If you’re using leverage, be extra cautious with your underwriting to ensure the deal still works at today’s rates.Economic Uncertainty: Inflation, potential recessions, or shifts in demand could affect rents, vacancy rates, and property values in some markets.Increased Operating Costs: Rising insurance premiums, property taxes, and maintenance costs can cut into profit margins, particularly for buy-and-hold investments.Regulatory Risks: Some areas are increasing restrictions on landlords, particularly short-term rentals.

Congratulationswhat you’ve found that both the INVESTMENT side of real estate, and theBUSINESS side are very competitive; therefore profit margins are compressed, so those “home runs” people like to bragg about are actually quite rare.  

Those that cannot weather the storm get wiped out.Having cashflow positive properties provides a margin of safety you just do not have with negative cashflow.Why are you focused on buying in your backyard? 

There’s not a ton of margin to play with these days when you’re financing everything on a flip on hard money loans.  

Assume my marginal income tax bracket is very high, and mortgage rate is 5.25%.

This is the BEST $100 you will ever spend, and if you listen to Amanda Han's tax book, you'll know it's also likely a business expense for you to write off :) https://biggerpockets.supercast.com/My perfect way to learn from the BP books is to listen to the audio book through the subscription above, then books that really stand out to me I go old school and get the physical copy so that I can re-read it, take notes in the margins, and put post it notes so key points are easier for me to re-reference in the future.

But if you’re new, relying on that razor-thin margin of error can feel like racing the clock in a marathon you’re not fully trained for.

For wholesalers: How are you adapting to buyer preferences or creating irresistible deals despite tighter margins?

It is not a scam, but you will have a very hard time finding a deal that is worth working with them, and frankly you are going to have to find someone that does not understand at all what their property is worth and get them to accept a super lowball offer to make it worth it. even then their points and fees will eat up so much that getting the 10% down loan will have a much much higher profit margin.

The net-to-me margin is roughly 2 percent.