All Forum Posts by: Remington Lyman

Wow, after reading the thread in its entirety, there are so many things that I would like to say, but I am busy so I have created a great AI prompted response for more time efficiency. 

Here is my great AI response: You're all a bunch of whining babies!

I think that response summed it up fairly well. However, here are some more details for those who are less sensitive and able to read past the comment above.

Has BiggerPockets changed. Absolutely! Just like my midsection has. I don't like it but I deal with it because it isn't just BiggerPockets that has changed, I have changed, the markets have changed, technology has changed, and many people have come and gone. I don't lay blame on BiggerPockets because of this. I try to capitalize on the good. So let's start there and then go to some suggestions that I think may be helpful to me and possibly others but that may or may not be as helpful to BiggerPockets.

What I have found to be helpful on BiggerPockets over the years.

1. BiggerPockets has made me a millionaire several times over. I reached out to @Scott Trench in a private message shortly after he wrote his book and before he became the CEO of BiggerPockets and I told him that I wasn't getting many responses to my posts and asked if he had any suggestions of what I could do to get more interaction.  He responded by telling me to post something with an edge or somewhat controversial.  My next post was titled something like, "Are Newbie Investors Entitled?" That post got hundreds of responses. And it gave me an opportunity to share my experience with meeting with new investors for lunch and them asking me to share my knowledge and my contacts and then I was the one that ended up paying for lunch. But it also gave me an opportunity to share what I was doing at the time which was an earn and learn program where people would lend to me on my real estate deals and I would include them in my WhatsApp group and show them the steps of investing on the deals they were lending on.  From that post, one guy reached out to me and lent me $35,000 on one of my projects. It was super helpful to me and he earned money and we both benefited from it.  And that was just the beginning.

2. I started a real estate Meetup Group. BiggerPockets used to advertise more prominently local meetups hosted by members.  One guy posted a meetup to be held in my city but didn't have a location for it.  So I reached out to see where it would be held and there was no response and several people wanted to meetup.  So I highjacked the post and told everyone that I would provide the location for the meet up at my office. And from there, I started hosting meetups at my office in Mesa, Arizona every month (4th Monday of the month, message me for details) and I have kept it going for about 7 years now.  I used to get 25 - 40 people to those meetups and through the meetups I found dozens of private money lenders where I have raised millions of dollars in private money, and found some awesome partners, and have made some lifelong friends.  

3. The Podcast. It was around this time that @Mindy Jensen reached out to me and asked me to be on a podcast where I got to talk about my investing strategies combining the BRRRR strategy with lease options and calling it the BRRRLO Model. This opened up a ton more opportunities to connect with people building my real estate businesses. And speaking of the podcast, I was listing to the podcast that @Alexander Felice did years ago and It gave me an idea that led to another idea that led me to change the way I buy properties which helped me scale to 250 properties within just a few years. And I got that just from listening to a podcast with a curious mind.

4. Connections and Masterminds. Brandon Turner rolled out his intention journal several years ago and offered to connect people with other investors at their same level if they wanted to form small mastermind groups.  I took him up on that and I ordered the book for the sole purpose of connect with others in a mastermind group. This group of 5 BiggerPockets members lasted for 2 years where we had a weekly zoom call.  It was truly an incredible group. @JD Martin and @Jerry Williams know about it. My growth and knowledge increased a ton through the weekly meetups and I got up to 100 properties. I then sought out other investors through BiggerPockets with 100 or more properties to continue to grow and to learn better business systems to manage my growth and properties.  That mastermind group lasted another year and I learned a ton from that one too and I grew up to 200 units at that time.  My growth then led me to a mastermind outside of BiggerPockets for individuals who where multimillionaires that I wouldn't have been able to be a part of if it weren't for my growth that I had experienced through BiggerPockets. Through that mastermind group I continued to mature as an investors and learned more about partnerships and expanded my growth into large luxury vacation rentals which I now have 5, 2 cabins in Lakeside, Arizona that are top performers and 3 luxury private resorts in Costa Rica (for more info, reach out). None of this would have happened like it did without BiggerPockets. 

So I pay for a pro membership, not because I need the use of the calculators or most of the other pro membership benefits, but because I want to give back to the platform that, for me, helped me grow more than anything else and has connected me with incredible individuals that I have connected with off the platform and whom I would call friends.  People like
@JD Martin, @Jay Hinrichs, @Mike Dymski, @Alexander Felice, @Mindy Jensen, and so many others.  

So to respond to the idea of a Downfall of the BiggerPockets forum, I would say that you may want to look at a couple of things.  1) Look at your own personal growth.  Maybe you have grown as an investor and so you don't get as much out of the forums as you used to because you have already learned the basics really well and you are ready for more meatier discussions. And if that is the case find some of those people on BiggerPockets, because they are there. And if you are someone worth getting to know then you may find some awesome friendships through this platform. And 2) a lot of times you get out of things what you put in.  If you just expect to be fed and enlightened and complain when you're not you may not be contributing much yourself. 

As for things that I think would make BiggerPockets better, here are a few suggestions.

1. Bring the local meetup map back and include a link prominently on the main landing page. I think this was one of the best features.

2. Include on the main page the top 3 trending forum posts again.  The main page looks more like an advertising page rather than a forum website.  I would say to put the forum more centered and prominent on the front page of the website.

3. Lastly, for the BPCONs I would encourage you to have a fewer speakers but have the speakers speak in the opening sessions in the morning and have them speak for around 15 - 20 minutes each about a topic and then have them go into a deep dive for 2 hours on the subject in the breakout sessions.  Then have lunch and then come back for even more deeper content from the same presenters.  I think people are looking for more meat at the conferences rather than just skimming the surface for several topics. 

In summery: I tried to bring back some of the good stuff in this post by keeping it true to form with content teetering on breaking the rules with a few insults, controversy, possible use of AI, sprinkled with a little self-promotion of course. 

Yours truly, and have a great day and enjoy investing.