Margins are very tight on condos in L.A. most of the players at auctions are large companies that make money through volume, they have access to cheap labor and materials because they operate on a large scale.

Observing volume fluctuations in regions, government policy effects, various buyer types, and learning about the most recent financing available has given me an MBA in Real Estate.

I think Joel's comments speak volumes to knowing the area you are investing in.

Type of Business: Three High Volume Restaurants.

I seriously had heart burn when I read this the other day!

Pricing alone, most of my prices were volume based, so I can make 20K more on a flip just because of how I buy things.

How fast or many volume units that happens at, depends on a number of factors, including the prices of the market, how much capital you're starting with, etc.I've tinkered with getting a couple people out to evaluate deals (see properties) but it's a tough thing to delegate. 

Kindly know, Berkadia is directly licensed by Fannie/Freddie and we are high-volume agency bankers.

Except I renamed her as "Sarah Heartburn".

The key for me has been (through trial and error unfortunately) finding 2 good contractors who I can be almost entirely hands off with and leveraging some basic technology so I focus most of my time and attention on finding deals.I've found that in order to do a decent volume of houses the vast majority of my time and attention needs to be on finding good deals, since that's the hardest part of this.Having really solid contractors who can make some minor paint/tile/house layout decisions and do a decent job with it has been crucial.Also- leveraging basic technology- for example I have a part time employee I pay to go around to all my rehabs once per week to take 5-10 minute videos and upload them to my google drive.