January 9, 2008 was a LONG time ago!

On that date, I went into contract with a buyer of one of my properties.

Fast forward one hundred and fourteen days later (114) - Today - And look at my joy!

WE FINALLY CLOSED!!

In that time, my buyer went through 2 mortgage brokers, 3 banks, and I think we’ve both lost more than a little bit of our hair. We’ve dealt with countless people who repeatedly lied to us about closing dates. We’ve spoken with many individuals who WOULDN’T commit to ANY closing date, despite that being the norm - isn’t it? To say that the banks and others we’ve dealt with simply toyed with our emotions, would be putting it kindly.

Throughout this horrifying experience, I did learn a few things:

• The banks don’t want to lend out money anymore - with the government clamping down and mortgage write-offs in the high billions, it seems that banks are doing everything in their power to avoid giving out loans.
• Loan and Mortgage Insurance Underwriters are coming up with excuses not to fund. One of the ridiculous examples of this came when we had a MI underwriter deny closing because he wanted to see photographic proof that a bathroom window could be opened. This was repeated several times over with other, equally outrageous requests.
• Well qualified buyers with good credit, high net worth, and high incomes are no better than folks with crummy credit and no money, these days.
• I’ve lost even more faith in the word of man. WAY too many promises to me were broken in the past 114 days to put a number on, and it just takes a little bit away from your faith in mankind.

All in all, I could write a book about this closing (and likely will), and one many times thicker about the nightmare that I faced when I owned the property. I’m beyond ecstatic that it is out of my hands and I wish the buyer all the success in the world with it — I know he’ll make it a success!

NOTE: This property was one of the ones I spoke about in A Rental Property Management SNAFU Story, and there have been quite a few nightmare situations that arose in the short time (3+ years) that I owned it.

Now . . . to take that deep breath I’ve been waiting for all these months . . . Lets just say that I REALLY Deserve a Vacation!

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Tags: closing on property, josh dorkin, real estate, real estate investing

The Launch of the BiggerPockets Blog

It all started 3 years ago today with a post titled “Real Estate Is Very Hot Investment” On March 13, 2005 I launched this blog about real estate, as an experiment to see if it would interest our BiggerPockets users.

3 Years Later, our BiggerPockets Blog known as Real Estate Investing for Real is often mentioned as one of the top real estate blogs online. In that time we’ve posted 622 articles and have had 2,873 comments (many thousands more if you include the spam we’ve had to delete).

I wanted to thank all of the people who have supported our blog over the years, all of our contributors, all of our subscribers, and finally, everyone who took the time to share their thoughts by commenting here on the site. This blog has undergone many different “phases,” and we’re still feeling our way around today, but we’re confident that we’ve done one thing throughout, and that is serve our readers with timely news, articles, and helpful information.

Blasts From the Past
I thought it might be fun to share a few of my favorite posts from the past few years . . . here’s a sampling:

1. BREAKING NEWS: Pinnacle Development Partners LLC Under Investigation - This article is so important to me because it allowed us to help spread the word about a terrible ponzi scheme with the world. Because of this article and our Pinnacle forum discussion we were able to help hundreds of people affected by this company. With close to 300,000 views and 1,500+ comments between the post and forum discussion, I’d have to say the impact of this article is as far reaching as anything else we’ve done throughout the years.
2. Top 35 Real Estate Blogs - In August of 2006, we thought it would be helpful to share what we felt were the top blogs in real estate. This post has been extremely popular, and over the years I’ve gotten a TON of complaints about non-inclusion. Many on the list are still around and would still be on a new list, but others would likely fail to make the grade today. We’re planning on releasing a 2008 edition of the top 35, and hopefully we can get this out ASAP.
3. How to handle a Real Estate Collapse - In June, 2005 I wrote about how to handle a potential real estate collapse. The market had been over-inflated for years by this time . . . I had been warning my friends since 2004 to get out while the going was good, but when I wrote this I had a terrible vibe that something bad was going to come of the Bubble. Fast forward to today and we can see the horrible ramifications of subprime and the housing run-up. I’m glad at least some people did listen and cashed out of their overpriced property when they could. Too bad millions and millions of others weren’t as lucky.
4. Top 10 Real Estate Lies of 2006 - I got a lot of flack for this post from realtors who thought I was being harsh. The fact is that many realtors do lie to convince their clients to buy or make other decisions and in 2006, this was plainly obvious to see. I couldn’t stop hearing about stories from people who had a sleazy real estate agent who tried to use a line to manipulate them. This post was a tribute to those scum-bags. The great thing about this post was that in the comments, a few of the readers helped to continue the list and we’re now at 35 lies. If we can get this one to 50 I may do a republishing . . .
5. Meet the Investor: Real Estate Investing Interview with Ryan Webber - This post marked the beginning of our feature, “Meet the Investor.” The interview was designed to help newer investors find some inspiration and learn from others who have been successful. We’ve since done quite a few investor interviews and are always looking for new people to interview. If you’re interested in joining the ranks, shoot me an email!
6. A Rental Property Management SNAFU Story - This post is important because, like the Pinnacle Development Partners article, it helped people who had been burned by a company to come together and get informed about the situation they were faced with. It was a very personal matter for me (as I was going through it myself), and I actually faced threats for writing it (and the ensuing follow-ups), but it was important for the 70+ landlords and hundreds of tenants and others who were affected just like me. Like the Pinnacle Discussion, we also set up a Whitener & Flynn Properties, LLC Management forum discussion to help those affected, and as a result, also created an area on the forums completely devoted to finding out about different real estate companies. The forum area is aptly named Ask About a Real Estate Company.
7. It’s Here - This article is so important because it marked the launch of our new Real Estate Social Network. Since launching a little over 2 months ago, close to 5,000 people have joined our site as members, and the feedback we’ve gotten has been incredible! This post is a great reminder for me of that day!

These posts mark just a small fraction of everything we’ve shared on this blog, and each post has been important for different reasons. We’ve now got 10 fantastic contributors who help to inform you all about anything and everything having to do with real estate, and I’m confident that we’ll continue to grow our readership and influence in the real estate world.

Thanks again for all of your support and I am excited to see what the next 3 years brings for us!

Our Readers Give Back

I thought it might be interesting to hear your thoughts on the past 3 years (or less for those new readers). Do you have a favorite post? Who are your favorite contributors? We’d love to get some of your thoughts on what we’ve done and what you’d like to see from our blog! Jump in and make a comment for all to see!

Tags: bigger pockets, biggerpockets, biggerpockets real estate social network, biggerpockets.com, josh dorkin, joshua-dorkin, real estate blog, real estate bloggers, real estate investing, real estate investing for real