All Forum Posts by: Scott Trench

I am a huge fan of this concept.  When I encourage people to bike for this reason I point to a recent example of how this proved powerful to me:

I had a friend that just didn't understand why I bought a property in the neighborhood that I bought in.  When I took her through the city on a bike ride, I was able to show her just how obvious the improvements to the area were, which direction they were heading, and show off some advantages to the neighborhood that might have been really tough to fully comprehend just driving through. 

@Ben Leybovich and @Joshua Dorkin 

As a newbie investor myself, perhaps I'm the rare position of being able to provide value in response to the question that you've posed here.  

I myself have repeatedly talked about my professional background in data analysis and financial modeling.  My ability to work quickly and accurately in spreadsheets is  perhaps my most valuable professional skillset that you can quantify.

I build almost everything out in my own spreadsheets when I plan out my finances, website anlaysis, and yes, my real estate expenses and projections.

That said - as you yourself have noted - I don't know what the hell I'm talking about when it comes to investing... yet.  I haven't had ten years investing and learning in the school of hard knocks. 

THAT's where the calculators come in.  Yes it's data entry.  BUT - it's pretty darn easy to forget an input, to not even consider closing costs, to not consider electrical, water, or any other number of expenses that come up in the course of an investment for a newbie.  The calculator puts those expenses right in front of your face.  It forces you to make a guess on all those numbers, at at the very least acknowledge their existence as costs that landlords must consider - something that the spreadsheet obviously can't do.  

For me, if I really want to pull those numbers into Excel and play around with the inputs for hours and run all sorts of fancy monte carlo sims, etc, that's great - I can use the calculator as a guide and do that sort of manipulation myself.  I've probably logged 5,000 -10,000 hours in spreadsheets and can model out 30 years in under an hour or so.  Most people can't do that.  They don't have the time or inclination to develop a skillset that you seem to be taking for granted.

The calculators for less experienced folks serve both the purpose of forcing them to consider each input AND they perform the mathematical calculations needed to predict the future of the investment.

Are they the one perfect solution to anyone and everyone?  No.  There isn't one of those perfect solutions anywhere.  But they are a pretty darn good product to help newbies wrap their heads around basics of a first investment and they provide a framework for intelligently analyzing an investment.  Plus - we define each expense and suggest ways to look them up!  

One of my favorite Podcasts of all time (aside from the BiggerPockets Podcast of course!) is Pat Flynn's "Smart Passive Income" Podcast.  

I was wondering if there is a natural tendency for Real Estate Investors to be drawn to this type of "investing" - investing your time and internet marketing savviness to generate passive income producing assets like web pages, affiliate marketing content, etc.  I think that this is especially appealing to those of us that don't have a lot of money or access to capital that is generally required to get started in Real Estate.

I'm wondering what other BP users think of Pat Flynn.  Who follows both BP and SPI?  I know that personally, I like the idea of using an approach like Pat's to generate cash flow that I can plow back into Real Estate.

I'm hoping to get some advice applicable to house hackers for liabilities including insurance, legal protections, and limiting liability.

After listening to Podcast 109, I've become interested in Asset Protection and moving my assets out from under my own name.  That said, I think I'll have a lot of trouble separating myself from my own house - I live there!  My name is on everything - including the mortgage!

What are folks recommendations for reducing personal liability, purchasing liability insurance, and renting this place out without triggering a due on sale clause or similar?  What are the best strategies for house - hackers?

Thanks in advance!

@Ben Leybovich Slow clap..

@Ryan Dossey Who says I wasn't? ;)

** Of Jobs**

Having snagged your attention there, I'll rephrase:

How many of you out there have quit your jobs because of inspiration from BiggerPockets?

I know I'm one of them... though I was only a quitter for a few weeks ;) @Joshua Dorkin 

I'd love to hear some inspiring stories from everybody!

 HAHA!  Love it.

This is my personal favorite so far!  Thanks Ned!

Thanks for the awesome feedback everyone! As an update, I kind of grouped the responses into a couple of categories so we can see where the "AHA!" Moments come from (:

Some type of "Networking" moment - 18 of you

Some type of "Podcast" moment - 16 of you

Some type of other "Learning" Moment - 11 of you

Someone else's "Success Story" - 2 of you

"Teaching Others" - 2 of you

"My Friends hang out here" (or something like that) - @Ben Leybovich