I am still unhappy with Larry for saying that he disagrees with most everything I said and that he doesn't have the time or interest in discussing it further. I just don't think this is a very effective way to get people to participate on this forum.

I feel I know real estate investing very well. I also know a good deal about stock investing. I have been investing in stocks and other liquid markets for many years and my father was in the business for 45 years. I feel I have a very thorough understanding of money management. This applies to all investment types. I have taken two companies public and have seen plenty of the questionable activities from the inside of stock firms. I have never worked at a stock firm so I assume there is much more I don't know. I would like to think that I don't pretend to know more than Larry or many others on this site - especially when it comes to technical stock trading and developing trading systems.

I am a full time real estate investor and no matter how many different stock trading systems I have tried and tweaked, they still don't perform like my real estate investments. Maybe I am doing something wrong. I started listening to Larry about a year ago after buying a half dozen Cashflow games and getting his smart money report (I use the game to teach family and friends the financial game of life - it's no accident that you have to buy a lot of real estate to win the game).

In case you are wondering, I am financially free and have been for about 12 years. I got there by investing in commercial real estate. I started investing in real estate when I was 25. I just turned 40 years old. I live in the Northwest and I play golf 4 or 5 times a week - I am a 2 handicap. I spend 3-4 hours each day in the early morning working on my investment activities from my home office. I was in the software business before I quit working for other people. I love computers and am very technical. Most people think I am a computer wiz but this isn't true. I just know how to make it do the things I need done. I am usually done working by 9 or 10am each day. Most of my real estate holdings are not in the state where I live. I rarely visit the properties. Now with the internet, there are plenty of ways for me to "see" these properties without actually getting on a plane. I rely heavily on satellite imagery and a few folks (lenders, appraisers, architects, contractors, brokers, property managers, etc) local to the properties. I spend most of my time trying to improve my golf swing. I have a wonderful wife and two cats. I don't have children and I know this affords me many more quality work hours - possibly at the expense of the many great things kids would have brought to my life. Now that I am settling down a little, my wife and I are thinking about adopting. We have lots of friends and a nice house where we entertain the neighborhood adults with pool, darts, texas hold'em, and cashflow 101 parties. Most of our friends use us to get away from their rat race life for the evening. I help the ones that are interested with their investments. My dad is in his 70's now and he can be found on the lake fishing most every day. We frequently sit with a pole in the water and talk about investing. When he was in the stock brokerage business for 45 years, he never got interested in real estate and he never got out of the rat race - I don't know if there is a connection here. I support him financially and he lets me talk his ear off.

This is my life - I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. My advice to you would be not to let anyone tell you these financial freedom concepts don't work.

Stocks only represent about 10% of my portfolio and it's a good thing because I would probably be working again if I had to depend on stocks for my livelihood. I have a good deal of respect for Larry because he apparently does just fine with stocks. For me this 10% is still a significant about of money so I don't like not being comfortable about this investment type. I like the idea of the COT system just as much as the next guy. I have been a steady reader of this site in an effort to learn more about how to improve the performance of my stock holdings. I guess I have heard enough to have some opinions that I want to express. I have a lot of things I would like to say about how the two investment vehicles compare. I do know that most of what I said in my previous posts is true or at least I feel I can make a very strong case for them being true. Maybe someday Larry can get interested enough in these topics to continue the comparison.

For now I will do my best to help the other readers with their real estate knowledge. I assume people know that everything I say is just my opinion. You can take it or leave it or challenge me. This is true with every post on the site. I don't think it necessary for me to start every sentence with "In my opinion..." like Larry suggests. I'm not sure why he feels he needs to protect everyone from me and since he won't defend his opinions then we may never know.

I know some of you have asked me direct questions and replied to my posts. I intent to respond to these the best I can. I have a full day planned for today and tomorrow but I will gather these other questions and comments up and respond as soon as I get a chance.

I think that once we get a base knowledge for real estate investing established, we should restart a thorough comparison of real estate investing vs. stock investing. "In my opinion, this is a great topic."

For those of you who encouraged me to stay around - thank you for your support. I'll be back after the holiday.

Mark

Good!

We look forward to your insight, Mark. And anybody who plays Texas Hold 'Em is all right in my book.

Larry

Mark,

I have been interested in the benefits of real estate investing for a few years now but, in my mind, am just getting started at the age of 28. I will make the greater Seattle area my home in a month and would love to learn more about RE investing. May I be your caddy?

Paul

Larry,
Your comment about Texas hold'em inspired me to ask this question. I've noticed we seem to have a poker fad starting. In the last few months I've been seeing many commercials for party poker, celebrity poker, etc. I have spoken to a lot of people who are playing online. Are any of these companies public? Any of the major studios in production on a poker inspired movie? I know there's got to be a way to make money off this fad, other than being a poker shark

Jim

Mark,

Not for nothing - but this forum is really based around Larry's SmartMoney Report newsletters and the various strategies discussed within. Nowhere does it say that everyones investment strategy should be comprised of stocks and nothing but stocks. I think it is safe to assume that it's targeted towards those who are putting SOME of their money into stocks (like me). Don't you think that perhaps you would get a better reception from the RichDad forums or DealMakersCafe? Sites that have sections dealing with real estate investing along with all other types of investing?

One comment - and it's not meant to be insulting. I tend to be very wary of someone that makes grandoise claims of life style and financial freedom(easy to do on the internet), then engages in tit for tat arguments with the site's operator. Maybe it's just me, but I would tend to think that someone who can golf constantly and spend lots of time fishing would have different standards of modesty and demureness.


Kevin

Jim,

You make a very good point. I'm going to talk to my 19 year old son about that. He is a Texas Hold 'Em fanatic. When he runs out of people to separate from their money, he plays online. He’s also pretty knowledgeable about the stock market (very knowledgeable for someone his age). He’s in college right now, but when I talk to him I’m going to ask him what companies are behind some of these things you mentioned.

Larry

Kevin,

Since I’m the one that was critical of some of Mark’s first posts, I want to say something in his defense. It really would be good for someone to post ideas about investing in real estate. A lot of people are interested in that and the main point of what I do is to help people reach their financial goals. I don’t care how they go about doing it.

I don’t think Mark is making grandiose claims about his life style. I think he’s just introducing himself to us and giving people an indication of why he believes in his style of investing. I don’t see anything wrong with that.

I want to encourage him to post and see how it goes.

Larry

Kevin,

You bring up some valid points. I can tell you that I have reservations about getting into deep discussions explaining my experiences with real estate investing - especially on this forum. However, I do think it will help people who frequent this site and; Larry is encouraging me to do it and; I rarely get to bounce my thoughts off others who are "into" investing like me and; I really think there could be some useful discussions that compare the strengths and weaknesses of different investment vehicles. So let's give it a try. I get bored easily so I'm sure it will run its course soon enough. To make it easy for some to ignore and to keep things a little organized, I will start my new topics with "Real Estate - ..." I will also try not to get into tit for tat arguments with Larry. I have a feeling we will get along just fine from here on out - I think we just got off on the wrong foot.

As far as boring you with my life story, I just thought that if people were going to have to listen to me ramble on about my views on investing then I owed it to everyone to offer up a little bit about me. I'm not selling anything and I know you don't have to be wary of me - however, I like that you think you should be wary of me. Every level-headed person should be wary of anyone talking about investing. And the last thing I want is for someone to put themselves at risk because they didn't do their own homework.

Mark