All Forum Posts by: John Hickey

@Mindy Jensen

I tried to tag a mod. My phone was resisting.

I know you guys don’t like to mediate.

the deal above is listed on your site and Scott steffek is named as a scammer and isn’t responding to the OP who is Trying to recover funds/ alert others to a scam.

That deal stays up she might not be the last....

@Moderatorsthere is a BP post below of a deal looks like it’s in your ads  as you can see the OP has said one of the offering parties scammed her out of money   Might be with looking into   

@Elbert Dockery

The Q here isn’t if you were involved with Scott Steffek.

Numerous posts show you guys are working together   

The Q is are you a crook with him.

You can’t do business with a guy and not know what he’s up to. You should be trying to help the OP Recover funds if your a good guy.

What’s going on with the deal you guys have listed on BP is it legit?

Depending on what you’ve done and what you do here after is is what determines if if if....You lose a career or stay in the game.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/real-estate-listings/wow-amazing-cash-flow-on-6-unit-19-cocr-rental-property-in-nwi

@Marley Landes this is what I was thinking when I posted about a rating system for members.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/... 

we could get Burger King to let us use the hamburgler icon for those members that get caught up in scandals or are associated with BS.

@Erik Baumer one way to create deals as mentioned above.....

Drive around looking for poorly maintained property. Not high grass....that could juts be an oversight.

I’m talking blue tarp on the roof.

Big pieces of wood hanging. Note all those houses. Then cross reference that with the out of town owner list

Some building Dept’s will give a list of problem buildings. That’s a good list too.

@Ola Dantis best case scenario is ppl who Grew up on a block or live close by see the strategies and put them into practice.  

It’s not 123 the way I do it bc block by block city by city things change, ppl change.  

 But some of this info might benefit some guy out there trying to change a block for the better.  I could care less what most ppl think.  But that guy? I want to help him out bad.  And I would love it if ppl that experience doing this would weigh in here. 

Money.  It took a lot of money. @Davido Davido asked how much.  

 5-7 partners depending on where in the process put up close to 3m.  That’s across 14 deals it’s a little more complicated then a post could show but similar to @Michael Ealy showed in his post it wasnt pennies

I do think I learned enough that I could do it next time with a lot less upfront cash....just purchase all up front and recycle the Reno funds.  But def def def keep plenty of money in reserves.  Thea are tough areas.  You don’t want to be stuck owning property in these areas and trying to make a living.  You’ll be an accidental slumlord.  

@Crystal Smith thanks for pointing a lot out! 

Folks pay attention. Crystal juts shares some of the big secrets.  

Control the block.  100% you need to secure your property.  DAWGS is a pint of access controller.  Maintain your vacant property while you are in the process.  Juts don’t walk away for 10 years then your sort of the problem.  

Crystal mentioned money talks.  

Spread the resources where they work best.  Don’t give every vagrant on the block Block money but if you have a druggie leader....someone the others follow sometimes you can make deals.  

Control.  On drug blocks who controls the block? The most violent person that’s not locked up.  In some cases....take it easy here folks don’t rush in.  You can make alliances.  

Example. Cops were giving my block tons of patrols at one point. 

At the time We had at least a dozen sometimes 25-30 live in junkies shooting up smokokg crack stealing, peeing and pooping everywhere. 

Cops patrolling was good but basically they would come around roust druggies leave and druggies come back minutes later   Not really solving my problem

So I walked down to the guys that run the block and had a very simple Discussion.  Went like this. 

These addicts mess this block up. Agreed. 

These addicts being on my block 24/7 are bad for my real estate biz. Agreed. 

People are complaining.

Cops are coming around non stop and harassing everyone. Agreed. 

these addicts could visit the block and see whoever it is and then move on. Agreed

Someone suggested I speak with a guy they knew.  I met with him. He  Needed work. He was very well respected in the area by street people...He said he could keep the block clean.  

I approached residents and landlords and procured funds. $40 a month per house. Few hundred a month for me.  Time went by things got better.  Step by step  

After a while block got more populated.  There were no vacants.  Eventually the dealers and junkies move on.  

@Desiree Wrencher @Mattaniah Yip @Adam Fiore @William McCartney lll @Ori Skloot @Soniel Estime thanks for checking in.  

Stick around I’ve asked a few people that do what I do to post here as well....my way and me personally I have a ton of fleas.  Certainly ppl that do this better then I.  

But even with my flaws I am happy with what I have accomplished.  Houses that used be filled with trash, junkies discarded neeedles now house people with families.  Kids have a safe clean space to live.  The money for me isn’t all I do it for...but I’m also not doing it so ppl think I’m sort of saint.  

I mostly do it because Ppl think it’s so hard......sickly enough I like them to know that I can do what they can’t.  

@Ciaran McGoldrick some would say it’s bragging 

But I can tell you when I applied this strategy to some of the worst blocks in newburgh beginning in late 2016 you could buy shells for 10k.  Now they are 200k. 

I would say yes you can make money in newburgh.  But the heavy lifting of this post is not about making money.  So yeah I would say goto newburgh ans noon what’s going on learn some stuff. 

Then down the road get a band of like minded folks together and fix a block yourselves.  

@Anthony Rosa right on both counts.  Yes Newburgh NY is the place that I have been focusing my energy on.