All Forum Posts by: Charles A.

I compiled an actual diary of 6 years worth of my own personal real life real estate deals.

Complete with all numbers and photos.

Just so you know it's not all sexy and fancy all the time.

Ordinary people still build wealth every day...the old fashioned way.

Without some fancy strategy of "syndication" or super-risky use of leverage.

No loans from dad and mom.

Nothing.

Just common sense traditional disciplined investing.

I put all of that in a member blog post you can access here:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/8290/64353-no-...

Let me know your thoughts.

Charles.

Awesome,Abraham.

Good job returning to clarify!

Your numbers on the deal sound legit given my own limited multi-family experience.

Here's the thing:

Everyone may well be focusing on the wrong real estate success story on this thread.

The returns on this apartment complex is ordinary.Many folks on BP do this kind of deal in their sleep every day.

I think the ones that we need to really hear about are the 4 town homes you "built and sold" at age 18 and the "free and clear" commercial building that helped you raise this down payment.

Fleshing out those crucial springboard deals would skyrocket your credibility on this thread.

Nonetheless,WTG!!

It's been days and no response from original poster. The cynic in me says he's a troll. Why is this important? Because there are newbies on BP who look to these kind of posts and feel they're inadequate...or who go and dive into dangerous deals in hopes of replicating this and end up getting scammed. If it's too good to be true,it probably is. I'm not a hater,I just like being the gentle voice of reason/caution in the midst of rabid euphoria. If it's a real deal,more power to him. But we don't know that until he gets back on his own thread and provides some meat on the bone.

Zestimate is an "effing paranoid schizophrenic"...and is one of 3-4 tools that are getting fired by the Mooch tomorrow.

Use the bigger pockets calculator,man.

You're leaving out many things including capEX,repair/maintenance and vacancies.

Even brand new homes WILL have repair costs.

And even homes in the most desirable areas WILL have vacancies.

Trust me,I know.

Been there,done that,have the T-shirt.

With these numbers,you'd be extremely lucky to break even.

Where is your unit? I'll take this off your hands in a cash transaction if it's in my area of interest in Jacksonville. PM me.

Use the calculator. If it doesn't cash flow,walk. Don't go beyond 75% LTV. All these boys on BP posting "success stories" and doing BP podcasts on how they went from "0 to 1000 units in 6 months" will be the first to leave the game for good. They'll all be dinner in the end. Those of us old enough to have seen more than one RE cycle see through the veil. Don't be that guy.

Made $150k at the peak of housing market in Dublin,Ireland.

Put it all in stocks on arriving Cleveland OH in 2006.

You know how that story ended.

Wiped out and started from ZERO.

The only mistake that has come close since then was losing $20k in EMD+appraisal costs at due diligence in January 2016 because I failed to read the contract my own attorney prepared.

Zero financing contingency!

Never again.

Lawyers aren't infallible.

Read everything if thousands of $ are at stake.

There is something I call an "Income Trap".

It explains the false sense of security a 6-figure salary gives the average upper middle class American family.

The scam is the same.

It's a carefully crafted web of lies:

1/Live the American Dream from day zero (2 financed cars, big suburban house+mortgage,annual vacation, private school for 2 kids)

2/Max out your 401K contributions (employer matched or otherwise)

3/Save for 6-month emergency fund.

4/Relax and watch Game Of Thrones.

THE END.

Then I read Thomas Piketty's super-awesome book: "Capital".

It became quite clear there's a conspiracy to keep most Americans firmly in that trap.

I am convinced that trap is carefully orchestrated and perpetuated by Wall Street.

The lie in the scam above is that it restricts people's thinking within a steel box of their own income.

There is no way to abundance inside that box.

Congrats for making the decision to step out of the box.

Your life will never be the same again.

They said once I started doing larger deals,lenders would now mostly look at the deal and not my credit. Not entirely true.As I've found out this week. Just being nosy here: So what's your score?