All Forum Posts by: Scott Trench

I will take some flak for this, but I feel that house-hackers should self-manage. Some folks will say "just tell them that you work for or are related to the owner" or play some other game to hide the truth. 

But, the reality of business, and life, is that you will have to face hard conversations and unpleasant situations head-on, if you want to be successful. 

Swinging your own hammer, doing your own plumbing, making your own mistakes, screening your own tenants, and otherwise doing it yourself is part of the advantage of a house-hacker. You learn those lessons in a "training wheels" environment, where you can (usually) self-correct any mistakes, and learn how to deal with things. You get to know the property, and the type of tenant it attracts. 10 years down the road, you know when a property manager, contractor or tenant is BS'ing you, or when you have legitimate problem and are being asked to pay up for a major repair fairly. 

This is a huge advantage, and it greatly simplifies, and empowers the situation for you to own it, and lead. My tenants knew I was the owner, and manager, the whole time, in all my properties. I tried to deal with them fairly, and never had a major issue (until I got lazy and undisciplined after I moved out). 

A couple of observations/notes in response to your questions:

1) At what point did you consider yourself "full-time"? 

This will likely never happen. The goal for me, and for most, is not to worry about my properties full-time. The goal is for the properties to be stable, boring, cash flowing and wealth generating machines that are occupied and well-maintained and do not require a material percentage of my attention, similar to my stock portfolio. This output is achieved with: Capital, Systems, and my Property Manager. I think about my properties once a month on a good month (at my scheduled checkin with my property manager, usually lasting no more than 30 minutes), and more frequently if there is some problem that the property manager brings to my attention that month. I spend further time on months where I am acquiring or selling a property.

I could potentially do nothing, except for that ~30 minute check in with my portfolio for a month, but I would hardly call that a "full-time" effort.

2) Did you ease into it gradually or make a clean break? Ten years at least of self education, steady accumulation, and increasing the gap between income and expenses in my life and portfolio to get to this point. I don't see why the snowball won't continue to roll for another 30 years unless I do something dumb.

3) My day to day and week to week: Ask me again in a few months!

One more thing - there's this vague notion that people go "full-time" into rental real estate investing. Please, DO NOT QUIT YOUR JOB prior to attempting to buy rentals! Your job/small business produces income, which you will need to borrow against if you want to buy rentals. If you quit before buying property, you will find yourself in a really tough situation.

@Ale Ayestarán already starting off with the best vote to post ratio in BP history. 

Quote from @Luisa Morejon:

I bought an investment  home in Goose Creek, SC in April 2024. After analyzing all the numbers it looked like I would make about $400 in cash flow every month which I did till April 2025. My home was re-evaluated by Berkeley County and it went from an assessed value of $13,600 to $226,600.00 in 1 year!. My taxes went from $900/year to $3495.00. My new mortgage payment went up $300. Leaving me with only $100 cash flow and that’s without accounting for Cap-Ex, Vacancies, and Repairs. I am lost for words and don’t know what I should do now. I can’t increase the rent because the tenant just signed a year lease starting July 1st. I guess my only option is to sell the house next April. I keep hearing that an investment property should be held for 5 years in order to recoup your initial investment. Is this still true? How do I calculate if I would be at a loss if I sell early? Is there a calculator I can use run numbers?  Thank you in advance

I think the first step is to stare down reality on this deal. You didn't run the numbers properly when you bought the place. Run them now. 

I've gifted you a free month of BiggerPockets Pro. This will allow you to use our rental property calculator. Analyze this deal using that tool as if you were buying it fresh to understand the reality of what you bought. This time, assume at least 5-10% each for Vacancy, CapEx, and Maintenance. I also encourage you to assume a property management expense.

And, do a second analysis, this time estimating it's current value (if you don't have a good pulse on it's current value, contact a local agent, tell them you are considering selling, and ask them what they think it will sell for - you can find an agent to do this by clicking "Agents" at the top of your screen). 

The decision that makes you the most money might be the one that causes a large loss - just less of a large loss than holding onto the property for another year or two.

Welcome, Ale! We are here for you as you get up to speed and meet more of the great people here on BiggerPockets! 

Quote from @James Wise:

Quote from @Scott Trench:

Hi Friends,

After a decade leading this incredible organization, I’ve made the both tough and exciting decision to step down as CEO, and to focus full-time on BiggerPockets Money and the broader work of personal finance in pursuit of early retirement. 

My announcement comes after a decade of being a part of this incredible organization, and over 7 and a half years leading it. My last day as CEO will be just over 11 years after my first forum post (before I started working here), where I was first welcomed with open arms into this community, and by some of the folks still contributing to these forums now.

I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the countless individuals who have poured their hearts into making BiggerPockets the transformative force it is today.

In particular, from this community, I want to thank @Jay Hinrichs, @Nathan Gesner, @James Wise, @Joe Villanueva, and @Russell Brazil for the the truly incredible amount of value they’ve added to these forums, changing countless lives. This group alone has posted nearly 100,000 combined times!

Also, I’d like to shout out @Joshua Dorkin, @Brandon Turner, @David Greene, @Dave Meyer, @J Scott, @Brian Burke, @Jon Holdman, @Darren Sager, @Natalie Kolodij, @Bruce Woodruff, @JD Martin, @Dawn Brenengen@Dawn Brenengen@Dmitriy Fomichenko@Dmitriy Fomichenko@Dmitriy Fomichenko
Each of you have brought value to countless people via the hundreds of thousands of individual posts made by just this group of tagged contributors + the content in other forms that reached tens or hundreds of millions. And many of you have done it with spunk, style, and a fiercely protective stance in terms of what we believe is the “right” way to invest in real estate and the right values for this community. 

One of you even managed to post tens of thousands of times, adding the most value of anyone in this community ever, without ever using spellcheck!

I’m proud of this platform and community. We set out with an audacious goal: to help, at least in some small way, to create 1 million millionaires through real estate, financial education, and community. I am extremely proud to share that, by our estimation, we have achieved and far surpassed this $1 trillion objective.

Among the 3.15 million members who have cumulatively joined BiggerPockets, our survey data indicates that 29% (913K) have reached millionaire status. Add in any reasonable approximation for the millionaires (~29%) who listen to BiggerPockets Money (5M unique listeners) and we are well past that goal, not including listeners to our other podcasts, YouTube viewers, book readers, guests (not logged into BiggerPockets.com accounts, etc.) These numbers are not just statistics—they represent lives changed, dreams realized, and legacies built. Let's be a small part of the journey for another 10 million in the years to come.

Thank you for trusting me to lead this journey. It has been the honor of my career.

And, again, I won’t be going far. I look forward to continuing to work with many of you, and be alongside you on your commutes, in the gym, or wherever you listen to or watch podcasts, as I transition to focusing full-time on BiggerPockets Money and the pursuit of early retirement beyond real estate investing.

With heartfelt gratitude,

Scott Trench

Real Estate Investor

PS: Tomorrow we will announce our awesome incoming CEO on the BP Money Podcast!

 Well hot damn, this was unexpected.

You still gonna be on the forums?

 Honestly, I'll probably do more forums and social stuff - the CEO gig takes a lot out of a guy. I was posting here before I ever worked here, so I suppose that's what I'll do now..

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

Scott Honored to be mentioned.. And Lori and I wish you all the best on your next venture

for the life of me I could nont figure out who you might have been talking about with the spell check comment :)

See you in Vegas !!!  And again Congrats on a job well done and bringing BP to the next level.

@Brian Burke   I tagged Brian as it looked like your tag might not have worked. :)

On brand reply.

Hi Friends,

After a decade leading this incredible organization, I’ve made the both tough and exciting decision to step down as CEO, and to focus full-time on BiggerPockets Money and the broader work of personal finance in pursuit of early retirement. 

My announcement comes after a decade of being a part of this incredible organization, and over 7 and a half years leading it. My last day as CEO will be just over 11 years after my first forum post (before I started working here), where I was first welcomed with open arms into this community, and by some of the folks still contributing to these forums now.

I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the countless individuals who have poured their hearts into making BiggerPockets the transformative force it is today.

In particular, from this community, I want to thank @Jay Hinrichs, @Nathan Gesner, @James Wise, @Joe Villanueva, and @Russell Brazil for the the truly incredible amount of value they’ve added to these forums, changing countless lives. This group alone has posted nearly 100,000 combined times!

Also, I’d like to shout out @Joshua Dorkin, @Brandon Turner, @David Greene, @Dave Meyer, @J Scott, @Brian Burke, @Jon Holdman, @Darren Sager, @Natalie Kolodij, @Bruce Woodruff, @JD Martin, @Dawn Brenengen@Dawn Brenengen@Dmitriy Fomichenko@Dmitriy Fomichenko@Dmitriy Fomichenko
Each of you have brought value to countless people via the hundreds of thousands of individual posts made by just this group of tagged contributors + the content in other forms that reached tens or hundreds of millions. And many of you have done it with spunk, style, and a fiercely protective stance in terms of what we believe is the “right” way to invest in real estate and the right values for this community. 

One of you even managed to post tens of thousands of times, adding the most value of anyone in this community ever, without ever using spellcheck!

I’m proud of this platform and community. We set out with an audacious goal: to help, at least in some small way, to create 1 million millionaires through real estate, financial education, and community. I am extremely proud to share that, by our estimation, we have achieved and far surpassed this $1 trillion objective.

Among the 3.15 million members who have cumulatively joined BiggerPockets, our survey data indicates that 29% (913K) have reached millionaire status. Add in any reasonable approximation for the millionaires (~29%) who listen to BiggerPockets Money (5M unique listeners) and we are well past that goal, not including listeners to our other podcasts, YouTube viewers, book readers, guests (not logged into BiggerPockets.com accounts, etc.) These numbers are not just statistics—they represent lives changed, dreams realized, and legacies built. Let's be a small part of the journey for another 10 million in the years to come.

Thank you for trusting me to lead this journey. It has been the honor of my career.

And, again, I won’t be going far. I look forward to continuing to work with many of you, and be alongside you on your commutes, in the gym, or wherever you listen to or watch podcasts, as I transition to focusing full-time on BiggerPockets Money and the pursuit of early retirement beyond real estate investing.

With heartfelt gratitude,

Scott Trench

Real Estate Investor

PS: Tomorrow we will announce our awesome incoming CEO on the BP Money Podcast!

Hi Team - I am aware of these posts. I am flagging our new Head of Growth, who will be joinign the discussion. 

I have not reviewed the original discussion, and do not have all the context, so I am not making any calls on the situation here. I'd like to lock the thread, until we have had a chance to discuss, as this is now politically charged, getting heated, and starting to escalate. 

Happy Monday.

We are clearly moving away from debate of policy and its impact on real estate to personal attacks. 

This discussion about tariffs and broader policy impact on investment returns is important, but if the behavior of attacking one another does not cease, instantly, I will ban the next attack post, or posters, and lock the discussion.

Please, take the political attacks to a competitor.