All Forum Posts by: James Park

After the unpopular and controversial thread  "Who is more unethical Realtors or used car salesmen?" I wanted to pull out an old book I had read the year before deciding to go into this business full time. I have scanned two pages from Chapter 12 in this book. Overall for any new real estate agents, I think this is a good book to read.

I am going to highlight several sentences from the book.

Page 91. "Long has spent years researching how agents got such dismal reputations. Invariably, she says, it starts with education, or lack thereof. " The bar of entry into real estate is low. The time it takes to get a license is linked directly to public perception that real estate agents are poorly educated," she believes.

In most states it takes 45-60 hours of prelicense school to get a license, and most states require only a handful of additional courses every few years to keep your license intact. Compare that with the years it takes to become a lawyer or doctor, or even an accountant, and you'll begin to see why people tend to look down their noses on real estate agents.

Either you'll be among those who will work to change the image of the industry or you'll shrug it off with a simple, "Why bother". I believe the agent/brokers on Bigger Pockets are among those who will work to change the image of the industry.

Being in this business full time, I realize that although your specialized knowledge and expertise is extremely important, what if even more important is your integrity if you want to last in this business. What I also realize is that an you will draw clients who are similar minded as yourself and who value you expertise and knowledge. If integrity is a strong value that you uphold, you will hope that your best clients will do the same. 

I believe that we as brokers/agents need to treat our profession with respect and grace. I believe that those of us in the real estate world who have done well should help others get started and improve their business lives.

Mason Anderson

There is a what I call income statement wealth (flipping, transacting, wholesaling etc. and what I call balance sheet wealth (buy and hold income properties.) You must focus on the balance sheet wealth.

There are three type of tax bracelets:

1) Earned Income : Flipping, Transacting, and Wholesaling (taxed up to 50%) (Income Statement Wealth)

2) Portfolio Income : Taxed at 20%

3) Passive Income : This number can be potentially be 0 depending on how smart you are understanding the tax code. (Balance Sheet Wealth)

 Again, short term you can flip, wholesale, do whatever it takes to build the capital you need to invest in long term rentals, however your end game to become a RE millionaire must be to own free and clear income properties that generates passive income for life.

@Jay Hinrichs

Thank you for writing such an awesome post and sharing with us the history of how Cupertino has evolved as a city from its infancy in the 60s. Cupertino's story is also very similar to how Irvine city had evolved trying to become the Orange County job center hub with a technology focus. This was Donald Bren's vision for developing Irvine Spectrum in the 1980s. Jobs were created, engineered arrived, the Asian population boomed, and the Irvine Unified School District became among the best public schools in southern California and homes prices moved up faster and some what became crash proof during the down turn compared to Irvine's neighboring OC cities like Mission & Aliso Viejo, Tustin, Fullerton, Anaheim etc.

There are so many golden nuggets I have picked up from post Jay and I really appreciate you writing this post. It seems to confirm what I have been thing about for than the decade.

To recap what you said about Cupertino:

An emerging city in 70s and 80s started out as becoming 1) high tech central on entrepreneurial soil, 2) new jobs were created, 3) engineers, high income families, and Asian families arrives in masses, 4) Schools become very strong due to high test scores by high percentage of Asian students, thus 5) local real estate home prices starts to appreciate very quickly ultimately forming a bubble.

@Radhika M.

Thanks for your insights about Cupertino. That is absolutely amazing to me that a home purchased for $350k in 1996 is worth $1.8M today in Cupertino. So I guess what you are saying is that the area is already is known for good schools, Asians migrate to the area for this reason, making home prices appreciate faster due to the good schools.

Radihika, Sorry if my median income data is misleading for Cupertino as I got this information from the census data. 

As of 2010 -63.3% of Cupertino households are made up of Asian households. 45.1% of Irvine households are made up of Asian households, and 23.3% of Johns Creek households are made up of Asian households. I would estimate that Cupertino's Asian population was right about 25% in 1996.

@Minh Le, I would love to get your insight and opinion on this? Truth or a Myth?

I know that jobs, population growth of high income demographics, permit & land restriction, warmer weather with a good lifestyle, all have an influence in faster capital appreciation in real estate. What about Asians? Is it a myth or a fact that higher concentration of Asian demographics allow real estate prices to appreciate faster ultimately leading into a bubble?

Monta Vista High is the flagship high school of Cupertino, CA. In 1995, Monta Vista became an Asian majority high school.
 
Cupertino, CA - Northern California
median income: $145,367
median home price : $1,768,700
HI ratio: 12.16

University High is the flag ship high school of Irvine, CA. In 2004, University High became an Asian majority high school.

Irvine, CA - Southern California

median income: $98,923
median home price: $733,100
HI ratio: 7.41

Northview High is the flag ship high school of Johns Creek, GA. In 2012, Northview became and Asian majority high school.

Johns Creek, GA - North Atlanta Suburb
median income: $109,576
median home price: $344,300
HI ratio : 3.14

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