Take an Investor Survey

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Julie MarquezPro Member
Investor · Skagit County, WA · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 807 votes
10y

@Dave Meyer That's a pretty vague survey. And I don't know the answer to this: I bought a rental house for $182,500 and today it's worth $225,000. But because my goal is a quick loan paydown, it cash flows zero. How much money have I made on that house?

Also, since joining Bigger Pockets, I haven't had a deal or made any money from real estate. In fact, I have spent money for BP books and a pro membership, so I would say I'm in the red, but I can't have a negative number in your survey.

I love Bigger Pockets and recommend you guys with a score of 10+, but the money questions are hard to answer.

5Reply
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  • Evan Thoma
    Real Estate Investor · Chicago, IL · Member since 2016 · 50 posts · 22 votes
    10y

    @Dave Meyer Great idea! Hope you get some good responses. BP has done so many things for so many people. 

    1Reply
  • Michael Mullins
    Investor · Cedar Park, TX · Member since 2016 · 463 posts · 177 votes
    10y
    So what do you plan on doing with the number? I love s good idea.
    0Reply
  • Julie MarquezPro Member
    Investor · Skagit County, WA · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 807 votes
    10y

    @Dave Meyer That's a pretty vague survey. And I don't know the answer to this: I bought a rental house for $182,500 and today it's worth $225,000. But because my goal is a quick loan paydown, it cash flows zero. How much money have I made on that house?

    Also, since joining Bigger Pockets, I haven't had a deal or made any money from real estate. In fact, I have spent money for BP books and a pro membership, so I would say I'm in the red, but I can't have a negative number in your survey.

    I love Bigger Pockets and recommend you guys with a score of 10+, but the money questions are hard to answer.

    5Reply
  • Percy N.
    Developer · Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2015 · 2k+ posts · 904 votes
    10y

    @Dave Meyer, the amounts do not accept commas or $ signs. You may want to change the formatting rules or make it clear that the answer should only be numbers and no special chars.

    4Reply
  • Benjamin Allen
    Rental Property Investor · Geneva, NY · Member since 2015 · 65 posts · 17 votes
    10y

    question #2 is pretty subjective, pretty question might be, how much rental income/profit have you made this year in real estate?

    I suggested Biggerpockets to a friend earlier today and signed up then and there!

    1Reply
  • Chris Bounds
    Investor · Sugar Land, TX · Member since 2012 · 554 posts · 232 votes
    10y

    Done!

    0Reply
  • JD MartinBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Rock Star Extraordinaire · Northeast, TN · Member since 2015 · 10k+ posts · 16k+ votes
    10y
    Originally posted by @Julie Marquez:

    @Dave Meyer That's a pretty vague survey. And I don't know the answer to this: I bought a rental house for $182,500 and today it's worth $225,000. But because my goal is a quick loan paydown, it cash flows zero. How much money have I made on that house?

    Also, since joining Bigger Pockets, I haven't had a deal or made any money from real estate. In fact, I have spent money for BP books and a pro membership, so I would say I'm in the red, but I can't have a negative number in your survey.

    I love Bigger Pockets and recommend you guys with a score of 10+, but the money questions are hard to answer.

     Agreed 100%. Accepting only positive whole integers was probably not the best idea. My answer to the "how much BP money" was "Hard to quantify, but networking keeps me inspired". 

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    2Reply
  • Michael Henry
    Real Estate Consultant · Brookfield, WI · Member since 2014 · 873 posts · 350 votes
    10y

    Dave, Do you plan on sharing the high level results?

    1Reply
  • Andrew SyriosPro Member
    Moderator
    Residential Real Estate Investor · Kansas City, MO · Member since 2014 · 10k+ posts · 5k+ votes
    10y

    Done and done. Keep up the good work!

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    0Reply
  • James MasottiPro Member
    Rental Property Investor · Washington Township, NJ · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 976 votes
    10y

    The how much money have you made in real estate also doesn't accept negative numbers for those of us just staring out and had a rough first deal :(

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    2Reply
  • Aaron Mazzrillo
    Investor · Riverside, CA · Member since 2011 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    10y

    I get why you're asking for dollar figures, but I don't think it is even possible to nail down that real net number without an extensive audit. For example, I've wholesaled 11 houses over the last 8 months to a one BP member, but my gross on those fees doesn't take into consideration my marketing costs to acquire those houses and I don't only wholesale to that investor. 

    0Reply
  • David Faulkner
    Investor · Orange County, CA · Member since 2015 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    10y
    Originally posted by @Julie Marquez:

    @Dave Meyer That's a pretty vague survey. And I don't know the answer to this: I bought a rental house for $182,500 and today it's worth $225,000. But because my goal is a quick loan paydown, it cash flows zero. How much money have I made on that house?

     Zero ... if you have no cash flow, then you have no profit and are speculating on appreciation. Joke :) but others on BP seem to think it is not a joke, which in and of itself is a joke. Nice job, keep it up!

    3Reply
  • Kenneth LaVoie
    Rental Property Investor · Winslow, ME · Member since 2008 · 826 posts · 281 votes
    10y

    I would say that survey has zero value. The "how much did you make or save due to BP" is such a subjective number. Who has that number on a spreadsheet?? 

    1Reply
  • Bill Gulley
    Investor, Entrepreneur, Educator · Springfield, MO · Member since 2009 · 21k+ posts · 12k+ votes
    10y

    Josh has enough money to get a real survey drafted, start over. Me, I'm still in the red from buying lunches for those wanting to pick my brain! I've never had any BP deal, probably won't either, but you never know! :) 

    3Reply
  • George Waters
    Investor · Hicksville, NY · Member since 2014 · 23 posts · 8 votes
    10y

    I just did survey but i thought it was vague also.

    1Reply
  • David Dachtera
    Rental Property Investor · Rockford, IL · Member since 2014 · 4k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    10y
    Originally posted by @Dave Meyer:

    Hello BiggerPockets Members! We're conducting a brief survey, and want to know a bit about what real estate investing, and BiggerPockets have done for your financial lives. 

    Please take this 30-second survey!  

    Thank you in advance. 

    Yeah ... gotta go with the others. I understand what you might be looking for. However, even a free-form comments section as the final question would add tremendous value to the survey. That may add complexity to the process of evaluating the responses, I understand that. However, to achieve the goal you seemed to have in mind, it would probably be worth it.

    With that in mind, I'll add my comment / opinions here in this forum. 

    The opportunity to communicate via these fora truly fosters the the idea of networking. In that respect, BP has tremendous value. We all have something to say, and love to be able to say it.

    As a learning tool, however, the value could be improved substantially.

    The common advice for newbies here is to comb the forums for information. That's rather like taking someone with only basic reading and arithmetic skills who seeks an education and sending them into a massive public library, pointing out the card catalogue (the BP equivalent is the Search option on the title bar), and telling him to "go for it!". He wouldn't know what to look for short of every possible title, topic, author, etc. in the catalogue. As is often said, "you don't know what you don't know" or, perhaps better stated, you are likely unaware of which topics exist which you need to study in any specific pursuit.

    Unfortunately, I don't see a solution short of a scanning engine to read every single post and index keywords so that a directory of sorts could be built to help people find posts germaine to specific topics they might wish to study. The existing search engine seems to be not quite enough. Yes, it produces results. Still, a more refined response would provide greater value, and that might be tough to achieve with only subscriber and advertising dollars for income.

    There is also BP's "Free Course", which really isn't a "course". Then again, you get what you pay for. In fact, the "course" itself suffers from the second item listed on the front page under "major downfalls". It has similar limitations to what is typically found in most REI education: it was not prepared or vetted by a qualified educator (i.e., someone whose career is preparing and developing educational materials).

    So, as an educational resource, BP is better then nothing. Still, there's almost always room for improvement ...

    ... which, I believe, is the reason you put out this survey.

    4Reply
  • Ryan Werner
    Green Bay, WI · Member since 2016 · 28 posts · 10 votes
    10y

    Just completed it.

    1Reply
  • Ben M.
    Investor · Ashland, VA · Member since 2015 · 20 posts · 6 votes
    10y
    Julie Marquez it's the equity that was built in the house that would reflect your actual profit, obviously the increase of value of the house will be the value to which your equity ought to be indexed to not the original price.
    1Reply
  • Joshua D.
    Investor · Columbus, MT · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    10y

    @Dave Meyer

    It wont let me take the survey? It keeps saying please enter a valid number? 

    0Reply
  • Joshua D.
    Investor · Columbus, MT · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    10y

    @Dave Meyer

    Never mind, went back 30 min later and it worked... 

    0Reply
  • Alexander Lang
    Rental Property Investor · Savage, MN · Member since 2016 · 202 posts · 61 votes
    10y

    Thank you BP!

    1Reply
  • Anthony Smith
    Agent/Investor · Detroit, MI · Member since 2016 · 66 posts · 46 votes
    10y

    took the survey and ill have you know Facebook has made me no money either but just like Bigger Pockets can't live with out it

    0Reply
  • Dave MeyerPro Member
    OP
    Head of Real Estate Investing at BiggerPockets · Seattle, WA · Member since 2015 · 224 posts · 826 votes
    10y

    Thanks everyone for participating! We're still accepting submissions and could use some more. The stats nerd in me needs some more entries for statistical significance. Keep em coming! 

    Stay tuned, as I'll be writing up a summary of the findings. Should be really interesting. 

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    0Reply
  • Rich Schmidt
    Investor · Valparaiso, IN · Member since 2011 · 103 posts · 65 votes
    10y

    Tried to fill it out, but my answers of "not sure" to the money questions weren't accepted. I suppose I could fill it out again with 0's in each box, because all "profits" are currently reinvested.

    I recommend BP to anyone I talk to who asks about real estate. That's a 10 for sure!

    0Reply
  • Rich Schmidt
    Investor · Valparaiso, IN · Member since 2011 · 103 posts · 65 votes
    10y
    Originally posted by @Dave Meyer:

    Thanks everyone for participating! We're still accepting submissions and could use some more. The stats nerd in me needs some more entries for statistical significance. Keep em coming! 

    Stay tuned, as I'll be writing up a summary of the findings. Should be really interesting. 

     I hope you'll take the feedback here seriously. There's no way to find out anything "statistically significant" from a survey like this.

    0Reply
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