All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Greene

There are a lot of people looking in Indy on here, but there is a tightrope you have to walk so you don't solicit. If Indy is your bag and you can help people, I would make sure you have a keyword alert on for Indy or Indianapolis and always answer those questions without asking for anything. If you prove you have the knowledge to help there, people will DM you without you having to ask. I re-read what you wrote and am not sure if you are the boots in Indy or you want them.

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)

Quote from @James Wise:

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

Quote from @Jeff S.:

I don’t see much difference either. BP has no reason to improve the search feature, which they could fix in a heartbeat. It’s not in their interest. More posts mean more eyeballs. More eyeballs mean greater viewership, improved SEO, and increased revenue. This applies even to the 100,001st question about LLCs vs Insurance.

I recall a rule here prohibiting responses like, "This has been answered many times. Do a search." I'm unsure if that rule still exists, but it’s clear they want dialog.

And yes, @Scott Mac and @Joe S., I fully agree with your comments about appreciation. Though my response might help others, common courtesy suggests you thank those who took the time to answer you. I used to provide detailed answers to DMs, which are private and help only the requester. Since “thank you” seems to have gone out of style, I now limit responses to one or two sentences.

Exactly  its why I only respond to limited PM's. After writing really nice ( what I thought was nice and helpful responses) nary a thank you.. Or you get the feeling the members think its an obligation to answer them with full details of how we make money in our business's, Like write their bizz plan for them.  The ones that really interest me I will respond to and of course those who donated to my charity :)  and or send me gifts :)  But those who just think a quick sentence and we owe them  Nope just say thank you but I no longer do that.  I have had some argue with me and or be downright rude.. So Agree Jeff many simply have no basic manners. and that can be from a texting society where brevity is all they know.

 I've had this line in my profile for like 5 years. Maybe you should give it a go as well.

Jay would need to have his assistant do that. :)

The interface is solely designed to drag consumers in so that they click to see properties. You CAN NOT contact the listing agent directly from Zillow, but you can look them up and Google them. When you click for a showing, it gets sent to paid agents or Zillow Flex partners. So, like all social media and mass production sites, it's not truly there to help the consumer, it's there to make money off consumers using the agents they partner with. The interface is a maze to the end.

With that said, when you list something on the MLS, it sydnicates to all of the sites so the data should be much more valid than it used to be, even the Zestimates. However, sold data is restricted in a lot of states so it's not accurate comparatively.

I have always found the overall interface average. I don't like the search function. Overall, I think Redfin is a better site to search on.

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 love this - expenses do not take a break. Nice. I think the reason people take breaks is because they get discouraged that they can't buy or deals won't pencil in their antiquated buy boxes with 3 percent rates. Reps and going to meetups and building relationships and looking at deals in person are what help you fall into a deal. Thanks for the great response. The process!

That's a great point. Even if you've taken a break and feel lost, the first step is to get to a meetup asap or just go to an Open House or view a property with your agent. Now, go do it. Thanks for that add.

The true censorship now is basically anything that makes the company looks bad, and that's not for the best of the forums. This is the reason I quit being a moderator because of something that went mildly off the rails in the forums, and then it was completely censored because I responded to staff in the forums after they mentioned me.

I think the moderators do an amazing job and should be given more pay or credit or anything. I had no idea how hard it was on the back end until I was there. It's thankless and non-stop. But the moderators really are the caretakers, they rarely censor because the moderators are us. It's the overarching reach to pull an entire thread that doesn't come from moderators that is my issue and that goes to the site's focus on new investors way more than experienced.

Everything is built to attract revenue and that's smart business. That's why the search isn't fixed after 10 years of the exact same issues. It won't increase revenue. Nor would paying people to moderate. The new people don't know and they are the business target. Again, fair play for a major business like this, but it's the old guard who have held up the forums for years, even with their technological ineptitude. People like @Jay Hinrichs are the backbone of the forums.

I think I am just personally bored with the forums so will interact differently with them. I was trying to help too much in the newb forums and now it's like brain freeze. Most everyone is right, things are pretty much the same, my tolerance is different.

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.

You don't need your real estate attorney to set up LLCs in New Jersey. It takes five minutes on the state site. If you need an operating agreement, that is usually a different attorney (but not always). I've done more than 50 deals with Ashley Molson at Molson Law Firm if you want to look her up.