BiggerPockets Founder · HI · Member since 2008 · 16k+ posts · 5k+ votes
Just curious . . . how many of you would be willing to tell others about your actual real estate portfolio?
Basically, I'm curious about people's attitudes about sharing this information in public.
So -- would you?
BTW - I don't want you to here, but want to find out your attitudes/thoughts on the matter - really looking for your opinions on the privacy of your personal / businesses portfolio.
I dont think its a big deal, but maybe I am being naive. What could come of it?
I guess some of my concern is the unknown. A specific one is that tenants or someone else believe me to be a rich target they can steal from. Fake slip and fall, or whatever.
I'm a little queasy about it, but could be convinced, I suppose. If someone did a bunch of research on me here on BP, they could probably come up with a pretty close estimate.
I dont think its a big deal, but maybe I am being naive. What could come of it?
I guess some of my concern is the unknown. A specific one is that tenants or someone else believe me to be a rich target they can steal from. Fake slip and fall, or whatever.
Josh, while it would be interesting to see that for some, that would be like putting your stock portfolio on line in an stock forum, but worse, since others can't really mess with your stock, but someone could mess with your properties, or your tenants.
Let's say I put up 524 S. Main, people will assume it's in Springfield and they know I do installment deals. Would a mortgage broker send a letter there soliciting a loan to take out seller financed deals?
Would another landlord solicit my tenants knowing information about how I do business because of a comment here?
Would I list 146 notes I hold and have note finders beating my door down?
Would there be trolls looking for someone to go after and find out which property might be the best target?
Would that info be of interest to an insurance agent, home repair company, roofers, snow removal/landscaping people, attorneys, least I mention Realtors!
Properties held in a business entity are deeded to that entity for a reason. If someone put's properties up that are in trust or an LLC, it's not hard to follow that chain back to you or even to any partners or others, maybe to your privaye lender, that little old lady on the deed of trust.
I sure would like to see what some people actually hold, if they didn't lie about it, but for me to do so prid pro quo for the sake of my curiosities would be rather foolish. But nice thought, it would seperate the wheat from the chaff.
I'd be OK in providing general info, but reluctant to provide specifics.
(I set up an LLC to provide some level of asset protection, and would prefer to avoid providing any chinks in the armour no matter how small.)
i go back and forth with this almost every day it seems..now when people ask me how many properties, i usually say "enough" or "oh, i don't even know anymore" and then a good hearty laugh makes them forget about how i dodged the question...i'm currently reading j.j. luna's "how to be invisible"...very eye opening and a great read
EDIT: I suppose I own nothing, since it's all in companies....crap, just realized that I'm flat out broke with no assets :)
Although some of this data is certainly available in the public record, in many cases it's not all that simple to gather that data from the public record.
i don't want to take this off topic, but you can definitely hide ownership...an llc with a registered agent other than yourself is a simple way...of course, there are more complicated ways as well..i really do recommend the book "how to be invisible"...i'm halfway through it, and really enjoying it, although some of his ideas are sorta radical and out there
i don't think there's much point in arguing that...if i choose to keep certain buildings of mine private, and tell the tenants i work for the owner as the maintence man, that's my business...it doesn't implicate me in any wrongdoing....back to josh's question though, i stand by my choice...certain properties, you can see that i own thru public records,and others you wouldn't know about, and i wouldn't want to give out the private addresses on the forum
the more i think about it josh, the more i think that real estate rentals are just like any other asset such as cash in the bank...i don't tell people what's in my bank account, so why would i say i have X number of properties? the more i grow my portfolio, the more jaded and cautious i become as i keep getting ridiculous lawsuits...
Bryan, you and I can talk for hours about our philosophies on this topic. I try to walk a fine line. I go by the adage that if you dont tell people how good you are, most will never know. Trump is the perfect example of this. He had intellegence to back it up but he, to this day tells everyone what a great builder he is even though we all look at it as stating the obvious. At the same time, I hear what your saying about less is more. The mystery of what assets young Bryan may have already accumulted for himself. I am not an attorney as you well know but I have done enough work with asset protection attorneys to know that a creditor or a sue happy tennant can know exactly what entities you own and what assets are in fact in those entities and if structured properly, it would be very difficult if not near impossible to get to. We all know what a litigeous society we live in. In fact I feel that the US tort system is a laughing stock to other countries that have all of their marbles in one sock. As investors that are constantly looking for OPM, my theory is to allow everyone to know what projects you have completed, ROI's on those projects and in the same breathe spend the 10-15k with a seaoned asset protection attorney to adequately protect your assets.