All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Greene

@Amelia McGee, I think that @Ralph Poirier nailed it. Parents as co-signers and sending in a cleaning company every two weeks to a month (also a semi-spy) are gold. If you are looking for MSU students, you could post just for graduate students at the school. The undergrads at MSU are actually very good tenants for the most part, but the graduate students are even better and there are many graduate programs there. I taught there for three years, graduate and undergraduate and you are safe with both if you follow the tips laid out.

@Roman Roy Barrett welcome to BP! Congratulations on starting your real estate investment journey. If you are in the market for blueberry pancakes, I know a guy who knows a guy where you can get them. There is also a coaching program on how to acquire blueberry pancakes and several webinars on the same. It seems like you are off to a great start.

Before you find the cash buyers, what's your pitch? What's your background? Do you have an off-market property acquisition system? What role do you want to play, just wholesaler? What expertise are you bringing to the table in finding properties? This is what they will want to know right away and better you have all of it pinned down so you don't lose a good opportunity when it comes alone.

Some MLS searches can search by cash purchases and you can use ListSource to build lists of all homes with no mortgages bought in the past year in a certain area. If you drive them or look on Zillow or the MLS, you will see which were flipped. Those are your local cash buyers.

@Steve Vaughan was that a riddle? If so, my answer is 7 and the doctor was the mom.

@Will C. Bro move #104 from the manual - Slide into the conversation after over 100 posts and try to hit the funny button to get some fist pounds and low fives. Shaka brah.

Uber/Lyft would never work for multiple showings in a day so you would need to hire a car service as @Russell Brazil said. Also, from the perspective of the buyers I don't think they would like it. Listing appointments you certainly could Uber, but starting out you are working mostly with buyers and I don't see it working at all unless you live in a big city where public transportation is the norm. I think in Philly you would need a car. Some agencies have agents start as Admins in the office and that could be an option as well.

If she owes $600, the bank isn't giving it to you ever for $480 and won't approve a short sale for that when the ARV is $1m. This is a lead that will waste your time over the long haul. It's good that the upset value is lower than the ARV, but you have to remember when there is default the bank is in charge. The seller can't sell to you, if a lis pendens has been filed, without bank approval and banks will want to run it out on the market for a short sale, then courthouse steps if that doesn't work, and then back in as an REO. If I missed something, let me know.

@Jay Hinrichs yeah of course. My snowflake ride wasn't the only example. I just did it all wrong and continually insisted I was right about everything and wouldn't listen to advice. I think that is really the dynamic of the snowflake investor - wants feedback, but only feedback that suits his or her vision. You see it in the forums a lot. I want to learn, but not if you tell me what I am doing is wrong. We've all done it, but if people can take a birds-eye view early and trust a friend or advisor, they can avoid a lot of the mistakes that we all made along the way.

@Gardy Saturne because the sellers have to organize a new place to go to and get moved AND because they are about to be foreclosed on, the bank doesn't want to wait for them to move so I am going to close first and lease back the property to them on a free Use & Occupancy Agreement so they can stay for free. They have been personally vetted by me and have no reason to holdover as I am paying more than they own the bank so they can have money to move as well. So I will close and then let them move and then renovate. In most cases you would do this for a fee, but it didn't make sense in this context for me.

The Snowflake Investor is a problem, mainly to himself or herself. The Snowflake Investor gets so emotionally attached to a deal that they can't see the forest for the trees. And just so BP doesn't break again, yes, we have all done this. It's not a personal slight on anyone who gets emotionally invested in a deal. I have done it WAY too many times, but it is very bad for your future profit margin. Caring about a deal is not becoming obsessed with it and we all know what happens when we obsess on a single deal. We overpay, we undercompensate, we overgive, and eventually, we lose money that we should have earned.

But the Snowflake Investor also only wants to hear yes to everything. They want continued back pats and compliments to make them feel good about their real estate decisions even though they aren't based on sound logic and correct statistical analysis. The Snowflake Investor just wants positive feedback and participation trophies, but real estate as a whole is not that kind. It will wait for a market downturn and break your 3rd place trophy over it's shrinking profit margins.

The Snowflake Investor thinks everyone can be a real estate investor, and also right now. It's just money to buy real estate. It doesn't take any skill or advanced knowledge. You just think about if you are willing to pay it and if you are, you are a real estate investor. The Snowflake Investor is not limited to new or old investors but thinks that they know better than both no matter the experience level and is never open to dialogue about the deal or business that could disprove their theory.

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I was once a Snowflake Investor. I partnered with a flipper many years ago. I was the money, they were the design and work. We would split the profits. Really, I thought they were cool and I wanted to be more like them so I just went in. Every disaster that followed was all my fault and every time someone else tried to warn me, I went off telling them I knew what I was doing and they didn't understand. They ended up using the LLC credit card to go to the spa, take their kids out to eat, etc. Instead of facing the facts that I made all the bad decisions to work with them because I wanted to do what they did, I went to a lawyer. Because I was a snowflake. I wanted to sue them for stealing, which they were, but it's because I had no process and wasn't watching. I was just going around telling everyone I was flipping like a douche.

I thought I was different and unique. I thought since I was the money in the deal I was entitled to make decisions and act like I knew everything when I did not at all. Every time there was something I didn't like or someone warned me, I reacted emotionally, trying to protect my deal that was all my decision and all my fault. Someone would say a word about the flipper or one tile and I was offended. I could not listen to anyone else.

Somehow, I escaped from the sale breaking even. That was a miracle. I was way too emotionally invested in the deal. We all become the Snowflake Investor, but we need someone in our investor circle to knock the ice off of us and wake us up. Check yourself on all those deals you won't let go of because you might just become a Snowflake Investor and it won't be a pretty exit.

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Note: Snowflake is a 2010s derogatory slang term for a person, implying that they have an inflated sense of uniqueness, an unwarranted sense of entitlement, or are overly-emotional, easily offended, and unable to deal with opposing opinions.