Yanko

Building, buying, fixing and figuring things out.

[Yanko @YankoBuilds]

“What would you do after you sell?”

That question can tell you more than “How much do you want?”

Sometimes the owner hasn’t figured out where to move their stuff. Until that’s solved, agreeing on a price won’t get you very far.

[Yanko @YankoBuilds]

@ChrisRamsey60 Big difference money wise. Considering time and energy involved, what is really the difference controlling 8M or 80M of real estate?

[Yanko @YankoBuilds]

Great take on business partnerships. Anybody want to share their experience in business and in real estate?

[StripMallGuy @realEstateTrent]

Real talk about taking on a business partner:

Business partners can be great.

They can take you to heights that would've been impossible on your own.

But most of the time, the opposite happens, and things often end in disaster.

Gotta be honest with yourself about why you're taking on a partner, and what you're giving up.

Making money in the business world is really hard.

Your overhead's going to be big, you may have investors, and if you're lucky enough to pay lots in taxes, well you're paying lots in taxes.

Giving somebody half of what's left over, forever, better make a whole lot of sense.

Even if you have the best relationship in the world, life circumstances always change.

One of you may suddenly get divorced, or run into personal financial issues that require a career change.

You may wake up at 40, wanting more autonomy than you did at 30.

And, most common: Cracks start to form when one person feels like they're doing more than the other, adding more value for the same % ownership.

"I brought in that client that is now half our business"

"She's working 20 hours a week the last few months"

"I brought in our last 10 investors"

Thoughts like this will inevitably come up for most.

In the real estate world, I cannot tell you how often great deals come about because of partnership disputes.

Good people who once worked great together falling victim to life circumstances changing as the years go on.

Because of the huge added risk of taking on a lifelong business partner, it is best to ask yourself some hard questions.

Why am I taking on this partner or co-founder?

Much of the time, the answer is simply fear of going at it alone.

If that's the case, the cost's far too steep.

You're paying too much to avoid the discomfort of taking the risk alone.

Partner or not, growing a business comes with lots of discomfort/pain anyway.

"Loneliness" is not a valid reason to give up half your future earnings.

The right questions to ask yourself:

What are the real reasons for me to take on a partner and add all this risk and uncertainty?

Is there really no way for me to start the business, or grow it, without that partner?

Am I so fearful of going at it alone that I will never get myself off the ground without them?

Can I handle relying on someone, and them relying on me for many years to come?

Can I survive if the partnership breaks one day, and what will that look like?

Co-Founders in the tech world make more sense because of how important it is to have a founder with an engineering background, along with someone who can tell the story/raise money/be the face of the organization, for example.

This is often not the same person.

Besides: The pie is MUCH bigger when you can potentially end up with a billion dollar IPO.

Not the case for almost any other type of business.

So, as you look towards your next business venture, the default should be do go at it alone.

If you absolutely can't, and your honest answer is that a business partner will increase the pie tremendously, and you've gone through all the risks,

Go for it.

But remember, 1 + 1 usually does not equal 3.

Often times, in the end,

1 + 1 = 0

[Yanko @YankoBuilds]

@FlCracker84 Good catch

[Yanko @YankoBuilds]

@heIpfullandlord Made an offer (20% below asking) for a house in 2024 and the refused. Realtor told them the same thing. They sold the property 2 years later for that exact same amount.

[Yanko @YankoBuilds]

I contacted the owner of an industrial property that wasn’t for sale.

His brother called me, immediately suspicious about why I’d contacted him.

Twenty minutes later, we were discussing the property and I will be touring it next week.

[Yanko @YankoBuilds]

I sold a property and financed the buyers myself.
It was a family that had been living in the US for 20 years. They had a couple kids. Father had been working construction for many years with the same company. They lived in the same place for a decade and the property managers thought highly of them as tenants. Their oldest kid, 17, translated the whole deal.
They put 35% down and agreed on 7% interest, payoff in 7 years. There was risk, and that’s what I assessed it at. I checked their work, financial, history, living situation, and spoke with the landlords.
Math and deal were great.
The bonus was they had a chance to be homeowners and took pride in that. I’d drive by to see how it looked, and they made improvements to the property.
Paying it off next year.

[Jeremy @jeremyct]

We’re thinking about selling our house.

But instead of making the buyer get a mortgage, we might finance the purchase ourselves at 6.25%.

The buyer gets a chance at a lower rate.

We get monthly payments and interest instead of having all that money sitting in a bank account.

And the house itself serves as collateral if they stop paying.

Obviously, there are risks and legal details to work through.

But it got me thinking…

Why does everyone assume the bank has to be the middleman when the seller and buyer could potentially make a deal themselves?

[Yanko @YankoBuilds]

In 2009–2010, I worked in sales for a friend’s small custom ironwork company in Orlando, mostly serving residential custom homes.

Those were tough years for construction.
Builders were becoming landscapers just to survive. Subcontractors were going out of business left and right. Projects were scarce, and competition was hungry.

I spent my days driving all over Orlando, looking for active construction sites, meeting builders, walking into offices, making calls, and following up.
Every job had to be earned.

Fast-forward to 2026.

If you were starting a small subcontracting business today (say, roofing or painting) with no established customer base, how would you find consistent work?

Would you still knock on doors and build relationships the old-fashioned way? Or has the game fundamentally changed?

I’m curious what works today.

[Yanko @YankoBuilds]

It was a family that has been living the US for 20 years. Had a couple kids. Father working in construction for many years with the same company. They lived in the same place for a decade and the property managers highly thought of them as tenant. Their oldest kid (17) translated the whole deal.
They put 35% downpayment and agreed on 7% interest, payoff in 7 years. It is a risk and that’s what i assessed it at the time.
Math and deal is great, but the bonus was that they had an opportunity be a homeowner and took pride in that. I would drive by to see how it looks on the outside and they made improvements to the property.

[Yanko @YankoBuilds]

@SMB_Attorney Powerful speech. Working with my kids has given me an opportunity to be close and watch them grow in so many ways. It is challenging sometimes, but its all worth it.

[Yanko @YankoBuilds]

@unusual_whales Thats because everybody is paying cash in America

[Yanko @YankoBuilds]

What do you think the domino effect of this will be?

[Watcher.Guru @WatcherGuru]

JUST IN: 🇸🇦 World's largest oil company Saudi Aramco says global oil reserves are running dangerously low and restoring supplies could take two years.

[Yanko @YankoBuilds]

@NoRiskNoParty Friends don’t take advantage of their friends.

[Yanko @YankoBuilds]

As long as you’re on this side of the ground, you can still do something about it.
Being healthy and able to take care of yourself at this stage is real wealth. It spills into every other part of your life.

I had a friend who drank, smoked and lived pretty unhealthy. I asked him once why he didn’t take better care of himself. He said, “Today might be your last day anyway.”

He ended up dying young in a car accident.
I still think about that sometimes.

[Yanko @YankoBuilds]

He was a successful businessman and became commissioner to “make a change” and “fix” these kind of issues. People backed him up and he served 2 terms.
One other example is when they were building a toll road and he opposed it. The County agreed to build it, and have a toll until the project is paid off.
20 years later, they keep adding new toll booths and increase the the fees.

[Yanko @YankoBuilds]

A while ago at my retail store, I caught a guy on camera using his phone to take videos under young girls’ skirts.

By the time I found out, he had already left.

But watching the footage, I had a feeling he’d be back. He looked way too comfortable doing it.

I called the police and showed them the video. They told me there wasn’t much they could do because the girls weren’t there to press charges.

I asked them to at least run his license plate. If this guy was a known predator, I wanted to know.

They took the information, videos, left, and I never heard anything back.

So I printed his picture, gave it to my staff, and told them to call me immediately if he ever came back.

Predictably, he did.

My staff called me.

What would you have done after getting that call?

[Yanko @YankoBuilds]

@samuel_leeds B. Will throw 10k offer on A also though.