WatchI just read an interesting article about Facebook's growth:
http://www.startup-review.com/blog/facebook-case-study-offline-behavior-drives-online-usage.php
How do I apply each of these Facebook lessons to Patrick.net? Really just
thinking out loud to myself here, but happy to get comments.
"It's easier to piggyback off a pre-existing community with offline
behaviors that drive online service usage."
What is the pre-existing offline community for Patrick.net? Buyers are not a
community off line. Realtors are somewhat of a community, but I don't want
to target them. So I don't see how to do this one.
"make users feel that the site is exclusive and limited to members in their
offline community"
Again don't see how to do it since I don't see the offline community really.
"A perceived hot brand is what drives premium CPM rates."
Patrick.net brand is pretty good. Lots of trust because I don't abuse users
with popups or give away their emails.
"This added a level of credibility to the site in the minds of the student
users. It was something one of them had created, not something fed to them by a
company in the traditional sense. It was a place that they could trust
because one of their own had made it."
Patrick.net definitely has that credibility. I'm very much like the other
Patrick.net users, not a corporation at all. Just another potential buyer
who thinks prices and debt levels are too high.
"Students at other schools had to wait in line until Mark and friends could find
time to add their school. This created even more buzz around the product."
I don't have that. Anyone can join at any time. The one restriction is that
you have to contribute an Open House Review to read the other Open House
Reviews. Or subscribe to Patrick.net Premium.
"Facebook founders blasted e-mails to Harvard students to let people know about
the site. The team had access to the e-mail addresses of Harvard students at
each dorm. Thus e-mail marketing, viral feature sets, and word of mouth was how
Facebook was launched."
I don't send any unsolicited email. Too spammy. I don't even know who I'd
send them to. Though perhaps I could provide some value-added service to
Craigslist forsale or forrent advertisers.
What viral feature sets could I have? So far, I just have the "Mail"
link by threads and comments.
Word of mouth did work to make Patrick.net popular when the bubble was still
expanding, as people were getting worried. Now that the housing bubble is
not controversial, people don't send Patrick.net as counter-evidence.
Facebook started with specific schools, and then became general.
I could target specific zip codes, which I suppose is something of a
community.
"daily offline social behavior drove usage of the site."
There is no daily offline interaction between potential house buyers. They
generally don't even talk to each other at open houses.
"To get premium CPM rates, entrepreneurs must establish a brand -- not only
with users, but also with advertisers. Many social services do not have high
click thru rates on ads because people are not in the mind frame of looking for
information when they are using a social service. All social networking sites
suffer from this lack of click thru problem."
I also suffer from the lack of click through on the ad system I created. I
suppose I should make it CPM and concentrate on building buzz.
"Facebook built immediate trust via the home page by showing only a select few
colleges as being open to registration. Coupled with the registration process,
users immediately understood that the site was exclusively for use by college
students. This made them feel comfortable disclosing information that people
normally wouldn't post on the Internet."
Could I do this somehow? I do have the one "friend" feature which shows your
email address to people you accept as Patrick.net friends.
Another interesting difference is that Facebook requires real names, while Patrick.net does not.
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I am going to assume that anyone that knows or cares about housing knows about this site. There are far more people on facebook to share the latest vacation, party, bar, restaurant....blah blah blah. That's what billions of people are into. They could care less about economies, bubbles, etc.
You've done some interesting tools and calculators on your site, but to go viral like facebook, it would need to be visual and in sharing, people could influence housing prices. Hmmm...I wonder how one would do that? Don't know.
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Even though Patrick.net usually pops up on searches about housing, I think most people still haven't heard of it.
Good point that it needs to be more visual. Patrick.net is mostly text, and it takes some work to read and get into. I heard that a central use of Facebook is photo sharing, and that's why it was worried about Instagram cutting into that market.
I'd love it if crowds of people could influence housing prices. I'm trying a little of that with the Open House Reviews.
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Patrick says
Create a free online real estate listing search engine which feeds data from as many sources as possible. Examples of sources include...
http://www.realtor.com/
http://www.redfin.com/
http://www.trulia.com/
http://www.zillow.com/
http://www.century21.com/
http://www.mlsli.com/
http://realestatecenter.bankofamerica.com/pages/map-search
http://reo.wellsfargo.com/
https://servicing.chase.com/REO/Property/AdvancedSearch
http://www.usmarshals.gov/assets/sales.htm
http://homesales.gov/homesales/mainAction.do?pageAction=
http://www.homepath.com/
http://www.forsalebyowner.com/
http://fsbo.com/
http://www.homesbyowner.com/
http://www.isoldmyhouse.com/
http://www.newyorkfsbo.com/
Earn revenue by displaying adsense google ads along side the search results which are relevant to what the user has searched.
Another thing you can do...
Is to write a ebook on helping buyers decide whether or not buying is really appropriate for them...
And if it is... Then the book can educate them on the process of buying, everything it entails, the cons, the pros, what they must be prepared for, everything they must know...
How they should prepare to give an offer, should they choose a buyer's agents, should they get a mortgage, how to get a proper inspection of a property, where to find good inspectors, how they should prepare financially, what is the best location, how they should choose a location, should they buy just for the school district or should they send their kids to private school?...
What are the best places to find a good deal, how to find a good deal, what IS a good deal? How can you DEFINE a good deal?, Should they buy when interest rates are low or?, How can they determine when is the right time to buy?, How can they accurately predict what will happen to the market in the future? What are the indicators?, how much money to put down?
What are red flags in home buying? How can buyers avoid being scammed/ ripped off? What are the lies the realtors, brokers, mortgage brokers, appraisers, inspectors and other parties tell buyers?... What are things to look for in an open house? How do you negotiate PROPERLY...?
How is the real estate market rigged? What are political factors affecting the market? How will this affect generations to come? What will the future entail? How are buyers in the real estate marketing being taken advantage of? When will it stop? Why does it keep going on? Why are prices still high? How are groups, lobbyists and organization colluding together in this unfair market?, What are current trends in the market? How will things ultimately play out? How will the US economy affect the market?
How are baby boomers going to affect it? How is immigration going to affect it? How is property taxes going to affect it? How is the Federal Reserve affecting the housing market? What is the Federal Reserve? Why is it a fraud? How is Fannie and Freddie affecting it?
Patrick, their are a lot of books out on real estate home buying but pretty much ALL of them are missing the information found in this forum and the mentality in this forum.
They are also missing a lot of information to get buyers to understand that the current market is completely rigged and to also understand how the real estate market is truly flawed fundamentally at it's core level.
You can write a book on it in a ebook PDF format and sell it on this website with NO technical knowledge needed to process payments, issue the secure download and many other issues in online payment processing such as currency, tracking, PCI compliance and whole list of other things...
Use this payment processor... Fastspring.com - They are very good and have excellent customer service.
It is completely free upfront. No monthly fees at all or sign-up fees. You only pay 5.9% and a .95 cent charge for every sale you make which is automatically taken out. You get paid through either paypal, check, direct deposit (free) or wire.
It is more expensive than Paypal BUT it offers far more features than any payment processor I have seen.
In addition to selling the book on your website here and using Fastspring to process the payments.
You can also actually submit your ebook to Barnes & Noble over here http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com/pubit_app/bn?t=pi_reg_home
For free. Their is absolutely no cost all to submit your ebook to Barnes & Noble directly for consideration of publishing. And if they do decide to publish your ebook on their Nook store and B&N online digital store...
They will only take a cut from the sales. You can set the prices.
I recommend selling the ebook for $9.95 - $14.95. (Check if Amazon Kindle has a similar program as well.)
I'm telling you right now... People WILL buy it for a reasonable price because it is very hard to learn this stuff and to understand the entire housing market instead out...
Yeah. There is free information out there. But most of it I have found to be misleading, incomplete and false. A good information is hard to find and to learn from.. And a lot of times it's also hard for people to understand why it's right and good information.
Seriously Patrick... I think you should just focus on making the real estate market better for buyers, building an awareness about the major fundamental flaws in home buying and what changes must be done to insure a better future for the coming generations.
The money will automatically take care of itself if you just focus on a MAIN PURPOSE... To help fix a problem by first building serious awareness among buyers everywhere in the US and maybe even across the globe.
Make this your mission. Writing a good book on this whole entire subject and distributing it for a very reasonable price is one very good way you can help fulfill the mission. Maybe not 100%... But it's a very good start to get things moving in the right direction and maybe even get some media attention.
Also for the search engine you can build your own software application that can analyze the market, a particular listing, a particular location and determine whether it's a good buy but also whether it's suitable for the buyers based upon income, down-payment, credit rating, and whole host of other things.
You can also build an application that automatically saves good deals for the particular location in which the buyer is looking at. It can save all recent sales history in any locations the user specifies. It can alert the buyers of which homes are in contract and/or which homes they were watching as just entered contract... Which homes have gotten out of contract and are back on sale...
These two software ideas... You can either charge for them or you build them into your search engine for free and to try to entice more users to the search engine... With the ad-sense ads as revenue.
Your choice really.
If you decide to sell them - I recommend Fastspring.com as the payment processor for the software as well.
Why? Because they can take care of software activation, downloading, secure server storage for downloads, piracy protection, BRANDED checkout pages compared to Paypal, google analytics tracking, sales tracking and even affiliate management support.
There is defiantly potential to make money from this. You just need to think like a businessman and you need to think what everyone is looking for here that they would gladly pay for.
I recommend also doing some free public speaking and free seminars on this subject. Sell the books after. See if B&N will allow you to hold a free meeting on this topic.
Anyway just some ideas I came up with that you may have not considered and may want to consider.
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Realty Trac also has a affiliate program...
They pay commission for every member that signs up from your website.
http://www.realtytrac.com/datalink/affiliate.aspx
Lead payout: $10
Sale payout: $31
There is a lot of ways you can monetize this site.
Other affiliate programs...
http://affiliate.foreclosure.com/index.htm
http://www.homegain.com/about_hg/affiliate_program
http://www.realestateexpress.com/affiliates/
http://www.forsalebyowner.com/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=63&Itemid=75
http://www.mynewplace.com/affiliate-program
I know opportunity when I see it.
You can make money easily from this site. Just as long as your willing to sacrifice a little bit of ethics...
Take it from me... I'm a Robber Baron Elite Scum...
Apply to all those affiliate programs. And then take the affiliate banners from them and place the advertising on this site.
Some sucker on this site will click it and buy something. You then get paid commission.
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Robber Baron Elite Scum says
Ah, that was my first business model. I talked to a lawyer who assured me I would very quickly be sued and bankrupted. All those sites are jealous of their listings. On the one hand, they have to advertise them to draw in new victims, er, buyers. But on the other hand, they don't want anyone else to have their listings. So all their terms of service (except Craigslist) forbid scraping their listings.
Robber Baron Elite Scum says
I did run Google ads, but find it just pays so little that it's hardly worthwhile. The clickthrough rates are very low. I think other relevant ads (zip code, price, real estate) might sell really well though if I personally sell them, skipping Google.
I keep planning to write a book, but having already written a technical book, I know and dread the long hours it will take. I'm much happier creating software services, where I get instant feedback on how useful it is. I already have a few things in the Real Estate Tools section, but even the ones I think are most useful like the rental comps don't sell all that well.
Also, books are one-shot sales, but services can be subscriptions. So I definitely agree I should improve and extend the House Value Calculator at http://patrick.net/housing/calculator.php to take more of the user's specific condition into account, and maybe charge for that.
The Open House Reviews section seems to have a lot of promise. Each review that people submit makes the service more valuable, and so it's worth writing a new review to get access. Or worth subscribing to get access.
But how do I really get that rolling? It's a chicken-and-egg problem.
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Patrick says
Yeah... I know...
These realtors and brokers are the biggest hypocrites. Their greed, jealousy and ego is always too much.
What they want is a monopoly because they know that if buyers are shown as many homes as possible...
They will not be suckered into buying something overpriced. They will only go for the best deals, not some broker "buy & sell flip"
Patrick says
I placed google ads once too on my site and I too found it wasn't worth the money at all.
I just thought maybe for others it may work different. Guess not.
Patrick says
Yeah. You defiantly don't want to sell a book you wrote in just one day and then put your name on it.
It can take months to write a decent book worth the money that people will actually benefit from.
But I still suggest a book that covers those topics. I think it will defiantly help monetize the site...
Perhaps you feel that you may not sell enough copies to really make it worth putting a lot of time into it.
I still think you should try it... I believe people will defiantly be willing to pay $9.95 for a very good resource book that is far superior to any real estate book or guide being sold.
I do agree though that books are a one-shot sale but... You can use the book as also an upsell tool to services that are subscriptions...
During the checkout of the ordering process for the book, you have an upsell option to a free trial to one of your subscriptions.
Fastspring also supports subscriptions and they also support free trial offers along with email list management to customers with mailchimp.com
Speaking of subscriptions...
Have you also perhaps tried an online real estate magazine where you have nothing but PURE information and articles discussing trends, predictions, advice, issues of buyers, latest news and anything new in real estate...
It's going to work though to get a magazine going and I'm not sure if you like writing but the idea...
Defiantly could work...
It's better if people read your content rather than the content found in "Sheeple Magazine".
I believe you can also make your magazines available on Kindle and The Nook. You will have to check on that, I'm not sure.
The content can be digital in a PDF format and you can be the only writer to reduce costs practically to nothing.
Maybe it won't be really a magazine but more like a paid subscription to a monthly newsletter full pure original good quality content for a reasonable price.
Charge $10 a month for a 25-50 page newsletter delivered digitally in a PDF file or access it in the member's area.
And the newsletter comes with a 30 day $1 free trial with 1 free newsletter issue to decide if it's worth it for the buyer.
No distribution costs, no inventory costs, no publishing costs, no merchant account fees, no employees, no physical office building...
Just a computer, internet connect, hosting account, this website and free fastspring account to charge customers.
ElliotWave.com does the same thing...
The charge money for a paid subscription to a newsletter about trends on the economy and forecasts.
Trendsresearch.com does the same thing as well...
Just another idea...
Patrick says
Defiantly... The calculator should be extremely specific and extremely custom to only that user.
It should then make suggestions as to how they much should buy for, where, how big of a house, the utilities, the maintenance costs of the home should be factored in.
Say if a 4,000sq ft home has high utilities costs... The buyer should be warned by the calculator if their income doesn't match or isn't very high to really be wise to buy a home with such high utility costs.
The calculator should also be able to determine the utilities costs of a particular area and the address of property with quotes from the utility companies... The calculator takes those figures into the equation of determining what is financially wise and responsible for the buyer.
Real times interest rates should determined along with mortgage plans from both the government as well as many banks as possible.
Their job security rating should also be taken into account. (What is the likelihood they lose their income and thus default.)
Real time rent figures for their specific location should also be factored in to determine if renting is best for them.
Patrick says
It takes time to make a service like that gain value, momentum and really have it turn into something very big.
Patrick says
You need traffic and I suggest you allow users to specify more than just the state, zip code and more criteria like price, size, features - etc....
Go to https://services.google.com/fb/forms/yourbusiness/?site=hagam&utm_term=en-ha-gam-couponrequestform
Get free $75 in google credits for advertising Patrick.net
Email me immediately once you get an account. I'll send you another code to get another $75 to $100 in your account. You just redeem the code in your billing section and it automatically credits the account.
So you'll have $150-$175 to spend to get some traffic on here for free. Before you launch the campaign, just make sure you know what you are doing and you set-up the campaign correctly.
But before even launching the campaign I suggest you first put up maybe some affiliate links and make sure to have the visitors know that you are selling them services...
Target keywords which suggest buyers want the services you are selling.
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By the way...
Even if you don't make any money from sales of the subscription services.
Just know that somewhere maybe some home buyer comes across your website from a Google Ad...
And they read the section called "Why Now is Not a Good Time To Buy..."
You may have stopped someone very naive from making a very big and costly mistake that they would have regretted the rest of their life.
A lot of these buyers really don't understand what they are getting themselves into. A lot of them are still young and don't know they reality that the housing market is entirely a con-game.
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Robber Baron Elite Scum says
That's a good point. Charles Schwab wrote a book on investing when I worked at Schwab, and at first I wondered what the point was, since he makes so much more from the brokerage business. Then someone explained to me that the book was merely advertising for the brokerage.
Robber Baron Elite Scum says
Kind of like my newsletter. Mine is free though. I once tried charging just $5/month and subscriptions plummeted and then kept falling. So I made it free again and it recovered. It was an interesting experiment. My conclusion was that it was worth more as a free service to advertise other things now and then.
But if I had something really compelling, I'm sure people would pay. I have a friend who just reports on anti-corruption legislation changes in DC and has some reporters working for her doing that too, full time. She sells expensive subscriptions to those stories, to law firms. So it works in niches like that.
Is there some real estate niche I could work on which would be worth, say, $1/day to at least 300 people? That would be enough to support me pretty well.
Maybe some kind of semi-automated "buyer's helper" that would keep people alerted to the latest property for sale in their area, with an automated analysis of each one for them? But then, it's hard to get complete listings in any automated way for the reasons described above.
Or check out http://sfbay.craigslist.org/hsw/ There are zillions of people who are in pain and need help. They are looking for cheap places to rent in expensive areas. Is there anything at all I can do to help them? Some kind of data integration that they could not easily do themselves?
Robber Baron Elite Scum says
Thanks! I had not heard of that. I've been very reluctant to advertise so far, but maybe I should try it at least once. OK, I will, and I'll write you about setting it up.
Robber Baron Elite Scum says
Yes, I already get thank you emails and letters pretty regularly. If nothing else, at least I did not waste my life in a cube working for Wells Fargo.
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Patrick says
Why don't you create a real estate "craiglist" style listing service here on Patrick.net?
Make it for free & try to recoup the costs by some advertising of affiliate banners that pay you commissions for anyone that clicks and buys a membership to realtytrac.
I'm not sure if you want do affiliate advertising with banners on the site for the affiliate programs I mentioned...
Maybe only advertising for realtytrac which lists foreclosures or if you decide for other sites as well.
Perhaps you can feed data from craigslist that lists buyers as well - although again going back to the legal issues of doing that. It doesn't seem viable.
But perhaps a real estate listing website similar to craigslist would be a excellent idea and the costs recouped by affiliate advertising which pay out $10 per lead and $30 per sale.
And then also have a good book with good information for a cheap price which also sells readers on the subscriptions as they read the book. As well as a an upsell option during the ordering process.
You could also create a system in the listing service that allows landlords to contact and email those seeking rent in craigslist under strict criteria such as rent price, location and what features they want in the apartment.
Charge them for that ability. Although... They are serious legal issues with doing that and it could very easily fail under SPAM violation laws. I know when software developer that made exactly such a system who were sued by Craigslist.
So that neither seems viable either.
So I guess it ties back to creating your own listing service. A free one with no realtards or brokers taking a cut.
Basically a FSBO & a FRBO. Unless of course, you don't mind brokers & agents also posting listings.
The problem with rents also has to do with the tenants having to pay a broker's fee which is nonsense.
The tenants shouldn't pay for that. The landlords should pay for the broker's fee.
Patrick says
Yeah. Google advertising can be very costly if you don't know what you are doing.
But since it's free money... I say go for it. If you don't make any money, you might get some more users to register on this site perhaps or you might inform more people.
You just have to pay for a $5 activation fee. Other than that, they have no account minimums, monthly fees or any other types of costs.
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I'd love to see a site like redfin or trulia that allows people to look at house photos/facts/comparables, and based on that, they could then input how much they were willing to pay for the home. kind of like soft bidding. it would create food for thought for sellers and agents while they wait for real offers. Who knows, maybe they would see that no one would pay their asking price and start lowering it?
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outside the box: get a broker license and be independent broker. might want to 'train' undercover at a big c21 type place for a couple of months.
You have a built in audience of buyers here you have developed credibility with.
Basically your site is 80% bay area anyway! Good luck scaling that, it isnt really working i have seen. In fact virtually ALL Of flyover has totally cheap housing now as u know...
In fact there are so many clueless buyers in desperate need of handholding on your site its 'invaded' with brokers like that greg dude who are using your hard work to make real money.
maybe this is a last ditch plan for you before you sell the site to redfin or someone.... if you cant beat em, join em.
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Robber Baron Elite Scum says
I could do that, but Craigslist already does a good job. What could I do better than they already do for free?
Robber Baron Elite Scum says
I feel uneasy about affiliate programs and banners. I love the Patrick.net readers and don't want to throw them to the wolves, or annoy them too much...
I want to do something that they're happy to pay a little bit for, so I can sleep well at night. I just don't quite know what that thing is.
Robber Baron Elite Scum says
I already signed up and am waiting for Google to get back to me. Wonder what keywords I should use. "Rental comps"?
nw888 says
That's an interesting idea. So kind of like my "Open House Reviews" forum, but free, and lets people enter a price they'd pay. What would I do about people who are simply messing with the system and putting in ridiculously high or low numbers?
Maybe when you put in a number, you also grant permission for the seller to contact you by email if they would consider accepting your price?
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Patrick says
I'll email you a compilation of Keywords that you maybe interested in.
Patrick says
That does seem to annoy users.
Patrick says
I had a feeling it wouldn't be suitable for you. I also don't think many users here are going to be interested in realtytrac and if anyone has a complaint about their service...
It could reflect badly on you.
Patrick says
If I come up with something, I'll let you know. But I've run out of ideas.
I'm going to brainstorm and see what I can think of.
I will say though... It's very easy to make money and do it legally if you are willing to sell your soul, integrity & morals.
Realtors and Brokers do it all the time with home buyers. A lot of the immoral stuff they do is legal as well and they can not get into trouble.
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Maybe this is hare brained, but lot's of first time home buyers have trouble interpreting their home inspection reports, termite reports and realtor speak. Perhaps a service that took $X, took the reports and answered any questions on the report that the buyer had? The service would need people that understand the business, understand homes well. The challenge is that you will not have access to the specific home. The good news is that it is typically easy to spot where additional problems may lie and advise the buyer further. The inspectors themselves are supposed to answer these questions, but have motivations (future business with the realtor) that cloud their ability to use straight-talk. Additionally, many times, the buyer's agent does not provide real service to the buyer, but works with the listing agent to push both buyer and seller to bid more and ignore issues on either side of the transaction while in contract, to get to a closed deal. Case by Case negotiation tips could be useful.
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I like it.
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Graph out past prices in area buyers are interested.. by zip particularily pre-bubble prices and overlay inflation trend vs actually** make sure you note actuals were all bubble prices and should not be considered viable market prices.. while the trend should be considered as viable prices....factor in your Rent Equivalent.. and you have a valuation model for the public.
a different spin on Zillow Home Estimates... notice how many people actually get attracted to Zestimates, even though it shows "estimates" going down.. Now it only shows how badly the Zestimates gave wrong market data for buyers. Call it REstimates and why its better than zestimates...how to avoid the housing bubble... yes Johnny! there actually was a bubble, no sense repeating the mistake once again.
you can get historical prices per zip from dqdata...
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Offer $300 not $500.. those you paid $750 would wished they had waited until it went down to 350K today.. value proposition!
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Thanks! Yes, I should definitely try to get historical price data by zip code.
And now that I have the IRS income data too, I can graph it relative to that as well.
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Patrick,
You do have an offline community. It's a group of people who are interested in buying houses at non-bubble prices. In fact, many members of your community are interested in INVESTING in housing. We all watch your site to track the news and trends related to housing to see when houses in our area will be good investments and good purchases to stop renting.
If you want to offer a service to us as a community, you need to offer us HOUSING INVESTMENTS. Your site should include a tool where people can come and put their time and energy into finding good housing deals as a GROUP, then investing their TIME and MONEY into purchasing, refurbishing, and renting out housing. There should be ways to resolve issues like how the group(s) agree to maintain or refurbish properties and source materials for repairs. The tools should help people be legally protected by providing professionally crafted contracts and the like. And it should allow for better returns on the investment for the same traditional reasons, like people doing construction work themselves or in groups. Again the site should have legal and software tools to help resolve disputes and indecision.
I have a lot of time and skill that could be constructively used installing flooring, repairing plumbing, doing landscaping, roofing, repairing drywall and the like, but I don't want to do it for $15/hr making someone else rich. I think a lot of other people feel the same way. As a group, I'm sure our skills complement. If you provide the tools, I'm in and I am happy to pay a percentage for use of the tools and community.
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codebug says
"Investments" that only keep up with inflation is not a good investment over the long run.
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Patrick says
Some financial ratio analysis with incomes, rents and prices should get you a nice tool for end users ...
You should have a mission statement..."to provide value added comprehensive cost analysis in order to minimize or eliminate the risk of overpayment on residential RE purchases and thus provide comsumers with savings over the long term.
Blah Blah Blah!
Also need a new catchy web site title ... to illustrate your mission... two to four words maybe...
"HousingPuzzle.com" or something to that effect..
plus a Logo (which is an icon) to be used on other websites linking to your site!
Avoid clutter.. simple interfave.. XP style..Blue!
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thomas: ever hear of something called a CAP rate?
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codebug says
OK, how about the Patrick.net REIT?
I know this has been mentioned before, but maybe now there is a critical mass of people who will do it. Iwog has bought properties and rented them out, and so has pkennedy and E-man. Iwog's wife is a lawyer. You know how to refurbish houses.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_estate_investment_trust
So would you do refurbishing work for equity in the REIT? How much equity? Who decides?