All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Greene

And let me just say that the true power of these forums is the people. I was unmotivated when I posted this and was blaming it on the site, but it was how I was interacting with the site, not the site. The site hasn't changed, literally not at all.

The people, my friends here, people I know, help change the perspective by doing what they have done for years, just posting and responding with words of wisdom and a 20,000 foot view. So thanks to the people that helped me adjust my mindset in literally one day of interacting on here.

I went into my Followed Forums and removed Starting Out and Wholesaling from that preference. That alone will help me not read what I don't want to read.

I love this - expenses do not take a break. Nice. I think the reason people take breaks is because they get discouraged that they can't buy or deals won't pencil in their antiquated buy boxes with 3 percent rates. Reps and going to meetups and building relationships and looking at deals in person are what help you fall into a deal. Thanks for the great response. The process!

That's a great point. Even if you've taken a break and feel lost, the first step is to get to a meetup asap or just go to an Open House or view a property with your agent. Now, go do it. Thanks for that add.

The true censorship now is basically anything that makes the company looks bad, and that's not for the best of the forums. This is the reason I quit being a moderator because of something that went mildly off the rails in the forums, and then it was completely censored because I responded to staff in the forums after they mentioned me.

I think the moderators do an amazing job and should be given more pay or credit or anything. I had no idea how hard it was on the back end until I was there. It's thankless and non-stop. But the moderators really are the caretakers, they rarely censor because the moderators are us. It's the overarching reach to pull an entire thread that doesn't come from moderators that is my issue and that goes to the site's focus on new investors way more than experienced.

Everything is built to attract revenue and that's smart business. That's why the search isn't fixed after 10 years of the exact same issues. It won't increase revenue. Nor would paying people to moderate. The new people don't know and they are the business target. Again, fair play for a major business like this, but it's the old guard who have held up the forums for years, even with their technological ineptitude. People like @Jay Hinrichs are the backbone of the forums.

I think I am just personally bored with the forums so will interact differently with them. I was trying to help too much in the newb forums and now it's like brain freeze. Most everyone is right, things are pretty much the same, my tolerance is different.

Taking action isn't only investing in real estate. You should take a break from buying if the deals don't match your buy box, you are out of money, or for several other reasons (partner isn't on board, over-leveraged on different properties, acting out of FOMO, etc.). Still, you should never take a break from looking, touring, vetting, and analyzing. You can't take six months off from reviewing properties and hop back in like nothing happened. Stuff happened.

If I were to sum up the one thing that I think investors aren't doing enough, it would be getting real-life reps. Real-life reps, to me, means seeing properties in person, whatever your asset class. What you see on the spreadsheet is a small part of every story. Boots on the ground, or lack thereof, are where the mistakes are made. Of course, the smaller the property, the more necessary that you see every inch of it because there isn't a business running on top of the land like large-scale multifamily, self-storage, industrial, and more. But even if you want to do large deals, you need comparable reps.

Technology has made it easy to "analyze" deals. Still, if you aren't whittling down the number you are analyzing financially to a small subset you see before deciding what to do, you are missing an essential part of getting to the tipping point of expertise in your field. The most successful investors have looked at thousands of properties in person in their lifetimes. So, even when the market is challenging, you can still see properties and stay current.

Don't take a break when the rates are high. Don't take a break when the weather is terrible. Don't take a break when others are taking a break. Removing all skills from the equation, if you don't take a break from participating as a real estate investor in some way each day, you will stay far ahead of everyone else who keeps subbing themselves out and then asking to get back in when the game is already out of reach.

You don't need your real estate attorney to set up LLCs in New Jersey. It takes five minutes on the state site. If you need an operating agreement, that is usually a different attorney (but not always). I've done more than 50 deals with Ashley Molson at Molson Law Firm if you want to look her up.

There is definitely nothing better, or even close out there, that's why I think the technology drag isn't emphasized. The resources are endless here, but at some point, the messier it gets, the less seasoned investors are going to spend the time. But I may just need a break because as others who have been here for 10+ years with me, these cycles have happened before.

This is it exactly - there's more talk about investing than actually investing. That's why so much talk about BRRRR when it doesn't work in almost every market.

1. I would employ full-time paid employees as moderators, not VAs or people willing to help (although they are great for doing it) because it is what makes the site better to get rid of the dust.

2. I would spend money to enhance and update to current standards the search functionality and person to person tagging so it's easier to find stuff. Even the drop down menus for the forum subgroups are not organized that well.

3. I would try as a company to do whatever it takes to keep the old timers in the forums with some benefits or something to show that they mean something to the site. The entire focus is on new people because they spend on more.

4. I would allow for differences of opinions that are amicable, and even sometimes heated, as long as names and profanities aren't used. The culture of fragility is horrifying. I have seen several posts removed just because it was a problem post, but it was censorship. Nothing in the ones I am talking about were out of bounds at all.

This one is not a you issue for the tech, Jay, the search function and tagging is awful. Almost unusable and that is important when we tell people to look up the LLC question. That one can be found though for sure.

When I was moderating, it was frankly laughable the excuses the very few people made when their posts were obviously self-promotion. About ninety percent are thankful and just didn't know the rules.