All Forum Posts by: Rhonda Wilson

There is a pretty good one here on BP. 

https://www.biggerpockets.com/real-estate-investme...

You only get to use it 5 times without a pro membership.

It definitely sounds fishy. I've had a lot of people say that they were interested in paying X months of rent in advance. It has never happened. In my experience, it's a ploy to distract from an otherwise problem application. Your mileage may vary.

You might say something like "Is there something that you would like for me to do so that you feel safer in your home?" It's sympathetic without volunteering for anything specific.

Hello BP Community! My husband and I have been investing in multi-family since 2004. At that time we bought a fixer 6-plex in Oregon. My husband had been a handyman for years working on other people's homes and rentals. We wanted to get on the owner side of the equation. I'm an engineer and by selling off my employee purchase stock we were able to buy our first property. 

Fourteen years later and we will be at 38 doors when our current 1031 exchange closes. It's been quite a journey so far, mostly learning lessons the hard way! For example, I had this tendency early on to be sympathetic with down-on-their-luck applicants. I rented to a few people that I shouldn't have and regretted it. Everyone is so nice when they are applying but after they skip rent or create problems for neighbors, you see another side. 

I've been learning a lot from BP over the last month or so. I hope to make connections with other investors and other people in the business. 

Joe, you are a hero! I really mean it. You had a dream and worked your butt off to make it reality! 

Thanks for posting your story. 

I think that it is important to differentiate between greed and ambition. If someone can offer a better word than "ambition", please do. Greed implies that a person's desire for material gain is excessive. How do we measure excess? It is excessive when that desire outweighs other virtues such as fairness, justice or social responsibilities such as spending time with family and friends. Greed doesn't happen at some fixed dollar amount like $10 million or 100 properties.  It happens when a person's greed drives them to cheat another person no matter what the amount. Or, when they completely neglect their family in order to earn well beyond any reasonable need. Suppose two people are to split a bill at a restaurant. One person says "You owe $X and I owe $Y" basing the calculation on a dishonest accounting of the bill. Even if the amount that they are cheating the other person is $1, this is greed. It is an example of putting the desire for material gain ahead of justice, honesty and fairness. Suppose a professional asks for a 10% raise on top of their current $150k per year salary. Is this greed if the professional knows that they could get the higher salary by quitting and taking a job down the road? These examples are intended to illustrate that greed is not a function of scale, it is a result of perverse or unbalanced values. 

The antithesis of greed is generosity or fairness. The opposite of ambition is laziness or apathy. They are quite different things. Indeed, a person can be both lazy and greedy. However, one isn't lazy and ambitious at the same time.

Remember, "greed" is one of the seven deadly sins of Christian tradition. Whether one is religious or not, the word refers to a specific, negative, human behavior that in our culture, is antithetical to virtue. 

@David S. I think that the problem that I'm having with your arguments is that you keep coming back to that word "greed" with a working assumption that beyond X amount, the only possible motivation for continuing is greed. I don't accept that assumption. 

@George W. With regard to the hypothetical question you asked about a roof replacement, in most cases, I wouldn't think that you could sue your partner to make additional capital contributions even for "necessary" repairs. I suppose that if the partnership agreement was very specific about the responsibility to make additional contributions and the manner in which it was determined that repairs were necessary. 

Honestly, if a partnership got to that point, it seems like it would be in real trouble. If one couldn't agree with their partner about how to handle a situation like handling an expense like that, I would think that you might be better off trying to dissolve the partnership through a buy-out. 

I see a partnership as being a bit like a marriage (but a lot more limited). Certain assets and important decisions are shared. If two or more partners are unable to work out joint decisions without going to court, they shouldn't be partners.

@Jerryll Noorden Thank you for the laughs!! I love it. 

@Paolo Agostinelli Good point. I've been thinking a lot about partnerships lately and hadn't really considered a JV. It seems to me that at JV would be a good way to start with someone who is a potential long-term partner. Through the JV one could find out what it's like to work with a person without committing to the long-term.

Let's remember, the name of the site is "BiggerPockets". It's all about wealth creation. If someone comes on to a forum for book enthusiasts and says "I don't care for reading, books are too boring" the reaction is probably not going to be positive. I hear you calling ambitious investors "greedy" which is a very negative word. Is a multi-millionaire "greedy" simply due to the fact that they have a lot more money than others? If we consider entertainers, super athletes or business leaders such as Lady Gaga, Serena Williams, Jennifer Lawrence or Bob Iger. They are all worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. Are they necessarily greedy due to their high amount of wealth compared to average? At what point does the amount of money they have become "stupid money" as refer to it? Why is it stupid? Why is it wrong for someone to have created a lot of wealth?

@Dave G.  Yes! There is a lot of variation in PMs. I find that different managers have different strengths. My Oregon manager is quite knowledgeable on landlord-tenant law and does a great job with problem tenants. OTOH, they are not as proficient at getting repairs done at the lowest cost. That department seems to go to their "usual guy" in any area and they are expensive! I've had to push them to get new contractors and more bids for major jobs.

@Kyle Marek The PMs I know cover an area of maybe 1 hour driving radius.