We bought it with a HELOC on my mom's primary residence for the first $40k, then hired a contractor for demolition and major renovations, did cosmetics ourselves and used more heloc money totaling $60,000. 1 year later we listed it on VRBO and AIRBNB and refinanced the $100000 into a fixed rate mortgage.

The PM collects the rents, pays the majority of the bills, and gives the owner what is left over.

The city is growing and the macroeconomics is great - lots of job growth and population growth and major tech companies moving out here and developing like Intel, Google, Amazon, Meta, etc.

I've done a local major renovation.

., as a licensed real estate agent who focuses predominantly on rent-by-the-room acquisition, the majority of my clients finance their deals either conventional, DSCR, or cash.

Major red flag for me that they won't give you one.

For small projects and so for the vast majority of sophisticated investors, the DLT is years away.

If it's in a major city with public transit you can limit the number of rooms that include parking.

We learned that some properties simply require strong market insights and timing rather than major renovations to achieve a solid profit.

The open houses I attended for flips recently - their  costs were around $300,000 for a major renovation  in 2024.