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All Forum Posts by: Eric Gerakos

Eric Gerakos has started 0 posts and replied 674 times.

Post: How do we feel about fish?

Eric GerakosPosted
  • Investor
  • Costa Mesa, CA
  • Posts 690
  • Votes 952

I allow fish as long as they are quiet and well behaved.

Post: Rich Investor Poor Investor

Eric GerakosPosted
  • Investor
  • Costa Mesa, CA
  • Posts 690
  • Votes 952
Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:
Quote from @Eric Gerakos:
Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:
Quote from @Eric Gerakos:

But this takes a lot of bankroll on the investors part. I agree that it is the ultimate way to invest, but not everyone can go this route...


That's true. My point was that there is more than one way to invest. Not everyone  buys fixer uppers or needs a team with a contractor, or wholesales or flips. Sometimes buying one nice property in a desirable area is better than buying 4 rentals that all need rehab, etc. There are many ways to succeed in investing. 

That's very true! Many is the time I wished I could just buy somethings that is ready-to-roll... ;-)

Although there is a part of me, and I suspect others, that likes the challenge of fixing up a piece of crap property. That is until we get halfway through it and it's not going well....


 Yup, that's what I'm trying to avoid. Sipping on some Lagavulin 16. I remember you have a similar palate. 

Post: Rich Investor Poor Investor

Eric GerakosPosted
  • Investor
  • Costa Mesa, CA
  • Posts 690
  • Votes 952
Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:
Quote from @Eric Gerakos:

But this takes a lot of bankroll on the investors part. I agree that it is the ultimate way to invest, but not everyone can go this route...


That's true. My point was that there is more than one way to invest. Not everyone  buys fixer uppers or needs a team with a contractor, or wholesales or flips. Sometimes buying one nice property in a desirable area is better than buying 4 rentals that all need rehab, etc. There are many ways to succeed in investing. 

Post: Rich Investor Poor Investor

Eric GerakosPosted
  • Investor
  • Costa Mesa, CA
  • Posts 690
  • Votes 952
Quote from @Matthew Irish-Jones:
Quote from @Nathan Gesner:
Quote from @Matthew Irish-Jones:

@Nathan Gesner as a fellow property manager, what portfolio's do you see perform the best?


I forgot to answer your question.

The ones that perform the best are still the fixer-uppers. Buy off market, below market price, from a tired investor that hasn't kept up on maintenance, rent increases, etc. It takes more work, but you get a better return for the effort.

I helped a friend buy 8 units that were severely neglected and not on the market. Half the units were vacant and winterized because the Landlord couldn't afford repairs. The other half were renting at 50% of market rate and one tenant hadn't paid rent in over six months! My friend bought them for $225,000 and spent $100,000 on renovations. They appraised for $750,000 before he even finished renovation. His cash flow is ridiculous and I suspect he has around $750,000 in equity. It's hard to get that kind of return with A-class properties.


 Agreed that the fixer uppers have the best returns.  I would argue that the most well off investors I know do not really go after these properties, they buy premium properties that are performing already with a low yield.  As rent increase they hold and get better returns. 

This. In 20+ years of buying rentals I have never bought a fixer upper or hired a contractor. I’ve also never had to evict anyone. I see new investors buying “affordable” properties in the Midwest that look like they have great cashflow on paper and a few months later they’re asking how to evict the crappy tenant that’s renting the crappy house they bought in a crappy neighborhood. I buy desirable properties in desirable neighborhoods that have over time had great appreciation which is where the real money is. No one is going to get wealthy making a few hundred dollars a month in cashflow. Just my opinion.

Post: Stock Market Investing vs. Real Estate Investing

Eric GerakosPosted
  • Investor
  • Costa Mesa, CA
  • Posts 690
  • Votes 952

100% rentals and trust deeds.

Post: Does this sound legit to you?

Eric GerakosPosted
  • Investor
  • Costa Mesa, CA
  • Posts 690
  • Votes 952

No.

Post: Inherited Portfolio. I'm Here to Learn and Network

Eric GerakosPosted
  • Investor
  • Costa Mesa, CA
  • Posts 690
  • Votes 952

Congrats on your inheritance. Not making any sudden moves is wise. Take your time educating yourself.

Post: Cut losses or try to hold on

Eric GerakosPosted
  • Investor
  • Costa Mesa, CA
  • Posts 690
  • Votes 952
Quote from @Patricia Steiner:

Let's start here: you're over it. And, when you reach this point, it's time to bolt. I recommend putting a 'for sale by owner' sign up and keep working to finish it as a SFH until it's either finish and/or until an investor comes along who will pay you a price that makes selling it as is worth doing.  There are so many moving parts with this property and most are out of your control.  The second you can pay back your family, payoff the debt you've got on it, and distance yourself from your Ex (rather than the other way around), the faster you can move on to another project that has more potential.  

One of the hardest lessons for an investor to accept is that walking away is not quitting - but an intelligent, wealth retention move when an investment is proven to be a drain of time, money, and energy. You can do better.

Hope this helps.  


 This.

Post: The future of RE investing - 5 and 10 year outlook

Eric GerakosPosted
  • Investor
  • Costa Mesa, CA
  • Posts 690
  • Votes 952
Quote from @Darius Parsia:
Quote from @Eric Gerakos:
Quote from @Darius Parsia:

The future of Real Estate investing is in danger, and it's going to take a lot of creativity and unity to thrive over the next decade. 

Those of you who've been in it for the past 10 or 20 years can see the writing on the wall, as you've had it "easy" compared to now and the future.
BRRR method has become next to impossible in good markets. Competition is insane.

It takes a lot of courage to go against the grain, to risk shame and censorship to simply state what should be obvious to everyone by now. The controversial matters I'm about to discuss are now public knowledge, however only a few years ago were completely unknown to the masses, except to very savvy (or paranoid) "conspiracy theorists" and there were massive efforts by governments and Big Tech to censor such subjects. Ask yourself - WHY?

If you can swallow your pride, political bias and ego for a moment, I promise this post will provide value to you in the end, no matter your position.

Before you make a quick judgement and skip this post, to be clear I was once a full-fledged Democrat, but now I am NOT affiliated with ANY political "side" as I believe the entire political, two-party system is defunct and corrupt - I mean just look at Nancy Pelosi (D) and Mitch McConnell (R) - a perfect example of how old greedy people remain in power and get to control and affect our lives. Why don't we have term limits?!!! 

Moving on...unfortunately political influence plays a HUGE part in Real Estate and that includes ownership and investing. If you ignore or deny this fact you are either very naïve/uninformed or complicit with bias towards a political agenda or mainstream narrative. 

Despite what traditional economics would teach you, an often overlooked fact is that big corporations, politicians and presidents all have an impact on the overall economy, whether or not we enter senseless wars and inflation - just look at what's happening now vs before our current... "President" who can barely string together a sentence let alone command an army. As a nation, our GDI and GDP are not looking good and we're in more debt than ever before. 

Outside of that, consider what has happened just in the past few years for example, such as communities all over the country where BLM riots occurred that resulted in severe widespread property damage affecting surrounding communities for months later, lowering property values which allowed certain large investors including BlackRock to buy up these areas cheap, with and without leverage. BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street together own nearly ALL assets in the entire world! When you follow the money and dig deeper, you uncover that in that example, the BLM riots were largely funded by Mr. Soros whom has communist and Marxist political views. His famous quote, "Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste". And now you have Democratic cities such as San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York allowing rampant migration, crime and retail theft to continue which affects everything from business to Real Estate, to every day life.

Then, you've got the whole p@ndemic situation that caused people to move out of highly restrictive states & cities where lockdowns caused massive job losses, business closures, suicides, etc., these people who were fed up moved into more "free" states such as Arizona, Texas, Georgia and Florida. If you do enough research, you can find out that even the Pl@nnedemic was political in more ways than one. Evidence is now clear that CV19 leaked from a lab, and Klaus Schwab of the WEF wrote a book about CV19 and the "Great Reset" TWO MONTHS before it occurred and was quoted saying "The p@ndemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity [...] to reset our world". Look up Event 201, Agenda 21 and agenda 2030. These are not "conspiracy theories" rather conspiracy facts that are now public knowledge for all to see. You just have to ignore the "Fact Checkers" as they are actually biased liars paid to censor the truth. Dig deep enough and you'll find the truth - think alternative media sources. Twitter (aka X) has more valuable and truthful insight than any "news" corporation (btw ALL of which are owned by just a handful of conglomerate companies).

Here is how all of these agendas will affect Real Estate, ownership and investing over the next 5 and 10 years:

Agenda 21/2030: For more than 20 years, the United Nations has been slowly implementing a plan with global governments to gain more control and consolidation of ALL resources around the world, which includes restricting individual property rights and redistributing wealth from developed to developing nations in the name of questionable climate change "crisis".  They want a one world government and one world currency. 

What does this all mean to us investors? Within two years or less, we will witness a major market crash caused by a combination of another pandemic and war, and more cyber attacks on our infrastructure. Even without all of this we are already on the path towards a de-dollarization and a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). BRICS currency is on its way to launch very soon. Bitcoin can still make you rich as it is a finite asset. At the very least, it is a hedge. During this two to three year period, we will see massive inflation even worse than now, major hikes in interest rates and increasing difficulty to buy, flip and even hold real estate properties - especially SFH. BlackRock and similar funds will continue to by lucrative assets, outbidding smaller investors and that includes multi-family properties. They will end up turning SFH residences and communities into tiny multi apartment dwellings. In order for us regular investors to still find opportunities after all these massive events and changes, we're going to have to work together and utilize pooled resources, creative financing, sweat equity and collaborative development projects.

By the year 2030, according to psycho Schwab and the WEF "You will own nothing and be happy" so that means it will become increasingly difficult to acquire and hold onto real estate per their maniacal plans. What it really means is that only the ultra rich and as well as WEF sponsored, ESG driven organizations will own apartment buildings and other investment properties. The best way we can circumvent this is to network with each other and try to acquire as much LAND as possible and come up with plans to build our own sustainable eco-friendly communities. The further away from major cities, the less of an impact these agendas have on us. In general, land is the key! We need more self-sufficient farming. Big players such as Bill Gates are buying massive amounts of land and destroying millions of trees, turning regular farms into GMO farms. If we the people own most of the land, we remain in control! 

Lastly, beyond 2030 is yet another threat we will have to face and that is A.I. and robots... yes robots. There are already plans to roll out massive robot workforces over the next 10 years and while that may have some benefits, will have drawbacks too because it will accelerate the "need for UBI (Universal Basic Income)" as jobs will gradually disappear. When more and more people become dependent on this fixed income, that will affect our ability to provide affordable housing via SFH rentals and sub 10 unit MFH properties.

If you learn how big players like these control the world, you can use this insight to your advantage and plan for the future, including where and how to invest! It's time to get smart and work together.

These people want to divide us into only two classes - rich and poor and they want to buy up all assets, making it hard for small investors to thrive.

It's a crazy world out there now and things are going to get tougher, but if you are willing to let go of your beliefs and open your eyes and mind, you can find answers and solutions to these challenges we will all continue to face. Together, we can still win!

TLDR; In summary: BUY LAND NOW! (and Bitcoin)

"knowledge Is The Biggest Asset You Can Accumulate"


 I hope you're not forgetting to wear your foil hat. You can't be too careful these days. 


Sir, all you've done is proved that you know nothing more than what propaganda CNN blasts. I speak from thorough research, not conspiracy theories. When it's just a theory, I keep it to myself. When the theory turns out to be true and can be verified through evidence, that's when I openly discuss it as I have here. 

I was serious. Wait......I think they're listening....sleepy Joe is a robot? AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Post: The future of RE investing - 5 and 10 year outlook

Eric GerakosPosted
  • Investor
  • Costa Mesa, CA
  • Posts 690
  • Votes 952
Quote from @Darius Parsia:

The future of Real Estate investing is in danger, and it's going to take a lot of creativity and unity to thrive over the next decade. 

Those of you who've been in it for the past 10 or 20 years can see the writing on the wall, as you've had it "easy" compared to now and the future.
BRRR method has become next to impossible in good markets. Competition is insane.

It takes a lot of courage to go against the grain, to risk shame and censorship to simply state what should be obvious to everyone by now. The controversial matters I'm about to discuss are now public knowledge, however only a few years ago were completely unknown to the masses, except to very savvy (or paranoid) "conspiracy theorists" and there were massive efforts by governments and Big Tech to censor such subjects. Ask yourself - WHY?

If you can swallow your pride, political bias and ego for a moment, I promise this post will provide value to you in the end, no matter your position.

Before you make a quick judgement and skip this post, to be clear I was once a full-fledged Democrat, but now I am NOT affiliated with ANY political "side" as I believe the entire political, two-party system is defunct and corrupt - I mean just look at Nancy Pelosi (D) and Mitch McConnell (R) - a perfect example of how old greedy people remain in power and get to control and affect our lives. Why don't we have term limits?!!! 

Moving on...unfortunately political influence plays a HUGE part in Real Estate and that includes ownership and investing. If you ignore or deny this fact you are either very naïve/uninformed or complicit with bias towards a political agenda or mainstream narrative. 

Despite what traditional economics would teach you, an often overlooked fact is that big corporations, politicians and presidents all have an impact on the overall economy, whether or not we enter senseless wars and inflation - just look at what's happening now vs before our current... "President" who can barely string together a sentence let alone command an army. As a nation, our GDI and GDP are not looking good and we're in more debt than ever before. 

Outside of that, consider what has happened just in the past few years for example, such as communities all over the country where BLM riots occurred that resulted in severe widespread property damage affecting surrounding communities for months later, lowering property values which allowed certain large investors including BlackRock to buy up these areas cheap, with and without leverage. BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street together own nearly ALL assets in the entire world! When you follow the money and dig deeper, you uncover that in that example, the BLM riots were largely funded by Mr. Soros whom has communist and Marxist political views. His famous quote, "Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste". And now you have Democratic cities such as San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York allowing rampant migration, crime and retail theft to continue which affects everything from business to Real Estate, to every day life.

Then, you've got the whole p@ndemic situation that caused people to move out of highly restrictive states & cities where lockdowns caused massive job losses, business closures, suicides, etc., these people who were fed up moved into more "free" states such as Arizona, Texas, Georgia and Florida. If you do enough research, you can find out that even the Pl@nnedemic was political in more ways than one. Evidence is now clear that CV19 leaked from a lab, and Klaus Schwab of the WEF wrote a book about CV19 and the "Great Reset" TWO MONTHS before it occurred and was quoted saying "The p@ndemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity [...] to reset our world". Look up Event 201, Agenda 21 and agenda 2030. These are not "conspiracy theories" rather conspiracy facts that are now public knowledge for all to see. You just have to ignore the "Fact Checkers" as they are actually biased liars paid to censor the truth. Dig deep enough and you'll find the truth - think alternative media sources. Twitter (aka X) has more valuable and truthful insight than any "news" corporation (btw ALL of which are owned by just a handful of conglomerate companies).

Here is how all of these agendas will affect Real Estate, ownership and investing over the next 5 and 10 years:

Agenda 21/2030: For more than 20 years, the United Nations has been slowly implementing a plan with global governments to gain more control and consolidation of ALL resources around the world, which includes restricting individual property rights and redistributing wealth from developed to developing nations in the name of questionable climate change "crisis".  They want a one world government and one world currency. 

What does this all mean to us investors? Within two years or less, we will witness a major market crash caused by a combination of another pandemic and war, and more cyber attacks on our infrastructure. Even without all of this we are already on the path towards a de-dollarization and a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). BRICS currency is on its way to launch very soon. Bitcoin can still make you rich as it is a finite asset. At the very least, it is a hedge. During this two to three year period, we will see massive inflation even worse than now, major hikes in interest rates and increasing difficulty to buy, flip and even hold real estate properties - especially SFH. BlackRock and similar funds will continue to by lucrative assets, outbidding smaller investors and that includes multi-family properties. They will end up turning SFH residences and communities into tiny multi apartment dwellings. In order for us regular investors to still find opportunities after all these massive events and changes, we're going to have to work together and utilize pooled resources, creative financing, sweat equity and collaborative development projects.

By the year 2030, according to psycho Schwab and the WEF "You will own nothing and be happy" so that means it will become increasingly difficult to acquire and hold onto real estate per their maniacal plans. What it really means is that only the ultra rich and as well as WEF sponsored, ESG driven organizations will own apartment buildings and other investment properties. The best way we can circumvent this is to network with each other and try to acquire as much LAND as possible and come up with plans to build our own sustainable eco-friendly communities. The further away from major cities, the less of an impact these agendas have on us. In general, land is the key! We need more self-sufficient farming. Big players such as Bill Gates are buying massive amounts of land and destroying millions of trees, turning regular farms into GMO farms. If we the people own most of the land, we remain in control! 

Lastly, beyond 2030 is yet another threat we will have to face and that is A.I. and robots... yes robots. There are already plans to roll out massive robot workforces over the next 10 years and while that may have some benefits, will have drawbacks too because it will accelerate the "need for UBI (Universal Basic Income)" as jobs will gradually disappear. When more and more people become dependent on this fixed income, that will affect our ability to provide affordable housing via SFH rentals and sub 10 unit MFH properties.

If you learn how big players like these control the world, you can use this insight to your advantage and plan for the future, including where and how to invest! It's time to get smart and work together.

These people want to divide us into only two classes - rich and poor and they want to buy up all assets, making it hard for small investors to thrive.

It's a crazy world out there now and things are going to get tougher, but if you are willing to let go of your beliefs and open your eyes and mind, you can find answers and solutions to these challenges we will all continue to face. Together, we can still win!

TLDR; In summary: BUY LAND NOW! (and Bitcoin)

"knowledge Is The Biggest Asset You Can Accumulate"


 I hope you're not forgetting to wear your foil hat. You can't be too careful these days.