All Forum Posts by: Calvin Thomas

 I believe everyone knows that they are paid advertisements.  However, BP should do a better job in venting them.  

 It's well known by now that the Bigger Pockets referral scheme is lackluster at best; garbage at worst.

You should just go to some local REI groups or browse Yelp for CPA reviews. Stay far away from from the Bigger Pockets referral scheme.

You should speak to an real estate lawyer before purchasing this property.  Since it's an illegal unit, you are not entitled to rent and will be fined by the borough.  Additionally, getting rid of a tenant in an illegal unit isn't easy in Union City.  It took us 3 months to remove an illegal mentally disturbed tenant from an apartment who was sub-letting from one of the tenants.  Hudson and Essex Counties are VERY tenant friendly.  Tread very carefully.

It's always best to hire a third-party contractor to clean the place in any state.  Reason being, if you are challenged, you have an invoice and payment to prove this work was done from a third party.  You do it yourself, then it may not fly if challenged.  I know in New Jersey, you cannot bill if you clean it yourself outside of the actual chemicals used (I.E. free labor).  

The easiest way to get around any of this is to hire a competent property management firm to handle everything.  The court looks on them as a neutral third party and they'd accept their invoicing and receipts without an issue.

Major cities have a leadership issue; there is none. So, NYC, Newark, Jersey City, Philadelphia, New Haven, Hartford, etc. are all having issues with crime and affordability.  The problem is, many of these cities started out by expanding services to make it easier to afford to live there.  However, when you have cashless bail, police afraid to enforce or not able enforce law and order, and people being incentivized not to work; what do they think will happen?  

Philly always had the ability to become a great city; but the people who are elected just hurt the hand that feeds it.  Crime is on the rise, property protections for landlords is nearly non-existent, and development is leaving the area for more favorable regulations.  What does the city expect will happen when you tie the hands of the police department and make the regulations so dire for investment; why would any major developer go and invest in the city?

The city has and will always have potential, but they need to hire/elect outside people to run the city like a business.  If not, it's just going to turn into a mini-Chicago.

 It's going to make the real estate market even harder for first time home buyers to jump into. I truly believe the powers that be are trying to make the US into a renters nation.  Some here may say, hey, I'm a landlord, that's great!  Until they start to use these new laws and mandates against you.

Remember, just a few short years ago, the lockdown and the ability for people to not pay their rent nation wide was crippling small landlords.   The medium and large corporations were fine. The small landlords got hurt badly. The government is not your friend.  They are friends with the money, and that is all.

All these new regulations are going to hurt the working / middle class, and turn us closer into a state run country.  The budget is out of control, and the brain trust at the Fed is going to unleash inflation even worse than before. We have morons running the government, and we're all going to get screwed eventually...

 Apologies for the delayed response.  I was away for a couple of weeks.  No problem with you scaling and growing; that's a great thing! However, I would caution you on quality over quantity.  If your lead gen is lackluster, which it seems it may be according to the other posters, that might be something you would want your team to look in to.

I am not sure on these conferences, as they are just, in my opinion, companies selling their services, and not much else.  Is there value, I am sure somewhere, but I am not one to know if it's worth $800.00.  I am in Manhattan, so there are conferences galore here.  Trust when I say they are mostly shills and sales presentations.  

I would consider asking someone from the outside if you would attend this conference. What do you want to obtain or learn from this conference?  Most importantly, is this worth not only $800.00, but is it worth my time to travel to this conference?

They may be some networking opportunities, but what can I, the end user, actually learn from going to the conference rather than watching it on Youtube, going to the BP forums or going to a local real estate meet-up?

I will have to look and see in my emails on the promos.  I do recall seeing it pumped about some guru who purchased 20,000,000 or so in real estate and he can help you too as an ad on the site. I never heard of the guy and googleing him brings up a very similar MLM page.

I am not knocking you.  You have to do what you must to grow your BP; I applaud you for that.  I just hope it's not going to detract from why you originally founded the site.  With all the ads and promos, it's like night and day.

Personally, this is going to back fire in two ways.  One, the mom and pop investor will waive their white flag and sell to a larger outfit.  Two, the rents will continue to rise to factor in the additional risk of removing a tenant.  This is a pain in NJ.