All Forum Posts by: Jim K.

@Sharon Powell

There's an old joke about envy and Greek people. I think we understand it slightly better than most people.

An Irishman, a Frenchman, and a Greek go before God. God offers them whatever they want. The Irishman stands up first.

"Faith and begorrah, me neighbor, me neighbor back in County Kilkenny, why, he has three strong fine sons, two hundred cattle, and a modern dairy barn. Aye, but I only have the two sons, fifty cattle, and me dairy barn is old. I want what me neighbor has, so can you give me that, God?"

"Done!" says God, and the Irishman has what his neighbor has.

The Frenchman stands up. "Oui, allow me zee, eh, honneur, mon Dieu, of your address. In zee village of Olivet, where I live, my neighbor, he makes zee best cheese in all zee land. Always zee best cheese. Fine and très creamy...he has four daughters who are zee best milkmaids, two beeg, beeg pastures, for his cows, oui, and he has a beeg new house. Alors, my house is old and small, I have only two daughters and their hands, mon Dieu, they milk zee cow with fists hard and tight like zee boxing, c'est terrible! I have only zee one pasture, and it is no good! Mon Dieu, pardonnez-moi, s'il vous plaît, can you please give me what my neighbor has?

"Done!" says God, and the Frenchman has what his neighbor has.

The Greek stands up. "Yes, yes. I tell you pleez: back on Kefalonia, my neighbor hez six goats, three sons, two daughters, and many, many, so many lemon trees -- "

"Oh, OK," God holds up his hand. "I understand. How many more goats, sons, daughters do you want, and how many lemon trees does your neighbor have -- "

"NO! NO! BURN IT ALL AND KILL HIS FAMILY! ONLY THEN I WILL BE HAPPY!!!"

@Alfred Edmonds

Hi, Al, of course you don't. You're a fully licensed Massachusetts contractor with registration good to 2020, with zero complaints in the registry. Your profile indicates you've been in this business for 20 years. Most contractors, as you know, don't make it. Only 36.4% make it past the fifth year, the rest are toast by then. I even let my registration as PA123372 go this year, as I only plan to work on my own properties with no permits and no direct hires.

@Philip Williams

I can't disagree with what you're saying at all. I'd have to be crazy or completely ignorant of the realities of this business to do so. The jealously and envy never stops after a certain point of minimum success -- I think it's true for everyone. The way I've talked about the problem in flips in the past goes like this: the workers carry out 100% of the visible work product, carry 0% of the risk, and simply would never believe any sort of profit-sharing distribution you might set up was fair, let alone generous. You're in a no-win situation as far as that's concerned on a flip working with contractors.

But you can't feed the beast. You can't show up on jobsites in a hot car. You can't visit your tenants to raise the rent on them in a bespoke suit and calf-skin wingtips. You can't go to make a  deal with a small contractor wearing designer jeans and just-out-of-the-box kicks. Nobody we work with needs to know how much money we make -- I'm perennially broke and up to my eyeballs in unsustainable debt as far as my tenants and the people I work with know.

Just looking at your profile pic, I don't see you giving anyone any excuses to envy you, either.

@Joshua D.

OK, so you're starting from a disadvantage. Your wife's father has the bucks. Now people think you're just a gigolo...and here you are, shirtless on the water fresh from the mother of all protein shake in your profile pic! What are they supposed to think? That your wife married you for your bulging intellect and mighty heart?

Do you have anything of you in a suit? Something with the two of you in business casual? Less look-at-us-enjoying-a-life-of-leisure and more give-us-this-day-our-daily-bread?

Richest guy I ever knew personally was an old boss of mine. He owned four language schools and a Division I professional Greek soccer team. Guy must have been worth upwards of twenty million euros. Dirty as h***, OC connections all over the place, history of collaboration with the military dictatorship of the early 1970s. In 2013, his body washed up on an Athens beach. Seems he went for a midnight swim three days before and suffered a heart attack on the water, or so the story for public consumption goes. I have a buddy on the national police force who told me they're still trying to figure out if it was the Bulgarian or the Russian mafia that took him out on the water and pounded him until his heart stopped, then dumped him over the side.

The dude drove a Suzuki Jimny. I'm not kidding you. This piece-of-garbage 10-year-old excuse for a Jeep. Of course, like all Greek parents, he had a soft spot for his kid, so that idiot drove a Mercedes S-class. The son still owns the team, but it's now dropped to Division III.

@Joshua D.

A'right, a'right, the first step is admitting that the truck is a problem. :)

It's what we all do at first, Josh. My dumba** investment to show that I'd finally made some money was a two-thousand-dollar Swarovski chandelier for my dining room, believe it or not. It's still in the box, thankfully, even though the Spanish and Greek marble floor I put in is still in that dining room because I put it in myself and I can't bear to bust it out. I keep a rug over it because I have guys who have to come to the house until I sell it next year.

It's going to be the 'Burgh. Because we really don't need it. and judging from how hard our esteemed community leaders are fighting to keep the details of their bid sealed and out of the public eye, they handed Bezos a monster strap-on, a gallon of epoxy mix, and a bucket of sand, and told him to do whatever he liked to the city.

@Josh E.

Did not know this and this is valuable information for my outfit. Thanks for posting, Josh.

@Joshua D.

This isn't the first time you've posted about how envious the people around you are.  Yet look at your profile pic. There you are, shirtless and buffed out to display how much leisure time you have to spend at the gym, having fun in a world where everything is easy. I think it's probably safe to assume much of your social media exposure is like that, too.

What kind of car do you drive? Where do you buy your shoes? How many outward signs of wealth and status do you exhibit?

And how much wealth did you inherit or how many gifts did you receive to get your business going? Is there any truth to the rumor of you being a "real estate rich kid"? If there is, well, welcome to the reality of never being able to live it down.

On the other hand, if you feel compelled to protest that nobody gave you anything and you had to work for every penny of it, you need to make sure that's what you look like. Holes in your shirt and drive a s***box where anyone can see you. When you travel, you have to do it for "family reasons" (practice your sad look in the mirror). If you get a tan in Western PA, it sticks out, as you know.

Do you live in a personal castle and frequently have people over so they can look at it and understand how successful you are? Do you talk to other people about how many rental properties you own, or how many high-end homes you've flipped, or the multifamily you're looking at for your next buy? If you are, you need to drink a big glass of ****.

This is real estate. It's a brutal business. Suck it up, Buttercup.

@Steve S.

You're welcome. That the house is 15 years old is very important information. It's all going to be latex paint in there. As you clean the walls, you won't have to worry about peeling off the latex to expose lead paint underneath. Good luck!