All Forum Posts by: John Cashin

A business plan is, in my opinion, necessary for any business or investment venture. The reason being: it should lay out everything for you, including the good and the bad. Having a business plan keeps you focused and helps you to continue moving foward by forcing you to work out some of the details here and now. Basically it forces you to do your due diligence and figure out if your business idea will even work in the first place.

Personally, I have written three BP's and found out that two of my ideas just weren't going to make me what I had originally thought (they were non-real estate related). Writing the BP ultimately saved me time and money, and I'm sure much headache. I also found that writing these up made me more confident in pitching my ideas to other people and I always had answers for any questions they could throw at me.

For you, maybe you will lay out how your rentals will make you money. What can you afford, what can you rent? Do you need a partner, do you know how to find tenants? What areas will you rent in, is there even a market for rentals in these areas? Will you just buy 1 or 2 or are you working towards a rental empire? Are you going to incorporate, etc, etc.

Hope this helps!

What is everyone's thoughts on this subject? My gut feeling is... BAD - don't do it!! But I have no reasons to support this, maybe someone here can provide some insight into this? Thanks :)

You should set up these documents with a lawyer from the real estate field to properly protect yourself and not just take the word of someone on biggerpockets (no offense to anyone on the forums!). Its the best way to protect yourself.

If you don't have a lawyer maybe someone can recommend you one for your area?

It is certainly an abuse of power and I think the law behind it needs refinement to prevent such abuse. However, how do you argue against the people who are using it that they need to change it so they can't do that anymore? It has happened where i live where a state school offered money to the owner of a property who turned it down because he didn't want to move. The school then turned to the state and used eminent domain to get the property.

I feel that there needs to be serious justification for something like this to be allowed but I don't know how you could stop some sort of corruption from occuring unless the laws are re-written. Do other countries have this?

The subject makes me angry.

:protest: :protest: :protest:

Great post, Christy. I hope this sparks similar posts in the future. Great read :D

i just turned 24 so i'm still in the "young" crowd here i think... on the subject of mentors, some good advice i got from the CXO types i've met is: be a mentor, but have many. theres a wealth of information available from so many different sources (including these forums) so take all the information you gather from these sources to come up with your own plans & perspective.

partnership can be good for more than just buying property at a young age - without mine it would be hard to constantly stay motivated on projects. just remember to always keep your cool.

Goodluck, welcome, & see you around.

i'm a member on plenty of other forums for other things. legitimate people don't look for forums to post about something they've had a postivie experience with if they aren't already a member... you think these people actually took the time out and searched for positive feedback about an investment they've already received a return on so they could become a member to post once about it? i know i wouldn't. oh, and all their stories seem to end with the theme "investing 5k doesn't hurt"

What type of real estate do you do in long island?

i just want to point out that if you break even you're either working for free or only getting paid for the work you've done, which isn't good investing. or atleast, its not smart investing. you want to get a return on your investment, otherwise whats the point?

Craig, I see what you are talking about with the difference phases of development and that raises a good point that i didn't really consider - which opens my options up considerably from what they were just yesterday. I also agree with you about the money always being available... from someone.

i guess my biggest problem is finding that project that i believe in, in the first place. i have questions like where to look... what to look for, even how to break down a deal for profit projections for investors, the little things like that.

on a side note: i wonder if you can provide any insight on the development business now that the "real estate bubble" has deflated. Have you seen any real decline in development business or has the nature of it changed at all? Since I'm only a house flipper at this point in time, if my area were affected by the real estate bubble i would think its a bad idea to flip houses. for example, i might be more inclined to find rental deals or look into foreclosures (as a result of the bubble prior to bursting). I'm wondering if a similar thing has happened with developing land - is it a bad idea to develop residential property but maybe a good idea to develop commercial land?

i'm still trying to get my head around everything that developing encompasses before doing it - but i will do it, i just need some of that basic information before i start.

ps. your reply has gotten me more excited to do some sort of development :superman: