Something like an official Bigger Pockets guide to investing?

[Timothy W.]

I've been having a conversation with Josh about something I've been thinking about for a long time and wanted to get your folks' input on something I suggested to him....

Most new people need some sort of rudimentary training in how to do a certain type of investing and there's a million gurus out there on all these different topics telling the newbies they need to spend ten grand on their course - ten grand they should be spending on their first deal. I'm a little tired of the guru nonsense and we have great info here by hundreds of contributors - collective knowledge that is more than one person could ever have.... BUT - that information is conversational, not step by step. We could use step by step guides for the newbies to do something like how to buy an reo or how to buy a rental or whatever.

We have to direct these newbies somewhere to learn....why not cut the guru b.s. and get them something based on what we know from real world use actually works.

I won't lie to you - part of my motivation comes from an internal desire to give back to the site. I can directly credit Bigger Pockets with increasing my net worth by about 60-80k. I'd like to see the site have a sale able product that provides the alternative when we trash a guru. Something that could be sold for like 15-20 bucks each to help keep the site going. I'd also like to see people on here truly succeed and not come here after having dropped 20 grand into something like Nouveau Riche.

What do you think guys? You think we could come up with some basic e-book guides/manuals for the newbies based on what we know works?

[Mark N.A]

I've been waiting for Josh to put out a book for a while now.

IMO, the easiest way for Josh to create a book would be to choose one or two dozen chapter headings, i.e. "Starting Out", "Financing", "Flipping", "Renovating", "Landlording", and so forth.

Then he could just cut and paste the best questions, answers and comments from this site until he had 80,000-100,000 words, which would make quite an invaluable resource.

An added benefit to him, of course, is that it would also drive new traffic to this site.

As for publishing, Josh could either go the route of self-publishing which others on this site have done, or go the traditional route of established publishers. Finding a literary agent to represent him wouldn't be hard at all with BiggerPockets' credentials.