What a year of growth it’s been. Last January, I had just left my job to pursue my own path. Since then, I’ve closed one deal with my cousin and I’m currently in escrow on another exciting project (more on that soon). I’m wrapping up the year having placed four different offers in the past two days, and now I’m heading to Nicaragua to surf and fish with a college buddy. I hope the year ahead brings even more knowledge, opportunity, and wealth to everyone in this community. It’s been a meaningful part of my journey, and I’m grateful for it. Update on the project in escrow: There’s been a lot uncovered — and unfortunately, a lot of expensive issues that neither the seller nor I were aware of initially. To make the property truly leasable and profitable, we’re talking several hundred thousand dollars in additional work. I sent a thoughtful, professional email to the broker (who I’ve built a solid relationship with) laying it all out and asked for a $600,000 price reduction. I know that sounds aggressive, but given the new information, it felt necessary to play it straight. Their response was essentially to tell me to cancel the deal. I’m prepared to walk away if that’s where it lands, but having come this far, I’d like to at least explore how much room there really is to move on price. 4 offers: One was an off-market house in a great neighborhood that needs some renovating. The four trustees are, understandably, a bit delusional about what they think it’s worth. I put in a hard offer at $2.8M and offered to let them double-end the deal (for the extra commission). I’m not super bullish on this one, but if it works, it could be a strong return — around 20% cash-on-cash in hopefully under six months. The other three offers were all on raw land in a cool part of Venice. My thinking is that if I can do multiple projects on the same street, it should help bring soft costs down a bit. Depending on the site, I’d either build small apartment units or one really nice single-family home (one of the three has to be a home by law).

Closed on 120 lots today and closing on 45 lots Friday.

Curious to hear feed back on this, would you prefer Metron or Dune meters? Both are pretty close on pricing, one has to be installed inline and one gets put on the pipe under the home. I like them both. Let's hear some input.

I will be traveling to the Syracuse area in NY on Saturday to look at an off market park. I will need to come up with a plan on how to present the seller my offer. My soon to be partner initially didn't want me to mention to the owner he would be involved, as of yesterday he now wants me to mention he will be involved in a small capacity. This is throwing me off a little bit. He also thinks we should have the seller do a drive by once a month and pay him. What are your thoughts?

Does anyone have good recommendations for a mover in Illinois that handles cross-state moves? The home will be moved to Iowa. I’ve spoken with a few movers already, but they don’t do out-of-state moves. I’d love to hear about movers you’ve used before—any suggestions are appreciated!