It took a year of painful lessons (the first of which is that NOBODY will care about your business as much as you do (Evolve), and that - in my case at least- self managing makes more sense -even remotely- than allowing someone else who has different motivations to take the reigns. 

One block may be legal, the next block may not be.

That is the thing that will eventually get you over the hump, not talking to realtors who, for the most part, don't know anything about working with investors and have heard the "once I get this first property, I am going to keep going" dialogue a million times.If you want to market yourself, the best thing to do is to walk a five-block radius that you really want to buy in.

The level of pain you experience evicting someone really depends on the state you live in.

The freeze, which is painful, is necessary for us to build reserves, pull equity, and meet commitments going forward. 2.

Immediately after the weak jobs report, we saw unemployment applications come in way below projections.The economic pain people and businesses are facing in 2024 is real.

The ones I’ve come across are in areas with boarded-up houses throughout the blocks, which I’m not quite ready to invest in as a new investor.

Like almost everything else in life: Short-term pain for long-term gain!

You can only play games for so long.Chances are your next door neighbor is an IRS agent and turns you in when your tenants blocks their drive or some other random event disturbing your IRS neighbor.ADU catches fire and your insurance won't cover you, because it was an illegal and unpermitted structure.The city inspector told the last guy not to build or rent it, and is now pissed and wants to make an example of you and just red tags the whole property and no one can occupy for the next 1-2-3 years while you wait for a hearing.Then when you get the hearing, "staff" recommends you tear the whole structure down, and if you still want an ADU, you can apply for a permit and rebuild it.Your tenant quits paying rent and won't move out and you can't evict them, because there is no valid lease and they're just your "roommate".Probably a dozen other bad things can happen to you when you do stuff like this. 

Neither unit has paid rent and has blocked us from communications.