All Forum Posts by: Steve K

Tough call. I'd think that running a successful brokerage will probably be easier to scale but would be more difficult to make a decent living until you hit that scale.

It seems like the more successful brokers get better deal access than the flipping crowd and can maneuver their way into a lot of different avenues including builder / developer / etc.

That being said I'd choose to be a rehabbed over broker all day long. Dealing with agents as employees, dealing with state mandated paperwork, etc just sounds miserable.

Have some small stakes in a few small solar developments. Returns are between 8-11 % but it's truly passive income. No tenants, no toilets, just keep hoping the sun shines as much as possible. Otherwise it's just the annual amount to retirement / brokerage accounts and real estate.

Its only a matter of time before rates start moving upwards. I'd be nervous shorting, but I'm a low risk investor in that arena.

That's a good lesson to learn early and at least you didn't have to pay completely out of pocket to learn it.

Watching tie wrap flap back and forth out of the corner of your eye on track is a distraction - i don't blame him for complaining about it!

Agree with the above comments about a construction job. The only reason it would be useful to go the general contractor route is if your end goal is developer. If you just want to be able to handle rehabs then project management skills are 10x as important as general construction knowledge.

Most of the successful developers I know started off as GC's building real projects, not the work out of their truck GC's who are hired to do rehabs for investors.

I wish I had gotten into the real estate game immediately after college. Good for you for knowing which direction you want to explore.

This seems uncalled for.

Also curious about the reasoning for Houston. Certainly no shortage of housing options to choose from and an interesting oil based economy there.

Orlando is supposedly at 2005 levels. What that means in terms of DOM i'm not exactly sure.

Everyone on the front end of the construction industry I talk to here is cautiously optimistic. Architects say their phones are ringing again, concrete suppliers say they've remained steady since last August, etc etc.

It's either a good to start pushing spec projects again or perhaps we're getting close to times where banks release some more inventory.

I know people using this strategy right now. It's got a lot of moving parts and what turns into an actual deal is a pretty low percentage, but it can be profitable. Seems like finding quality access to the note pool is the most challenging part of the process.

Hourly pay plus performance based bonuses. It's tough to find a good project manager who thinks and acts like a business person. Your best bet is to find someone trust worthy first and foremost and then spend some time teaching them how you want things to operate.

Interesting that somewhere between 18-20% of households have an income of $100k or greater. That makes the low net worth numbers even more surprising.