I also could have sued him for my full commission because I had him sign an exclusive buyers agency agreement prior to the showing, had I wanted to.    

Somewhere in the middle may be an LTR owner who is used to doing the hard work of tenant selection, routine maintenance, and rent collection.If that owner is used to doing all of that work to receive their monthly rent, would it be appealing to enter into a business-to-business lease with an MTR arbitrage operator?

@Fernando CarloIn our experience, the #1 mistake owners make when selecting a Property Management Company (PMC) is ASSUMING instead of CONFIRMING.It's often a case of not doing enough research, as they don't know what they don't know!

Your only real question here is how much additional equity can you earn before you sell before the rate resets and before you lose your capital gains exclusion, versus the opportunity costs if you sold and cashed out now.

Properties in wealthy suburbs like Mountain Brook or Vestavia Hills won’t meet the 1% rule, but select deals in Forestdale or Bessemer might.But if you just take the median rent in Jefferson county and divide it by the median home price, it’s going to look like nothing meets the 1% rule—when in fact pockets of it might.

Do not select the first Property Management (PM) company you talk to.

Don’t waste time with buyers/sellers/borrowers that won’t give you an EXCLUSIVE; if you do you’re competing with every other financial intermediary or broker and even if you’re successful probably won’t get paid4.

Thank you all for posting honest questions and experiences, I agree, the scam as I see it, is, pay the money for the "money making program"  Find me a unbelievable deal (if you can on your own time) and the guru will pay you $10,000 IF it meets his criteria (read small print, tons of exclusions and conditions!)

At the end it may cost you more than selection a premium company to start with.We firmly believe in honesty, transparency and constant communication.

Property owned before marriage, or acquired by gift or inheritance, is considered separate property and belongs exclusively to the spouse who acquired it.WORD TO THE WISE ----- Keep separate property separate and DO NOT COMINGLE them, if you live in CALIFORNIA or any other community property state - which I believe are Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin!