Real Estate Investing with House Money

In this week’s House Money Podcast episode, we have for you Adulting Is Easy Podcast episode 148 by Lauren Keen Aumond where she talks to Alan Corey and discusses his book “A Million Bucks By 30.” Alan grew up with parents who were public school teachers, so he knew about money but didn't have much himself. He decided he wanted to make a million dollars by the time he turned 30 and write a book about how he did it. He started right after college, when he was 21 years old. Alan's plan was to save a lot of his earnings by sending a big chunk of his paycheck to a bank across town so he couldn’t easily get to the money there. At only a $50k salary per year, he was saving more than half! He did a lot of side hustling as well, with surveys and things like that. After that, every January 1st, he'd check how much he saved and use it to buy property. His first move was putting $10,000 down on a $99,600 condo in Brooklyn, which he bought when not many people were buying property in New York City after 9/11. Alan made saving money into a game and thought about his future self when making decisions. He was patient and didn't spend money on immediate pleasures. He even rented out part of his one-bedroom condo to help pay for it. Now that he's achieved his goal of becoming a millionaire, Alan and Lauren both agree that it's smart to start by paying yourself first and earning more. Of course, they both know that house hacking helped catapult their wealth. They say that building wealth opens up opportunities, but you have to start somewhere. Note that growing your wealth is important, but it’s not the most important thing in life. Alan didn’t become instantly happier when he became a millionaire. Now, Alan is a fan of starting with discipline and watching spending but focusing on earning more later. Lauren agrees and outlines how she did both in her 20s. Getting into sales is a great way to earn more. Alan and Lauren also discuss House Money Media.   Mortgage Minute: Jasmine answers the question: What does DTI stand for and why is that so important to know? Sponsored by: Jasmine Mortgage Team https://www.jasminemortgageteam.com/   Follow House Money Media: https://twitter.com/HouseMoneyMedia https://www.instagram.com/housemoney.media/ https://www.youtube.com/@house-money https://www.tiktok.com/@housemoneymedia   Follow Your Hosts: Lauren: https://twitter.com/AdultingIsEasy https://www.instagram.com/adultingiseasyreal/ https://www.youtube.com/@adultingiseasy   Alan: https://twitter.com/RealEstateMaxi https://www.instagram.com/realestatemaxi  

House Money Weekly In this week’s House Money Weekly segment, Lauren and Alan get together with their special guest Kelly Koontz. They discuss blog 149, Avoid These 3 Common Real Estate Scams. There are way more than 3 out there but these are some of the scams Alan or his clients have experienced. Scam #1 is wire instructions spoofing. For this scam, the scammers get access to the email of the real estate agents, or mortgage lender, or client and they sit in the inbox waiting for a message. They will send an email to whoever has to wire the money and typically it's the buyer or the closing attorney. The scammers will spoof emails, pretending to be the closing attorney with the email signature that looks exactly the same with a fake email address with a message of wiring a money urgently. Unfortunately, Alan had a client who fell for this scam. When Lauren first started in real estate, the sellers would send the wire instructions, but now, it’s a PDF with wire instructions but also it has an instruction to call a number to get those four numbers which adds another step but that stops the buyer from getting scammed. Kelly had a close business owner friend who experienced getting scammed similarly. Kelly reminds us that you should not think that getting scammed is only happening to somebody else, it is real and it's happening all over the place. Scam #2 is WhatsApp Conversations. Scammers will pretend to be a new client and will tell you to move the conversation to WhatsApp. If you're talking to a wholesaler, an agent, or a lender and they want to move the conversation to WhatsApp, it's probably a scam because that's not how business is done in the United States. The reason scammers do this is because it can be encrypted and anonymous, it doesn't cost them any fees and they can easily hide. Scam #3 is Buying a Timeshare. Timeshare is like a hotel resort but you only get to book a week. Every week of your chosen week is “yours” at a certain hotel, you pay for a downpayment of approximately $30,000 and you pay for an “HOA” fee each year. If you ever want to sell your timeshare, they'll never resell or buy yours, you're on your own. That's why a scam companies were formed. There will be law firms who pretend like they’re going to help you get out of your timeshare and then you will pay them $20,000 and once paid, they will be gone. In summary: 1) beware of urgency, 2) there’s no free lunch, 3) know if you’re the kind of person who could get scammed, and 4) when it comes to timeshares, remember that you should value flexibility.    Sign up for the newsletter & read our blogs: https://www.housemoneymedia.com/   Mortgage Minute: Jasmine answers the question: What are closing costs? Sponsored by: Jasmine Mortgage Team https://www.jasminemortgageteam.com/   Real Estate Is Easy Segment Lauren interviews Eric Hughes. He is a real estate investor and coach. He lives in New York and Florida. He has 25 doors in Memphis, Tennessee, of basically almost all single family homes and one duplex. He runs the website Rental Income Advisors that is particularly catered for new investors. He chose Memphis because when he was deciding where to invest, he wanted to get into a market where he could cash flow. So, he had to go to a low cost of living market where homes were cheap and Memphis was one of those places. Lauren asks Eric if all rental properties don't have cash flow, and he explains why all rental properties do not have cash flow and why some weren't even meant to cash flow. Most of Eric’s portfolio is in Low-B neighborhoods, so not the most expensive neighborhoods in Memphis but also not the worst neighborhoods. It is sort of like working class neighborhoods and homes cost $120,000. They rent for $1100-$1200 per month, which is a 7.5 cap, and a 5-8% cash on cash return. Since Eric lives in 2 different states (neither of which is where his portfolio is located), Lauren asks if he has any hesitation or fear about investing out of state. He bought one property first to see how the process worked with a property manager and everything was normal. The idea that you can just be sitting in New York and buying a property in Memphis, turning it over to somebody else to manage it cuts against a lot of the traditional real estate guidance that many people have encountered. Even after leaving his job to focus on his portfolio, having these 25 rentals helps him to pay all his bills, even though he has loans on most of them. Aside from his portfolio, he also has a coaching business and some bookkeeping for small businesses is his sources of income. Right now, Eric doesn’t have a lot of future plans on his real estate investing journey, his portfolio is functional and still serving its purpose. And lastly, Eric makes real estate easy by keeping it simple.   Contact our Guest: eric@rentalincomeadvisors.com https://www.rentalincomeadvisors.com/ Guest Host Segment Guest Host Kelly discusses utility recovery and managing utility costs. For example, let’s say there is a toilet flapper that's running in somebody's unit and the resident doesn’t have any direct responsibility for how much water is being used and the responsibility will go to the owner of the property. One of the highlights he found is that people don't realize that the little sound of that water running in the toilet can be easily 6,000 gallons of water over a month. If you get a water submeter installed on your property, the algorithms in the data collection can see that the water is running for 24 straight hours and the owner can get an email or a text the next day that tells them they need to go check that out and when that happens everybody wins. The hosts share their experience of having a massive water bill out of nowhere and how Kelly’s advanced submeter can help them. Alan adds that you need to know what the laws are when billing for utilities.   Follow Our Guest Host: https://www.submetersolutions.com/podcast   Follow House Money Media: https://twitter.com/HouseMoneyMedia https://www.instagram.com/housemoney.media/ https://www.youtube.com/@house-money https://www.tiktok.com/@housemoneymedia   Follow Your Hosts: Lauren: https://twitter.com/AdultingIsEasy https://www.instagram.com/adultingiseasyreal/ https://www.youtube.com/@adultingiseasy   Alan: https://twitter.com/RealEstateMaxi https://www.instagram.com/realestatemaxi

House Money Weekly In this week’s House Money Weekly segment, Lauren and Alan get together with their special guest, Matt. They discuss blog 148, 3 red flags you might be a slumlord. Alan bought 50 single family homes with an average price of $30,000 and he wrote this blog because when he tells people that he’s a landlord, people will tell him he is a slumlord. Alan wants to clarify that the price of the home does not determine whether you are a slumlord. Red flag No. 1 that you are a slum lord is when your property is unsafe for tenants. Slumlords are known for providing unsafe housing that usually comes from ignoring repairs or trying to not have a lease and only taking rent payments in cash. Red flag No. 2 that you are a slum lord is when they operate in cash. Lauren noticed that some tenants think that you are a slumlord if you're not fixing everything all the time but there is a delicate balance between keeping things safe, like by keeping them cooled or heated and keeping water running, versus nice-to-have updates. She also points out that you should only be renting units that are safe for people. Red flag No. 3 that you are a slum lord is that you break fair housing rules.   Sign up for the newsletter & read our blogs: https://www.housemoneymedia.com/   Mortgage Minute: Jasmine answers the question: What can investors do to make getting a loan easier? Sponsored by: Jasmine Mortgage Team https://www.jasminemortgageteam.com/   Real Estate Is Easy Segment Lauren interviews Michael Albaum. He is a Fire Protection Engineer turned real estate investor that became a real estate consultant and van lifer. He started his career as a Fire Protection Engineer in the insurance industry. Michael originally thought bigger was better, so he owned 75 doors, but that was a little bit too big for him. Currently, he now has 65 doors which consist of single family, condo, small multi family, and some commercial multi family. He also has short-term and mid-term rentals which started doing because of the pandemic. Furnish Finder is what Michael uses as a platform for listing his midterm rentals. Michael shares that he manages his properties remotely. Lauren and Michael started doing short-term rentals in the same year which is 2021 and that was the peak of short-term rentals. He has 3 in the smokies currently, one of which he’s going to arbitrage out soon. Lauren asks Michael what he thinks about the future of short-term rentals. Michael is also more excited about short-term space now than in 2021 because it’s getting harder and those who are good at this will survive while those who don't won’t. Michael believes if you’re thinking of entering short-term rentals, figure out how to be one of the good ones and don’t just try it because you heard it is easy money. And lastly, Michael makes real estate easy by setting yourself up the right way from day one.   Contact our Guest: https://twitter.com/MichaelAlbaum https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelalbaum https://www.myfiacademy.com/ Guest Host Segment Guest Host Matt debunks the myth that people need money to invest in real estate. Matt shares their new program called MB Alpha. It is like a business working capital that is not secured by anything and you can use it and complement that with Alpha’s money which is 80 to 90% of the funds. Alan clarifies what you’d use this money for, and there are a lot of options. He also clarifies the terms: one-year 10-12% interest only is typical. Lauren asks Matt if early investors can execute this when they've never done a deal before, and Matt says the answer is yes. The hosts then talk about their hard money loan experience. Matt’s company prides themselves on their personal touch. Don’t forget to check out House Money Media’s BROKE Method course too.   Follow Our Guest Host: https://www.alphafunding.com https://www.instagram.com/alpha_funding   Follow House Money Media: https://twitter.com/HouseMoneyMedia https://www.instagram.com/housemoney.media/ https://www.youtube.com/@house-money https://www.tiktok.com/@housemoneymedia   Follow Your Hosts: Lauren: https://twitter.com/AdultingIsEasy https://www.instagram.com/adultingiseasyreal/ https://www.youtube.com/@adultingiseasy   Alan: https://twitter.com/RealEstateMaxi https://www.instagram.com/realestatemaxi

House Money Weekly In this week’s House Money Weekly segment, Lauren and Alan get together with their special guest Matthew Teifke. They discuss blog 147, the five most important things about your short-term rental business. Alan wrote this blog with Lauren’s help, obviously. One important thing to remember is that short-term rentals are more than just real estate investing. You are a host - not just a property manager. You have guests - not tenants. You must provide an experience for your guests. Lauren shares that she spends 20 minutes a day for her 9 short-term rentals. Matthew’s opinion is to never buy real estate that has only one strategy that works. The 2nd important thing to remember is the systems are good for both the host and the guest. If everything is systematized (rules, check in procedures, check out procedures, communication, house rules) then every guest has the exact same experience then the reviews will reflect that which is an excellent way to make the short-term rental investing successful. For Lauren, if you're not systematizing and automating, you're going to end up in a lot of difficult one-off situations. The 3rd important thing is to never stop analyzing your market. Look at the average daily rate of the neighborhood and the average length of stay because it changes from pre-purchasing to the quarter after buying and then the year after buying. Lauren analyzes her markets approximately monthly and she looks at which amenities other people add while still keeping the amenities she offers very limited. The 4th important thing is to treat your extended team very well even if it means overpaying them because it will go much further in the long run. And the 5th important thing is that reviews trump everything. Remember, you're running an online review business and not just a real estate investing business because reviews will either make or break you.   Sign up for the newsletter & read our blogs: https://www.housemoneymedia.com/   Mortgage Minute: Jasmine answers the question: Why does a good credit score matter? Sponsored by: Jasmine Mortgage Team https://www.jasminemortgageteam.com/   Real Estate Is Easy Segment Lauren interviews Danielle Fountain, the founder of The One Realty in Austin. They focus on taking a data driven all in one approach to real estate. She was in the military for 10 years. Then, she realized that she has a passion for numbers and for people and that’s where The One Realty was born. Lauren asks Danielle about the Austin real estate market and it has been in the news even pre-pandemic because it went way up and appreciated on average by about 65% from May 2022 until November of 2023 and then it dropped around 21%. One thing Danielle does is she posts daily on what is happening in Austin's real estate and she looks at data numbers every day. Danielle also shares what she saw in the real estate market of Austin and what are the probable causes of the price increase and drop. Danielle’s advice to the people who are scared of the idea that if they buy a property then suddenly price goes down is that real estate is not day trading. You have to look at real estate as a long-term plan. Lauren asks Danielle a controversial question "is your primary home an investment?" Danielle’s answer is that it’s an investment if the cash out is utilized. If you're not using any value from it and you're just living in it, then it's not. Danielle looks at her primary as a long-term investment because eventually she’ll rent it out and it will no longer be her primary. She will keep it and she will buy her next one. And lastly, Danielle makes real estate easy by being data driven. Matthew, Lauren, and Alan react and agree with Danielle.   Contact our Guest: https://theonerealty.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellemarieatx Guest Host Segment Guest Host Matthew discusses the market right now. Matthew sees that there are crazy deals out there, but you just have to do singles and doubles deals and then you will find home runs along the way but don't just wait for it and just be on the sideline the whole time. Matthew believes we’re at the bottom, so get off the sideline. Alan shares his experience of investing in his first property when the market was at its lowest and how markets improve which turns into a double or triple. Alan is a fan of thinking of each property as a lottery ticket. Matthew thinks one deal can charge your life, but you need to be in the game to get it! Lauren says that you can't recognize home run pitches if you aren't looking at a lot of other pitches first. The hosts close by encouraging you to analyze deals and make offers TODAY.   Note that both Alan and Matthew will be on the show Real Estate King on Apple TV in June!   Follow Our Guest Host: https://www.teifkerealestate.com/ https://www.instagram.com/matthewteifke/ https://www.instagram.com/teifkerealestate/     Follow House Money Media: https://twitter.com/HouseMoneyMedia https://www.instagram.com/housemoney.media/ https://www.youtube.com/@house-money https://www.tiktok.com/@housemoneymedia   Follow Your Hosts: Lauren: https://twitter.com/AdultingIsEasy https://www.instagram.com/adultingiseasyreal/ https://www.youtube.com

House Money Podcast Episode 50 This week's House Money Podcast brings you something special! As we count down to our one-year anniversary celebration, we're shaking things up with a bloopers and outtakes episode. It's been an incredible year filled with laughter and conversations about the real estate market. Each week, we dive into various discussions, but now it's time to take a lighthearted look behind the scenes. Join us for this fun-filled blooper episode, reminding us that even in the world of real estate, laughter is the best medicine. Here's to one year of House Money Podcast – let the bloopers roll.   Mortgage Minute: Jasmine answers the question: Why does a good credit score matter? Sponsored by: Jasmine Mortgage Team https://www.jasminemortgageteam.com/   Follow House Money Media: https://twitter.com/HouseMoneyMedia https://www.instagram.com/housemoney.media/ https://www.youtube.com/@house-money https://www.tiktok.com/@housemoneymedia   Follow Your Hosts: Lauren: https://twitter.com/AdultingIsEasy https://www.instagram.com/adultingiseasyreal/ https://www.youtube.com/@adultingiseasy   Alan: https://twitter.com/RealEstateMaxi https://www.instagram.com/realestatemaxi

House Money Weekly In this week’s House Money Weekly segment, there will be a twist because the blog post that the hosts will discuss is written by the guest host, Eric Hughes. They discuss guest blog 1, Playing the Long Game with Rental Properties. Eric's blog is very analytical and detailed, which is completely different from Alan’s HMM blog. Eric even edited Alan’s book "House Fire". Key Idea #1 is that your returns increase over time which is one of the nice things about rental property investing. Cash flow increases over time. Key Idea #2 is that short term is hard to predict while long term is easy to predict. This key idea ties into statistics and math. In real estate, you can have a really good year with your property while in the next year have a really bad year where you lose a lot of money. Eric also explained that the more properties you have and the longer you hold them, the more predictable your results will be. Alan calls this the "mutual fund approach" to real estate. Key Idea #3 is that time in market beats timing the market which is to get in now and just wait and let the market do its thing. Key Idea #4 is to keep it simple. Real estate is a place of different investments, ideas, strategies and methods. For an average person, it can be difficult because there's so many different ways and ideas in the real estate world and the simplest possible way is to just buy a house, hold it for a long time and manage it professionally. Eric’s advice is the simple boring way is the best way. Key Idea #5 is to be ready to ride out the storm. If you own rental properties and you own them for a long enough time, everything you can imagine that's bad will eventually happen and you must be ready for that. Key Idea #6 is for a smoother ride, scale up. Basically, not all of your properties will underperform at the same time. And the last key idea is it's a marathon not a sprint. This sums up the whole idea that for rental properties, the benefits are long term and to get there, you have to get through the short-term variability and just have that long-term mindset.     Sign up for the newsletter & read our blogs: https://www.housemoneymedia.com/   Mortgage Minute: Jasmine answers the question: What is APR? Sponsored by: Jasmine Mortgage Team https://www.jasminemortgageteam.com/   Real Estate Is Easy Interview Lauren interviews Amanda Orson. She is the CEO of Galleon which is a startup aggregating MLS off market real estate into one marketplace. This summer they will come up with an AI powered digital transaction platform. Lauren asks about real estate headlines. There’s a big legal decision called Sitzer which found that there are monopolistic practices. The settlement agreement comes with rule changes on how they transact residential real estate. Everything that they have known since 1913 about how residential real estate is transacted in the United States is about to change which is a good thing. Amanda thinks that moving to something that is more technologically forward and more centered on the individual needs is great because not every buyer and seller needs all kinds of services that the traditional residential real estate transaction model has offered. Amanda shares the rule changes that the National Association Realtors agreed to go into effect mid-July. Lauren asks who benefits from the changes and Amanda thinks that it's the real estate investor. Lauren also asks if there's no buyers agent, how do you go look at the house? Amanda thinks that because there will be fewer real estate agents, there will be less revenue that is going into buyer’s agency and that will mean that buyers agents is going to certainly come down and there will be reduce the number of people that actually do that as their full time job that will eventually lead to the result of people leaving the industry. Amanda thinks that now is a good time to get into real estate investing. What about becoming a real estate agent? Amanda thinks you should become an agent if you can differentiate themselves and specialize. Lastly, Amanda makes real estate easy by leveraging the tools that they have available. Alan agree that using software feels like a cheat code. Eric mentions some of his favorite software.   Contact our Guest:https://twitter.com/amandaorson https://www.linkedin.com/in/aorson https://galleon.io/ Guest Host's Segment Because of the twist with the House Money Weekly Segment, Alan will be the one discussing for the Guest Host Segment. Alan discusses the Section 8 Investment Renting. Alan shares his experience renting to tenants on Section 8 (government vouchers). Lauren asks Eric how many of his rentals are Section 8 and there's 1 out of his 25 rentals. Eric bought the property with a Section 8 tenant in place six years ago and Lauren thinks it’s awesome that the investment has been easily collecting rent that whole time. Eric doesn’t have more because you lose some control, like around rent increases. Also, Section 8 tenants are such a small percentage of renters. Eric also shares the steps on how to increase the Section 8 rent. Eric thinks that Section 8 is great but most of the market is not Section 8. For Lauren, the one time she wished that had Section 8 was during Covid when there was the moratorium on evictions and one of her tenants stopped paying, which wouldn’t happen if the government was paying the rent. Alan explained that Section 8 doesn't necessarily pay 100% of the rent, in Atlanta with the Atlanta Housing Authority voucher it's typically 30% to 100% of the rent. It really depends on the tenant and what their income is. Alan adds that you can get additions to the Section 8 rental rate by making certain upgrades to the units. Eric goes into detail about what Fair Market Rent (FMR) is   Follow Our Guest Host:   https://www.rentalincomeadvisors.com/ eric@rentalincomeadvisors.com   Follow House Money Media: https://twitter.com/HouseMoneyMedia https://www.instagram.com/housemoney.media/ https://www.youtube.com/@house-money https://www.tiktok.com/@housemoneymedia   Follow Your Hosts: Lauren: https://twitter.com/AdultingIsEasy https://www.instagram.com/adultingiseasyreal/ https://www.youtube.com/@adultingiseasy

House Money Weekly In this week’s House Money Weekly segment, Lauren and Alan get together with their special guest Michael Albaum. They discuss blog 146, Why Residential Beats Commercial Real Estate Investing. Alan wrote this blog because he finds residential being less risky than commercial. It also takes less money and can be more profitable. In this blog, there are 3 pros of residential investing. Number one is a 30-year fixed mortgage. With years of experience in real estate investing, Alan did a few commercial deals and it's much harder to get 30-year fixed mortgages on commercial deals. In commercial investing, you are constantly refinancing and you're trying to predict the future. Michael thinks that the 30-year mortgage is a super powerful tool to have but he also added that he doesn't think residential is for everybody. He shared that there are instances when using a different type of loan can make a ton of sense but if you are an average investor then it is one of the safest ways to purchase real estate. The 2nd pro of residential investing is that residential has lower down payments. You can buy a house for 0% down because it's your primary and then you turn it into a rental property and that is a great way to get started in real estate. You could also be unable to refinance later if your financial situation changes. Alan adds that if you're getting a commercial loan, they don't want you living in the property even if it's a 20-unit apartment building. There are limited ways you can work with commercials and that's why Alan personally loves residential. The hosts then discuss Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI), which is required for lower than 20% down. Note that there are interest rate breaks at different down payment percentages. The 3rd pro of residential investing is it is an investment that is more liquid and flexible. Who is buying commercial deals? Investors. Who's selling commercial deals? Investors. Who is buying residential deals? Investors and primary homeowners. So, in residential, you have a bigger buyer pool.     Sign up for the newsletter & read our blogs: https://www.housemoneymedia.com/   Mortgage Minute: Jasmine answers the question: What is an escrow account and how does it work? Sponsored by: Jasmine Mortgage Team https://www.jasminemortgageteam.com/   Real Estate Is Easy Interview Lauren interviews Nick Hooyman also known as “sixfiguresidehustle” on YouTube. He went to law school and then ended up not becoming an attorney which led him to a lot of student loan debt. He is still working for the government on a 10-year public service loan forgiveness program. He started wholesaling real estate and in the last four and a half years since he started, he has made over about $700,000 in his spare time flipping houses and wholesaling houses. Nick is living proof that if he can do it, anyone can do it. Nick's loans are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and he didn’t put a lot of thought into them at the time. When everything that was happening in Nick's life, Lauren asks him how he decided upon real estate as the side hustle. When he went to a real estate meeting in Florida when he was 19 and he saw all these people and they were just so happy and they were thriving, he really wanted to be a part of it but he never did an action. Finally, he hired a guy who was an affordable real estate coach and he let Nick pay him in monthly payments, and he gave himself a year to learn and act. Nick's first deal was a flip he should have wholesaled. He considers it his worst deal is because it took him out of the machine of lead generation. Nick defines wholesaling as putting a property under contract and then selling that contract to an end buyer. And lastly, Nick makes real estate by having multiple VAs that will help him in his business. Contact our Guest:https://www.youtube.com/@sixfiguresidehustle https://twitter.com/nick_hooyman Guest Host's Segment Guest Host Michael Albaum discusses why you should consider investing internationally. Michael’s portfolio is at 65 doors that comprises single family homes, small multi family, commercial multi family, double-triple net lease properties, long-term, mid-term and short-term rentals and he actually invested in a one-bedroom apartments internationally in Lisbon, Portugal. Alan's favorite perk of investing in real estate is international real estate that comes with a passport and just to be a world citizen. Michael shares that he is working with a real estate agency that specializes in international investing and working with international investors. They sell a done deal where you go buy a unit in a building that either has been rehabbed or is slated to be rehabbed that meets the qualifications of the program, which is designed specifically for golden visa investors. Unfortunately, they did buy one that didn’t end up qualifying, so they had to do a second deal. And then the short-term rental laws changed with that property, but overall, it’s evident Michael still finds it to be worth it. Alan’s dream is to have an international passport or be a resident in a different country, since the other 4 members of his immediate family have more than one passport because his wife is from London. Lauren was wondering how long you have to hold the property in Portugal for the program (“scheme”). Michael lets us know there is a 5-year timeframe. They also discuss countries where you can easily get residency (not citizenship) without buying a real estate property: Costa Rica, St. Kitts, Malta, etc.   Follow Our Guest Host: https://twitter.com/MichaelAlbaum https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelalbaum https://www.myfiacademy.com/   Follow House Money Media: https://twitter.com/HouseMoneyMedia https://www.instagram.com/housemoney.media/ https://www.youtube.com/@house-money https://www.tiktok.com/@housemoneymedia   Follow Your Hosts: Lauren: https://twitter.com/AdultingIsEasy https://www.instagram.com/adultingiseasyreal/ https://www.youtube.com/@adultingiseasy  

House Money Weekly In this week’s House Money Weekly segment, Lauren and Alan get together with their special guest Austin realtor Danielle Fountain. They discuss blog 145, 7 Things Hosts Can Do to Get More Airbnb Bookings. This article ties to Lauren’s expertise because she is mostly known for having short-term rentals. Alan, Lauren and Danielle share some rules in their states (Texas, Georgia, and Florida) about short-term rentals. Alan doesn’t go through all 7, but they cover a handful. The first is rotating photos for the upcoming season. Often, hosts take one set of photos, and they just leave it up there. What Lauren recommends is for every quarter use seasonal photos and rotate them in so it looks fresh, especially to the places where there's snow and no snow. Danielle points out this is a good idea for “for sale” listings as well. The algorithm prefers active hosts, so if you are doing little things like tweaking your descriptions, moving your pictures around and even tweaking pricing a little bit. They will know that you are active and you're paying attention to your business. Another thing hosts can do to get more bookings is to check amenities quarterly. It can be a Wi-Fi speed or having an outdoor barbecue and displaying this to people can reach the algorithm. One more thing hosts can do to get more bookings is by updating a listing description. The last thing that was discussed to get more bookings is to respond to guest reviews. It is a good practice because people are going to see the responses, especially to negative reviews which are really important.   Sign up for the newsletter & read our blogs: https://www.housemoneymedia.com/   Mortgage Minute: Jasmine answers the question: Which loans have PMI? And what is PMI? Sponsored by: Jasmine Mortgage Team https://www.jasminemortgageteam.com/   Real Estate Is Easy Interview Lauren interviews Skylar Romines. She is a commercial insurance broker specializing in commercial real estate. shares that they consider apartments, multi-family and built to rent as commercial properties while others consider it residential. Lauren likes that they can differentiate what is commercial real estate and what is not because there’s a lot of misconceptions about that. Skylar shares how and why she became an insurance broker. Although there are a lot of challenges being a commercial insurance broker, Skylar likes that she gets to work with a lot of really great people and she can help her clients solve problems and make things work. According to Skylar, there are two major levers that you have to pay attention to when you're working in real estate and that is the revenue and operating expenses and insurance is one of the biggest operating expenses. Lauren asks Skyler what she means about the “hard market” and she explains that the insurance market is cyclical so there are softer markets and harder markets. Some big factors when you're in a softer market is there are more carriers that are coming who are willing to offer limits and willing to put up with higher limits. An indicator that you're in a harder market is that at a very high level, you have less capacity that leads to having fewer carriers who are willing to offer coverage and they're willing to do it at a higher rate at a lower limit. Lauren asks how to make assumptions about insurance costs when underwriting deals, and Skylar says not assume anything. Another thing is to talk to your broker early and often. A tip from Skyler is if you feel like they can't pick up the phone when you call your broker, then get a new broker. Lauren asks what insurance is for multi-family properties and Skylar explains that it is the most basic level of property and liability. Skylar advises landlords who are looking for insurance to be a good operator because the better the operator you are, the more risk management controls you have in place, the easier it's going to be at the end of the day. And lastly, Skylar makes real estate easy by doing the right thing, being honest and operating well. Alan emphasizes the importance of your real estate team.   Contact our Guest: https://twitter.com/skylarromines https://www.linkedin.com/in/1skylar Guest Host's Segment Guest Host Danielle talks about interviewing agents. When you start investing and you're interviewing agents, you must interview them. Just because someone's a friend or someone's a relative, you shouldn’t necessarily use them. When working with a real estate agent, you need to dig into their background and also on how far they are going to help you find the perfect home or investment. Alan always says to get an agent that invests themselves. Get one who has experience in the properties you’re interested in. Danielle suggests the agent walk you through Home Buying 101. Lauren wonders what questions she asks potential clients too. Follow Our Guest Host: https://theonerealty.com/ https://twitter.com/The_One_Realty https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellemarieatx   Follow House Money Media: https://twitter.com/HouseMoneyMedial https://www.instagram.com/housemoney.media/ https://www.youtube.com/@house-money https://www.tiktok.com/@housemoneymedia   Follow Your Hosts: Lauren: https://twitter.com/AdultingIsEasy https://www.instagram.com/adultingiseasyreal/ https://www.youtube.com/@adultingiseasy   Alan: https://twitter.com/RealEstateMaxi https://www.instagram.com/realestatemaxi

House Money Weekly In this week’s House Money Weekly segment, Lauren and Alan get together with their special guest Amanda Orson. They discuss blog 144, When should I renovate a long term rentals? New investors love to make a property their own and put their own touch on it but that's not always the best plan. Alan wrote three scenarios to tell you when you should renovate a long-term rental. The first scenario is you can't rent it as is. Even if it looks ugly to you or if it looks like you don’t want to live in it, that doesn't mean the tenant didn’t want to live in it. A tip from Alan is to try to rent the property in its current condition and if you get multiple tenants applying then you know the property is fine. Lauren believes there are some situations where there's a need for renovation because she knows she can get a good return if the countertops were granite. The second scenario is if the renovation pays for itself in three and a half years. If you put $20,000 renovation in a property and raise the rent to $476, then that's a 3-and-a-half-year payback period which is great. Every new investor wants to make the property pretty, but Alan believes that if you can have your house ugly in the street but sexy in the spreadsheet then that is how you make money. The third scenario is when you're going to sell it. This is the time the property is in its best condition and you give it a new look and you don't have to renovate everything. The two ways people lose the most money is when they bought for the wrong price and the second is by over renovating.   Sign up for the newsletter & read our blogs: https://www.housemoneymedia.com/   Mortgage Minute: Jasmine answers the question: Why might I be denied for a mortgage? Sponsored by: Jasmine Mortgage Team https://www.jasminemortgageteam.com/   Real Estate Is Easy Interview Lauren interviews Jonathan Rich. He is a real estate agent and a business owner in Atlanta, Georgia. He spent his 20s playing rock and roll music and traveling around the country when a random series of events led to flipping a house in 2007 in town Atlanta, and it didn't work out, so they call it the flip that flopped. This led to a realization that the greatest failures are the things that can lead you into real success. Lauren asks if the initial flip was a failure because of mistakes that he made in the underwriting or if it was part of the 2007 crash. Turns out, it was mostly the crash. Even though Jonathan experienced that failure, he still continues because of his natural optimism and because of his very supportive wife. Also, the process of taking that house from something that was broken and old into something that was beautiful lit a spark in him. Lauren gets Jonathan’s take on who should get their real estate license, and whether all investors should consider it. Jonathan shares that he manages his geocentric (everything within 5 miles) business by having really good professionals and teams around him. Jonathan self-managed his properties from 2014 until 2019 and he started a partnership in 2019 which has 50 units now. With that partnership it became time to start a company because he couldn’t personally manage 75 to 150 units alone.  Being in the real estate industry for almost 15 years, Jonathan’s advice is you must have skill and you have to know what you're doing. Also, you must be able to make good decisions and have a great financial infrastructure to weather the dips in the market and slowdowns. Jonathan's advice to the people who want to be in real estate is to just start. Put one foot in front of the other because there's no bad time for it. Lastly, Jonathan makes real estate easy by being authentic and being himself. Alan agrees, and the thing he doesn’t want to do is cold call because it just isn’t him. Amanda plays to her own strength of data and analytics.   Contact our Interview Guest: https://www.jrichatlanta.com/ https://www.instagram.com/jrichatlanta/ Guest Host's Segment Guest Host Amanda talks about Alan Corey's book entitled A Million Bucks by 30. Amanda read this book 5 years ago and gives Alan credit for putting her on the real estate investing path. Alan gives a refresher of some of the steps in the book to get a million bucks by 30 and shares his experience when he was saving his money to achieve his initial goal of buying a property. Amanda highlighted 2 quotes from “A Million Bucks by 30” book to ask Alan if he still believes in those pieces of advice or if he changes his mind, what he learned from it. Alan stands by one, but on another he’s changed his mind! Alan’s Book: https://www.amazon.com/Million-Bucks-30-Overcome-Millionaire/dp/0345499727/ Follow Our Guest Host: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aorson https://twitter.com/amandaorson https://galleon.io/   Follow House Money Media: https://twitter.com/HouseMoneyMedial https://www.instagram.com/housemoney.media/ https://www.youtube.com/@house-money https://www.tiktok.com/@housemoneymedia   Follow Your Hosts: Lauren: https://twitter.com/AdultingIsEasy https://www.instagram.com/adultingiseasyreal/ https://www.youtube.com/@adultingiseasy   Alan: https://twitter.com/RealEstateMaxi https://www.instagram.com/realestatemaxi

House Money Weekly In this week’s House Money Weekly segment, Lauren and Alan get together with their special guest Nick Hooyman. They discuss blog 143, 3 Wrong Questions Real Estate Investors Ask at an Open House. Alan recently did an open house for duplex in Atlanta and wrote this blog based on that experience. The first wrong question to ask is: can I add a driveway? The investor said he would want a driveway if they lived there. Take your emotions out of it and understand what you're buying. Nick also did something very similar to this on his first flip. He built a shed and a fire pit and when it was time to sell it, six months later, they demolished the shed and then planted it over the fire pit. Lauren tells investors especially for short term rentals when you're thinking about adding an amenity or changing something, wait until you go live and see if anybody mentions it. The second wrong question to ask is: what's the cost to convert the range from electric to gas? What Alan learned from his lower income tenants is that they don't want gas because it typically requires two security deposits, one for the electrical bill and one for the gas bill. As an investor, it's not what you want but it's understanding what your tenant wants! The last wrong question to ask is: can I add a fence? A lot of new investors think a fence provides protection and tenants want a fence for their pets. Alan learned over 25 years of real estate investing that typically a fence becomes the gateway of clutter, then the whole fence line is filled with clutter that the landlord has to take care of. One reason Lauren doesn’t like fences is because they are expensive and high maintenance, but a fence is a good idea and you can look at it as an investment if you’re able to charge more rent because of it.   Sign up for the newsletter & read our blogs: https://www.housemoneymedia.com/   Mortgage Minute: Jasmine answers the question: What happens during underwriting? Sponsored by: Jasmine Mortgage Team https://www.jasminemortgageteam.com/   Real Estate Is Easy Interview Lauren interviews Tom Dunkel, the Chief Investment Officer at Belrose Storage Group, which has acquired over $40 million in self-storage properties in recent years, generating $60 million in revenue. Tom explains that self-storage offers homeowners and commercial property owners a solution for storing excess belongings, as many accumulate more items than can comfortably fit in their living spaces. He notes that storage plays a crucial role in people's overall housing strategy. Lauren asks if there are trends towards people having more stuff and smaller homes and Tom suggests that millennials tend to adopt a more minimalist lifestyle compared to their baby boomer parents. However, they still desire to retain belongings acquired for themselves and their families, leading them to seek additional storage options. Lauren also asks Tom what they are looking for in selecting self-storage properties to purchase. The first thing they look for is a strong market with a preferably growing population and strong fundamentals such as low poverty rates and solid employment figures. Then, they’re also looking at the particular asset. They love to take over facilities from mom-and-pop operators. The size and quantity of storage units vary by market, but those data points are significant factors considered for revenue generation when acquiring or constructing facilities. Lauren asks about the impact of multi-story storage facilities. This asset class has been extremely steady over the last 40 years although it has occasional fluctuations, self-storage occupancy gently meanders between like 80% and 90% nationwide. We’re seeing a shift from mom-and-pop operators to middle operators and bigger, sophisticated money. Tom shares that just like any other real estate asset classes, self-storage goes through its cycles where there's overbuilding and then they will stop building and then the demand catches up and then the demand exceeds and then they will build again and it's a cycle of mismatched timing. Tom then shares the numbers on their recent deal from Wilmington, NC, where they bought a contractor garage facility. They purchased it for $4.5 million at a 6.5 cap rate based on the seller’s numbers. Their year one cap rate is 8.5%. Tom makes real estate easy by having a great team around them. It’s so much easier than corporate America! Alan reacts by pointing out that you need a good team in order to outsource. Nick adds that you need to learn tasks before you outsource them. Understand that some of your team may make mistakes or not do as well as you do, but that’s OK because you get some of your valuable time back. Contact our Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomdunkel https://www.belrosestoragegroup.com/ Guest Host Segment Guest Host Nick wonders what is ahead in the real estate market. Nick finds that there is less activity in real estate due to the rate lock problem – rates have gone up so much that people feel like they can’t move. Nick asks Alan and Lauren if there’s going to be enough supply to come on the market to keep prices at bay if they lower the rates. Alan sees it getting worse because history has taught us that when interest rates drop, home prices go up and when interest rates rise, home prices plateau. The housing shortages each year are getting worse and it's going to become more and more unaffordable. That's why getting a house now is what Alan suggests. Lauren thinks of this in terms of short-term rentals when the pandemic hit. People were unable to travel so in 2021 and 2022, there are a lot of people from other states that had not been able to travel for a long time came and visit and occupancy was high that the average daily rates were high. Lauren sees something similar right now, there is pent up demand, creating a lack of supply because people are locked into these rates. She also points out that in a lot of other developed countries it’s more typical for people to rent. It may be inevitable that a lower percent of people will own homes in the future. Follow Our Guest Host: https://www.youtube.com/@sixfiguresidehustle https://twitter.com/nick_hooyman   Follow House Money Media: https://twitter.com/HouseMoneyMedial https://www.instagram.com/housemoney.media/ https://www.youtube.com/@house-money https://www.tiktok.com/@housemoneymedia   Follow Your Hosts: Lauren: https://twitter.com/AdultingIsEasy https://www.instagram.com/adultingiseasyreal/ https://www.youtube.com/@adultingiseasy  

House Money Weekly In this week’s House Money Weekly segment, Lauren and Alan get together with their special guest Skylar Romines. They discuss blog 142, 3 Secrets to a Successful Eviction. Alan has only personally handled one eviction, but he’s had property managers do some with him. Lauren, on the other hand, has had to have an Airbnb guest removed and she’s had a squatter. If you are a landlord, you’ll likely encounter evictions, and you must understand how it works and its process. Evictions can be handled rationally. The 1st secret is judges love paperwork. They don’t care about the back story of what happened. They’re going to go by documented communications and the lease. The 2nd secret is to not accept partial payment. If someone comes to you and offer to pay $300 for their $1000 due and will pay $300 next week and another $300 on the other week and you said yes, you basically have an implicit verbal agreement that they can now pay partial payments without penalty, and you are basically giving this tenant permission to always be late and to always give partial payments. That’s why Alan doesn’t accept partial payments, even if there is a roommate situation. The 3rd secret is that mediation is the real winner. In most cases, the judge goes over the law for the tenant and landlord and sends them to mediation. In this recent eviction, Alan and the tenant agreed on a deal through mediation. Skylar shares an example from a friend of hers in California, who was able to get a non-paying tenant in an inherited property out after a year. Alan reminds us all that you can potentially avoid evictions by cash for keys.   Sign up for the newsletter & read our blogs: https://www.housemoneymedia.com/   Mortgage Minute: Jasmine answers the question: What are my options if I don't have a large down payment? Sponsored by: Jasmine Mortgage Team https://www.jasminemortgageteam.com/   Real Estate Is Easy Interview Lauren interviews Jojo, also known as Real Estate Jojo. He describes himself as a middle-aged lifelong educator, but he’s much more than that! He was a teacher, a sports coach and administrator for all of his career. Alongside that, he is also involved in entrepreneurship and investing in real estate. Jojo and his wife have six doors that are investment properties and then their primary residence and they acquired these properties over the past four years. Lauren asks Jojo what strategies they used that time and it all started out with trying to figure out a strategy that would make them most comfortable and coming into real estate investment and through their research, we learned that the BRRRR strategy would be the best strategy for them to be able to scale larger or quicker developments overtime. Jojo also explained what a BRRRR strategy is: Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat. Jojo attempted to do 6 BRRRR for their properties, meaning they’ve left money in some of their deals, which is OK. Lauren asks Jojo to explain more about creative financing they used, and instead of being able to roll all the money from the first investment into the next investment, they started to utilize some private investing. What’s interesting here is that private money has a lower interest rate than hard money. Some of Jojo’s properties are in Augusta, GA. Why? You can buy houses there for “less than a Kia Soul.” He dives into the numbers for one of their recent deals, and it started with a $12,000 purchase price. And lastly, Jojo shares that he makes real estate easy by having a plan and also having some processes in place. Jojo is a fan of not “swinging for the fences” on every deal. Alan turned some base hits in Brooklyn into home runs over time. Skylar focuses on the roadblocks and being aware that they’re coming, but there’s a way to handle them. Contact our Guest: https://www.instagram.com/realestatejojo/ Guest Host's Segment Guest Host Skyler brings up the condo situation in Florida. Way back in June 2021, there was a condo that unfortunately collapsed. Since then, there have been legislative changes surrounding the cash reserves that are required for HOAs in Florida. How much the HOAs must reserve for repairs affects the owners and investors in Florida significantly, like needing $100k in reserves on a $500k condo. Lauren explains her recollection of what happened in the Surfside, FL, collapse. On top of these needs, insurance is going up as well, which is usually paid through HOA fees. Alan has been seeing non-warrantable (meaning lenders can’t lend on them) condos in Atlanta. Lauren thinks Florida condo prices simply have to fall. Alan talks about initiation fees as a tool to build reserves, which he is not a fan of. He suggests maybe an exit fee.   Follow Our Guest Host: https://twitter.com/skylarromines https://www.linkedin.com/in/1skylar   Follow House Money Media: https://twitter.com/HouseMoneyMedial https://www.instagram.com/housemoney.media/ https://www.youtube.com/@house-money  https://www.tiktok.com/@housemoneymedia   Follow Your Hosts: Lauren:

House Money Weekly In this week’s House Money Weekly segment, Lauren and Alan get together with their special guest Jonathan Rich. They discuss blog 141, How Real Estate Agents and Investors Can Both Get More Business. The first secret is agents and investors should create a niche for themselves. Alan wrote in his book "House Fire'' that no one looks highly on the “one man band.” When you try to do everything yourself, you don't grow, and people don't think of you as a go to. Lauren asks Alan about his niche and although he’s a jack of all trades, you should do as he says rather than what he does. In general, his experience is in town in Atlanta. Jonathan thinks that you can build a network of people that will believe in you, and it’s very geography specific. Don’t be phony! The second secret is agents and investors need to walk the walk. If you are the guy in a certain neighborhood, you need to know where the property lines are, you know the schools, and where the bus routes are located. The third secret is to create a rockstar team. Alan says that rock stars hang out with rockstars. Don't be that one man band! If you know a rockstar property manager, they probably know the best plumber, the best painter, and the best realtor in town. Jonathan says that if you’re a real estate agent and you’re trying to build your team, the members of your team must be as excellent as you are, but it can take time and work.   Sign up for the newsletter & read our blogs: https://www.housemoneymedia.com/   Mortgage Minute: Jasmine answers the question: How often does the lending quote change by the time you get under contract? Sponsored by: Jasmine Mortgage Team https://www.jasminemortgageteam.com/   Real Estate Is Easy Interview Lauren interview Dion, on YouTube as Dion Talk Financial Freedom. He is known as the lazy investor. It all started for him in 2008 when he was laid off, got divorced, and found out about $89k in debt he didn’t know about. Even with that start, it only took him 10 years to reach financial freedom, which he accomplished by investing in a small multi family. He retired in 2022 with 16 rental units that produce a little over $204,000 because he invested the lazy way. Lauren asks Dion why he chose real estate to help him get out of his bad debt. He didn’t have time to invest in stocks to reach the 4% rule. Also, Dion’s brother had 10 paid off rentals and his friend had 30 rentals. He figured if he could acquire one rental every two years that in 10 years he would have five and that could make his retirement a lot better. Dion thought that the next 10 years are going to happen no matter what and he has to live somewhere. That's why he incorporated house hacking as one of his first steps. Lauren asks Dion why he continues with small multi-family properties versus any other asset class. He loves the lending structure of 4 units or less. Dion also explains how he gets tenants to raise their rents through the binder strategy. His strategy is to find properties on the MLS where the tenants are paying low rent. He buys the property and then shows a 3-ring binder to the tenants showing the comparable rents. He then asks the tenants to suggest market rent. They pick a higher rent, and Dion suggests a rent slightly lower than that for the next year. Now, everyone feels like they’re getting a good deal. Lastly, Dion makes real estate easy by buying properties that make it easy to own them: each is 10+ miles apart, buys side-by-side small multi-family properties, pet friendly yards, good parking, and different tenant groups. Alan finds the 10+ miles apart location diversification interesting. Jonathan doesn’t believe in investing far away from him. Lauren points out that there’s always a right way for YOU to invest in real estate. Contact our Guest: https://www.youtube.com/@DionTalkFinancialFreedom https://www.diontalk.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/dion-mcneeley Guest Host's Segment Guest Host Jonathan discusses the deal he did that went sideways. You’ll really appreciate the transparency here. It was supposed to be 102 units. They had investors. They had plans. But they didn’t have the lending, and they couldn’t make it work. Who knows what the future holds? They may come back to it. One of Alan's takeaways with this deal is that Jonathan is not quitting real estate because one deal doesn't work, he's pivoting and looking at other options. Alan thinks the deal is not a complete throw away but it's a reminder that new construction of anything, even a single family house is for veterans and experienced folks. Alan also asked for Jonathan’s thoughts on the NAR settlement about real estate agent commissions. Follow Our Guest Host: https://www.jrichatlanta.com/ https://www.instagram.com/jrichatlanta/   Follow House Money Media: https://twitter.com/HouseMoneyMedial https://www.instagram.com/housemoney.media/ https://www.youtube.com/@house-money https://www.tiktok.com/@housemoneymedia   Follow Your Hosts: Lauren: https://twitter.com/AdultingIsEasy https://www.instagram.com/adultingiseasyreal/ https://www.youtube.com/@adultingiseasy   Alan: https://twitter.com/RealEstateMaxi https://www.instagram.com/realestatemaxi

 House Money Weekly In this week’s House Money Weekly segment, Lauren and Alan get together with their special guest Jojo. They discuss blog 140, 3 Red Flags You Need a Sewer Scope ASAP. Sewer Scope is like a little snake with a camera on it that if you put it down, you can tell if there's cracks or leaks. Red flag #1 is foundation issues. When you see cracks, it's tilting, or it's wobbly could be caused by water. Alan always tells everyone that water is the number 1 enemy of any home, it can be rainwater or plumbing related. Lauren suggests getting gutters and downspouts to keep water away from your building. Red flag #2 is evidence of mold. Everyone is afraid of mold, and they think that is the silent killer of a home. Here's a thing, mold can only survive with a source of water so if you take away the moisture, it goes away and it dies. Having mold means you have a water source that needs to be taken care of so you’ll be needing a sewer scope. Red flag #3 is if you see sinkholes in your yard. Sinkholes are also caused by water and it is typically seen in the front yard. It occurs if there's a leak and that area is soft. That's why there's a little bit of a sinkhole but if you’re inspecting no homeowners will let you dig a hole to figure out what's going on. That is why you have to put the sewer scope down. Lauren won’t buy a house if there’s a sinkhole because sinkholes in Florida are intense. Then, the hosts get into some deeper plumbing discussion.   Sign up for the newsletter & read our blogs: https://www.housemoneymedia.com/   Mortgage Minute: Jasmine answers the question: Who are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Sponsored by: Jasmine Mortgage Team https://www.jasminemortgageteam.com/   Real Estate Is Easy Interview Lauren interviews Matt Whittermore. He is based in Syracuse, NY, and has been in real estate for 12 years now. He worked as an employee doing commercial mortgages and financial analysis and he went on to build a portfolio of 40 apartment units. He has since transitioned for the last 3 years to 3 campground/RV parks. Matt went from having apartments to owning RV parks because he didn't really love the dynamic of being a landlord in New York on the apartment side. He is always looking for something more interesting and something that will add more cash flow. Matt first looked at mobile home parks because he has been a fan of that model and when looking for deals there, he had (accidentally) reached out to a number of campground owners because a portion of the database was actually miscategorized. Matt's RV Parks are in the northeast which is outdoorsy, close to nature, wildlife and bugs and It's truly a hospitality property. Some RV parks around the country are more like transient housing or affordable housing while he is in hospitality campgrounds. Matt sees RV parks as a people business in which you have to constantly welcome them back, you should have a really good staff that treat people really well and give them a reason to return and keep returning. Lauren sees short-term rentals and RV parks as similar when it comes to hospitality, except Matt has full time employees that are living there during season. Matt's future plans include teaming up and joining forces with someone who develops interesting technology and has a growing portfolio of campgrounds. Lauren asks Matt if new investors should try RV parks and Matt think it's not a bad niche. And lastly, Matt makes real estate easy by going big because all deals take a similar amount of work. Alan agrees that $100k and $1 million properties are evaluated the same way. In many cases, the million-dollar loan could actually be easier to get. Also, imagine rent increases across a larger portfolio. And you have one pest control bill, landscaping bill, etc. Jojo is a fan of starting smaller by getting base hits. Contact our Guest: https://twitter.com/ibuyrvparks Guest Host's Segment Guest Host Jojo discusses how artificial intelligence will impact big data and real estate investing. Jojo always has the thought "how can I make my processes and my systems work better?" and he thinks artificial intelligence is going to be the answer. Lauren brings up when Zillow was doing their home buying and they were running their analysis with AI and it did not work out. The computer was like data in, purchase price out and the purchase price is way too high. Alan thinks that AI underwriting works if you’re in a townhome community where every building is the exact same size and square footage and in the same location. Less tangible things, like power lines, are difficult for AI to consider. Jojo points out that AI is getting much better very quickly. Lauren agrees that AI will be good, but it isn’t there yet. Alan thinks it will take a human to parse out the numbers. Jojo thinks AI will eventually help with communication for landlords as well. Follow Our Guest Host: https://www.instagram.com/realestatejojo/?hl=en   Follow House Money Media: https://twitter.com/HouseMoneyMedial https://www.instagram.com/housemoney.media/ https://www.youtube.com/@house-money https://www.tiktok.com/@housemoneymedia   Follow Your Hosts: Lauren: https://twitter.com/AdultingIsEasy https://www.instagram.com/adultingiseasyreal/ https://www.youtube.com/@adultingiseasy   Alan: https://twitter.com/RealEstateMaxi https://www.instagram.com/realestatemaxi

House Money Weekly In this week’s House Money Weekly segment, Lauren and Alan get together with their special guest, Dion. They discuss blog 139, 3 Outdated Property Management Things You Can Stop Doing. Number 1 is putting out a physical rent sign. These are the signs that you can buy at Home Depot or Lowe's that say For Rent with a handwritten phone number on it. These signs attract tire kickers, other investors (driving for dollars), and realtors, but NOT prospective tenants. Lauren confirms this by sharing her recent experience on one of her properties where she put a For Rent sign out front. Number 2 is having a giant ring of “landlord keys.” This is a mom and pop from the 1990s way of doing real estate. Alan shares one product he uses for all his keys which provides a lockset where every one of the units have different locks, but he holds one master key for all of it. Lauren uses an electronic keypad. The lock connects to the Wi-Fi and if the Wi-Fi goes out and comes back on, it will reconnect again. It is so easy and quick for their short-term rental properties where they also started adding these to their long-term rentals. Dion doesn’t own one key, instead he buys the Schlage coded locks where you enter the code and then it engages the mechanism so that the human has to turn the dial to engage or disengage the default. His tenants are responsible for changing the batteries. The number 3 outdated thing is tracking everything in a spreadsheet. There are many property management software options that will track your finances, rents, and other needs instead of putting it manually to an excel or Google sheet. Dion uses Hemlane.   Sign up for the newsletter & read our blogs: https://www.housemoneymedia.com/   Mortgage Minute: Jasmine answers the question: What is the difference between a recast and a refinance? Sponsored by: Jasmine Mortgage Team https://www.jasminemortgageteam.com/   Real Estate Is Easy Interview Lauren interviews Vanessa Pannozzo, the co-founder and director of operations of Generational Wealth Inc group of companies. They are a real estate investment firm based near Ontario, Canada. They specialize in the BRRRR strategy, they do construction and property management in house as well as capital raising. Lauren asks Vanessa what is a BRRRR strategy and Vanessa shares the meaning of BRRRR: Buy, Renovate, Refinance, Rent, and Repeat. This strategy allows you to rinse and repeat your capital, and you're adding the lift and you're forcing the appreciation of the value of the home/property which then allows you to pull out a percentage of the capital that you put into your project at the point of refinance. You can use the BRRRR strategy from a single family up to a 100- or 200-unit apartment building timeline. Vanessa also shared an example of one of their recent projects, a 6-unit building they spent $2.8 million to acquire and then spent about $900,000 in renovations, which includes the upgrades to the actual units as well as doing some bigger items like upgrading the boiler, electrical, plumbing and other bigger pieces. In total, they spent $1.962 million, and were able to re-fi for $4.54 million. In short, their re-fi proceeds were more than they put in. Lauren asks Vanessa about the biggest risks they encounter. The main one is a changing market, where you aren’t able to re-finance when and for how much you predicted you would be able to. Another is having a bad contractor because the construction piece is huge when it comes to the BRRRR so working with somebody that you know and trust is a big factor and a big contributor to the success of the project. Poor underwriting can sink deals too. Vanessa shares how they navigated the rapidly increasing interest rates. They ended up leaving more money in some of the deals than they originally thought they would. They also leveraged a lending program. Lauren asks Vanessa when they decide to sell a property. They sell when it doesn’t fit on their portfolio any longer or when a property is not performing. And lastly, Vanessa makes real estate easy by surrounding herself with a power team. Alan agrees that having the team you trust is huge. Rockstars hang out with rockstars. Dion points out that there’s no right way or wrong way to invest in real estate, there’s just a right one for you.   Contact our Guest: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-pannozzo https://www.instagram.com/vanessapannozzo Guest Host's Segment Guest Host Dion brings up the topic of rent control, which is a hot topic in Washington, where Dion’s rentals are. According to Dion, rent control makes landlords rich and more tenants homeless. Dion asks the Hosts if the rent control has been proposed in their own areas? Alan is familiar with rent control because when he lived in New York City, everyone he knew in a rent-controlled building were incentivized not to leave and those people are typically people who had been there for 50 years. Lauren sold her duplex in St. Petersburg, Florida, when they were discussing rent controls on a citywide basis only due to Covid. As of March 1st, Dion is making $3200 more a month now because rent control was talked about in his state. It basically forces owners to raise rent by the maximum allowable because they won’t be able to make adjustments later. The solution to the housing problem is on the supply side. Alan talks a bit about what rent control was like when he lived in NYC. Dion reminds us to understand local laws. Follow Our Guest Host: https://www.youtube.com/channel https://www.diontalk.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/dion-mcneeley   Follow House Money Media: https://twitter.com/HouseMoneyMedia https://www.instagram.com/housemoney.media/ https://www.youtube.com/@house-money https://www.tiktok.com/@housemoneymedia   Follow Your Hosts: Lauren: https://twitter.com/AdultingIsEasy https://www.instagram.com/adultingiseasyreal/ https://www.youtube.com/@adultingiseasy   Alan:

House Money Weekly In this week’s episode, Lauren and Alan get together with their special guest, Matt, the RV Park Guy. For the House Money Weekly segment, they discuss blog 138, 3 Must Haves for Every Investor Buy Box. Whenever Alan buys a property, he likes to narrow the scope. The more narrow the scope then the more you have a very clear buy box. The 1st must-have is a growing population. You want people moving into the area because you have more demand for rental properties. Lauren shares that for short-term rentals, especially for one of them, people go there because of the small town vibes. Matt's RV Parks are in tiny little villages with no population that's why they have to evaluate if it is a place that people can get to easily or if it is a desirable place to go. The 2nd must-have is a diverse economy. Atlanta is one of Alan's favorite places because of the huge healthcare population, the growing startup population and Atlanta has all different industries that even if you leave Atlanta while working in one of the industries there, you can probably still keep your job and find a new one in a different city. Lauren's apartment building is an island of 700 and it doubles in the winter. The 3rd must-have (according to Alan) is a two-hour drive to an airport. Alan likes this idea because most people are willing to do a two-hour drive to a major airport as part of their travel and an airport is typically where universities are built around and where new headquarters are going to be built so it will be a safe spot for new investors to invest in a property. Lauren agrees more that being within 2 hours of a large city (with an airport) is important to her. Matt’s rule of thumb is 3 hours.   Sign up for the newsletter & read our blogs: https://www.housemoneymedia.com/blog   Mortgage Minute: Jasmine answers the question: When should someone lock their mortgage rate? Sponsored by: Jasmine Mortgage Team https://www.jasminemortgageteam.com/   Real Estate Is Easy Interview Lauren interviews Andy Gurczak, the Founder/CEO of AllCity Adjusting. Andy is a private-public adjuster. They represent the insured and advocate for the insured against their insurance company. The insurance company is trying to minimize claims, which is why you need someone on your side. Adjusters walk clients through the claims process where they cover everything. Adjusters are paid by receiving contingency pay (a percentage of the payout). Most adjusters charge anywhere from 10% to 20% and get paid once the claim is settled. Lauren asks Andy how he got into this kind of job and it’s because he met a public adjuster that was doing this job for almost 40 years. Andy also walked us through the claims process. When it comes to situations where people are not properly insured or underinsured, Andy finds it hard because they can only do so much about it. They look over their policies all the time to see what needs to be changed and where something isn’t covered. Lauren asks Andy a scenario where a property is flooded, can she go in there and cut drywall out on the same day? Although you want to mitigate, you want to have someone that photographs it and documents everything for the insurance. Some mistakes owners make are being underinsured, not documenting, not getting somebody in there quick enough, and not inventorying. Another mistake owners make is when they call to file a claim, they use the wrong terms, and they don’t properly read their policies or they don’t even know their policies. Andy also cautions against having “forced placed” insurance. And lastly, Andy makes real estate easy by keeping it simple. Understanding construction helped Andy, which leads to making real estate easy for him. Alan adds that having a niche is what helps. For Andy, it’s construction. Matt agrees that knowing construction isn’t a necessary skill, but you need to have some skills. For Lauren, it’s being organized and being able to manage people. Contact our Guest: Direct number: 708-655-4186 https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-gurczak-528b9b64 https://www.allcityadjusting.com/   Guest Host's Segment Guest Host Matt Guest Host Matt discusses a topic on the campgrounds RV Parks. There’s a trend of smaller rustic campgrounds being turned into landscape hotels. Matt is seeing lots of interesting concepts of cabins and high-end modular units that run for $800 a night. He asks for Alan and Lauren’s opinion on this topic. Alan only sees these creative properties on Airbnb. Traditionally, the one way to get attention on something like that was through short-term rental sites, but right now there is an influencer marketing playbook to launch direct bookings. Lauren asks about yurts. When it comes to short-term rentals, Lauren provides a budget friendly place to stay for people who need it while others are going to go to a certain destination for that “thing” alone. Alan agrees that approach is risky. Matt goes on to share how he’s re-imagining one of his properties. Follow Our Guest Host: https://twitter.com/ibuyrvparks   Follow House Money Media: https://twitter.com/HouseMoneyMedial https://www.instagram.com/housemoney.media/ https://www.youtube.com/@house-money https://www.tiktok.com/@housemoneymedia   Follow Your Hosts:   Lauren: https://twitter.com/AdultingIsEasy https://www.instagram.com/adultingiseasyreal/ https://www.youtube.com/@adultingiseasy   Alan: https://twitter.com/RealEstateMaxi