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Forum Rules and Regulations

Welcome to the BiggerPockets® Real Estate Investing Forums. The real estate investing discussion forums at BiggerPockets.com are where investors and other real estate professionals congregate. First and foremost, BiggerPockets.com is a community. There are certain rules which we enforce in order to provide the most enjoyable atmosphere that we can. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with our posting regulations, and understand that we also rely on YOU to help us keep this community friendly and enjoyable. This means that not only do the rest of the members expect you to follow these guidelines in your own posts, the administrators and moderators should be contacted via email or private message if you feel that another member's post has violated these rules to such a degree that you would like to bring it to our attention. All reported posts will be judged without prejudice. Posting Regulations No Pornographic or Sexual Material. Any sexually oriented imagery or links to such content will not be tolerated. Additionally, sexually explicit discussions are not acceptable to our community. Any posting of such material will result in a permanent ban. No Profanity in Thread Titles. We do ask that the titles of threads contain no foul language. Moderators of individual boards may also allow or disallow profanity as they see fit, and their decisions are final. Posting Email Addresses, Websites & Phone Numbers in Threads. In order to try to prevent spammers, we do not allow our users to post URLs in any form until they have posted at least 10 legitimate posts and have been with us for more than 7 days. We appreciate your understanding in this matter in order to help us eliminate spam from this forum. If you want to include your email address, website, or phone number for people to contact you, please put this information in your Signature. We will remove any email address, website or phone number that has been placed in our message posts. Please do not give out any personal information such as phone number, postal address, zip code, last name, or anything you do not wish others to know. If you choose to ignore this request, we cannot be held responsible for the consequences. First Name, Age, Gender, Location, and Birthday are all optional upon registration. As stated above, only email address, username, and password are required. Please know privacy is very important to us; we will never divulge your email address to anyone without first asking your consent. If you get "spam" emails from a member please report the email address to us so we can investigate. No FAO (for the attention of) posts. You will refrain from having personal discussions or "for the attention of" post with other board members. Please use the Private Message feature of the board, chat, or email for this purpose. No Impersonations. Do not attempt to impersonate other forum members, and forum moderators/administrators. Such an attempt will not be successful and it is an offense that will get you banned from the forums -no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Out of courtesy to other forum users and moderators we expect you to use only one username on our forums. Please do not post email addresses, standard addresses, ICQ and other messaging client numbers, or phone numbers which are not your own. One account per user, please. Please do not register multiple accounts. Using alternate nicknames and accounts is considered unacceptable. No Abusive Behavior. You agree, through your use of this service, that you will not use this Forum to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, abusive, hateful, harassing, obscene, sexually explicit, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise violating of any law. Hate speech is not tolerated. We will not tolerate abusive behavior to another member, moderator, or administrator. ABUSIVE BEHAVIOR INCLUDES POSTING IN ALL CAPS! It is bad netiquette, and is flat out rude. Doing so will not be tolerated. Do NOT Flame or Troll Flaming, flamebaiting, and trolling are NOT allowed ANYWHERE on this site! This rule applies to posts, signatures, and PMs. Flaming is directly insulting another member, flame-baiting is making a comment with the intention of getting a flame as a response, and trolling is the act of making posts with no purpose other than to annoy people. Remember - All Members are Equals Do NOT single a member out because they have low postcount, or status on the site. All members should be treated equally, whether they be an admin, moderator, or average member. This also includes minor rule violators. You may NOT attack minor rule violators for breaking the rules, simply tell them the rule they broke and leave it at that. Although major offenders such as advertisement spammers likely won't get you in trouble for attacking them, any rule violations are best handled by reporting the member or post to a moderator or admin, not by flaming them. Respect the Staff If a staff member tells you to stop doing something, STOP. If you don't you'll likely be banned. If you disagree with any action taken by a staff member, please contact the administrator. We'll gladly review anything you have to say. NEVER attack the staff directly, as this is immediate grounds for banning. No Email Harvesting Users may not harvest email addresses from our site. Doing so will result in an immediate ban! NO PM SPAM Members will not have access to our PM system until they have reached 10 posts. This is to discourage spammers. You agree NOT to send ANY unwanted solicitation through the use of our PM function and via email through our site. Doing so is grounds for immediate removal from the site! NO POACHING We will not permit anyone to divert the members of this forum to other competing real estate forums or websites. Recruiting our members to other forums or competing websites is strictly forbidden. If you are simply here to promote your own forum, then please leave as you will be banned for doing so. No Affiliate Links No posting affiliate links in messages or in your signature. Hiding affiliate links through services that provide short urls is also forbidden. Posting Images in Threads. Screenshots, photographs, and other images that you want to embed in your post must be no larger than 640 x 480 pixels. Larger images will be deleted, resized, or changed to a link. No Off-Topic Postings. Posts in a particular forum need to stay on topic. If you want to talk about something that is drastically removed from the topic of a forum, please take it to Off-Topic. Off-Topic was set up and designed for members to discuss issues not related to real estate or real estate investing. We welcome most general conversation in the Off-Topic, but discourage it from the other forum threads. No Thread Killing If a member is not happy with a post they have made, they should remove it once posted. Removal of posts, once others have responded, does nothing but ruin the flow of a conversation and kill a thread. Users who engage in thread-killing will have their accounts suspended. NO SPAMMING Spamming is characterized by the initiation of threads or posts that contribute nothing to a forum, be it off topic or on topic. Examples include: advertisements that are not located in the classifieds section, empty posts, posts with few words that have no relation to the current thread, promotion of your website or product in any thread other than the classifieds, or discussion and those posts that state they are Spam, either to annoy or increase a member's post count. Posting the same message across several threads is also considered Spam. This determination is made by the forum Moderator or Administrator and is not up for discussion. No Advertising or Promotions. You will not post topics or messages that solicit or promote any commercial concern or transmit advertising, promotional materials, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or make any commercial use of our service. Doing so will result in the immediate termination of your account. There are several areas for promotion, all of which are located in the MARKETPLACE section of the forums. These include, but are not limited to: Make Deals, Find Partners, Mentors & BirdDogs, etc. - the area for dealmaking on the forums, Classifieds - post your real estate wants or needs, Property, Land, & Farms For Sale - Realtors, Landlords & Managers - post any available properties you may have here, and Promote your Website, Newsletter, or Product - In order to set a standard, users must post at least 10 posts before posting in these areas. These must contribute to the community, and not merely be fluff posts. From there, feel free to promote your wares here! NOTE: Members are welcome to continue posting in the above areas once they have reached the posting requirements of the respective forums, BUT, must continue to contribute to other areas of the site if they expect to keep posting in these areas. Members who do nothing but pitch deals or their businesses will have their accounts suspended! Be sure to give back to the community if you expect to receive the benefits of the site. Please do not spam the other areas of our forum with sales pitches. These rules apply to the Classifieds, Property Wanted, Commercial Properties for Sale or Lease, Residential Property, Land, & Farms For Sale, Mortgages & Lending , and Seeking Deals, Partners, BirdDogs, etc. Threads: You may only post once a month regarding your company, property, deal, or offer. SPAM also includes sending unsolicited emails or private messages to members in an attempt to gain business. Users who use our system to SPAM will have their privileges revoked! User Names, Signatures, Avatars, and Profile Information. Usernames We do not allow members to use website URLs or email addresses as usernames. Usernames must be appropriate and shall not contain references to drugs, sex, or any other material generally thought to be inappropriate. Avatars Member avatars exist so our users can share their personalities or photos. Avatars MAY NOT be used for promotional purposes. This means NO ads and NO logos. Signatures Registered members are allowed to append signatures to their posts. These signatures: Must be set up in your profile, and not manually added to your messages. May not contain any pricing, sales, product etc. details. May contain a maximum of two smilies. May include one clickable link URL and/or one clickable email (mailto: ) May not be used to pitch yours or other websites. i.e. can't be advertisements May include two colors. Hyperlink color is set by the forum and is not counted as a color. Maximum font size cannot be larger than normal. Must be kept to a maximum of 3 lines or 150 characters (including spaces). May not contain links to other real estate forums or competing websites May not be rented or sold to anyone. Any signature that is offensive, insulting, or harmful to either BiggerPockets, its members, or its staff, are prohibited. Usage of all capital letters is prohibited. May be removed if a member is no longer active or if a member's only intention (as determined by the administrators) is to post to get their signature seen. i.e. fluff posts The administrators may remove any signature at any time for any reason. Administration and forum leaders will have final determination as to what is appropriate. USE OF FORUM EMAIL & PRIVATE MESSAGING Abuse of the forum email & private messaging systems will result in removal from the site immediately and possible banning. In addition, we reserve the right to seek financial retribution for severe cases of forum email & private messaging abuse. Note: The forum administrators reserve the right to periodically scan & review the PM database in search of abuse. OFFICIAL FORUM EMAIL & PRIVATE MESSAGES Please note that when you register for this forum, you agree to receive emails & private messages sent by the administrators & moderators of the forum. Any threat of legal action will not be taken seriously, as the forum emailings do not get sent to you unless you register & thus, permit it. BANNING BiggerPockets, Inc. reserves the right at its sole discretion to restrict, suspend, or terminate your access to any part of these forums, parts of or the entire BiggerPockets® Real Estate Investing Website. If you violate any of the rules stated in this document or any other service terms documents, a moderator will remove the offending message and may or may not send you a note letting you know why the message was removed and requesting that you adhere to the forum policies. It is your responsibility to maintain a current, valid email address in your registration information so that our moderators can contact you in the event of a policy violation. Any member who violates our policies will be denied access to these forums, whether or not they were able to receive a message from a moderator stating the nature of the violation. Members of these forums are solely responsible for ALL content that they post on our site. BiggerPockets, Inc. shall have the right, but not the obligation, to correct any errors or omissions in any Content, as it may determine in its sole discretion. BiggerPockets, Inc. further reserves the right, in their sole discretion, to delete or remove ANY user content from the site and to deny the access of any member to all parts of this site at any time for any reason without prior notice or liability. If a member feels that these rules have been violated, they are encouraged to report the offensive post to a moderator or administrator via Private Message or email for review. Our forums are moderated and moderators or administrators hold the right of closing or deleting a thread they feel is inappropriate. Once a topic is closed, members are not allowed to start new ones with the same topic or to question why a specific thread has been closed. All questions or remarks regarding closed or deleted threads must be e-mailed privately to the moderator who performed this action. Further any discussion of these rules is to be held through the Administrators or Moderators, via e-mail, and not on the forums themselves. If you don't like these rules, please don't post. If you break these rules, we reserve the right to revoke your posting privileges. Remember, posting here is a privilege and not a right. If your posting privileges have been revoked and you have questions about why, or what you might be able to do to restore them (this is not possible in all cases), please email the Forum Administrator. BiggerPockets, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content, links to or use of the content of the messages posted on this board, nor do we endorse the opinions of the authors. You remain solely responsible for the content of your messages, and you agree to indemnify and hold harmless BiggerPockets, Inc. and their agents with respect to any claim based upon transmission of your message(s). We at BiggerPockets.com reserve the right to delete any message for any or no reason whatsoever. Message boards are a dynamic entity, and BiggerPockets, Inc. reserves the right to change or alter these rules at any time. An Administrator’s word is final. BiggerPockets, Inc. reserves the right to publish forum post content (in whole or in part) on any or all of our associated sites. By submitting any content to this site, you give us your consent to reproduce such content in any way, publicly or privately, in any form of media, known or unknown, without any compensation to you. Users of this forum agree to compensate BiggerPockets, Inc. for any and all legal and court fees that may arise out of any lawsuits that are raised against it.

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