All Forum Posts by: Mike Dymski

Having sufficient reserves is a given.  So is investing in areas where there is little risk of extended periods of vacancy or declines in rent.  Those are all basic criteria for many of us...table stakes. We are very risk adverse, hence this criteria. Many of us have been investing for decades, always carried reserves, never had more than 1-2 months of vacancy, and never had rents decline (all intentional and controllable based on what and where we buy).  Incidentally, I have never purchased a negative cash flowing property...and I force appreciation (to significantly mitigate risk).

I try to find out what problem they are trying address and attempt to solve it (and also follow the Helmsley approach).

I have analyzed tons of syndication opportunities and the name "Simple Passive Cashflow" would be a pass right off the bat.  There is nothing simple here.

@Russell Brazil  Agreed.  The overwhelming opinion on the forums is to open up private offerings to everyone and I get criticized when I suggest otherwise.  Lots of people would lose their entire life savings (either through fraud, market forces, or simple lack of execution).

 This sounds just like one BP member who posts regularly..."20 caps" everywhere.

Property values are up 40% over the past couple of years in many locations, which means 100+% return on levered real estate from appreciation alone.  I imagine the people who don't believe in appreciation have not experienced appreciation or are not comfortable with identifying growing areas.  I personally force appreciation by adding value.

You have $100k in appreciation in two years, which dwarfs the increase in property taxes.

Whether to hold or sell is based on future estimated IRR of what you own vs estimated IRR of other opportunities.

The book The Coddling of the American Mind by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff cover what happens in the forums.  Words are weapons, contrary opinions and words cause physical and mental abuse that should be responded to with force, need authority to step in to solve problems, everyone needs protection, trust emotions over reason, avoid bad experiences at all costs, the world is black and white battle between good people and evil people (there is no middle ground), etc.

My largest 3rd party management costs are higher vacancy and higher R&M costs than self-management.

If everyone followed Mindy's path of live in flips, they could do very well with real estate.

Exactly.  Ironic...Grit by Angela Duckworth is one of my top 5 books (and I read a lot) and grit and empathy are my family's highest priorities.