BiggerPockets Founder's Blog

BiggerPockets Newsletter: Tax Credits, Real Estate Development, and Motivation

Sunday, November 15, 2009

BiggerPockets Bits

If you've got a Facebook account and have connected to your BiggerPockets account, you've been able to post your new blog posts, forum threads, bulletins, and property listings direct to FB for a few weeks now. You can now post your status here on BP, and it will automatically be shared on FB!

All you need to do it make sure you connect, and you can elect to turn on or off the various sharing features by editing your settings through the SETTINGS & PRIVACY link in the dashboard and then clicking the Facebook tab.
Learn why greeting new BiggerPockets members is good for business.
Denver Investors, Professionals, etc: Join us for the BiggerPockets Denver: November Get Together 11/19/09 downtown . . . for more information, click here OR RSVP here.

Articles and Forums of the week:

Pick of the Week:

5 Reasons Why Real Estate Investors Fail - This article from blogger Ryan Moeller looks at five important things that shouldn't be overlooked if you don't want to fail as a real estate investor

Discussion of the Week:

Always Purchase Your Materials Yourself or Else! - A debate over whether you should purchase construction supplies for your rehab projects to protect yourself. Join the discussion.

Series Recap: Residential Land Development

This series, from Craig Grella, takes a detailed look at how to develop residential land for housing from start to finish. It is a great primer for anyone who might be interested in developing.

Part 1: The Basics

Part 2: Determining Economic Feasibility

Part 3: Zoning, Design, and Financing

Part 4: Construction and Marketing

News & Commentary:

Commercial Loan Modification Program From Fannie Mae - Fannie Mae is now offering a new commercial loan modification program aimed exclusively at commercial real estate owners who are unable to make their monthly mortgage payments.

How Can Real Estate Investors Profit from the Home Buyers Tax Credit Extension? - Why not figure out how to profit off the latest and greatest real estate legislation, right? Here are some ideas.

The $8,000 Tax Credit Question: Are We Setting Ourselves Up For An Even Bigger Problem? - A commentary on the value of the $8,000 tax credit extension.

General Real Estate Tips:

Finding Mortgage Professionals Who ‘Get It’ - A look at choosing the right mortgage professional to work with.

Use the Power of 100 to Achieve Your Business Goals - Real estate is a business where networking is an essential key to success. Learn about the power of 100 and how it can help you become a real estate networking expert.

Five Tips to Help Pull Yourself Out of a Real Estate Rut - We all get burned out from time to time. Here are some tips to get yourself out of that real estate rut.

The Importance of Accountability Partners - It is often difficult to keep yourself on task if you're working on your own, and for most in real estate, that is the case. Here's a look at using accountability partners to help you succeed.

Real Estate Investing:

Rehabbers: Know the Warning Signs of Over-Improvement - It isn't difficult to take a great deal and turn it into a money pit if you lose sight of what you're doing. Here's a great article to help you know the signs of over-improvement.

Landlords Beware: Discrimination can cost you Millions! - On November 3rd, the Justice department received the biggest settlement on a housing discrimination lawsuit. Here's your reminder to watch your p's and q's when it comes to discrimination against potential tenants.

6 Steps to Generate Private Money - Here are some keys to get more Private Money then you could ever need.

The Time to Educate Yourself Occurs Long Before You Need That Education! - Waiting to learn about how to be a landlord or rehabber after you've already jumped in with both feet can lead to some serious problems . . . watch out!

Short Sale - Important Question - a few questions about making offers on short sale properties and a great discussion to follow.

Commercial Real Estate:

Get Access to the Distressed Commercial Property "Shadow Market" - There are a lot of distressed owners and distressed Properties in nearly every market, and are held in the "shadow market." Here are some tips to find them.

NOI - To include or not to include Capital Improvements - The title says it all on this one.

Real Estate Professional's Corner:

Real Estate Agents Can Process Short Sales in Seven Easy Steps - Any agent can learn to master the seven relatively easy steps to completing a short sale. Here's how.

Tech Tips:

Scout Investor Hotspots with Google Earth and Multiplottr - As an investor who desires to dominate their farm area, you need all the tools you can get to make educated market decisions. Using this mapping technique can give you the extra data you need to stay ahead of the pack.

2 Tools to Embed Real Estate Videos on Your Twitter Stream - More and more people are using Twitter to communicate. This article looks at two tools that you can use to communicate through Twitter via video.

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Why Greeting New Members is Good for Business

I was just talking with a member who asked how to get more out of using BiggerPockets to build his business, and I made a suggestion that I wanted to share with the rest of you. Of course, engaging with others is one of the mainstays of successful social networkers. If you combine that with the need of new people to feel welcome in a community, you've got the perfect formula for success!

Greet New BiggerPockets Members to Quickly Build Your Name and Reputation

This simple activity, repeated a few times a day or week, will help drastically increase your visibility, particularly amongst new members. You will begin to be known as someone who is particularly helpful to others, and if you play your cards right, you'll be one of the first people that others think of when they are looking for someone/something.

Here's all you need to do:

Stop by the New Member Introductions forum and scan for people who'se posts have few or no replies.
READ the introduction post and respond to any questions or requests for help. Let these folks know that they are welcome in the community and that you're happy to do what you can to assist them (and mean it), and then do just that. Ask them to reveal more about themselves and take a real interest in their background, goals, etc. Of course, visiting their profile to learn more about them before responding is always helpful.
Follow those threads that you respond to, and be sure to follow up when the initial poster jumps back on the thread.

You'll see that you quickly gain new colleagues (send colleague requests to those people who interest you), and friends here on BiggerPockets. You'll also see that you become one of those people's go-to colleagues on the site. This is tactic that works . . . you just need to commit to doing it (and it only takes a few minutes to welcome several newbies).

When deals and other opportunities come up, you'll be there in their memory.

Of course, beyond just helping yourself, you'll be building good karma here on BiggerPockets, and some influence to go with it!

What's Your BiggerPockets Status? Check Facebook!

We added yet another minor improvement tonight to BiggerPockets, and those of you with Facebook accounts should be happy!

If you've got a Facebook account and have connected to your BiggerPockets account, you've been able to post your new blog posts, forum threads, bulletins, and property listings direct to FB for a few weeks now. You can now post your status here on BP, and it will automatically be shared on FB!

All you need to do it make sure you connect, and you can elect to turn on or off the various sharing features by editing your settings through the SETTINGS & PRIVACY link in the dashboard and then clicking the Facebook tab.

Enjoy!

BTW - We've also implemented various minor fixes around the site, including some formatting issues on member blogs, a few forum issues, and other things you will never need to worry about.

We've got more BIGGER and BETTER upgrades coming to the site soon!

Thanks for the continued support and suggestions for improvement.

Josh

BiggerPockets Founder Featured on ABC Radio Regarding Rental Property Vacancies

We continue to get new press mentions here at BiggerPockets, and I wanted to share the latest with all of you:

I was interviewed early this morning for the KGO Morning News with anchors Ed Baxter and Jennifer Jones (ABC News Radio - San Francisco) regarding the increase in rental vacancies around the country (highest rate in 23 years). We talked about how tenants now have more negotiating power with their landlords, various incentives being offered to attract those renters, and more.

If you haven't had the opportunity already, please do have a listen by clicking the link below. The audio file is 1 hour long and you'll just need to fast forward to the 45 minute mark to catch my segment.

LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW HERE

Thanks for the continued support from our members, visitors, and of course, the press.

Josh

BiggerPockets In-N-Out Los Angeles Meetup Was a Success!

Earlier today we had a get together in Los Angeles for BiggerPockets members and had a great time chatting about real estate, politics, the economy - you name it! Of course, we got to enjoy some great burgers at the In-N-Out Burger, and followed that up with a drink at El Torito (Sherman Oaks).

It was great finally getting to meet many of the fellas in real life (IRL), and I hope that you'll all use BiggerPockets to do your own real-life networking as well.

Photo from left to right: Richard Landeros, Matty M., Will Barnard, Joshua Dorkin, Tim Wieneke, Eddie Ziv

How to FAIL at Social Networking

I just got a request to close the account of a member here on BiggerPockets. While this doesn't happen very often, when it does, there is always a common theme. In EVERY case, the person was unsatisfied in some way with the results of their networking. The same goes for today. This person had three posts on the site, all of which were solicitations in a group, seeking buyers for property. Otherwise, they were not active on the forums, blogs, or any other place on the site. qc8b4679yx

The reason they were unsatisfied is that they expected the site to magically produce for them connections without doing the work. The did nothing to build relationships, and did nothing to be seen and known by the community at large.

We can't do the work for you. If you want to succeed at social networking for real estate, you MUST pay attention to the following information:

You Will Never Succeed in Social Networking if you Don't Build Relationships!

Almost nine out of ten people who are unhappy with the results of their efforts on our social network do nothing but solicit deals. The other one out of ten simply create a profile and expect people to come flocking to them.

Social Networking Requires You to Be Active and Visible. Here are some tips:

You will not make friends by joining a social network and immediately solicit business.
You will not do deals by joining a social network and immediately solicit business.
You MUST interact and give people the opportunity to get to know you before soliciting business! There are many ways to do that here on BP - forums, blogs, bulletins, etc.
People will NOT just seek you out unless you are visible. To be visible, you MUST create a complete profile. You MUST also become part of the VISIBLE conversation happening on the site.
The most important key to success is to focus on establishing relationships! For more, read "Are You Wasting Your Time with Social Networking for Real Estate?"

I've talked about all of this on many occassions. I think people have the false impression that people will just flock to you once you create a profile somewhere online. There is nothing farther from the truth. Being successful on a social network requires time and effort. Those people who are generally the most successful on any network are those people who are focused; those who are a part of the visible ether.

So . . . if you want to fail at social networking, create a profile and disapear. You'll have no one to blame for your failure but yourself.