On top of all that increase in income, our expenses/standard of living only increased by $200/month over 4 years, mostly just on date nights (which I think investing in your marriage the best possible investment, don't try to convince me otherwise.) and we have zero debt outside of our mortgage.

I have a couple thoughts on this, all speculative of course. 1) The investors that normally had a standard of 20-25% ROI are now settling for 12-15% ROI just to get their money back in the market, which is crucial for full time investors.2) Contractors may have in fact dropped their prices just to be able to get back to work.

I don't know what (if anything) is trade standard for this field.

Full time educator that runs her other real estate school- Brokerage has own app where we store training videos and guest speakers from our events- Mentoring program for new agents to shadow experienced agent- Brokerage creates template personal site for me- 2 education classes/month via Zoom- 1 Sales meeting/month for education & motivation- 1 meeting/month on technology use, a staff member that deals with IT needs- 70/30 Split- $355 Annual Office desk due- 2% Transaction fee- No lead production, produce own leads, repeat & referral- 223 current & pending listings- Have had new agents close 20 homes in first year and other only 6 homes; variesBrokerage C:- This is Keller Williams, so probably pretty standard and y'all are familiar with them, I'm sure- Within my region: Own 12% of all inventory; 600 to 900 active listings and closed just under 3,500 homes last yearBrokerage D:- 21 agents in local office- Momentum Program for training- 95% commission paid on a transaction, fees included but you choose how much you want to spend (private office/shared office/WFH office,- Brokerage does not provide leads but can obtain leads from sister brokerage, no cost- Currently 82 listings, 50 active, states it is currently a seller's market- Goal is to sell at least $2,000,000 per year- Average sale price for last 90 days (8 properties) is $260,400Brokerage E:- Training videos available- Weekly sales meetings- Ninja sales training 2-3/month with Q/A's- Offer a one-on-one mentorship program for new agents- Mentor and I would split commission 50/50 first couple of transactions or when I'm ready to go solo- Lesser degree mentorship for 75/25 commission- $46.50/month Brokerage fees Plus $25/month on E's&O's- Own website on brokerage webpage for $10/month- 70/30 Commission split; 95/5 for sale milestones- Once you pass $5M in sales, you're still on 70/30 split until you pay out brokerage $20,000, which in turn split becomes 95/5- 3% broker fee each transaction with $3,000 cap- Can provide leads by signing and paying up for different things (ICC/OPCity/Buyside)- 255 active listingsBrokerage F:- Extensive 6 week onboarding process for training- No monthly fees; biz cards/signs/lockboxes/marketing all paid for- Provides leads- 2 CRMs that hold database of your clients- Usually 100 listings at any given time, lower now because of Covid- Minimal standard to remain with company is 24/year.

Your property manager is successful when they have standardized systems in place and trying to adjust to the personal whims of every Landlord will just result in mistakes and kill their business.The bigger issue is their inability to communicate.

Not my circus, not my monkeys.We do not do these practices you have assumed as an industry standard.

Don't allow financing or a finance contingency (it can be a good indication they are selling above market value) Don't allow for your own independent property inspection Are not realistic with their pro forma's (i.e. they don't include vacancy or maintenance projections or use unrealistically low vacancy factors) Require you to pay for any renovation upfront Sell only in cheap. low end neighborhoods Don't accurately represent the neighborhood/property classification Don't have consistent rehab standards for all properties Don't provide a scope of work for the property Can't provide references of repeat investors Require you to close before a tenant is in place

If you have the cash take AI (Appraisal Institute) classes as they are the gold standard and companies like seeing AI.

The challenges will be the recent tightening of qualification standards, but if you've got some reserves, proof of decent income, and a credit score above 700, you should be fine. 

“Buy” the property from the homeowner at current market price, but let them continue to live there and offer continued support to get the house up to common standards, and keep it that way.Establish minimum standards referencing those used to obtain FHA lending.Probably worth a professional home inspection if it has been more than 6 years since the last.Build a step by step scope of work and schedule that brings the house up to common standards.Schedule “check-up” walk throughs after year 1, year 3, and every 3 years after that.Ideally the resident of the property will carry the note, or a combination of a smaller loan from a bank to cover a chunk of cash if needed.Establish the purchase price at the beginning of the relationship based on current market value.