use here is a primer for new members on forum etiquette. I used to try to help answer a lot of questions from new members but get tired of the rudeness and ghosting, and so I generally wait to see if the poster is still engaged before I participate. Perhaps we need potential forum users to take a basic etiquette quiz before they can post!

I know there are sites that prohibit posting until you've been a member for a certain amount of time, or read a certain number of posts, etc. That may not make for instant potential sales customers but it would improve the quality of the people in the forums.

They have a first post restriction, but they have VAs monitoring that before it gets to moderators first and they just let everything through. I would say about 25 percent of first posts are spam.

I have a few posts in the Starting Out forum about how to do the forums, but like @Nathan Gesner said, it's not telling them how to open an LLC so it's not as interesting to them. P.S. - I had to tag Nathan there six times because I kept mistyping a letter (they need to update this)

You should have seen how hard it was to tag him back when he was just the gangsta Nathan G. 🤣

Yes, the first post restriction is there but it doesn't do a whole lot. I've probably caught maybe 5% of the spammers on the first post. Better spammers - the ones that aren't trying to sell goulash in Cambodia - will ask some type of question first before responding with their own products. I'm in favor of a higher bar before posting but I think it's a minority position.

I agree. This is exactly where the company and the user differ. The company would allow more spam in favor of giving new users access to buy more stuff first. Users of the site would prefer it to be harder to get in. This is really what I am talking about. It's like real estate agents, the bar is too low, but the brokerages like it that way because they make money off the agents who do no deals.

1 Vote

Jonathan Greene has started 265 posts and replied 6422 times.

Rounded Star Post: Zen and the Art of Real Estate Investing In-Person Meetup

Rounded Star Post: 2025 and Looking to Invest in Real Estate

Rounded Star Post: Why You Should Never Take a Break as a Real Estate Investor

Rounded Star Post: Why You Should Never Take a Break as a Real Estate Investor

Rounded Star Post: Why You Should Never Take a Break as a Real Estate Investor

Rounded Star Post: STRSearch Has anyone used them or have feedback? Any other competitors?

Rounded Star Post: STRSearch Has anyone used them or have feedback? Any other competitors?

Rounded Star Post: Advice on working with a home buyer's RE agent using an hourly rate?

Rounded Star Post: Why You Should Never Take a Break as a Real Estate Investor

Rounded Star Post: Are the forums on BiggerPockets getting worse and worse or is it just me?

Post: Zen and the Art of Real Estate Investing In-Person Meetup

Post: 2025 and Looking to Invest in Real Estate

Post: Why You Should Never Take a Break as a Real Estate Investor

Post: Why You Should Never Take a Break as a Real Estate Investor

Post: Why You Should Never Take a Break as a Real Estate Investor

Post: STRSearch Has anyone used them or have feedback? Any other competitors?

Post: STRSearch Has anyone used them or have feedback? Any other competitors?

Post: Advice on working with a home buyer's RE agent using an hourly rate?

Post: Why You Should Never Take a Break as a Real Estate Investor

Post: Are the forums on BiggerPockets getting worse and worse or is it just me?