All Forum Posts by: Ken M.

Made an offer on a condo in LA last month with a 5-day inspection period. After receiving a seller multiple counter offer, I removed the inspection contingency on my second offer. Ended up being outbid by the other buyer. Listing agent feedback was that seller viewed the removal of the inspection contingency as risky for seller which swayed the decision to the other buyer. Confused? Anyone else experience something similar?

Hey everyone! My name is Kim and I'm new to Bigger Pockets. I am a Canadian currently living in Dubai, but will be moving to Nashville TN in July-so would love to connect with others in the area once I'm settled!

I wanted to ask for some advice re. a property purchase I made in 2023. I am an entrepreneur, and began to make some pretty solid money in 2022. I knew I wanted to get into real estate investing, but to be completely honest, I was 25 years old at the time and did NOT do my homework. At the time, I really enjoyed vacationing in Tulum-and the markets were booming there. Property prices in Canada were extremely high-the 2bdrm condo I was renting in Toronto at the time was valued at almost 2M, to give some perspective-so I thought purchasing a small condo in Tulum would be a smarter and safer investment since tourism was booming and the prices were so much more reasonable. I also had enough capital to pay cash for it-and at the time not having a loan seemed ideal, however now I realize the opportunity cost of using all that cash was massive.

Anyways, after visiting a few units, I decided to pull the trigger on a turn-key 1 bedroom condo in La Veleta (Tulum) @ 169000USD which was delivered in Jan/24. It honestly is a lovely little unit, but the area is not as developed as I was expecting it to be by now, and the "boom", to put it bluntly, has faded. There is an overwhelming supply of units, especially studios and 1 bedrooms. Because of the ongoing construction in the area and the lack of paving on the road the condo sits on, it was a very difficult sell on airbnb/guests were not happy with all of the noise and difficult drive in. This sort of forced my hand to focus on long term tenants. I had someone in for about 8 months, but they left early April, and at the same time my property manager told me he was no longer able to work with me, presumably because he's focusing on larger (more profitable) villas.

I did immediately get online and do my best to find new property managers/mgmt companies, but I found that almost everyone who's website/references/resume I was impressed by was not taking on 1 bedroom units. This left me with the mediocre options to choose from, I guess you could say. I really will also mention that its been challenging to find people with no contacts in Tulum. The real estate agent I bought the property through actually stole a deposit of 8000usd from me that I was never able to get back-so at this point with him out of the picture and the previous PM unwilling to help, I felt very stuck.

I did manage to find a PM after a few phone calls, but again, it felt like I was choosing the best of the "left overs". So far, I am not very impressed with her. It has been 2 months now and we have not been able to get someone in the unit. I have constantly been following up with her, seeing if we need to drop prices etc, and she has assured me she's doing everything she can on her end, however I'm blindly trusting her at this point, and I really do think there must be better quality managers out there. 

So, I guess this brings me to where I'm at now-here are a couple thoughts/questions I have that I would love some insight on:

1) do I get out now and just cut the losses on the acquisition costs/taxes/deed creation? I know this TYPICALLY is not suggested, but I'm genuinely worried about the future of tourism in Tulum, and I'm not sure if I can see things getting back to "pandemic boom levels". Now that I am taking the time to property educate myself on everything that is real estate, is losing lets say 30,000usd on the transactions, but getting 140,000usd back in my bank account, worthwhile because of the fact that I can invest this money elsewhere in the US, and utilize loans to make my money go further? I guess this is assuming I can even manage to sell it at its current valuation, which to be honest I'm not sure of.

2) if anyone has any sort of contacts in Tulum for PM or marketing, I would really appreciate an introduction.

3) if anyone has a unit of their own in Tulum, is this normal for it to be sitting empty for 2 months?

I really appreciate any help or advice that can be offered. As I'm sure a lot of you can relate to, this is a difficult world to navigate being young and having no guidance, and in my situation no contacts where my property is. I've definitely learned from my mistakes through this whole process, and I am very eager to make another purchase this or next year, but will definitely be doing it somewhere in Tennessee, and with a lot more knowledge and analysis. 

Hey BP! 

As I am running numbers on properties, is it safe to expect the county to match the appraised value based on the most recent transaction? Say in 2024 the county appraised a property at $530K. It's 2025 and the seller and I agree on a $700K transaction (This is an actual deal I am analyzing now btw). Does that mean that the county will reassess based on that $700k? 

Taxes can feel like they are so unpredictable but I am doing my best to get ballpark what they will be. I know how to pull county tax records and look at the mill rate, but I what I don't know is what the county will appraise a home at. This would really help me out in analyzing deals/running the numbers.

I am in GA if that matters any (Fulton, Dekalb, Cobb, etc).

Hey Y'all!

I’m reaching out for some advice from all the experienced investors out there. This past year, I made the leap from construction management to getting my Real Estate license and joining a brokerage. My goal is to build the capital needed to start investing in Real Estate, and I felt this was the best way to get there.

I spent 6 years as a project superintendent with a commercial builder, followed by 2 years as a construction manager in the track home industry. Over the years, I’ve learned a ton, and now I’m applying that experience to my Real Estate practice. To leverage my background, I joined an investment brokerage that specializes in Fix & Flip and investment properties.

Has anyone else made a similar transition? Any tips, tricks, or advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you all for taking the time to read this and share your thoughts!

Hi everyone.

Hope y'all are having a wonderful day. I'm just getting into real estate and the idea of wholesaling, which I see as a low barrier, cost effective way of getting some deals and learning the ropes of contracts, property analysis, networking, etc.

One question (of many) that I have is how to remain ethical in this business, especially without having much up front capital? The only way I'd be interested in doing any deal is with a high level of transperancy and keeping in mind the best interest of all parties involved. I know that it is unethical - and in my state (Texas), illegal - to get into a contract without proper funds (I am in college with ~$6,000 saved).

I am in no position to buy a house (or so I believe) or act like I am able to buy a house. So, is it possible to ethically and legally enter contracts without much capital? To those who started out without a lot of money, how did y'all handle this?

Thank you for your time and responses. 

Since 2008 3% of mortgages (2.8m out of 80m) have had “permanent” loan modifications? It seems like 1/2 of them, or more would have sold in 17 years. (Last I saw the average was 12 years so almost all of them could have moved out?) so we could be talking about 1.5%? And unless the modifications change you would think anyone with an unchanging “permanent” modification 5-10 years ago would be in better shape now than then? It just bothers me when they build of a fact based on a “weird” starting date. They can’t scare us about all the loan mods done in the last 3-4 years and then state a number from 17 years ago  

All this is said with the admission I have almost zero experience, knowledge, or really even an informed option of what’s really going on. It’s mostly my distrust of mass media combined with a real desire to know the “whole story” from someone like you who seems to knows more about it than I do. I do appreciate you informing us and truth be told. I’d probably have believed it straight away if you had just posted it as your research says…, instead of Redfin says. :-). 
  . 
ps. I just realized it’s much less than 3% because there are CURRENTLY 80m mortgages. Certainly 40-80 million mortgages have been paid off by term or property sale in the last 17 years, maybe more.  so it could be 2.8m out of 120 or 160m mortgages. 

Quote from @Ken M.:

Quote from @Ken M.:

Feb 21 2025

This is just a marker to see if Federal Layoffs actually affect the real estate in the D.C. Area

Redfin lists 1,463 New Listings In D.C. Area Last Week from Manassas Park to Bowie (why those points? Because that's what fits on my screen) ;-) There is no regard to type of listing and new construction is not included

Redfin lists 5,888 Total Listings In D.C. Area Last Week from Manassas Park to Bowie (why those points? Because that's what fits on my screen) ;-) There is no regard to type of listing and new construction is not included

And here is the price distribution

 Well, for June 3 2025 we have

Redfin lists 7,703 Total Listings In D.C. Area Last Week from Manassas Park to Bowie (why those points? Because that's what fits on my screen) ;-) There is no regard to type of listing and new construction is not included

That's a change of 1,815 an uptick of 30%. That may be just spring hopeful listings or it may mean these are people who hadn't intended on selling but are taking the spring opportunity. We'll see.

Gotta keep in mind that the fiscal year ends Sept 30, I believe. So, many people who are going to be gone are likely to hold out for a little while longer.

 Listing are definitely up significantly over the past few months no doubt, I will add two notes, 1. This will probably be lost to time but the dc area housing market has been deteriorating for well over a year at this point & it’s not clear how much government or doge even has to with it, it’s also incredibly scattershot our suburbs have added inventory but things still more or less move, prices maybe off a few percent but nothing really interesting at all, feels very 2019, the city proper which is less than 10% of metro area population the bottom really has fallen completely out, entire neighborhoods 25-30% off thier 2022 peaks, a lot of the inventory your seeing is city proper going through basically a 2008 style collapse that’s been going on for over 3 years, but hasn’t really touched the burbs. 

Hey Everyone,

      Just wanted to jump on here and put a few thoughts into the investa-sphyer lol.

1. There is no better time than now to start your investment portfolio.

2. The market in Orlando is not the general market of the country. No other place has 4 Disney parks, 3 Universal parks and 2 Busch Garden parks (Sea World / Discovery Cove) in one spot.

3. Due to the listed parks above Orlando is one of the few places where the market is not projected to drop, plateau maybe but the short term market is always going to here.

4. If investing in Orlando talk to an agent that understands what you want and who wants to help you make your financial dreams become a reality.

5. Work with someone you can build a relationship with, someone who you can do multiple deals with to build trust and understanding. 

6. Its your portfolio the agent is just there to help you not make decisions for you.

7. Have a plan for your investment how you plan to market, maintain and grow your business, that's what this is..... a business, so treat it like one.

8. This goes with number 5, find a lender who knows the local market and understands what you are trying to accomplish.

9. Lastly, have fun and enjoy

Matt Lamoreaux

eXp Realty

 Yep.  But OP says the wheels are falling off the market.