All Forum Posts by: Lee Reeves

@Nick B., did you not invite me to respond to your request for more information, and that you were considering joining LU?  Was that true, or were you just looking for a target to attack?  (That's the way it feels, buddy.)

I can't speak for any patterns you see in other people's posts on BP.  Can only speak for myself - feels odd to say, but since the implication was made regarding my post, yes I'm a real person, a real investor, don't have all the answers (but am getting more of them every day), a member of LU (but nothing more), etc.  Unlike you, Nick, my profile is available to anyone to see and my whole name is posted.  You can look me up on LinkedIn, Facebook or anything else.  

Happy to share my experience, which is all I was trying to do.  Since you noted a pattern you saw, I'll note one too:  whenever someone who is a member of LU is invited to share their experience or success and they do, they get attacked.  I've seen it in other forums and I was on the receiving end here.  

It's like some folks see an either/or here:  you are either a member of LU -or- a member of BP.  Well, I don't think they're mutually exclusive.  I think BP is a cool website and I sometimes read the articles and posts and get good ideas.  But the truth is - and this may be why LU members don't often post here - I don't need BP since I get answers to all of my questions through LU mentors or the folks I have met through LU.  (And with the latter, I'm at least assured of not being attacked.)  If other folks want to be members of BP and attend the free workshops and case studies at LU, fine by me - at least they've availed themselves of the information.  I'm more comfortable being a member of LU and a free member of BP.

That's a long lead in to saying that I'm not sure I want to subject the details of my deals to your scrutiny.  For what?  So you can pick them apart?  That said, I'm happy to talk about what I've done privately to anyone who is interested.  I did present the details of both deals about a month ago to members of LU.  And I send a comprehensive report of the financials to my investors each month, who are very happy about how we're proceeding.  Both are hybrid-value plays (some cash on cash return during the hold period, larger return on a sale or refi due to increase of value) and both are being stabilized currently.  As they are 14 and 26 units respectively, I do not support my family from the distributions or management fee.  I expect to be able to do so with larger acquisitions in the future, having gained experience acquiring, rehabbing and operating both of these.

Fire away.

Hi Nick.  On the first house I purchased, I picked up $400/mo. cash flow and $10,000 equity gain.  Second house was similar.  I would not have had the courage or the knowledge of what to do in order to do that without the training that LU provided me.  I was also able to call and talk to someone (the guy I talked to actually owned 75+ houses) and get immediate feedback on how to handle things - from whether or not a tenant's credit score was a good one or not, to how to charge for damages, to whatever.  I used it all the time.

You'll need the most help on the first house.  Once you're over that hump, everything seems just easier (or at least less scary).  Maybe the negs on BP are from folks who are well underway in their investing careers and don't see the value (though I would submit that they too could learn something about how to make things easier - LU uses a really, really good business model).

That's for the basic membership ($500), which I first joined.

After I bought my two houses, I joined the Preferred Investor Group, which if I recall, was $12k at the time, discounted to $10k.  I have since sold my two houses, invested in a large multifamily deal, purchased two multifamily properties, and am looking for a third now.  With that, if you want to do SF, they help you find the deals.  If you want to do MF, they teach you how - 100+ hours of video which is constantly updated, ability to attend additional in person classes, roadtrips to member's MF properties, acquisition roadtrips, networking, etc.  Is it worth it?  Not if you don't do anything.  Definitely, if you do.  They have been around for 24 years and have actual brick-and-mortar offices, which was a major thing for me.  It's not a traveling roadshow that you sometimes see advertised.

If you're just looking to purchase some houses, check them out and join the basic membership if you are impressed by what they present.  In my experience, they earn their membership fee and more.

Chris K, I think the answer to your statement is that yes, lots of information is available.  But what is the best information?  What works and what does not?  What is clearly right and what is clearly incorrect?  

Having purchased both single family and multifamily properties and as a member of BP and LU, I can say that I get value from both.  But without LU and the business model they teach, I would not have had the real estate successes I have had.  I get new ideas from BP and like it a lot, but it was not the catalyst for action for me.

Robert, I agree to an extent - if you are on the fence about whether you are going to actually do a deal, $200 is better than $500 (which is what LU charges for its basic membership) and certainly better than $18k if you're looking to do multifamily.  IF you are getting the same information, support, etc.