Rent to Retirement ?

Question

So has anyone out there gone the route of Rent to Retirement? What are you thoughts??

Walter Bowser · Answer

Make sure they have a strong property management partnership in place in whichever market you invest in. A bad manager can quickly turn a promising investment into a headache.

Pro-formas look great on paper, but if the property isn’t managed well—poor tenant screening, long vacancies, maintenance issues, or hidden fees—those projected returns can disappear fast.

Kasi V. · Answer

Investors Beware: My Costly Experience with Rent to Retire (RTR)

I strongly advise against blindly trusting the data provided by turn-key investment providers, including Rent to Retire (RTR).

I invested in a property in Texas City, TX through RTR, and it has been a financial disaster. Their projected numbers were wildly inaccurate, particularly regarding property taxes. RTR estimated taxes at $6,400, but the actual tax bill came in at $14,300—a staggering 2.23x higher! How can a supposedly professional company with an experienced team make such a massive miscalculation?

This unexpected expense turned what was promised as a cash-positive investment into a cash-negative one—the first in my investing career.

To make matters worse, I lost $21,000 due to the property managers recommended by RTR. While RTR compensated me $10,000, the remaining loss is still significant.

Bottom line: RTR’s data is unreliable. If you're considering investing with them, verify every number line by line to avoid costly surprises.

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

@James Wise

Hey guys I have some experience in the space having started funding turn key in Detroit in 2002.

I also was on a CA. Senate sub committee in 85 studying antiquated subdivisioins that were platted in the 20s through the 60s and Cape Coral or Lehigh acres where the poster child for these the summit was actually there in Ft. Meyers so we went their for a week meeting with local planners etc  driving through the 200k lots of record in lehigh etc etc.

So I say all that to give some color on this.. first in the turn key space or should i say turn key brokerage regardless of how you do it  IE like RTR or Like Jim who has his own show. These are rental houses and NO one is 100% perfect with rentals houses I dont care who you buy them from who your tenants are or who your PM is.. Its the nature of the industry full stop.

Every TK broker from RTR to Norada to Hartman to Maverick to Real WEalth etc etc has had poor experiences with providers and PM companies.. And actually Kathy at RW is very forth coming when she runs into a dud..

There is no question in Lehigh and Cape Coral there was an over exuberance in that market big time.. Anytime you have literally 100k lots of record that can be built on and price points so low your going to get a run on the market which if there is a coordinated sales effort it can outstrip the ability to execute.. And espeically with scattered lots logistics is tough.

We all have short memories lots in that part of SWF have been a yo yo in values for decades when the market is hot they go up when it cools they drop to 5 to 20k per lot.  08 09 saw builders in those market go poof.. builders from SE flooded there built a ton of inventory and could not sell it in the GFC I was buying brand new houses at foreclosure in 09 for 30 to 50k each. I was in contract to buy 100 houses from one builder who was selling for 250k in 06 my contract price 125k each.. thankfully I did not close as within 12 months these were trading as I said in the 50 to 60k range.. Of course no one TODAY knows this.. they just look at 30 to 40k lots 250 to 400k houses and dont really compute the staggering amount of lots available or history of the market going back decades.. Its a boom bust cycle there at least from my personal experience.  So we are in the down cycle. AS there was just too much speculation going on.

Zach and I are colleagues we currently do not have any business together but he will call me and I call him to discuss things related to RE.. I know him to be extremely concerned about his clients and proactive as much if not more than anyone I have ever dealt with since 2002 in the turnkey brokerage space.. Its up to investors to choose wisely all a Broker can do is bring opportunities.. but you cant blame the messenger if your tenant skips on rent or breaks things :)

Drew Sygit · Answer

@Jay Hinrichs appreciate you sharing what you know about RTR.

Like I said earlier, always got a good vibe from Zach:)

Drew Sygit · Answer

@John Paul Palace their bggest challenge is finding competent PMCs to recommend to their clients.

That's what most of the negative feedback here on BP is about them - which is UNFAIR as they're selling a rental property, NOT PMC services.

Recommend you do your own due diligence on PMCs before just going with their recommendation.

Eric James · Answer

I wouldn't pay attention to anyone's "projected numbers". I'm impressed they actually compensated you $10k for the property manager.

Drew Sygit · Answer

@Adam Bartomeo that sucks!

I've always gotten the "feeling" that they are trying to do the right thing.

1 or 2 clients having an issue with a builder is understandable. 15 is at best, professional negligence. At worst, an accessory to theft.

James Wise · Answer

They've been advertising their new construction inventory on my Investment Properties For Sale Show since Q4 2024. Having worked with 1,000's of investors to Broker the properties I sell in my local market, and having worked with dozens of Property Managers, Turnkey Providers, Agents, Property Management Software Companies, Lenders, Inspectors and various other investment real estate vendors to market their products and services on my show, the one thing that stood out to be was the CEO Zach's obsession with the biz.

In real estate we've get a lot turnover, a lot of flameout. For example, the turnover rate on Realtors is like 88% a year or something like that. So basically, if you talk to 10 Realtors this year, 9 of them won't be Realtors next year. At one point my Brokerage employed over 70 Agents and trust me, those stats track.

So when a company starts advertising on my show, or an Agent starts working at my Brokerage I can usually if they'll make it long term or if they'll flame out. Zach's in it for the long term. If I email him at 10pm on a Sunday about something, he's answering it back at 10:05pm. I'll see him posting comments on BP at other odd hours of the night or on weekends as well.

Now I'm not saying that to say that their customers should expect to be able to talk to a representative at their company on odd hours or anything. I don't know if they do that, I would assume they do not, but I am not privvy to that type of info. Not my point tho, I say that to say when you've got a CEO like that who's dialed in about what's being said about his company, or what's being promoted about his company that means he's locked in 24/7. That level of being locked in like that, that's been the number 1 indicator I have seen working with all the people I previously mentioned of who is gonna make it, and who's gonna flame out. If you get in with a locked in company that's in it for the long haul, your success and being taken care of are gonna be pretty high.

Rent to Retirement ?

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