All Forum Posts by: Sean H.

1) If BiggerPockets put on a conference, would you want to attend?

--most definitely

2) Would you be willing to travel (fly) to attend such an event?

--yes

3) Do you think 2 days would be adequate for a first shot at it?

--I don't see why not

4) What kinds of ideas do you have for sessions?

--as others have mentioned, some geared towards the "Getting Started" crowd, others aimed at the advanced investors, that way everyone gets something out of it. I am specifically into buy and hold, flips, and commercial, but would not mind checking out a "intro to short sales" or "getting started in notes" to broaden my horizons.

5) What would a BP conference look like to you?

--Many knowledgeable investors, sharing information. Organized on useful content, not fluff.

6) Of the real estate and other events that you've attended, what is the one thing that you've liked the most?

--have not attended a real estate conference

Some final comments, mainly location. As anyone who has been in business for a period of time quickly learns, you will never make everyone happy. Pick a location that gives the BP conference the best chance to thrive and don't worry about the people who feel ostracized because it's on the east/west coast. The same people will find something else to complain about anyways, do not let them weigh too heavily.

That being said, I am anxiously awaiting the formal announcement! Good luck!

Renting by room is essentially how off campus college housing landlords do it. Whenever I was in school, the rent was $1600/semester per student, or if I wanted the entire 5 bedroom house to myself, it was $8000/semester. It made much more sense to break it down per student and as I understood it, our landlord had properties all over town.

I have another friend who basically just answered a craigslist ad for a room to rent in a normal, subdivision house. I doubt the zoning was correct for a multi-tenant house, but it was a 4 bedroom home, packed with 4 guys, all of whom signed individual leases.

Both of these types of situations (college rentals and room for rent ads) required a lot more hands on management as a direct result of the type of rental they were, so I would agree with Jeffrey, unless you want to participate full time, I would not get involved in these types of rentals.

Good job Bryan, it looks great!

Thanks for posting this Bryan. A real eye opener what could happen if you do not play by the rules.

I have a hypothetical for you guys. I know no one is a securities lawyer, so I will take the advice given with a grain of salt.

Suppose you wanted to advertise a turnkey property, so you typed up something like this...

rent- $1000/mo
expenses - $500 / mo
debt service - $250 / mo
profit - $250 / mo

purchase price: $20,000
ROI: 60% (assuming 25% down)

Would something like this be in violation of any SEC statute if sent to potential buyers? If it is, would adding something on the bottom like "these are projected returns, in no way guaranteed etc" make me compliant? Again, I understand this is a hairy area, especially for those of us not fluent in SEC statutes, but any guidance or experience would be appreciated.

The best advice I can give is for you to find a mentor who already does commercial investing. I am fortunate enough to have a relationship with one of the biggest commercial investors in my area. This has led to him throwing deals my way that are too small for him and walking me through lease negotiations, bank proposals, etc.

People are correct when they talk about commercial being an entirely different world. NNN leases, EPA filings, going over business plans to determine a tenant's ability to pay are all a huge part of the game that you would not necessarily have to handle in residential.

Just like any other business, networking is huge. Being able to have a personal relationship with the local congressman as well as the smallest mom and pop businessman has allowed my mentor to create a tremendous, self-sustaining business. Instead of spending all of his time finding deals, people bring them to him or if one crops up, he knows that the local retail store owner has been looking for a bigger place and can put them in it. Obviously it takes some time to get to that point, but if you're serious about going commercial having a huge and healthy network is key.

There is a ton of money to be made in commercial real estate. Lake house and Italian sports car money. However, it is an entirely different animal from residential so the best way to navigate the waters would be to find a mentor. While working to find a mentor, start building and expanding your professional and personal network. Once you get serious and start looking to put deals together, this will prove invaluable.

I look on craigslist to see what others in the area are charging. Pretty easy, quick, and cheap way to see what others are charging.

Hi David, welcome to BP.

I have some rentals in the greater Pittsburgh area and live about 1.5 hours outside the city. I would love to get into flipping but am having a lot of trouble finding deals. Best of luck to you!

I do not see any problem with talking about your real estate investments with your friends or coworkers. If you do it consistently, it's a pretty big part of your life, no reason to shut yourself off. Everyone else's comments about networking, private money, etc are dead nuts on as well.

When it comes to disclosing how much money you make through your deals, I would be wary. No one likes a bragger, especially when you're talking about money.

Found a pretty good article today about the housing market and how we should not expect it to get better in 2011. The whole website Zero Hedge is pretty informative for a lot of differing view points on our economy as a whole (no affiliation!).

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/housing-armageddon-12-facts-which-show-we-are-midst-worst-housing-collapse-us-history

What do you guys think about this?

Adrian, have you had any progress on this yet?