All Forum Posts by: Scott Trench

I ride my bike from Five Points to the BP HQ here by the Cherry Creek shopping center almost every day.  I try to take varying routes to see what's for sale and what't going on.  

A few months ago, these signs and the accompanying "scam" stickers were all over the place.  I still see them occasionally, but they seem to be much less common than they were perhaps in January.

I say good riddance.  The signs are often on public street poles and telephone poles, they are ugly, and they are crude.  

Good for you, Mr. "Scam" sticker guy!  Keep up the good work!

I love this topic because I hate the builder defect laws.  I think it allows scumbag attorneys to make a killing while at the same time making the Denver market worse for everyone.

It's one thing to legitimately sue over defects and weaknesses in construction to protect condo buyers, but the laws seem to allow for the local scumbaggery to sue over minor defects with such ease and for such large sums that the result is a market heavily skewed away from condo development.   Builders simply fear lawsuits so much that they won't build them... and I believe that's just wrong.

Here is my view as I interpret the situation, in response to your questions:

1) It will be hard for the local laws to skew further against condo development, in my view.  I'd either bet on no change or a change in favor of future development.

2) When the law changes is anyone's guess.

3) Condo development, I believe, has already ramped up.  There are a tremendous number of structures stylizing themselves as apartment complexes.  I don't know the specifics of the conversion process, but the complexes that many of my friends rent all appear very similar to condos.  I would not be surprised at all if the newer buildings, and many of the older ones are strategically positioned to be sold off as condos rapidly, should the local ordinances change.

4) I believe that should the law pass, and should apartment units be sold off as condos, that this will absolutely put downward pressure on existing condo prices (and home prices too...).  This is a good thing for the Denver market.  But it also means that your current condos will likely be competing against nicer, newer, better located structures.  At the very least, that will slow your appreciation potential.

5) As far as ALL price ranges go, I don't know.  I'd imagine that this situation doesn't bode particularly well for buy and hold condo investors over the next 5-10 years though.  If you have a great condo in a great location, you'll probably be fine in the majority of circumstances like you would with any great deal.

The opportunity here (I believe) is for apartment complex builders and owners, and new build construction.

@Mike H. @Darren Sager

I can see that there will be no pleasing everyone with these shirts..

If you don't like the designs, why don't you show me how its done on this thread?  If others vote it up, I'd be happy to make a similar version with BP logo (as long as Josh likes it too!) and put it up for sale.  

I'd love to get schooled in teeshirt creation if you've got all these suggestions!

Hey everyone.  We are improving our infrastructure to reduce load times, and this process resulted in a little bit of bugginess today.

We are working hard to transition our servers and increase our website's capacity.  We expect this process to be completed soon, and for the site's load issues and errors to be corrected.

Thanks for understanding!

Hey everyone, I wanted to let you know that I just created another BiggerPockets teeshirt.  Our last one was a big success, and some folks mentioned that they'd also like the option for a shirt like @Steve Babiak's.  

Well, I went ahead and designed a simpler one.  It's just our logo on the front and "BiggerPockets" on the back.  I also took the feedback from our last sale and included things like women's tees, long sleeved shirts, and hoodies.

Check it out at the link below!

http://teespring.com/biggerpockets-basic-tee

Here's to more BP Swag!

Micheal,

I'd suggest that you connect with @Allison Leung.  Allison is our editor and handles applications for new bloggers.  

I'd also suggest that you start your own member blog at www.biggerpockets.com/blogs

Hope that helps!

@Jeff Copeland

 We are aware of the server issues and are working to resolve them currently.

John,

Networking with people in your field of interest is definitely a huge part of BiggerPockets.  However, be careful not to solicit directly, as that is against our Terms of use:

www.biggerpockets.com/terms

If you are interested in learning more about what BiggerPockets is and how to use it, I recommend you start here:

www.biggerpockets.com/starthere

OR, if you are interested in learning about how to use BiggerPockets to grow your business, you can do so here:

www.biggerpockets.com/biz

Yes. But even if the seller asks to pass that along to me, I'd be happy to pay that price to rest easy knowing that I didn't undertake my first real estate transaction totally blindly and with no training. There are quite a few documents as part of this transaction, and a lot of individuals you'll likely need to work with (lender, inspector, FHA appraiser, contractors, sewer guy, etc etc).

It sounds like you are getting a good deal in Los Angeles, CA.  If that's the case, the nominal fee that a real estate agent charges will be well worth it to have both parties sleep well at night knowing that the transaction followed the correct process legally and fairly.  

I would have been in totally over my head on my first transaction without a realtor, perhaps especially in LA.  I think that you might be missing the forest for a tree (tree being the agents commission) on this deal.  You will likely have no idea what is going on without a professional to help you.

I've stocked this post with plenty of keywords to attract real estate agents and investors from Los Angeles, California - perhaps some of those folks will weigh in over the next few days.

If you are that unsure of what to do, I'd contact a local real estate agent.  That's their whole job ;)