All Forum Posts by: J. Martin

@Andrew Jones,
Welcome, congrats on getting into the game, and putting your health and family in the front of your mind ;) Real estate is all about pursuing the life that makes you happy :)

I own some property in Oakland and Richmond - not too far from you. One of those was a great West Oakland duplex from a wholesaler - paid $20K for the contract. Been out to Rodeo a few times, but always stuck with properties closer to the BART stations. (Most people in the Bay Area and even East Bay still haven't ever heard of Rodeo though! lol)

I agree with your approach 100% to find some other investors to network with (in person, in addition to on the BP forums.) There are a lot of great folks living here in the Bay Area. First, check under >Community>Networking events on BP and see if there is anything during the day. Then check meetup.com. Lots of events on there (although most in evening). A bunch of us in the Bay and the big hitters from BiggerPockets will also be gathering in the Bay in early October for a weekend-long networking/education event that would fit your schedule, if you can make it. 

The most important thing to getting started IMHO is to be persistent and keep meeting people. You never know when you're going to meet that person that changes your entire perspective, gets you in a new market, investing style, financing situation, etc. Try to find a niche that works for you.. 

On the wholesaling front.. I will give you one tip that I see a potential need for in the Bay. A lot of wholesalers run across multi-unit buildings - some with rent control and eviction protections - and they can't flip the property because they can't get the tenants out. (sometimes there are issues with the tenants in single family homes also.) Usually, these contracts just die, because no wholesalers see a way to flip it. 

However, there are a bunch of multi-unit and long-term investors like myself, who would buy something that can't be immediately vacated - as long as the long-term numbers work, and the price is right. That's how I bought my wholesale deal. And has probably been my best equity return so far (~100%+ asset appreciation). 

If you could get ahold of all the wholesalers and long-term buyers, you might be able to make that happen. Anyway, just a thought from what I've seen. There are a million ways to make money in real estate. 

I'll be in Seattle with my girlfriend for most of the summer (I got into real estate so I could quit my job and travel where I want to be), but I'm around during the day when I get back in Sept. Come say hi!

@Elisa Uribe, you're confirmed! I'll be in Seattle most of the summer, but hopefully will see you at a meetup before the event..

@Vinny Vu, I think @Will Barnard hit it on the head! Great networking, education, drinks.. with awesome people. These people are only together once a year. And as @Sergey Tkachev said, you'll get exponentially more out of it - spending more time making and solidifying relationships.  Make both days if you can!  (and saw you got a "cash" ticket - buy with cc for super pre-sale price.)

Will, so stoked to have you out this year! You've been on my list since I did the first event in 2014. Thanks for coming out to share and meet with your fans ;)  You mentioned the biggest challenge is finding flip deals. Anything you see as a big opportunity in today's market?

@Jenifer Levini,
"I'm there. I love this event." 
The event loves you Jen! ;)  Nice seeing you in Santa Cruz at Shane's meetup a few weeks ago. Looking forward to seeing you again in Oct if not sooner.

@Chatree C.,
We corresponded by email, and you're all set now, paid by card. Sorry for the confusion. 

@Kelly Byrd and @Victoria Byrd,
You're confirmed with a 2-day and 1-day ticket, respectively. Welcome out to the event, and to the RE investing world..! And congrats on getting in contract on your first property. Hopefully you'll make a BP post about your deal and share the link on this forum so folks can see what you're up to.. Any particular speaker or topic you are interested in learning more about at the Summit? 

Pedro,
I agree 3% of revenue is steep, but hadn't found a single (one) service that handled the things I wanted. 
I took a look through the yourporter website, and it looks like they just straight up ripped off Guesty - but nothing proprietary about that. So I will be looking into yourporter more, and try to squeeze Guesty down on pricing based on their service.. 

Thanks for the tip! :)

@Sergey Tkachev,

Gonna be great to see you again! One of the Summit's biggest fans :)

@Elisa Uribe, thanks for the shout out :) I really enjoy getting everyone together to network and learn :) (especially in Oakland!) Just wish it wasn't so much work! lol

@Alice K., Glad I got to see you while I was back in the Bay, and looking forward to meeting your brother too :)

@Mary Ann Casey, "..This was an impressive and worthwhile event last year plus a lot of fun, so everyone should mark this on their calendars as a must-attend event. @J.Martin you gonna bring your ukulele?" 

Thanks for the big endorsement Mary Ann :) And for your help. And YES, I'll be bringing my ukulele :)

@Nichole Stohler,
I have you down for two tickets! Glad you can make it out from Scottsdale! :)  I don't know a lot of folks out in the Phoenix area either, but hopefully we can get some folks to visit from out there, and I'm sure you'll have some people picking your brain on that market too :)

I'm also happy to see so many awesome women jumping in on the event! :) Like so many industries, there are not enough women in real estate!

Extremely generous Arlen! That's great. Thank you for helping out so much :)
We should be able to raise more than $10K for the orphanage this year.

I got some pictures back from them.

@Johnson H.,
Make some time for getting back out on the road! Spending this summer in Seattle. Then after the Summit, heading to India. Then Chiang Mai for the lantern festival, Bangkok, Phuket.. then over to Vietnam for a motorcycle trip to the orphanage and Tet (New Year's). Maybe go to Cambodia while I'm out there. 

You and @Account Closed are welcome to join us on the trip :)

See you all tonight! I'll be there around 5 with Arlen. Minh, we'll miss you, but I'll see you tomorrow. 

 My Mom's Rodriguez, but she didn't teach me Spanish when I was young, so no comprende/habla mucho espanol. Just enough to order food and beer and get around hehe I don't think I'm even brown enough on the outside to be a coconut! lol My Filipino buddy Roberto loves that insult lol. Send the bill over, and we'll take care of it :)

ORPHANAGE
I plan on raising at least $5,000 from the Summit for Duc Son's orphanage. It goes a lot further there than in the Bay Area too :)  It's around $50/day to feed the almost 200 children there, so it's the equivalent of feeding about 60 children for a year :)  It will be especially nice to be able to go visit them, spend some time, hopefully make them smile ;)

Looking forward to meeting you there :) You just missed @Katie P.'s meetup in Oakland on Sunday. She'll be having more, and will probably post them on my meetup group. @Johnson H. has a meetup in Milpitas on Thursday that I'll be heading down to, and @Jeff Pollack has one tomorrow night down in San Jose. Both with lots of good people. Jeff's has a speaker also.  

Also, check >Community >Networking on BP for local meetup events, and on meetup.com . I think the meetups organized on BP tend to be less selling/pitching, so I encourage you to go to those especially. Until we meet in person Elisa!! 

@Arlen Chou, 
I rented an Airbnb in San Jose for a couple nights, so I'll be down in Silicon Valley and won't have to fight the traffic. :) 5 is good. Vietnam or bust!!

@Account Closed, 

Want to take a little motorcycle ride across Vietnam? And we'll stop by Duc Son's Orphanage to give them some money and sing some songs on the ukulele? Hope to see you at the meetup. If not, I'll be in SJ for a couple days if you have time for lunch. 

Some more confirmed attendees.. please introduce yourself with what you want and have to offer, so we can start getting introduced :)  And what do you want to get out of the event? 

@Mary Ann Casey (welcome back!), @Min Hu, @Aaron Henretty, @Patrick Boutin, @Ganesh S., @Jonathan Wilkinson, @Raimondo F. (good to see you again!), @Jody Ryden, @Aditya Thakur, @Alice K.  (heyyyyyyyy!)  and Mason, @Kamila Flores, @Lonnie H., @Angelo Wong, @Wendy Mcclean, @Benoit Dumon x2...

@Nichole Stohler,
It's a great mix of folks to network with, and a lot of fun!!! :) Check with anyone who went last year.. 

@Elisa Uribe,
Where ya been?! lol This is the 3rd event since 2014 and has been growing since moving from San Francisco the first year, over to Oakland in a better venue. And the speaker list has just been growing. Got a lot of people out that I've wanted for years, so especially excited about this year! Don't miss it!!!

@Jen L.,
Bruce Norris and Sean O'Toole have definitely been through the cycles, and have the macro and micro data (respectively) to establish how to make a plan based on this info, then execute on it. You'll also meet a lot of investors there who have seen it. For local investors, we'll have guys like @Arlen Chou out who has been buying cash-flowing deals in the Bay Area, @Jason Buzi who's been crushing it in the Bay Area (right NOW) with flips and new construction, I'll share about my Bay Area furnished rental biz, and lots of other local investors who are doing well here in the Bay. Everyone is happy to share :) Come join us! 

@Sergey Tkachev,
Thanks for all the shout-outs and recommendations! Just spoke with Dmitriy, and need to see how much space we have left in the agenda to get other folks in. Attendees want more breakouts and targeted networking, so that might be a way we can fit more speakers and specialties in.. We're working on it now :)

We'll see you all Oct 7 & 8!

www.sfbaysummit.com