All Forum Posts by: Scott Trench

@Rob Z.

Accounts are generally closed for violation of our terms of use.  While we are a forgiving community, the thing I see that most often results in people getting their accounts shut down is either blatant disregard of our no solicitation policy, or a disregard for the spirit of our community over the long haul.  

Bragging, self-congratulatory posts, and snide comments that hint at how much better off others will be after someone's "course" tend to be the most common examples of this "breach of spirit" of our community.  If you've violated our terms, AND have this type of outlook, that's a no brainer decision for me in terms of shutting down an account.

Everyone makes mistakes, but folks that ignore the values here at BiggerPockets and focus on promoting themselves tend not to last long..

@Brandon Turner is a legend.

@Amanda Cook Thanks for that feedback! I expect those skills will be valuable, but I wonder if personally I won't learn most of those things outside of a school environment.

@Jeff S. I'm 100% with everything you said there - credentials help, but I'd have to believe success is the key metric when it comes to raising other people's money.  I also think that if you really want it the nighttime MBA makes sense, though only if you would otherwise be doing less productive things.

@James Park I plan to do everything in my power to be Financially Independent over the next 5 years.  That said, if I were financially independent, I'd probably want to blog about personal finance and help others succeed in real estate all day long... so it looks like I might be here at BP for a very long time ;)

@Galen Herbst de Cortina Now that's a response I wasn't expecting - getting credibility with the wife.  That seems to be a theme on the forums lately.   Also, perhaps my estimation of the value of the core skills of the MBA is skewed - I studied finance in undergrad, and believe that I'm getting valuable business as I've started investing in real estate.

@Toby Bergstrom I'll be sure to check that book out!  Thanks!

@Juan Diaz

Ok a couple of things here:

1) https://www.biggerpockets.com/users/Pecuniary That account is still open and has no record of being shut down, cooled off, or any other negative actions taken on the part of BiggerPockets.  I am able to see a complete history of the account on our side and see no issues.  Please note that users may have at most one profile, and that is grounds for dismissal from the platform.  I am happy to deactivate that account for you should you wish to no longer use it.

2) We certainly do not permit advertising for anything educational in most of our forums and from this post it seems that you are not-so-subtly promoting educational materials and/or content that you would like BiggerPockets users to go check out.  That is against our policy in the majority of our forums.  You are welcome to advertise these resources in our Marketplace, so long as you abide by the rules here at www.biggerpockets.com/biz.

3) I'd encourage you to reveal the numbers behind your flips - that is NOT forbidden.  I think it would be of benefit to our entire community to find a detailed description of a recent flip, complete with numbers, pictures, and more, here in our real estate success stories forum.

Lastly, It's my belief from the tone of your post that you intend to follow the letter of our terms of use but perhaps not the spirit of the community here.  

This is not a community where we like to talk about how wildly successful we are, or how much money we're making, or even how awesome our recent deal was.  It's not about your success, it's about the community and helping others become more successful in their business.  That mindset serves millions of investors on this platform well each and every day, and the positive, selfless willingness to help others get started, succeed, and invest is what makes this platform so great - and incidentally that's the mentality that will help you win far more business from BiggerPockets over the long run.

I'd encourage you to start here to review who and what we are at BiggerPockets.

I used to wonder if there was any value in going back to graduate school and getting an MBA.  I have a professional background in Corporate Finance and believe that I have the skill set necessary to succeed in a decent MBA program.

However, in the past year or so, I've really come to change my thinking.

Here are my two reasons why I believe that pursuing an MBA is a poor choice for aspiring entrepreneurs:

Reason 1 -  The degree is expensive

As someone who is particularly aggressive with personal finance, I believe that by committing cash to the degree, or by taking out loans, I delay my ability to invest in real estate or other assets significantly as I tie up my personal capital in the degree.

Further, I believe that I'll accumulate assets to invest at a slower rate for the duration of my education, and that I'll spend the years immediately following my graduation paying off student debts.  I expect this would significantly delay or reduce my ability to invest in real estate for at least 5 years or so.

I don't expect the cash flows (in the form of increased annual salary) from an MBA program to net positive for at least a decade - and I believe that is far too long a payback period for an investment that could have such a huge impact on my daily life and happiness.

Reason 2 - The degree limits my thinking and narrows my career of choice.

It was relatively easy for me as a young kid with just an undergraduate degree to make the decision to quit my cushy finance gig and come work here at BiggerPockets for @Joshua Dorkin .  I didn't have anything to lose!  I could absolutely take a chance on work with a small company that I was a big fan of.  I wonder though, if I would have had the fortitude to take that same chance were I making close to $100,000 annually as an MBA graduate from a top program.

I believe that the MBA mindset that is instilled is one which seeks the highest possible salary and the largest number of material comforts available.  I tend to see many MBA acquaintances as comfortable with a relatively low level of risk, and an unwillingness to rock the boat.  That's a broad generalization, but I do wonder if I would have succumbed to a similar mindset.

Anyways, I wrote about this topic briefly a few weeks ago, and I thought I'd discuss the merits of an MBA for entrepreneurs specifically.  I would love to hear everyone's thoughts.

Hi Carlos,

This is a question for foreclosure.com - I'd encourage you to go to their website and inquire there.  As a third party affiliate, we have no control over the pricing and potential changes that foreclosure.com makes.

Congratulations Elliot!  That's a great accomplishment!  I know I speak for a lot of folks when I say that I'd love to hear more details about the transaction - how you found the property, how you found the buyer, and how BiggerPockets helped you!

I've house-hacked... you can reach me at [email protected] or I might have written an article about it recently ;)

Previously, I used to put all of my savings into the stock market via a vangaurd etf - and to use that as my "savings account."  I did this because I felt that on average, I was likely to see the historical ~11% returns that market indexes return.  My thoughts were that even if I lost money in the short term, I was unlikely to lose using the stock market as my savings account over the long term.

Now that I've committed fully to Real Estate, however, I see several problems with that mindset and run my life much more like a business.  I need to be sure that I have cash on hand to deal with problems as they come up, and the few points of return that I might miss out on in the short term are fairly immaterial.

Your question comes up quite frequently actually.  I believe that as far as savings go, anything in the ballpark of $10,000 - $15,000 or less is fairly immaterial to your long-term objectives. Who cares if you earn 1-2% more per year on that?  I'd focus instead of accumulating $10,000 - $15,000 more every few months, and achieving very high returns with that capital invested in long-term real estate assets.

Go with a bank or credit union that makes life easy for you - close by, no fees, low hassle, etc.  Don't worry about squeezing an extra 1% on your $10,000 - that's $100.  Not worth it.

Focus on the big stuff, not the chunk change.  That's my view at least.