By Alan Beane, GeoGrade

For years, I ran my construction business as an owner-operator, wearing every hat from sales and project management to bookkeeping. The business produced income, but it depended entirely on me. If I stepped away, everything stopped. That realization led me to create the Biz Freedom Framework™, a five-part system for building…

By Vena Jones-Cox

If you don’t think that real estate investing is a relationship business, you haven’t been paying attention. Your connections with other investors bring you local market knowledge, referrals to trustworthy professionals, funding, partnerships, and deals. Those relationships are what help you succeed, not just this year, but for years to come. But these…

The rehab business didn’t get harder.

It just stopped forgiving mistakes. Listen in as Jerry Fink (30+ years rehabbing) and Rebecca Sequiera (our Rehab & Retail Focus Group leader) join Vena Jones-Cox to talk about what’s changed and how to still win in a slower, pickier market. If you rehab, make time for this one….

By Jerry Fink

O.K., so you’ve gotten it into your blood, mind, and soul that you want to be a rehabber. Take that ugly, smelly eyesore and turn it into the gem of the neighborhood. No problem, right? After all, you’ve watched all the home renovation shows. You know all about which countertops to choose,…

By Vena Jones-Cox

Indulge me in a fable, and see if it jibes with your current, or perhaps past, experience as a developing real estate entrepreneur:

You’re standing on a sidewalk with your nose an inch away from a brick. It’s a good brick. You’ve studied it for a while, and you’ve come to the conclusion that it’s reddish, rough, and surrounded on all four sides by parts of other bricks. You’ve looked at it long enough to decide that it’s a pretty great brick.

Someone walks by and asks, what are you doing? Looking at this brick, you reply.

Are you sure it’s a brick you’re looking at? the stranger queries. You might want to take a step back, because there’s more to see here than you think.

By Vena Jones-Cox    

Way back in the mid-90s, I went to a workshop taught by the great Pete Fortunato.           Several times during this event, he mentioned deals he’d negotiated or financed with the help of what he called “financial friends”.           At the time, I had two thoughts about this: first, “Why does…