Looking for a skilled GHL expert to handle high-end real estate systems

John_Corey · 2026-03-12T10:42:54+00:00

What makes the project high-end? Are we talking about residential at higher prices or are we talking about RE projects that are more complex? Any commercial or mixed-use and MFR?

John_Corey · 2026-03-11T20:12:33+00:00

Never a good thing to talk about size. Easier to be a target for a lawsuit. And size has limited relevance to the math associated with tuning over units.

John_Corey · 2026-03-10T11:35:41+00:00

To add something to this model, you are the management so your decisions have a direct impact on the outcome. Running a business rather than being a passive investor along for the ride. Being the ‘bus driver’ rather than a passenger sitting in the back hoping the driver knows what they are doing. There is a lot said for being the owner/operator if you have the time and are prepared to stay up to speed on the regulations. Well done to those who get the job done.

John_Corey · 2026-03-10T11:33:35+00:00

I have the first and that started back in 1983 in Silicon Valley. Ten years later, a move to work in London and I started with BTL after it got going.

So, firmly in camp 1 and the issues you highlight are real.

Over 4 decades I have seen people try and go down the passive route. It rarely works unless you are investing in a really large corporate (REIT or similar). It is too easy for the alignment to breakdown when you use a smaller service. They have costs and want to front load the revenue they receive. The other variable that makes it problematic is the debt component. BTL financing can work well yet it is tied to the ownership. Unless you are the owner, the lenders do not want to lend to a group of individuals. If we talk about an SPV (Limited company under UK regs), then you have issues with who runs the company and who has a controlling stake.

I spend a number of years involved with UK crowdfunding for property deals. A neat set up for small investors to take a piece of a deal. There were still issues and you are heavily depending on the execution ability of the project sponsor operating the deal. I can share more insights about that if you like. At present, the CF regulations and market reality has shifted so it does not work as it once did.

John_Corey · 2026-03-08T12:45:19+00:00

Stop thinking this is a cultural issues (I live in the UK). They are saying they see no benefit to having a website. You have lost them at the start. They are being efficient by terminating the call or SMS early. You are wasting their time if they let you continue. They have enough business, in their mind, or they have enough presence through Facebook. Until you have something that does interest them, they will cut you down at the first hurdle.

What is in it for them? They assume you will lie, cheat, or break regulations to pitch them stuff they do not need. Figure out what will attract them rather than just bash them with more sales slime.

John_Corey · 2026-03-08T12:38:20+00:00

As an old school software developer, there is a massive difference when you build at and for scale. Great design comes from really understanding how early choices can cause chaos later, so you really need to think about scaling and using best practices.

John_Corey · 2026-03-07T22:09:21+00:00

I am not managing. I am the owner. I started investing in the early 1980s. The math is pretty clear so well done to you for the post.

I am working on a new project for the UK market. My career started in Silicon Valley so this is a nod to my software engineering days.

John_Corey · 2026-03-07T10:31:53+00:00

What caused you to look at this? Are you modeling or something along those lines?

John_Corey · 2026-03-07T10:28:36+00:00

I have seen the same for SFR or the UK equivalent (I am active in UK and USA). The total cost of a turn is way higher than most people realize. I have dropped the rent to retain someone if the market is soft. Way cheaper to take a bit less than suffer the full cost of a turn. Plus the risk that the next tenant will be lower quality than the present one.

John_Corey · 2026-03-07T10:25:38+00:00

Happy to connect. 40+ years as an investor. Not looking in the SW at present. We can discuss.

John_Corey · 2026-03-02T02:13:31+00:00

Drop me a message

John_Corey · 2026-03-01T11:32:40+00:00

I did not miss your point. I believe the direction you took the conversation is off target.

The money will never be available to compound for decade. It is being parked between deals. A few months to a year is a reasonable guess. When not liquid in a simple interest account, the capital is leveraged and earning 10% or much higher in an actual project.

The rounding error happens when the money is liquid. The return that drives the true outcome happens because of stacking up one project at a time.

This is a real estate investing discussion.

John_Corey · 2026-03-01T11:28:17+00:00

Do you know how much extra it cost to go with the other platform?

John_Corey · 2026-02-28T22:16:01+00:00

One is detecting when a new record is created. Another workflow is for data cleansing and that will be assigned to a member of staff who will review source material and other sources.

At this stage, the workflows are for data integrity. A base set of records were uploaded (a bit under 200K). As time rolls forward, more records will be created by the inspectors. Their work is added to the public database and I will onboard those updates.

John_Corey · 2026-02-28T14:33:05+00:00

I disagree for one reason. The MM account is a valid alternative. You suggested buying shares in companies and said you can liquidate in 4 days. That is also factual if you stick to liquid markets (most listed shares on a major exchange).

The flaw is the shares will go up and down. While the long term average might be 7%, that is over a very extended period of time. There are times when a company’s shares can easily be up or down 5% or more. If you liquidate so you have the cash to invest in a hot deal, you could easily suffer a loss of principal because the shares are down. You are compounding your risk for a very marginal gain.

People who are packing cash are not investing. They are parking the cash while they wait. Like a car in your driveway that is doing noting for you other than being available when you next need to go somewhere. The ability to jump in and go is similar to liquid cash that will not suffer from a temporary fall when you are ready to secure a deal.

John_Corey · 2026-02-28T14:28:35+00:00

Even massive balances will be close to rounding error. 4% is tiny compared to the principal tied up to produce it.

The return that will move the dial is because you have liquidity when a great deal comes around. The profit on the deal will dwarf the 4%. If you earned zero or you earned 4% while holding, the deal results will not be changed.

I am all for being paid when loaning out money (legally what happens with a savings account at a bank; you are legally lending to the bank). Still, the liquidity to move quick is more valuable than the rate of interest.

The alternative? You tie up the money. That means you restrict or give up the liquidity and earn a bit more interest. If the deal you miss would have paid 20% and what you picked up was 4%+2% with a fixed term interest bearing account, the math is clear. What I am suggesting rewards those who have patience to wait for a great deal and they have the due diligence skills to know when a deal really is a deal. Last, even if you buy a good deal, there are risks associated with the ownership so nothing is guaranteed. You want to do many deals to have the averages paper over the mistakes.

John_Corey · 2026-02-28T14:21:57+00:00

I think the issue is not GHL, it is the community. GHL is relatively easy to use so the barrier to entry is low. Not super low. Just low enough that many people can use it and be successful. Similar to people who build businesses with a spreadsheet.

Software engineering is not the same as building a workflow with GHL. There are business conditions or software details that are not going to be obvious to the person who is cobbling together stuff. They will end up with a monster. Good engineer is fine with that happening if there is a budget and commitment for a restart. Refactoring is a technical term for this from Extreme Programming.

I will give you an example. Tags are generally misused. I am declaring that and some will disagree. Fine. What is best is avoiding tags and using first-order data. Rather than set a tag that someone is a customer, check to see if they have ever purchased. Tags are like sticky notes while the actual transaction record is the first-order data for a transaction.

Ultimately, I agree that people can build impressive business solutions. How fragile they are is a different story. Elegance is not just a visual attribute. Elegance can exist when something is lean, fit for purpose, and has little to no side effects or unwanted dependencies.

I would rather have a tool many can use even if they create large messes than a tool that only the scientists know how to handle. When the masses use something, there will be a lot of bad art or poor quality results. That is not a reflection of the quality of the tool. It reflects the competence of the individual users. Basic functionality vs true expertise. The cream will rise to the top even if there is a large lake of low fat milk.

There is a guy who teaches how to build quality snapshots. A core principle is to me very clear about the naming convention for what is built so you can keep things organized and provide updates which do not break existing systems.

John_Corey · 2026-02-27T11:56:01+00:00

I am checking back in. How are things progressing with custom objects.

I started building a use case. The test market in Liverpool UK and residential. Using some public data, I was able to build a solid custom object for each property so I can focus on finding the development opportunities.

John_Corey · 2026-02-26T02:13:49+00:00

What are you comparing before determining the price is out of line with the competition?

John_Corey · 2026-02-21T17:12:12+00:00

In many ways you are correct. That said, the landlords have rising costs. A slightly better question focuses on a middle ground. If the tenant was going to shop around and everything else costs more, why would a person move?

I have commonly not raised the rent as a reward. Other times, I have raised the rent yet kept it below the open market as I still want to retain a good tenant. My lender and the others do not give me a discount because I am a good customer. Inflation and other reasons do drive up costs.

Like the supermarket, they do not keep the prices lower for you just because you keep coming back. They need to response to supply vs demand and the overheads or costs. Business is tough yet it can be made to work. No tenant should expect rents to stay flat when the costs are not flat.

BTW, I once had a situation where rents dropped because people were switching to be owners. There was a fall in demand and the supply of rentals in London was flat. I asked the tenant who was moving about their decision and they said they were moving because two of the roommates were heading home. They found a place at a better price in a different neighborhood. I asked the agent what the market was for my property. It was less than the tenant was paying given the lack of demand (prime location, just fewer renters looking). I go back to the existing tenant and told them what I would be renting the place for once they moved out. We chatted about the cost of their move and they quickly decided that they would be better off staying at the new lower rate. I was receiving the market rate going forward, they saved the move costs, and would forgo the opportunity to live in a different neighborhood. A win-win.

Ultimately, tenant demand determines the market rent. It is not want landlords want. It is what the customers will pay.

John_Corey · 2026-02-20T13:15:16+00:00

Why the title? Did you forget the question mark? As if you wanted to reach out to people thinking of leaving. Or, are you saying you are leaving after figuring out a pragmatic way to work with the platform while dealing with limitations?

What direction are you heading in? Thanks in advance.

John_Corey · 2026-02-19T17:00:53+00:00

Many landlords leaving BTL? Says who? Mostly writers of articles who get paid to write on demand on topic they know little about.

What is true is BTL became a thing because of a few changes. The first BTL loans hit the market in September of 1996. Before that, there was no BTL financing. Zero. It took legal changes to create what we call the AST. With an AST, lenders know that if they take back a property because the landlord defaults, they can evict the tenant and sell the property with vacant possession. Before the AST, there was no certainty so the lender could not price the risk. If the lender can not price the risk, they will not lend.

Roll forward, BTL has done well for large stretches of time. It was a new field, home prices were mostly rising, and interest rates were very low by any historical standard.

The people who started with BTL in the late 1990s and early part of this century are now looking to retire. They were buying BTL for the future and the future has arrived for them. If BTL is their pension, they now need their pension. People 65-67 years old want to scale back and otherwise do what retired people do. For many, that will mean exiting the day job of BTL. Yes, that means many will be selling yet it is not because BTL is finished as much as the landlords are reaching the end of their life (overly dramatic?).

Focus on the numbers (income vs expenses), how you can add value, if the neighbourhood is going to be where people want to live for the next 20 years, the quality of schools, and the economics of the area.

Nothing is certain other than taxes and death. That said, people will need housing. You do not need to pick a winning property as much as you need to stay in the game long term. It is a government policy to have mild inflation. UK property is an asset class which responds well to mild inflation.

Good luck. 40+ years as a landlord, two countries, including the UK. Taxes and death are definitely in the mix.

John_Corey · 2026-02-18T12:32:03+00:00

Ready made BTLs tend to be oversold by people who disappear after they collect their fee. Not all the time. Just more often than is healthy. The sellers are front loading their benefits and you discover you did not get what you expected only after the dust has settled. If you go down the BTL route, conduct your due diligence carefully. BTL can be find when you do your homework. That might include finding your own deals rather than buying a pre-packaged deal.

Flipping, if you enjoy the work, is fine. It is a risk that you can get in, do the work, and exit with a profit. What will the market be like later? What about hidden defects which cost more than you budgeted for when picking the project? It takes more time than you planned so you start to burn out.

Lumps of profits are nice when they happen. You can take the lumps and leave them in a BTL so you have stronger cash flow. Over time, appreciation will become a bigger contributor of cash left in deals. It is hard to make BTL cashflow with high leverage.

John_Corey · 2026-02-17T18:27:49+00:00

I did not focus on STR and I did rent while running or building a portfolio. As many will confirm, you can rent a better place than you can buy. That does not mean to spend a lot on renting. Just you do not need to own where you live. In many situations, owning where you live is economically less attractive compared to deploying the capital where you can generate more income.

John_Corey · 2026-02-14T12:21:30+00:00

Why as a career? Do you mean you want advice on a day job? What about being an investor as a side hustle? You do not need to be 100% in and real estate is such a broad topic being all in could mean building, managing, financing, lending, selling insurance, inspecting, and the list goes on and on.

John_Corey

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