All Forum Posts by: Scott Trench

@Mindy Jensen - Wasn't there something about how "Adding more people to title" could boost the primary residence cap gains exclusion from $500K to higher number?

The 1% rule is essentially not going to happen in most markets, unless you are in the midwest or more rural/LCOL areas. 

I tend to think about it a little differently. I look for locations that I am comfortable with, and look for the best rental yield I can get in that location. This is how I begin my search. However, the highest yielding property is often not the property that I actually want to buy. It just helps me sort out all the stuff that definitely won't work.

Thank you guys! It is good to hear that the changes are starting to show up to the point where you notice them, and it makes sense that we have to sit on the current trajectory for some time to reinforce to folks what the core values here are.

We are aligning around the concept of “The Millionaire Next Door” as the type of person we speak to and we hope that you call out any content that strays too far from this message.

I think that we are making, and have made, big changes to get back to this core message, but understand that it will take time to get there. Until then, I understand that I will continue to get this feedback. It doesn’t matter if I talked about this for the past 5 years on BP Money, if I let other parts of our content let some of the hype in. It doesn’t matter the ratio of “slow and steady” stories to “home runs” on the real estate podcast. BiggerPockets needs to aspire to perfection in every single piece of content reflecting a “rational optimism” about real estate investing - we believe in it’s power, and fear near-term volatility. 

I just hope that some of you, our most prominent forum members, can provide actionable advice as part of that feedback, or just let me know if the frustrations are from things done in 2023, 2022, or before, or are present-day outputs of BP. 

I’ll bear the frustration for the former, knowing it is venting/frustration earned from years past, and I’ll consider feedback on the latter as actionable to inform present-day decision-making.

 Nicholas - what advice would you give me to help change this perception that BP has made everyone feel like they’re missing out, even if that means investing in expensive deals?

Is this something I am saying? Dave Meyer? A recent guest? I don’t do this. I buy slowly and consistently, from a position of financial strength. 

I am, and BP is, certainly a proponent of real estate investing, but I am also trying to establish us as a place for sober long term thinking. I have published multiple warnings of the market, and have preached about investing from a position of financial strength for 550 BP Money episodes.

Clearly, however, this is not coming through and I am failing if you and others feel this way.

What can I do to change this? Should I make changes in the org? To our content? To our hosts? To our books? Should I show up every week and talk about where I think the pain is coming (multifamily, STR, etc)?

 Thanks, Calvin - I appreciate your advice. It’s hard to hear this perception shift, as to me it seems like we are just building on our foundations. We’ve had books, conferences, our paid membership, and networking between businesses and investors the duration of my tenure. But, clearly something in your view and certainly some other folks as well has changed. Perhaps it’s how we are doing things? Scale?

What would you recommend for 2025 to me? We plan to have our conference in Las Vegas, at a less than $800 price point. We plan to sell no courses, and have “Bootcamps” be included in the pro membership, at current price. We plan to build on our “Deal Finder”, introduce a mobile app, and build out solutions to help investors meet contractors, lawyers, wholesalers (avoiding wannabes who just bought some guru course), and maybe foray into commercial - allowing investors to connect with Commercial Brokers. 

If you were me, what would you change? 

And, please do let me know if you can recall where an expensive course was promoted, directly or indirectly, especially anything in the last year. I will get that out of our content. 

You might find this 20 minute read and breakdown of supply, demand, interest rates, and relative regional pressures on multifamily

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/multifamily-crash-to-cont...

Thank you for the feedback, @Bill Schrimpf. 

Why don't we set a call as well and learn more about your experience here on BiggerPockets? The goal is to connect real estate investors who are motivated to buy properties to highly professional investor friendly agents like yourself who can help them complete those purchases.

We price our leads such that 1 out of 25 are assumed to close into business within the next year or two, but clearly that is not happening for you. Let's figure out why.

Please feel free to email me at [email protected] to set up a call.

If you aren't happy with that lead, I'll make sure the team credits you for it as part of that call. 

@Becca F. - thanks for the feedback. If you can send me the name of someone who got 12 DMs from spammers, I can easily trace the spammers and kick them off. 

Jimmy's post on the other thread does not appear to violate forum rules, but I upped the ante on the challenge you threw down on him to produce an example of these deals. 

For what it's worth, I am not skeptical that 1% rules exist in places like Cleveland. I am skeptical that these properties are ones that I would want to buy and bet that there are a whole host of reasons why they are 1% rule properties. 

The great thing about these forums is that there is something for everyone. Some people just want that cash flow - or the possibility of cash flow - even if there are a whole raft of problems that come with it. 

Spam, however, should be eliminated. 

@Jimmy Lieu - @Becca F. asked you a question and is now challenging me in another thread. She is essentially implying that these 1% rule properties have something very wrong with them or don't exist. 

Can you please provide a specific example - there is no rule against this, and you are certainly allowed to. This would end speculation and bring you a lot of credibility.

Please post a deal that meets the criteria you claim you have "tons of examples" of. 

Thanks in advance! 

@Gregory Schwartz Really appreciate the positive feedback here. And, it’s no surprise to me that you do a great business both with the lead bundles and “organically” with people contacting you on the forums. The 734 “votes” (relative to 660 posts) tell me that you, on average do a great job posting valuable information to users on these forums, and on a regular basis. 

I bet that you have a few keywords set up, and regularly chime in when your market and/or specific strategies pop up. This has the dual benefit of helping you stay informed on what’s going on in your local market and knowing all the new members who introduce themselves from College Station, and also every single one of those 660 posts is now an “SEO” post - every time someone googles a thread that’s come up, your name and business appear in these forums, alongside your quality answers. 

I bet that translates into other good practices, like fast response times when people reach out to you. When someone submits a contact request, their likelihood to actually purchase with an agent is directly proportional to how quickly they get a response from that agent. I bet you reach out pretty quick. 

Thank you for doing such a good job for BP Members, and being such a great client and contributor on these forums! Let me know if you want to connect 1:1 sometime!