All Forum Posts by: Michael Calvey

Hey Jeff

By line of credit, I assume you are meaning a HELOC aka a home equity line of credit? 

I would recommend one of our partners with BiggerPockets, Figure, as they are the #1 non-bank HELOC lender. Easy application that is all done online and you get approved in as little as 5 days which is helpful if you an urgent need for the funds or a deal that you want to jump on.

Caught the latest BiggerPockets Money Show episode, "The Tax-Free Retirement Strategy 95% of Americans Don’t Know About" with John Bowens from Equity Trust. He breaks down using Self-Directed IRAs (SDIRAs) to invest in real estate—like rentals or flips—and keep the profits tax-free. The idea is you roll over your boring 401(k) into an SDIRA and start building wealth without the tax hit. 

I’m digging the concept, but I want the real-world scoop from you all. Who’s pulled this off? What deals did you fund—single-family, multi, something else? How’d the numbers stack up after fees and custodian costs? John makes it sound seamless, but I’d love to hear your wins (or war stories). If you haven’t listened yet, the episode’s worth a spin—drops some solid nuggets.

What’s your take—game-changer or just another tool in the kit?

@Michael Martin I'd recommend our official SDIRA partner, Equity Trust. We also have two of their courses available for free if you want to learn more about self directed iras on your own.  

@Reilly BrownI was going to ask the same question that Mason asked. 

I would suggest using the Build Your Team Section to find an investor friendly real estate agent in any city that you are looking.

 Interesting. Thanks for letting me know that. I am going to look into why that occurred and follow up privately. 

The best person to ask about that and have a conversation is the CEO of Rent to Retirement @Zach Lemaster, I'll send him a note and have him reach out to you. 

Airbnb just dropped their Q4 numbers, and something caught my eye that hosts need to pay attention to: while they're raking in $2.5B in revenue (up 12%), they're dumping massive resources into platform "improvements" - 535 of them to be exact.

As someone who follows the hosting space closely, here's what's interesting: they're clearly betting big on AI and tech upgrades, but what does this mean for hosts' bottom lines? Are these changes going to help you get more bookings, or are they just making the platform more complex?

Veteran hosts - have you noticed any impact from these updates on your booking rates or revenue? And for those thinking about jumping into hosting in 2025, with Airbnb's stock jumping 14% pre-market, is this the signal you've been waiting for, or does all this platform tinkering make you nervous?

The growth numbers are impressive, but I'm more interested in hearing from the people actually powering this platform. How are these changes playing out in your day-to-day hosting operations? 🏠

P.S. If you want more insights in the STR Market make sure to get our newsletter to stay up to date: https://www.biggerpockets.com/podcasts/short-term-rental

 Ah. I see. So if I have never played video games before, but I purchase the newest Xbox, and love it.

I am not allowed to tell my friends and or talk about my experience because I am new to the video game world. 

@Rafael Cohen Are you a BP Pro Member? 

If you are....then you are going to love hearing this. As a Pro Member you have free access to RentRedi as a property management software, which gives you the ability to screen your tenants. Like all tenant screening tools or services, it gives us all the standard stuff like full credit reports, criminal background checks, eviction history. 

We all know that is there is nothing worse than not feeling confident about handing over the keys to your property. 

If you haven't activate your Pro Perk, just log in with your BP Account. Activate RentRedi 

If you are not a Pro Member, I've got you covered. Send me a message and I'll set you up with a discount to give us a try. 

A feature that our Pro Members love is the fact that they can manage of all their rental properties for free using RentRedi. RentRedi is great because they provide our members with 1 to 1 support and onboarding to help get started. A lot of BP Pro Members are landlords so they need a software to manage those properties, so the RentRedi Perk saves members around $360 in software costs. 

If you want to activate it, you can simply log in with your BP Account - Activate RentRedi Perk