All Forum Posts by: Paul Strauss

1) If BiggerPockets put on a conference, would you want to attend? I would consider it.
2) Would you be willing to travel (fly) to attend such an event? A short distance. I would not even consider travel to the West Coast. I'd probably go as far as Phoenix, or Denver.
3) Do you think 2 days would be adequate for a first shot at it? Yes. Shorter time periods help keep events focused, and relevant. Longer events encourage rambling speakers, disjointed topics, and confusion.
4) What kinds of ideas do you have for sessions? I would narrow the focus of the event to nor more than two or three important, related topics, or a "theme". Just a thought, but there is an abundance of information on buying distressed- particularly financially distressed properties out there. There are other ways to enter the real estate market, there are other considerations-- something like a "property management" or "landlording" conference might be of use. I'm assuming the members of BP are like me- seasoned investors. We know how to buy 'em, and are frankly kind of tired of the lastest tactic. How about some in-depth market analysis topics, an economic summit, or nuts and bolts of ownership topic?

5) What would a BP conference look like to you? I'd like seminars, breakout sessions, networking, and a touch of trade-show. I wouldn't mind seeing vendors, and I would attend as a potential vendor. The one caveat-- and I'll warn you as an experienced club owner and event sponsor: keep "training", "trainers", and the like OUT. REAL services related to real estate: agents and brokers (re or mortgage), contractors, appraisers, managers-- fine.

6) Of the real estate and other events that you've attended, what is the one thing that you've liked the most? Networking / contacts I made.

7) The least? The peddling of products, such as CD's, books, boot-camps, coaching, etc.

Wow, that's a lot of tactical information covering a lot of geography.

I would suggest this:

Define as clearly as possible what you NEED and/or WANT. You seem all rev'd up, but until you focus in on what you actually need and want- you really won't know which way to go with real estate investing.

There are TWO main paths, and successful investors usually follow both:

1. Rental / Transactional income-- comes from rents, and "doing deals" to generate quick cash. It's a job. Landlording, and exploiting opportunities. You do the job, you get paid. It's how almost everyone gets started, and how many have continued to generate a nice living for years.

2. Wealth creation. Wealth in real estate comes from leverage, and appreciation. This comes from buying in appreciating markets (and there are many- even now), using leverage to magnify ROI. This is where ultra-successful investors create legacy wealth.

Of course the best of both worlds is where you want to be, and it's relatively SIMPLE, though it's NOT necessarily easy.

This is something I learned the hard way, but once I learned it- my business took off: There's a single master-skill to do both: analysis. Some will warn you that you don't want "analysis paralysis" and you need to "just do it" and "get started"-- and while there's some merit to that, the vast majority of people who have "analysis paralysis" really just have plain old paralysis-- they aren't doing ANYTHING.

Through research and analysis, your objective should be to discover opportunities that others aren't necessarily seeing. Then you can carefully "shop" those opportunities-- getting people to pay you for the research. You don't necessarily want to be an unlicensed realtor / broker - "Bird Dog", you want to sell opportunity, not broker transactions.

I'd be happy to discuss this method-- employed by my company for years with great success-- in detail if you'd like to speak-- you can pm me and I'd love to chat.

And full disclosure- I'm NOT a "coach" or "consultant" and I have NOTHING for sale, and this isn't an attempt to sell anything. My selfish motivation quite simply is to grow my network, and specifically I'm seeking "human intelligence" in markets all over the country to do what I've described above.

I love your positive attitude and energy!

Buy property at a great discount- include all your costs, not just purchase price, interest, taxes, and insurance-- but your rehab costs (obviously) AND your TIME (not so obvious to some). Don't forget HOLDING costs. Don't ever think three months- min. holding costs budget should be one (1) year.

With respect to what you cost- figure your time on an hourly basis. If you do the work yourself, you're not "saving" money, you're SPENDING TIME. Think about it:

If you finish the deal having made $1 an hour, wouldn't you have been better off skipping the risks of rehabbing and working a job?

Anyway, when you're done buying it, and fixing it, then market it. Plan to either market it through a realtor, or spending that same amount marketing it yourself. Don't ever think you can "save" on realtor commissions with FSBO sign, and a web ad.

If you do things right you will have made a profit.

Wow, your story sounds a lot like mine with the exception that my first three deals were a bust- broke even after the third deal almost three years into it, and I didn't do anything like 8 deals until almost 6 years after getting started.

My business is humming along nicely now, but it has been a bumpy road.

YOU, on the other hand are doing GREAT! Nice work.

My only cautionary advice is this: don't allow early successes to blind you to the very real pitfalls out there. The best thing that ever happened to me was running my first business into the ground, and crashing and burning on my first property deal. ;)

I would also add that he doesn't seem to fully grasp the tax implications. Quoting from the post above which ostensibly quotes Mr. Reed (I know, right?) anyway,

"Your actual cash flow is what you put on Line 22 (“Income or loss from rental real estateâ€) of your Schedule E plus the depreciation you claimed on Line 20 minus the totals of line 19c and 20c on Form 4562, Depreciation and Amortization (“Basis of assets placed in service during the most recent tax yearâ€). It’s a big negative isn’t it? So stop telling others at cocktail parties, and yourself, that you have positive cash flow. In your dreams you have positive cash flow.'"

WRONG! If you make any money at all outside of real estate, and the depreciation offsets your income as say, a "brain surgeon", then the math is a little different.

Even in the event you sell a property early in the depreciation schedule and you are liable for "recapture" - that is capital loaned to your business interest free.

...:::He is opinionated but does not portray real estate investing or landlording as fun or easy, like so many other authors more interested in selling books than in revealing hard truths:::...

True, however I take issue with people whose self-serving "reviews" (I mean, the guy DOES sell his own stuff, right?) include scathing personal attacks-- such as his vicious verbal beating of Robert Kiyosaki.

Beating up the competition is hardly a "book review".

There are plenty of other places you can find the "hard truths" of real estate investing sans vitriol - such as Barron's Keys to Real Estate Investing, a real estate sales associate course, The Unofficial Guide to Real Estate Investing, and numerous other books and websites.

My momma taught me that you can be right, and still be wrong. I think that applies where John T. Reed is concerned.

I have thoroughly investigated the nonsense that the OP is spouting- it is a pitch for a complete scam. Your Social Security Number is NOT attached to a secret, unlimited bank account.

If you attempt to do any of the things these WHACK JOBS and CON ARTISTS teach you, at best you'll destroy any hopes of rebuilding your credit and at worst you will land yourself in jail.

Your Social Security number is not an account number attached to a super-secret bank account with unlimited funds in it.

If you borrow money, you have to pay it back. If you can't pay it back, both you and/or your lender(s) have certain remedies- your remedy is bankruptcy protection, theirs is foreclosure, obtaining a judgment against you- a Court Order that you must repay, or some combination.

I don't think that everyone that doesn't repay their debts is a deadbeat. Business is business. It's as much the responsibility of the lender to protect their money by not loaning it to high-risk people as it is for anyone they lend to to repay what they've borrowed.

Plenty of legitimate things happen that might prevent the repayment of monies borrowed as agreed.

What IS wrong is if a borrower withholds what is due, when it is due, when they have the capacity to repay. That is why we have courts to help decide. They will take a look at a borrower's assets, and income and make a determination.

The TRUTH behind the Obama phenomenon...
http://www.conservativebadboys.com/?p=263
:D :D :D :D

It's kind of like anthropogenic global warming. No one is obligated to provide any evidence that it's not happening. It is for those making the claim to substantiate. Thus far, they've been unable to do so.

For the rest of us to point that inconvenient truth out and be compared to holocaust deniers shows you the depravity of the promoters of the extreme environmental movement- and yes, I would put Al Gore out on the extreme fringe. He is well beyond the borders of rational, scientific discussion.