All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

@Brent Coombs - Thanks for the feedback. Agreed on all points. I just wish more people detailed their failures like Scot did - I just don't see that alot as much as I would like. Maybe as @Charles Worth said, the value is really more for newer investors as opposed to established folks who have been there and done that.

@Charles Worth

Thanks for your input. Hopefully I didn't give the impression that the focus should be as much on failures as successes. Only that people should be more willing to swallow pride and share those experiences with others. It just seems so lopsided and there's SO much to learn from those stories. To your point though... there are more reasons than ego that people don't share more along those lines.

@Scot Howat - I know I already said it but thumbs up to you and thanks again!

Still interested in hearing everyone's opinion on the bullet points.. but mostly on this one:

Do you communicate and detail your "failures" on BP? If not, why?

Ok, so I can picture the raised eyebrows and perhaps even a curious look from @Joshua Dorkin right now... but please bear with me and read on.

This topic has been raised by other users here, and here and several other posts but only a few of them have many people willing to comment. Why is this?? Almost everyone here has bombed at some point - that's thousands of failure stories. Why does it seem so few of us want to share those with others here?

Backing up... I was talking with a fellow user this week over drinks about how wonderful BP is - the resources, the community.. Wow! hands down the best REI site on the Internet - undeniably! But I mentioned my discontent about the fact that there is an inordinate amount of success stories out there and not enough people posting about their "failures". BP boasts "learning about real estate without all the hype" but I've always felt like an information gap like this could be misinterpreted as just that... hype.

I don't blame BP for this. It's not like Josh has a team of people moderating posts and removing unfavorable content. Instead, I'm sure it's a simple fact that people are eager to boast about their accomplishments (and rightly so) but generally adverse to highlight their shortcomings. Not to mention... I wouldn't be motivated to spend time posting something that made me feel lousy as I rehashed all of the gory details - Yuk! Some (or most?) may even drop off the BP radar after that first bad deal or simply exit the REI industry altogether.

But, today after discussing this very thing, I found a post from @Scot Howat (1st time flip in chicago was a flop) about his very first flip experience. He walked us through the numbers and how it was going to cost him about 12k in the end. A good number of questions were asked as to what went wrong, and as a new investor, I learned some very valuable things. I noticed something interesting.. I didn't feel pumped up after reading Scot's post but I did feel more empowered. For me, getting pumped up from reading a post about someone making 25k off their flip is great but it's a little like a Red Bull sugar rush... it's great while it lasts, but in a little while, I need to find more to get back to that feeling again. Scot's post was more like a healthy dose of complex carbohydrates. He gave all of us the opportunity to learn from HIS mistakes, and that went a long way for me.

This is not to say that there isn't a representation on BP of the dirty realities of REI but the stuff I do see is usually a bit abstract... "Be careful of this, because of that". I don't find nearly as many real world, all cards on the table conversations like Scot's. 

The title of this post was meant to be a bit provocative. I don't necessarily think there needs to be a dedicated forum for failure stories (or should there be?). I'm more interested in hearing everyone's take on this. 

• Are there enough postings on BP like this? Maybe I've just missed it. 
• Do you think there is worth in encouraging more information sharing like this?
• Do you think more postings like this could have a negative, demotivating or demoralizing effect on the community?
• Do you communicate and detail your "failures" on BP? If so, what are your reasons. If not, why?
• Other thoughts?
  

@Crystal Smith true... a newbie or even intermediate investor in my opinion would not know most of these if they fell on their head. I would just see a crappy driveway that wasn't worth repairing. 

I'm always surprised by some of the village code in my area. It's my understanding that this is where a very good local inspector and GC pays dividends.

@Scot Howat

First, I will echo everyone's request for more details on this one including how you originally found the property.

Second, to the point made by @Jeff S., you don't see enough stories like this on BP and it takes a lot of courage to admit to a loss for whatever reason. I sometimes feel like these posts can be more valuable than all of the success stories we read here every day or in the podcasts we listen to. I wonder how much more we could all learn if more investors would suck up their egos and share more stories like these.

Thanks for sharing!

Robert,

As I am just starting out myself, I make it a point every day to find stories like yours to help keep me focused and driven.

Today as I was sitting at my desk doing my day job and feeling a bit burned out, I read your post and immediately felt inspired and excited again. 

So when you think you don't have much to contribute yet the the BP community, rest assured you do!

Thanks for sharing and best of luck in your future deals!

Craig

Jumping in on an old thread but...

Any.do has been a lifesaver for me... not only for RE but holistically. For those interested in a first thing in the morning "dashboard" view of your day... this app is wonderful. That to me is the number one most important feature outside of the basic note/task recording and notifications.

Does anyone know of other Android apps with this feature?

Shelly,

Curious how the first meet up went. Sorry I wasn't able to make it... looking forward to meeting everyone at the next one.

Craig

That didn't come out quite right.... let me rephrase...

... for those of us that work other jobs during the day aside from RE.

:-)

Shelly,

Great to see the meeting is in a couple of days. Unfortunately for those of us who work during the day, an 8:30 am time will be difficult. Would love to see a lunch or afternoon meet up.

Take care.
Craig