All Forum Posts by: Ru Schaefferkoetter

Prominent Penn State business professor Adam Grant wrote a book named “Give and Take”. He breaks down the world of professionals into three categories: givers, takers, and matchers. These categories are self explanatory: givers give, and look out for other’s interest; takers take, and achieve success at the expense of others; matchers match, they give to givers and take from takers (aka “the karma police”)

I've seen success been achieved by all three types of people, but I've only lived a short life so far, and my experience in the REI world is even shorter.

Can you share some of your insight on any of these there questions

1. Who is more successful in your experience? Givers, takers, or matchers?

2. How do you distinguish them?

3. What's the proportion of these three you have encounter in the REI world?

@Brett Peters wow...bet you've had some sleepless nights to get through on that one. Thanks for sharing the learning! Totally can relate to the plumbing and water piping issues you had. My swimming pool in the Basement was 12K plumbing job alone, and that doesn't even include digging up any pipes. Who would have guessed how fast plumbing/pipe infrastructure could wipe out a saving account, lol. I hope things have gotten better between you and your pit bull neighbor.

It's embarrassing to say it loud here -- I MESSED UP my very first investment, took a big loss, and still trying to get rid of it. Sparing y'all the painful stories, here are my biggest learnings. 

Lesson # 1: NEVER EVER, EVER buy a property out of state without having seeing it, no matter how good of a deal it seems. That's how I ended up with a house with drug-dealing squatters, then a "swimming pool" in the basement.

Lesson # 2: Invest in finding good people. My piece of junk ended up brought me to the city, lead me to meet some great contractors, neighbors, and future partners. Call it a silver lining, but I could have done it BEFORE throwing thousands of dollars away.

Lesson # 3: don't just rely on data about a city, run the research STREET by STREET! Googling "best cities to invest" did me no good, as I learned that each neighborhood, even each street, can make such a difference. I was being lazy and got my butt kicked.

BP folks, I am sure it is not all rainbows and unicorns in your journey, and I am sure you have to overcome hardships and mistakes. Could you share a bit about your biggest learnings?

@Jacob Sampson

Hi Jacob, thanks for the response! Yes that’s exactly what I mean. Basically qualify it as section 8 rental. How is your experience with section 8 renters? We are open to it but have heard mixed opinions.

We just recently purchased a foreclosed property in Kansas City. Since we live out of state, we couldn’t decide what’s the best strategy for us to proceed forward. Anyone here doing out of state investment? Does rent-to-own work for you? Is it less or more trouble? We also thought about turning it into a section 8 housing to ensure cash flow, but, we know the stigma with section 8. Would any long-distance investor do section 8? What’s your thought?

We just won an auction bid in Kansas City, and went to a “oh damn” moment. We have been sitting on the sideline forever and went into analysis paralysis for a while. Now we finally pulled the trigger. We like the Kansas City market, but we don’t live there and don’t know anyone in Kansas...so where do we start? Fellow members of bigger pocket...can we pick your brain? How would you approach this? Thank you!