All Forum Posts by: Brandon Schlichter

Overall the 'joy' of owning real estate/rentals hasn't worn off yet. 

Started in 2013 buying two rentals that year, then in 2014 I ended up with around ten, in 2015 I hit 20, 2016 I hit 40. 

Now, between January 2017 and today, I've added approximately 36 more units with another 12 in contract putting me to a total of 86 units.

I started out mostly buying houses and duplexes, and in the past two years added several quadplexes to get my numbers up. I also went with many lower-end properties which are now seeing very decent appreciation and the cash flow I had been aiming for the whole time.

I also opted for self-managing everything (But not doing maintenance myself). Between now and my 2018 goal of 125 rentals, I'll add a part-time secretary to help with the paperwork requirements and whatnot. Her pay will only take a few apartments to afford her.

The opportunities overall seem to be snowballing. Starting out it was my biggest fear that the market would contract price-wise and price investors out of the market. So since starting I've bought every single property I could cashflow and somehow get money for (begging, borrowing, eating ramen for, etc.) While my quality-of-life is less than many people I know, think it should be, but it indeed is quite rewarding to see a point in the future where I can walk away, stop re-investment and still make more than anyone else my age that I know. 

Prices range from $50-$5000 depending on who you talk to, and that's pretty much just it.

The state of Ohio lets landlords treat a house themselves as long as they don't charge for it. There are lots of non-commercial options that someone can use in order to treat them at an affordable price. The big thing is to realize there's a lot of scams, and a clean house will help prevent the problems from escalating.

Did you buy the property?

I still see 'deals' on the MLS & Zillow in my getting-hotter-every-day market. Those properties do show up for a few days, get 10-20 offers and fall off pretty quick. That isn't to say there are no deals, but the sales prices many times end up being less than stellar, or at least how they're presented on the MLS/Zillow/Trulia.

I think luck has little to do with it for those of us that have a bunch of low end properties (I'm around 50).

As time goes on , every time I make a wide-spread change in company policies that deal with my low end rentals, I see the benefits or problems pop up pretty quickly. YMMV but....

If banks take your bitcoin as collateral, then what's the purpose of this post? In your original one you've asked " Are there any institutions that will accept bitcoin as downpayment for a loan?"

Then above you say  "See post above, they already do accept my bitcoin as collateral. Hasn't been an issue for any property I've purchased."

So I'm very confused asking if there are any institutions that will take bitcoin as down payment (Which seems extravagantly easy because a bank or lender  could/would simply convert to USD) vs you stating that they take them as collateral, which seems like the more difficult task.

I'm curious what lender would take something that can have swings of 50% on a weekly rate as collateral? I understand annuities, bonds, bank accounts but bitcoin?

Just deal with it - Either sell the bitcoin for USD, or keep it in hope that it goes up. 

At one time I had over 2000btc, sold a great deal when while was under $100/btc to start my rental business. Now i'm planning on being around 85 units end-of-year. I don't regret selling the Bitcoin one bit. I got my first BTC back when you could go on one of the many faucets and collect 0.5btc/1btc a day. I lost it a year later after a Javascript injection looted something like a quarter of all bitcoin wallets. I've seen the price from 10c to now nearing $20k. 

So, don't be shocked when 99%+ of banks won't take it as collateral. If you ABSOLUTELY want to do it, just spend a few satoshis and find the contacts for a private lender that will do the deal. There's ALWAYS options out there but you're going to have to go around and do most of the work yourself.

 I typically have a deposit schedule - First week 100% of rent, second week 90% of rent, third week and so on down to *about* 70% of rent, then I stop and won't do any different.


I've had one tenant in 4 years catch up on deposits. Almost in every case they never pay it if you offer to split deposit or whatnot (That seems to be a top request).

Beyond that i've never had one go for very long, if so then there's something wrong with my advertising and whatnot. I realize that most C&D tenants don't have tons of money, but still deposits are important. I've been toying around with the idea of taking maybe 50% deposits, but it would require some serious mitigating factors otherwise.

Low income/low end accounts for maybe 60% of what I have. Turnover is higher, repairs are higher, but I also find tons of deals on properties because most people can't seem to handle them.

By going into it with the expectation of higher turnover, repairs and what not I feel like I've been able to formulate a workable strategy on the properties to continue to be profitable.

Sell them on coin base, then just use that money to put down. Banks really don't understand crypto, and the ones that do hate it because it POTENTIALLY puts t hem out of a job. 

Ohio requires a 3 day notice to be posted on the door of the tenant's property.


I always post the notice, take a clear photo of the notice it self, then a photo of the front of the property with hopefully address in clear view.


Once you do this, and the 3 BUSINESS DAYS are up, you can go to the local municipal court and file for eviction. Most of the time it runs $150 or so to file. In the state of Ohio if the property is in an LLC you MUST hire an attorney to represent you.

Once you file the paperwork, the municipal court will schedule a date as well as send out mail, certified mail and typically send a baliff to make contact with the tenant. It can range from 1 to 3 weeks for a court date to be set. Once you go to court you need to provide proof/documentation that they are behind on rent and any other legal documents pertinent to the eviction.


The state then gives the court 10 days to schedule the set-out, unless landlord & tenant agree on a different time frame. Most counties also require a bailiff deposit ($50 where I'm at) in order to pay for an officer to visit the property on day of setout. 

Not a lawyer, done about a dozen evictions in past couple of years.