All Forum Posts by: J. Martin

Welcome Kevin K . There are a lot of super helpful people and great advice on this site! I'm a "fix and hold" investor from the Bay Area in CA, and loving it! A lot of others doing flips, wholesaling, notes, everything.. A few tips..

You can tag people by typing @ before you type their name, then clicking their name when it pops up at the bottom of the message box. You can click on the "vote" button if you like someone's post or is helpful, and there are "awards" to earn on your profile. The "Learn" link across the top navigation bar has lots of great info, and most importantly, the BP members! Welcome to BP, and good luck on your investments!

Hi Matthew , and Welcome to BP! I’m a “fix and hold” investor from the Bay Area in CA, and loving it! But you’ll find a variety of every type of investor on the site and everyone is amazingly helpful. Some pointers for you: The “Learn” link across the top navigation bar has lots of great info and so do BP members! You can click on the “vote” button if you like someone’s post or it is helpful and there are “awards” to earn on your profile. And you can tag people by typing @ before you type their name, then clicking their name at the bottom of the message box. Welcome to the site, and good luck in everything!

Hi AJ , and welcome to BP! I'm a "fix and hold" investor from the Bay Area in CA, and loving it! But you'll find a variety of every type of investor on the site, and everyone is amazingly helpful. Some pointers for you: The "Learn" link across thetop navigation bar has lots of great info, and so do BP members! You can click on the "vote" button if you like someone's post or is helpful, and there are "awards" to earn on your profile. And you can tag people by typing @ before you type their name, then clicking their name at the bottom of the message box. Welcome to the site, and good luck in everything!

Welcome Timothy . There are a lot of super helpful people and great advice on this site! I'm a "fix and hold" investor from the

Bay Area in CA, and loving it! A lot of others doing flips, wholesaling, notes, everything.. A few tips..You can tag people by typing @ before you type their name, then clicking their name when it pops up at the bottom of themessage box. You can click on the "vote" button if you like someone's post or is helpful, and there are "awards" to earn on your profile. The "Learn" link across the top navigation bar has lots of great info, and most importantly, the BP members! Welcome to BP, and good luck on your investments!

Hi Clayton , and welcome to BP! I’m a "fix and hold" investor from the Bay Area in CA, and loving it! But you’ll find a variety of every type of investor on the site, and everyone is amazingly helpful. Some pointers for you: The "Learn" link across the top navigation bar has lots of great info, and so do BP members! You can click on the "vote" button if you like someone's post or is helpful, and there are "awards" to earn on your profile. And you can tag people by typing @ before you type their name, then clicking their name at the bottom of the message box. Welcome to the site, and good luck in everything!

I was reading your blog as I said before, and I like it.

You're very aware of humans' reactions, motivations, expectations, etc.. Something I need to be more conscious of..

@Joe Fairless ,

Worse comes to worse, you can always send them a message, and just say, "I enjoyed your *whatever* so much, I would like to give you a reference. But I'll need you to send me the request first by clicking on my profile and requesting one."

Maybe not the answer we were looking for, but it is an answer..

@Jay Hinrichs ,

Do you live in Oregon or near Santa Rosa now? I'm just curious because I was going to set up a BP meetup in Santa Rosa while I'm up there working the next few weeks (I live in the Bay), and I'd be interested in chatting with you if you're around.. I'll probably stop by Graton or whatever the casino is called too.. So I'll wave hi to your awesome payoff..

Anyway, development is a whole different game in CA. I've seen several developers who ONLY take raw land through best-use entitlement - and that's because they know everyone in the cities they work in. And it still takes years.. So yes, you really have to know your game. But my buddy was building SFH in TX and he said it was a free-for-all. No zoning pushback, size, parking, nothing. Pay the fee. Get your permit. "Git 'er dun" as they say lol Not a huge development though..

Well this happens to be impeccable timing @Tim Farrell , because not only do I own and invest in Contra Costa County (Richmond now, looking at other areas in the Bay), but I organize a monthly meetup of local investors in Oakland every month. We have a great group of people (25+ typically) from all different types of strategies, skill sets, etc. It's a great place to meet other local investors, and the next one is on Wed, Feb 19th. You can see more about me on my website in my signature or in my BP profile. Hopefully I'll see you at the meetup!

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/114766-east-bay-meetup---wed-2-19-14-in-oakland

Also, @Jessica Yau owns a property in Oakland. And @Melvin Yuen owns a property in Solano County, among others.. From what I've been hearing at the meetups, there is definitely demand for off-market deals if you can bring some good ones through wholesaling..

Welcome to BP! And nice to meet you!

The BP forums of course!! (not only literally, but some of the best resources out there!!) I like financial disaster books, and I think they're a great learning tool..

When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management - By Roger Lowenstein

I think there's a good lesson for all of us in being humble, understanding the limitations of own brilliance and prowess, understanding the limitations of "overly-calculating" prices and risks that all the data and math in the world cannot account for (no offense "big data" folk and economic statisticians)!, and perhaps the most important lesson that stands the test of time: the risk of leverage.

I think one of my favorite investing quotes comes from this book, regarding the squeeze that can take place when markets change and you're leveraged (think lack of refinancing, equity extraction, etc).. "The market can stay irrational longer than most people can stay liquid."

I wrote a blog post on BP about the risks/benefit trade-off on how leveraged you are over economic cycles, with some thoughts, considerations, and questions..

http://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/4579/blog_posts/32645-if-ca-h-is-king-then-leverage-is-god---loans-cash-roe-roi-and-risk