Scope of work are a hassle to put together but they are essential for real estate investors. That is what my latest article at BiggerPockets delves into; both the upfront estimate side of things and the more detailed scope on the back end.

Regarding the estimate, I highly recommend J. Scott's  The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs.  Regarding the scope, I highly recommend making it itemized down to just about everything (OK, "two outlets covers" can go on one line.) In the article, I explain three reasons why,

1. It’s much easier to spot things that are overpriced. You can also bid things you are on the fence about and see whether the price makes it worth it to do or not.
2. It’s easier to compare one contractor’s bid to another since you know they are bidding the same thing.
3. It reduces miscommunications, and you can make sure the contractor is bidding all of the work you want done.

And I go into a lot more than that on how to create a scope of work. Check it out.

There is a lot (and I mean A LOT) of stuff out there about how to begin in real estate investing. That being said, there isn't much when it comes to scaling a real estate business. In other words, there is a lot on how to get from A to B. But there is very little on how to get from B to C and beyond.

My most recent article at BiggerPockets gives a brief guide to this. Much of it is based on Scaling Up by Verne Harnish which I have synthesized (or at least tried to) with the real estate investment business. Of course, the biggest thing is probably delgation,

As your business grows, you will want to offload the less important tasks or the tasks you aren’t particularly good at to others. But there is such a thing as hiring too soon when you can’t afford it or hiring someone for a position that is too vague or messy to be useful. So I recommend two things to figure out what exactly it is that you should and should not be doing.

1. Keep a running tab of everything you do for a week or two. Break it down by the hour or half hour and keep track of it as you go about your day. Then at the end of the week, look back and evaluate which tasks were essential and needed to be done by you (at least for now) and which can be offloaded.
2. Brainstorm. Make a list of everything you do in your business. Which items are the most important? Which are you good at? What could you offload to a subordinate? What do you need to offload because you’re no good at it? Once you’ve come up with a list, break each thing out into these various categories.

Check it out. 

So the price of Bitcoin just surpassed $3000 the other day for the first time ever. It subsequently dropped, but regardless, that peer-to-peer cyber, cryptocurrency using blockchain nanotechnology or whatever that most people don't actually seem to be able to understand has exploded in price over the last few years.

Indeed, the occasion was a bit somber for me. My colleague for the old site I wrote for penned an article on Bitcoin back on June 17th, 2011 and I remember a lot of people in my libertarian circles talking about it. While I supported the concept (because end the Fed yo!).  I didn't care much. I certainly didn't think of it as an investment. Although the thought of buying some did cross my mind. Back then it was worth about $9.21/per coin. 

Indeed, I went on a short lived tizzy. "Wait a minute, did I actually buy some back then and forget about it?" Yes, I made damn sure to check every email account I have. 

Alas, I did not forget what would have made me more money that most people's lifetimes.

It did happen to someone else though. Back in 2009, a man bought $27 worth of Bitcoin and then, understandably forgot about it. Then in 2013, he remember.

By then, it was worth $886,000!