All Forum Posts by: Gregory Schwartz

@Kristin Vegas for me this is a red flag. Their software should easily be able to provide invoices. If they can do something as simple as this what else are they cutting corners on?

As long as there is real estate, there will be scammers. You'd think with all the information out there that it would be harder to pull the wool over people's eyes. But I guess not. Glad to see some justice.

The next round of scams will be people raising money for new deals but then using those new funds to bail out previous deals—be it flippers who can't sell or apartment investors facing refinance rates and decompressing CAP rates.

Most overlooked stat when doing market research is volatility in home appreciation. 

I use Fred Economic Data's home price index. Then I edit the graph for % change from a year ago. Put 2-3 markets overlayed over each other and you can easily see which market is going to be a rollercoaster ride.

Make sure the decor and color selection are great! And don't skimp on pictures. I have had room-to-go furniture in 3 of my Airbnb for the last year. No issues. 

How big is the project? Getting a pro account at HD or Lowes might be a solution. 

As far as hiring the other trades, this can be difficult from a distance, who is helping locally? Much easier if your local contact has worked with these companies before.  

@Jake Carlile love this. House hacking is so powerful!! But you know we want pictures. Show me some before and after action 

From my observations of successful investors (those with 100+ units and 20+ years in the game), there seem to be two camps: those who are pro-partnership and those who avoid them. The ones who are extremely selective—sticking to just one or two partners over decades—tend to have a more stable trajectory. Meanwhile, the more partnership-heavy investors often experience setbacks but use the leverage of partnerships to rebound.

To me, partnerships increase both risk and reward. As someone who wants to avoid starting over, I’m extremely cautious about who I partner with. In my seven years of investing, I’ve only partnered with my wife and my father and have no plans to change that any time soon. 

And remember that the guy who partners like crazy might say he owns 100 doors but in reality, his partners own 95 and he owns 5. 

Hope this helps you decide. 

Screening is a pass or fail for us. The minimum requirements must be met or exceeded or we will not rent to the applicant. This keeps it fair. So if you have a policy that says you wont rent to applicants with prior evictions then you hold to that. 

We have allowed tenants to resolve past due debts or provide letters from previous apartment complexes confirming that damages or unpaid rent were not their responsibility. However, in this situation, it appears to be a pattern rather than a one-time issue.

I would not base the income potential for a MTR on a rule of thumb. I have 7 MTR and my income is 1.7x my long-term rates ($1200 vs $2000), but that is very specific to my properties, my location, my business model, etc. 

My recommendation is for your first MTR to get something that would be a decent LTR, this way you have a fallback strategy. Get in a good location and take the leap. The first one is the hardest but once you have a proof of concept you are off to the races :)