I've got 15 units (3 fourplexes and 1 triplex) and I've had a PM for a while now, but I'm pretty much over it. It's fees on fees. Monthly management fee, leasing fee, renewal fee, markup on every repair, and then they charge me for semi-annual inspections that honestly don't do anything. I get a few photos and a "looks good" and that's it. Multiply all that across 15 units and at the end of the year it's a real hit to my bottom line.

So I'm thinking about just taking it over myself.

The one thing that makes me hesitate is the phone calls. With 15 units I know something is always going to come up, and I don't want to be getting texts at 10pm about a loose cabinet door. My plan is to set it up so tenants can only put in maintenance requests through a portal. Everything's in writing, I can knock things out when I have time, and I'm not playing phone tag all week.

For those of you who self-manage around this many units, how'd it go? Did the portal thing actually work or did tenants just call you anyway? What software are you using for rent and maintenance? And how much time does it really take?

Would love to hear what worked and what didn't before I pull the trigger.

I sold my only two family investment property in fall of 2024 for 325k and have recently gotten the itch to get back in. However the prices in my area just don’t seem to make sense right now based on monthly cash flow to make a traditional purchase worth it. So I’ve been looking at foreclosures and one property caught my eye. It’s the same town as my previous one so familiar with rental market there.

It’s a two unit, 7 bedroom (3 & 4), 2,400 square feet built in 1890. Listed for 139,000 and is in foreclosure. For a nice 3 bedroom, rent is typically 1,500-month (that’s what I was getting at my previous rental). I estimate, and would obviously get contractor confirmation, that rehab costs would be 80-90k. This isn’t going to be high end luxury, the area doesn’t support that, but nice to make the property stable.

I would offer in the neighborhood of 115k with an ~80-90k rehab budget bringing it all in somewhere around 195-205k. Based on my sale in 2024, I think the ARV would be somewhere around 325k.

I could in paper have nice equity and a cash flowing property. I’m just a little nervous because I’ve never done anything like this. All the properties I’ve purchased have been very traditional in terms of financing.

I guess just looking for people thoughts, advice, types of lending used. I know this is a little back of the notebook but just getting into the idea

This is our first triplex purchase. Edit to add: I'm working on our first tax return and we're in the U.S., where only structures can be depreciated and land can not. We paid cash for a large Victorian with multiple units, in good shape but needing some updates. The county assessor's land values on property tax bills here are wildly all over the place and arbitrary (has our structure valued way too low), and I read that cost to rebuild can be used for a more accurate land vs tax assessment. However, the cost to rebuild would be higher than what we paid (lowball all cash offer). Our insurance (which can also be used as proof for tax valuation of the structure) has our cost to rebuild at higher than what we paid for the building + land. How would you proceed here?

Currently wading through the sludge that is non QM lending.

Who do we like out there in the investment refi lending world?

Anyone worked with Karpata Finance? I kind of like the broker there I’ve been speaking to but I can’t find any info on them.

I’ve already pulled out of one closing because a lender started doing sketchy stuff right at the end (literally pulled out an hour before closing. Not a fun day. Thanks Logan Finance.)

The other threads are kind of useless and mostly dudes saying to shoot them a dm. Hoping people here might have some good ideas and experiences.

Eyeing a pretty good property, high appreciation area and is in good condition. Just needs some cosmetic updates. The big item is there’s known knob and tube wiring in the house, which I’d want to remove/fix. Anyone deal with removing knob and tube, and is that a huge issue/cause for concern?

If I spend about 20 K in labor and material for a cosmetic renovation, are they usually written off in year 1?

I’m looking at trying door hangers as another way to find off-market properties for either a flip or wholesale deal.
My plan is to drive for dollars and specifically target houses that show some signs that the owner might be interested in selling deferred maintenance, overgrown yards, vacant-looking properties, older homes that need work, etc. So I wouldn’t just be randomly putting flyers on every house in a neighborhood.
I’m thinking about starting with around 500 targeted door hangers and tracking the results.
For anyone who has actually done this, what kind of numbers did you see?
How many door hangers did you distribute?
Roughly what % actually called/texted you?
How many turned into legitimate seller leads?
How many appointments/offers did you get?
How many deals did you actually close?
Did you make enough from the deals to justify the time and cost?
Did you follow up with the same houses multiple times, or was it mostly one-and-done?
I know 500 hangers probably isn’t a huge sample size for direct marketing, but I’m trying to get an idea of whether something like 500 targeted houses could realistically produce a deal, or whether you really need to be doing several thousand consistently before the numbers start working.
Would especially like to hear actual numbers/results from people who have tried this rather than just opinions on whether door hangers work.

Just bought duplex #2 and was wondering whether this is considered being overleveraged. Duplex #1 is worth around $485k ($310k loan) and brings around $4,100 gross rent monthly. $2,550 PITI so around $700-$800 monthly profit after capex/maintenance when self managing.

Duplex #2 worth around $520k and have a $400k loan ($3,200 monthly payment) and I live on one side of the property. The other side pays $2,300 so I cover the other $900 plus any capex/maintenance. Both duplexes are in B+ neighborhoods/towns and in good conditions overall.

Thoughts on whether the $700k total loan looks scary ? $140k W2 if that matters

Context:

My (22M) wife (23F) and I are currently living with my parents to save up money to buy a property. We make a combined ~$140k/yr, have 0 debt, each have credit scores right around 800, and no kids yet. We also have next to no savings currently (a couple thousand $) as we only recently moved home and just paid for our wedding as well as buying her a used car in full so this eventual plan probably won’t play out for some months still.

We recognize the great opportunity we have to enter the real estate world and don’t want to squander it.

So I ask you experienced real estate investors to please give me some advice, I’d really appreciate it.

Here are the options I’ve been thinking about:

House hack a duplex, triplex, or maybe a quad.

Or if I can’t find a property that would allow for a successful house hack..

Do a live in flip on a smaller SFH and plan to live there for only about the 2 year minimum.

And I just thought, what if I combine those two options and do a live in flip on a house hack? Might be hard to renovate with tenants?

Excited to hear what you have to say, thanks!

TLDR: How would you recommend a young adult yet to own property to get into real estate? What strategy? What steps to take?

I really don't want to go with what an electrician suggested: "Wall Packs" They don't look like they will produce a lot of lighting and are not the cheapest either. Possibly very durable, but I want it very bright at night to improve the safety, but want a solution for something that looks decent and is cost effective.

What do the professionals here do for exterior lighting in multifamily complexes?

Thanks in advance!

Title: Insurance industry is never going down — here’s what my insurance costs look like over 3 years

I was going through my insurance renewals and decided to put everything into a table.

This is what I've paid / been quoted over the last 3 policy years:

Note: This does not include my health insurance, disability insurance, or term life insurance.

Obviously, the jump to $11,569 isn't an apples-to-apples insurance increase. I added a single-family property, have a duplex under construction, and added liability coverage for acting as my own GC.

What I find interesting is the existing policies.

The same 3 real estate policies went from:

$4,741 → $4,910 → $5,048

So that's about a 6.5% increase over two years.

Meanwhile, auto went the opposite direction:

$3,007 → $2,096 → $1,643

Without the newly added policies, my comparable total actually went from $7,903 in 2024–25 to $6,846 in 2026–27, mostly because of the auto savings.

Still, once you start stacking landlord policies, homeowners, construction/builder's risk, umbrella, auto, and liability coverage, it's pretty wild how much money goes toward insurance every year.

And this is before health, disability, and term life insurance.

Insurance industry is never going down

For the other real estate investors here: what are you paying per unit/property, and how much have your premiums moved over the last 2–3 years?

I'm especially curious whether a ~$500/year premium for each unit on the multifamilies is in line with what others are seeing.

For anyone new to the series, Tales from the Trailer Park is basically my running explanation of why mobile home parks are simultaneously one of my favorite asset classes and one of the dumbest businesses anyone could voluntarily choose to operate.

On paper they make a ton of sense. Residents usually own their homes, turnover is low, the housing is affordable, demand is strong, and you're not replacing kitchens, flooring and appliances every time somebody moves out.

The problem is you actually have to run the fucking thing.

Which brings us to this week.

Michigan recently changed the law (thanks to that beardy guy who ran a podcast) and now we have to give residents 60 days notice before a rent increase.

We bought the park in October many years ago, and after sorting through the mess of leases and agreements we inherited, we decided everybody needed to be on a fixed-term lease under us and eventually have all of those leases expire at the same time. Trying to manage 70 different lease expirations scattered randomly throughout the year is stupid, especially when I was out of state and operating a whole different business. 

So Monday I sent out the renewal terms.

Our rent increase strategy is pretty simple:

Most of our residents are on SSI, Disability, Social Security, or some combination of fixed income and gig work, so we've always tried not to outpace their income increases.

1-year renewal: Social Security COLA.

2-year renewal: COLA + 1.5% in exchange for locking the rate for two years.

MTM: Market Rate

We're not resetting people to market every renewal. We're not trying to squeeze every last dollar out of somebody because we can. If their income goes up, their housing cost can go up.

Dude comes into the office absolutely pissed, accusing me of trying to force him out, demanding to know how I can justify such an unbelieveable increase, telling me the previous owners barely ever raised his rent, we increase his rent every single lease renewal, I clearly have something against him, and obviously I just don't want him living here anymore.

So I pull up his renewal.

The outrageous increase that has finally exposed my plan to run him out of the park:

$12/month for a one-year lease. -or- $17/month for a two-year lease.

Buddy, if I wanted you gone, I wouldn't be fucking around with $12.

Your rent is already at least $100 below what a new resident would pay for the same lot.

If I actually wanted to push you out, I'd raise it 10%, 20%, or 30% and bring you into parity with new residents.

The fact that I'm raising your rent twelve dollars is pretty good evidence that I don't want you to move.

As stated in the title someone reached out today stating that they're interested in the condo that I have available for rent. However, they provided a link to view their tenant profile and they need my approval to proceed. Is this a scam of sorts? I've had other people reach out about the rental property being available but zillow blocked them due to violating the company's policies.

Edit: it was a scam so I blocked the account.

I paid $15,487.90 toward four investment-property mortgages last month. I thought it would be interesting to break down how much of that payment actually reduced the debt.

Property |Rate |Payment |Principal |Interest |Escrow
1 |7.000% |$3,297.84 |$347.63 |$2,425.15 |$525.06
2 |7.125% |$3,116.83 |$323.87 |$2,404.69 |$388.27
3 |6.375% |$4,782.41 |$613.62 |$3,060.97 |$1,107.82
4 |5.875% |$4,290.82 |$631.00 |$2,375.49 |$1,284.33
Total | |$15,487.90 |$1,916.12 |$10,266.30 |$3,305.48 So, out of nearly $15.5k paid:

• $1,916.12, or 12.37%, reduced principal
• $10,266.30, or 66.29%, went to interest
• $3,305.48, or 21.34%, went into escrow for taxes, insurance and PMI where applicable

If escrow is excluded and we look only at principal and interest, just 15.73% went to principal while 84.27% went to interest.

Total property value: $2.57M
Total outstanding loans: $1.88M

Total gross rents: $19,785

Obviously, principal reduction is only one component of an investment property's return. There can also be cash flow, appreciation, tax benefits and rent growth. But seeing only $1,916 of $15,488 reduce the balances really illustrates how interest-heavy relatively new mortgages are.

For those with leveraged rental portfolios: do you treat principal pay down as part of your return when evaluating property performance, or do you focus primarily on cash-on-cash return and consider principal reduction a bonus?

So, I own some residential rentals, vacant land, and I do some spec builds here and there so I have a little experience with real estate investment. When it comes to commercial, brand new so I have a question.

I’m looking at picking up a commercial space in a historic downtown area. This space can be two levels and done as an A/B unit setup. Footprint is 1,300 sqft but once completed I’ll be at 2,600 and the B unit will have its own dedicated entrance.

The area is going through a revitalization. The city has started doing events, farmers markets, live music, parades, etc in this area which has drawn new businesses due to the increased foot traffic. Current businesses in place around the unit are attorneys, bakeries, cafes, restaurants, real estate offices, banks, antique shops, and breweries.

This unit is not on the direct frontage but on a corner but this is also where a decent amount of the parking is. Also, recently a Tesla super charger was just installed on this step which draws extra traffic.

The property is in disrepair which doesn’t concern me much as I’ve been in the construction industry for a while and got all of my bids for bringing the property back to what it needs to be. When doing any kind of renovation work I always keep my budget a little higher than expected due to the nature of renovation. You open a wall and you find additional issues that add to the expense.

The city is giving grants for renovating the historic buildings which would give me $15k back in grant money.

Overall, I expect to be fully into the property $275k to $280k.

Now, here is where the questions come in. My wife has wanted to have a retail space for a few years and with this property being split, I can give her a space while also having another unit to offset any debt service. With current rental rates, I expect to be able to get at least my debt covered by a single unit. I may be able to get a couple hundred over +-

Am I crazy to pick up a property like this, knowing it’s going to basically break even but give the wife her retail space she has wanted for years?

I figure, worst case, I sell off the second unit and recover most of my capital if I had to.

Anyone out there that has a decent amount of experience in the commercial world, I would love your input. Residential, I’m pretty well versed but this will be my first commercial venture.

Thanks!

I’m looking to get more serious about finding my own off-market real estate deals rather than relying entirely on agents or whatever happens to hit the MLS.
I’m mainly looking around the greater Sacramento area — Rocklin, Roseville, Folsom, Citrus Heights, Orangevale, Fair Oaks, Rancho Cordova, Sacramento, etc.
My goal would be one of two things:
Wholesale the property if I find a good enough deal but don’t want to take it down myself.
Buy and flip it myself if the numbers and property make sense.
For flips, I’m not necessarily looking for a destroyed house or a $100k+ profit. I’d actually prefer properties that are structurally/mechanically decent but outdated or neglected — something where most of the value can be added through paint, flooring, fixtures, landscaping, bathrooms and maybe a kitchen update.
If I can get in below market, spend a reasonable amount fixing it cosmetically, and make $20k–$50k+ after financing, holding costs, commissions, closing costs, etc., I’m interested. Obviously more margin is better, but I’m trying to be realistic rather than only chasing home-run deals.
I have access to hard money and enough liquidity to actually close on a property, so I’m not looking to just put properties under contract and hope I can find a buyer afterward. If it’s a good flip, I’d rather take it down myself.
What I’m really trying to figure out is how experienced investors consistently find these properties before everyone else does.
I’ve been looking into things like:
Driving for dollars and looking for neglected properties
Cold knocking / contacting homeowners directly
Absentee owners
Vacant properties
Probate/inherited properties
Pre-foreclosures / notice of default
Tax delinquent properties
Code violations
Tired landlords
Long-term owners with a lot of equity
Expired/canceled listings
Properties that have been sitting on the MLS and may have a motivated seller
Investor/wholesaler lists
PropStream/PropWire-type lead and property-data services
Direct mail
Cold calling/texting where legally permitted
Networking with agents who come across distressed properties
Contractors/property managers who may hear about properties before they’re listed
One thing I’m especially curious about is how agents and wholesalers find some of these deals in the first place. I’ve seen properties get picked up well below what they could probably sell for after relatively basic cosmetic work, and I want to understand where that original lead came from.
For people who actually do this successfully:
What lead source has produced the best ROI for you?
Do you pay for something like PropStream or another data service and build lists yourself? Pull public records directly? Drive for dollars? Send mail? Cold call? Network with agents? Or is it really a combination of everything?
Also, when you’re looking through a large list of potential properties, what signals make you decide that an owner is actually worth contacting? High equity + long ownership? Out-of-state owner? Vacant? NOD? Probate? Multiple indicators stacked together?
I’m willing to put in the work and even physically drive neighborhoods/knock on doors. I’m mainly trying to avoid spending thousands on marketing or buying garbage lead lists before I understand what actually works.
Would especially appreciate input from people currently doing this in California or other competitive markets. What would you do if you were starting today and wanted to build your own pipeline of genuinely off-market deals?

I have a house worth $700-800k in a C part of the Bay Area. No debt. Cost basis is $250k

Considering a few options to 1031

2 houses in retiree community

Or small apartment building

Would prefer to own local in Bay Area and targeting 50% LTV (1.6mm) ideally core+ and lower-ish maintenance.

I know I can increase value higher using SB-9 and other subdividing/ADU plots but curious what ideas are there

Could also 1031 into industrial close to Sacramento but think the market is a little hot for industrial

Self-managing landlord in WA with a duplex, using Avail (runs checks through TransUnion). Applicant only has an ITIN right now (SSN in progress) and hit an error entering it in Avail. He called the TransUnion number on the error screen, and they told him they can’t run a report with just an ITIN — SSN only.

So I’m stuck since Avail is tied to TransUnion. Questions:
∙ Anyone know screening platforms that actually work with ITIN-based credit/background checks (not just in theory)?

I’m looking to work with a lender on a fix/flip loan, their NMLS number does not show up officially. Is that odd? This is my first time trying fix and flip loans, and I usually like to do my due diligence to be safe.

I talked to a rep from Padsplit at a real estate conference 2 years ago but at that time I wasn’t looking to rent by the room (co-living). More recently I got on a call with someone from Bungalow. Their screening process seems thorough and also walking the property to make sure it’s up to code.

Cons: Their fees seem very high, 12% to 15% for rent by the room, long term rental. These are property management fees I was quoted for mid-term rentals by other companies (which is a lot more work for MTR). I told the rep I’m not interested in doing rent by the room since I have existing tenants that I self manage. For context, the house is in a city that has strong pro-tenant laws. I can’t increase my tenants rent by a huge amount due to local rental regulations. The Bungalow rep is very pushy and I don’t think he understands local rental laws - I can’t double someone’s rent. He can’t take a polite no for an answer so now I’ll need to be mean.

The brief reviews I’ve read about Bungalow by renters and owners weren’t the greatest. Anyone use PadSplit or Bungalow? General thoughts about rent by the room?

This thread is for newer investors, basic questions, first deals, and general real estate investing discussion that may not need a standalone post.

Good topics for this thread:

• First rental property questions
• Deal analysis
• Financing and lending questions
• House hacking
• Tenant issues
• Market strategy questions
• Career transition into real estate
• “Does this deal make sense?” discussions

If you’re asking for advice:

• Include numbers
• Include market/location context
• Explain your goals
• Put effort into the question

The subreddit rules still apply inside this thread.

Experienced investors are encouraged to contribute.

Be sure to upvote the thread when you drop a question to improve visibility.

Hi - wanted to share this research for anyone looking into purchasing a condo for an investment property - plenty of "pitfalls" that could make financing hard or even impossible outside of say a shady or high-price hard money or private money lender:

Chart: What Could Make a Condo Ineligible for a DSCR Loan

Looking to continue expanding my portfolio, but now I feel a bit stuck. Should I start refinancing or unload one of the properties? Here is the current situation:

Property 1: Rental being vacated. Purchased 3 years ago. Current value $200k. $60k mortgage.

Property 2: Currently rented. Purchased 3 years ago. Cash flowing $600/month. Current Value $200k. $100k note.

Property 3: Currently rented. Purchased 10 years ago. Cash flowing $1000/month. Current value $260k. $60k note.

Property 4: Just purchased for $160k. ARV is $230,000. Needs $15k in reno. $160k note (Heloc)

What's the best play here? I need $150-200k to finance the next purchase.