Greetings and salutations fellow millionaires, thousandaires, and hundredaires.
Long time no write. This isn’t a progress thread, or for backlinking, nor is it a vote to determine which shade of grey would best suit my logo. I would like to hear opinions from the expert real estate aficionados, coders, dealmakers, because the platform I have built involves all of the above. In a nutshell, this journey went from a personal frustration, to idea, to curiosity, to skill building, to execution, to prototype, to feedback, to holy shit look what I built and people want to use it. This is the realization of a real estate platform myself, and others in the industry have always wanted to see.
I will give you the quick rundown on how I arrived at this point, how I got fired for being an entrepreneur, how I learned PHP, Javascript, Jquery, HTML5, CSS, AJAX, Git, Terminal, and good enough design…all in under 6 months as I built the website, how I got paid to learn on Fiverr and became a number one seller with a 95% rating, and how I am continuing this eventful journey.
I would especially like to hear anyone’s experience with real estate listing services, particularly investors, first time home buyers, developers, or brokers. Believe me, I know all of my competitors, I have studied them like a hawk, at first glance you might think I built a ‘prettier’ version of what already exists, dig a little deeper and you’ll realize there is much more depth.
I am aware the kind of odds I’m up against, and am moving ahead without fear. The barriers to entry would crush any mere mortal…the magnitude of real estate, the consequences of property and privacy law, the corporations that control everything, the technical challenges and maintenance…bring it.
Real estate online (particularly in Canada, more so on the Westside) seems like it hasn’t evolved since the ‘internets’ came out. Its archaic presence annoys me, and I sacrificed a lot to try and change some aspect of that. I don’t care if I fail, I will fail fast, as I’m miles ahead with new skills and connections, and implementation and iteration will only become quicker and more efficient.
A bit of history and getting fired for being an entrepreneur
Back in my early college days, there was only one class in which I scored an N. Apparently it is a grade reserved for those that don’t show up to class or write the exams. That class was programming, with Microsoft’s Visual Basic to boot. It is now 2012, and the majority of the world spends 95% of their awake time staring at a computer screen. I thought, I better adapt.
Kids half my age are becoming millionaires because of online experiments, people are changing the world and how we interact because of the creation of online communities, people are not subject to modern day slavery and have the freedom to do what they want because of this so called internet. Now, I am not all of the sudden a programming evangelist, it’s something I had to learn to be comfortable with to achieve the desired outcome. Do you need it? No. You can outsource it. Can anyone learn it? Yes, and faster than you think with a bit of dedication and free flowing caffeinated beverages. This is what I chose, to learn the skills that will stay with me for the rest of my life, and ultimately enable me to instruct others on how I want it done with a higher level of involvement.
Fast forward a few years past college, the foray into property flipping, and a contracting stint, and I found myself taking a real estate ‘degree’ program at UBC. I didn’t even think I was qualified to be in that program, which I wasn’t, and that’s why I took every course they offered in hopes that they would grant me a conditional degree at the end. I was wrong. But I found a true passion. I’m not one to boast, but I killed that shit. The best part was that every project required real life application to existing properties. Analyzing value potential, creative financing, and how to handle and make money with money. While I knew I would never fall into that trap of graduating and working until 50 or 60 at some job, then retiring with nothing but pocket lint, the particular path was promising and was a great stepping stone to get experience with real estate, as well as understanding market conditions. Not to mention a cushy 6 figure income and being able to work from home.
I landed the elusive job as an appraiser after 18 months of applying for it…and subsequently lost it after 3. My brother and I took a personal interest in ‘helping’ a distressed owner of a two bedroom condo that had undergone renovations for leaks. The owner’s special assessment was somewhere north of $30,000. My job was to find its market value. Properties like that take a significant decrease in value to compensate for the stigma. I knew what other similar apartments sold for after renovations, and I knew we could do the same to this one. We had been networking with investors who specialize in these types of properties, and thought this one would be a good candidate. It was truly a win-win situation for everyone. The place would be sold, the owner would have his assessment paid, we would acquire an undervalued property, selling it for a healthy return. Instead…I got fired. Word got back to the head honcho, as the homeowner thought we were trying to cheat him out of his home, and used sensitive information to make that decision. I thought I would be sued, but luckily nothing ever came of it. Good intentions, bad outcome. You live and you learn.
At least I still had a job working at a nightclub. When others would celebrate the arrival of Friday, it was one of my busiest days. I would look at properties in the morning, write them up in the afternoon, teach martial arts, train, head to the nightclub to work, party, then make appointments the next morning to do it all over again. Now that I was booted out of a decent gig, all I had to look forward to was breaking up fights and making sure drunk girls didn’t get run over by a bus.
I had previously experimented with web design, the basic shit like wordpress, and a bit of graphics using CS5, but had not progressed until late 2011 after I got fired. After a quick escape to Shanghai to drown myself in Tsing Tao Lager, I decided it was time to go all in. I quit entirely from being a part of someone else’s plan, and was 100% dedicated to creating a business that would change everything.
I started with the basics of programming. The if else statements, the variables, the database, all of that good shit. For those at that point, I have one recommendation: stackoverflow.com. The only thing standing in your way is what question to ask. People would always say I looked tired, but in reality, the red eyes and lazy eyelids were the result of a burning desire to understand a new business, and go as deep down the rabbit hole as I could. Then I found a little site called Fiverr.
Getting paid to learn
I had just begun to get the PHP basics down, enough to echo out the infamous ‘Hello World’, however I wanted to create a login system for the membership aspect of the site. The fact that you could pay someone half way across the world five dollars to complete a block of code you had been trying to fix for the last few days, when it’s close to midnight, and no one else wants to deal with your shit, truly highlights the power of the web. Web based businesses are incredibly attractive to me because you can completely remove time, distance, and inevitably yourself from the equation. Factor in scale, and/or magnitude, and you have what I consider the most sophisticated business model.
I had contacted an individual who lived all the way in India and was a self-proclaimed PHP whiz. I thought what the hell, it’s five bucks. At the time I would have given my left nut to get rid of my programming stall. Within a matter of minutes, I was sent over some code after he had corrected it, plugged it into my site, and it F*ckin worked. He had reformatted the syntax so it was actually readable, and I learned the proper way to structure code. Fiverr got their $1, Jaswinderdeep got his $4, and I regained my sanity and was able to move ahead with my project.
It wasn’t long after I had my good friend in India help me with my code, that I started to really understand programming logic, and realized it essentially applies to every language. From PHP to Ruby to Javascript, you start to see patterns, only handled in their own unique ways. I had taught myself enough about web development, I figured why not test my skills on Fiverr and see it from the other side.
I put up a ‘gig’, as they call it, which allows you to market what kind of skills you are providing. The culmination of my glorious education made me decide to spew out every technical skill I had. My subject line read, ‘I will help you with HTML/CSS/PHP/Jquery/Fireworks/Photoshop/
Word/Excel’. It turned out to be a good tactic, because I had a request for help with nearly every topic I advertised. I though to myself…shit, now I have to back it up. The honest truth was, I never knew how to do a damn thing that was requested of me, but I had the knowledgebase and the tenacity to figure it out, not to mention Google, my secret weapon.
After delivering on a few of the gigs, I was surprised to receive feedback such as:
- ‘This is PERFECT! Thank you, that was QUICK!’,
- ‘Delivered super fast and exceeded my expectations!’,
- ‘Fantastic job! I look forward to contact you again for additional work as it comes up. You provide amazing service’
…and after all the positive feedback, I thought to myself, thanks…Google. Who would have thought, someone asked me a question, I relayed it to Google, got the answer within minutes, and relayed it back to the customer…in exchange for money.
What I started to do next, doesn’t exactly play well with their terms. While the site doesn’t want you to use their model to collect leads, I would frequently get requests to handle larger projects. I was still giving the site business, although not being subject to getting paid peanuts for high quality work. I think it is brilliant for both the seller and buyer. The buyer pays a low fee to determine the quality of work, or simply perform experiments, and the seller is able to ‘tease’ the buyer with access to a quality service. People were so satisfied by the jobs I did, the work continued off the site, and I had my first few clients. Upsell McGee. I don’t need to go into detail, but I made some good money using a skill I never thought I would possess.
...continued below
Long time no write. This isn’t a progress thread, or for backlinking, nor is it a vote to determine which shade of grey would best suit my logo. I would like to hear opinions from the expert real estate aficionados, coders, dealmakers, because the platform I have built involves all of the above. In a nutshell, this journey went from a personal frustration, to idea, to curiosity, to skill building, to execution, to prototype, to feedback, to holy shit look what I built and people want to use it. This is the realization of a real estate platform myself, and others in the industry have always wanted to see.
I will give you the quick rundown on how I arrived at this point, how I got fired for being an entrepreneur, how I learned PHP, Javascript, Jquery, HTML5, CSS, AJAX, Git, Terminal, and good enough design…all in under 6 months as I built the website, how I got paid to learn on Fiverr and became a number one seller with a 95% rating, and how I am continuing this eventful journey.
I would especially like to hear anyone’s experience with real estate listing services, particularly investors, first time home buyers, developers, or brokers. Believe me, I know all of my competitors, I have studied them like a hawk, at first glance you might think I built a ‘prettier’ version of what already exists, dig a little deeper and you’ll realize there is much more depth.
I am aware the kind of odds I’m up against, and am moving ahead without fear. The barriers to entry would crush any mere mortal…the magnitude of real estate, the consequences of property and privacy law, the corporations that control everything, the technical challenges and maintenance…bring it.
Real estate online (particularly in Canada, more so on the Westside) seems like it hasn’t evolved since the ‘internets’ came out. Its archaic presence annoys me, and I sacrificed a lot to try and change some aspect of that. I don’t care if I fail, I will fail fast, as I’m miles ahead with new skills and connections, and implementation and iteration will only become quicker and more efficient.
A bit of history and getting fired for being an entrepreneur
Back in my early college days, there was only one class in which I scored an N. Apparently it is a grade reserved for those that don’t show up to class or write the exams. That class was programming, with Microsoft’s Visual Basic to boot. It is now 2012, and the majority of the world spends 95% of their awake time staring at a computer screen. I thought, I better adapt.
Kids half my age are becoming millionaires because of online experiments, people are changing the world and how we interact because of the creation of online communities, people are not subject to modern day slavery and have the freedom to do what they want because of this so called internet. Now, I am not all of the sudden a programming evangelist, it’s something I had to learn to be comfortable with to achieve the desired outcome. Do you need it? No. You can outsource it. Can anyone learn it? Yes, and faster than you think with a bit of dedication and free flowing caffeinated beverages. This is what I chose, to learn the skills that will stay with me for the rest of my life, and ultimately enable me to instruct others on how I want it done with a higher level of involvement.
Fast forward a few years past college, the foray into property flipping, and a contracting stint, and I found myself taking a real estate ‘degree’ program at UBC. I didn’t even think I was qualified to be in that program, which I wasn’t, and that’s why I took every course they offered in hopes that they would grant me a conditional degree at the end. I was wrong. But I found a true passion. I’m not one to boast, but I killed that shit. The best part was that every project required real life application to existing properties. Analyzing value potential, creative financing, and how to handle and make money with money. While I knew I would never fall into that trap of graduating and working until 50 or 60 at some job, then retiring with nothing but pocket lint, the particular path was promising and was a great stepping stone to get experience with real estate, as well as understanding market conditions. Not to mention a cushy 6 figure income and being able to work from home.
I landed the elusive job as an appraiser after 18 months of applying for it…and subsequently lost it after 3. My brother and I took a personal interest in ‘helping’ a distressed owner of a two bedroom condo that had undergone renovations for leaks. The owner’s special assessment was somewhere north of $30,000. My job was to find its market value. Properties like that take a significant decrease in value to compensate for the stigma. I knew what other similar apartments sold for after renovations, and I knew we could do the same to this one. We had been networking with investors who specialize in these types of properties, and thought this one would be a good candidate. It was truly a win-win situation for everyone. The place would be sold, the owner would have his assessment paid, we would acquire an undervalued property, selling it for a healthy return. Instead…I got fired. Word got back to the head honcho, as the homeowner thought we were trying to cheat him out of his home, and used sensitive information to make that decision. I thought I would be sued, but luckily nothing ever came of it. Good intentions, bad outcome. You live and you learn.
At least I still had a job working at a nightclub. When others would celebrate the arrival of Friday, it was one of my busiest days. I would look at properties in the morning, write them up in the afternoon, teach martial arts, train, head to the nightclub to work, party, then make appointments the next morning to do it all over again. Now that I was booted out of a decent gig, all I had to look forward to was breaking up fights and making sure drunk girls didn’t get run over by a bus.
I had previously experimented with web design, the basic shit like wordpress, and a bit of graphics using CS5, but had not progressed until late 2011 after I got fired. After a quick escape to Shanghai to drown myself in Tsing Tao Lager, I decided it was time to go all in. I quit entirely from being a part of someone else’s plan, and was 100% dedicated to creating a business that would change everything.
I started with the basics of programming. The if else statements, the variables, the database, all of that good shit. For those at that point, I have one recommendation: stackoverflow.com. The only thing standing in your way is what question to ask. People would always say I looked tired, but in reality, the red eyes and lazy eyelids were the result of a burning desire to understand a new business, and go as deep down the rabbit hole as I could. Then I found a little site called Fiverr.
Getting paid to learn
I had just begun to get the PHP basics down, enough to echo out the infamous ‘Hello World’, however I wanted to create a login system for the membership aspect of the site. The fact that you could pay someone half way across the world five dollars to complete a block of code you had been trying to fix for the last few days, when it’s close to midnight, and no one else wants to deal with your shit, truly highlights the power of the web. Web based businesses are incredibly attractive to me because you can completely remove time, distance, and inevitably yourself from the equation. Factor in scale, and/or magnitude, and you have what I consider the most sophisticated business model.
I had contacted an individual who lived all the way in India and was a self-proclaimed PHP whiz. I thought what the hell, it’s five bucks. At the time I would have given my left nut to get rid of my programming stall. Within a matter of minutes, I was sent over some code after he had corrected it, plugged it into my site, and it F*ckin worked. He had reformatted the syntax so it was actually readable, and I learned the proper way to structure code. Fiverr got their $1, Jaswinderdeep got his $4, and I regained my sanity and was able to move ahead with my project.
It wasn’t long after I had my good friend in India help me with my code, that I started to really understand programming logic, and realized it essentially applies to every language. From PHP to Ruby to Javascript, you start to see patterns, only handled in their own unique ways. I had taught myself enough about web development, I figured why not test my skills on Fiverr and see it from the other side.
I put up a ‘gig’, as they call it, which allows you to market what kind of skills you are providing. The culmination of my glorious education made me decide to spew out every technical skill I had. My subject line read, ‘I will help you with HTML/CSS/PHP/Jquery/Fireworks/Photoshop/
Word/Excel’. It turned out to be a good tactic, because I had a request for help with nearly every topic I advertised. I though to myself…shit, now I have to back it up. The honest truth was, I never knew how to do a damn thing that was requested of me, but I had the knowledgebase and the tenacity to figure it out, not to mention Google, my secret weapon.
After delivering on a few of the gigs, I was surprised to receive feedback such as:
- ‘This is PERFECT! Thank you, that was QUICK!’,
- ‘Delivered super fast and exceeded my expectations!’,
- ‘Fantastic job! I look forward to contact you again for additional work as it comes up. You provide amazing service’
…and after all the positive feedback, I thought to myself, thanks…Google. Who would have thought, someone asked me a question, I relayed it to Google, got the answer within minutes, and relayed it back to the customer…in exchange for money.
What I started to do next, doesn’t exactly play well with their terms. While the site doesn’t want you to use their model to collect leads, I would frequently get requests to handle larger projects. I was still giving the site business, although not being subject to getting paid peanuts for high quality work. I think it is brilliant for both the seller and buyer. The buyer pays a low fee to determine the quality of work, or simply perform experiments, and the seller is able to ‘tease’ the buyer with access to a quality service. People were so satisfied by the jobs I did, the work continued off the site, and I had my first few clients. Upsell McGee. I don’t need to go into detail, but I made some good money using a skill I never thought I would possess.
...continued below
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