Headlines: Redfin Sees a “Brighter” Homebuying Season Coming, Will It Happen?

Mortgage rates are finally falling, and Redfin is predicting a “brighter” housing market. Who’s leading the charge in new homebuyers? Surprisingly, the generation nobody expected—Gen Z. How are they doing it, and why are their homeownership rates so much higher than Millennials and Gen Xers at the same age? We’re digging into it and sharing our forecasts of what the coming housing market will look like.

But to understand where we’re headed, we have to peak inside the personal finances of Americans. In this episode, we’re breaking down the average American’s wallet, how much money they have, their credit card debt, and whether they’ll be able to weather the financial storm of rising costs coming at them. How can Americans cope with higher insurance, taxes, and home prices?

Why is Redfin so optimistic about the 2025 spring homebuying market? And what are we seeing right now in our own markets in terms of buyer demand? Have lower mortgage rates finally crossed the threshold where Americans feel comfortable buying a house? We’ll touch on all of today’s latest headlines in this show!

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Dave:
We have finally got lower mortgage rates, but is that actually going to help America’s housing affordability problem? What’s the state of the average American’s wallet right now and how does Gen Z stack up to previous generations in terms of home ownership? The answer for that one actually might surprise you. Hey everyone, it’s Dave Meyer and this is on the Market, and today we’re bringing you the headlines. We’ve got my friend James Dainard, Kathy Fettke, and Henry Washington all here to join us to discuss the latest real estate news and what it means for each of our portfolios. Henry, how have you been, ma’am?

Henry:
I’ve been fantastic, man. How are you?

Dave:
I’m tired, to be honest. I am in Seattle right now and had dinner with James last night, but I’m not used to these 7:00 AM recordings. I’m used to 11:00 PM recording, so I’m a little thrown off. So if this episode sucks, it’s my fault. Kathy, how are you doing? I am

Kathy:
Good. I’m used to these 7:00 AM

Dave:
Ones. Yeah, you’re bright and chipper and I appreciate it. Thank you. And James, what’s going on?

James:
Not much. I’m still waking up too. Me and Dave were out a little bit later. All of a sudden we’re like, oh, we got early rise. We got to get out of here.

Dave:
We shut down this steak restaurant, not because we were drinking and getting rowdy, we were just hanging out

Henry:
Because they closed at 10.

Dave:
Yes. I mean, I do think we closed at 10 15 and we were by far the last people there. Yeah,

James:
We weren’t really wild that we were nerding out. We were talking about numbers and passive income.

Dave:
Wild spreadsheet talk took us late into the night. It was great. Well, we do have some great headlines for today’s show. We’re going to talk a lot about sort of the broader real estate news. We’ll talk about some lifestyle things and I’m excited to get into one of our headlines which really talks about the state of the average American’s wallet. We talk a lot about macro economics here, but today we’re going to talk a little bit more about microeconomics, which would be a lot of fun. So let’s just jump into our headlines. Our first headline is America’s Home Affordability Crisis has a solution and Lower Rates, isn’t it? As you all probably know by now, at the September meeting, the Federal Reserve cut their interest rate by half a percentage point and not at that meeting. But in the months leading up to that meeting, we did see mortgage rates start to come down, which is really encouraging for the housing market, but at the same time, home prices just keep going up. So there’s sort of this offsetting effect where affordability actually isn’t getting all that much better, even though mortgage rates definitely need to go down for that long-term solution. So Kathy, curious what you think. What are these long-term solutions to affordability if mortgage rates aren’t it?

Kathy:
Yeah, the problem with lower mortgage rates is it’s going to exacerbate the problem. We’re going to probably see more people being able to afford to come in the market when they’re still not the kind of supply that’s needed. So if anything, it’s going to get worse unfortunately, in terms of demand versus the supply that’s out there. So that leaves you with, you’ve got two metrics, right? Supply demand. If there’s not enough supply and too much demand, you got to create more supply. And we know there’s, our presidential candidates are talking about that. That’s great. The fact that it’s even in the news now from politicians saying we got to do something to create more supply. Hopefully they’ll figure something out If it’s more tax credits to builders, better loans, the fact that the Fed did cut rates does make it a little tiny bit better for builders to be able to get the construction loads and bring down costs, at least there. But costs are up everywhere for builders and labor costs and material costs. So it’s, the numbers aren’t working out for a lot of builders, so hopefully politicians come in and help with this situation somehow.

Dave:
Yeah, the press conference after where Jerome Powell was talking about this was like, yeah, supply is the real issue and then we moved on it.

Kathy:
They don’t know how to solve it. They don’t know how do you build something that can’t be built for what it costs to bring in affordable housing? It’s really hard to do. I think you guys know in California it’s been a huge fail. I think they built an apartment building for homeless, it was a million dollars per unit. That’s not obviously sustainable, so I’m not sure anybody knows how to fix the problem and bring on more supply except for real estate investors.

Dave:
Yeah, that’s true. Well, I’m in Seattle visiting family and hung out with James like we were saying last night, but I’ve been noticing the Upzoning a lot here, which if you haven’t heard that term, it’s one potential solution to supply where single family lots are now allowed to add either a single or even two ADUs. And I don’t know James, I just see it driving around everywhere. Do you think it’s having an impact in Seattle?

James:
No, I think it’s definitely having an impact, creating more housing in Seattle. I know LA has a boom going on right now too, where people are trying to build a lot of ADUs. Ddus. The big issue is it’s not creating affordable housing though. Because the big issue like Kathy said, is the costs are just too high. Not only are the building costs up, they continue to creep up, but cost of money’s way up and cost of land is way up. And so what it does is they’re getting built, but the average price in the Seattle metro market, those things are selling for around eight to $900 a foot.

Dave:
Oh my god.

James:
And so like a two bed, two bath, 1,150 square foot unit on a good lot with a garage can get you. I saw one sell recently for over $950,000. What

Henry:
For a

James:
Box? Insane. So it’s not a creating the affordable housing. And the issue is you could do it in some submarkets like Tacoma where the average pricing would be 400,000, a lot cheaper. You can’t build it and make any money though because the average cost to build that unit is about 300 to 350 grand

Dave:
With

James:
Land costs, debt costs, you are in the red, and so you can’t make it. Pencils a rental. You can’t make it pencil as a development to sell. And so it’s just hard. It’s not creating the product that they’re hoping it will create. I in this article, they’re like, oh yeah, we came up with a solution. We’re just going to build more houses.

Henry:
Yeah, okay,

James:
We’re going to motivate you to build houses. We awesome, but you can’t build ’em cheap enough to get affordable housing. So we got to figure out how to drive those costs down. The one thing I did in the article, how it notated was that the construction, how do you get costs down? Well, it’s a supply and demand thing. We have seen, even though it has crept up nationwide, there’s a lot more people looking for work right now in the new construction space, not as much in the renovation space. From my experience with the new construction, and it did say open jobs in the construction space were at 250,000, whereas they were at 400,000 before. And I don’t know if that was part of the whole jobs reporting mess, but the jobs are being filled, but it’s like people don’t have the work in the volume. And so we have seen, I definitely have seen pricing drops, siting, framing, roofing windows. Those costs have dropped for us probably 10 to 20% in the last 12 months. Oh, that’s good. So maybe supply and demand, lack of jobs being bid out permits are rolling out a lot slower right now. There’s less stuff to build. We’re starting to see some construction break and that’s maybe how we get the affordable housing going.

Dave:
Yeah, I wouldn’t describe an eight or $900,000 A DU as affordable housing, Henry. It’s not like your market’s super cheap, but what would 800 grand buy you at Northwest Arkansas?

Henry:
Whew, man. 800 grand. That is probably like a 3000 to 4,000 square foot home, four to six bedrooms, bonus space. It’s a pretty decent size home now. Affordability, I mean it is come down now. You used to be able to get quite the spread for 800,000, but it’s come down a little bit,

Dave:
But I mean it seems like if you took that money to the Midwest, you could buy a fourplex for that at least maybe more eight plex.

Henry:
Yeah, more than that for sure.

Dave:
Yeah, so hopefully there are some positive trends. And I do think at least generally if rates do come down, we’re seeing the rate of appreciation go down. So if home prices stop growing so quickly and rates keep coming down to maybe in the mid fives at some point in the next year or so, that should improve affordability. And I don’t have the numbers right in front of me, but when you look at these tables where it shows how much a half point helps the housing market, it’s a lot. It’s usually for half a point, a couple million households become able to qualify for mortgages. And so I think there’s hope that it’s going to get better. Does that mean we’re going to have an abundance of affordable housing? Unfortunately, I don’t think so.

Kathy:
Well, yeah, I mean the stats that I’ve seen is you’ve got about 15 million people in the millennial group just at that household formation age in their early thirties. And if a couple million people are now able to afford homes, you’ve still got 13 million trying to create those households. How are they going to do it? There are reports saying that there’s 7 million homes needed in the affordable range. So it’s a huge issue.

Dave:
Hopefully things are starting to move in the right direction. At least to me, this seems so unsustainable.

James:
I love how the politicians are like, oh yeah, bill Morehouse investors fix this. And then they’re like, oh, by the way, if you increase your rents more than 5%, we want to tax you or take away some of the tax. It’s like they take from one and then they expect you to build the house. It makes no

Henry:
Sense. We want you to build this and then we want you to pay us taxes on the ghost income you create through the appreciation.

Kathy:
Well, one thing that really bugs me about this, but it’s a positive for BiggerPockets and for this community, is that people are going in and buying older homes, dilapidated homes and renovating them and bringing on new supply that way. That can be a cheaper way to bring on more affordable housing. And yet you’ll see headlines just recently of oh, 25% of inventory was bought by investors, how those naughty bad investors. So I do think education is needed and that’s what we’re doing here, trying to get the word out that investors are doing a good thing by buying those houses, fixing them up and putting ’em on the market is more affordable than a new home would be. Right. James and Henry

James:
We’re not so bad. We’re not so bad.

Dave:
That’s a great point, Kathy. And in addition, we are going to be covering some ideas and sort of diving deep into two of these issues, both the housing supply issue and the housing affordability issue the next couple of weeks, we’re doing entire episodes on them, so definitely make sure to check them out because on top of just the headlines, we do want to talk about what’s happening on the ground, what some of the proposals going through, government examples from municipalities that are doing this well, and we’ll be sharing all that in the next couple of weeks. So definitely make sure to check those out. Okay. Time for our first brief word from our sponsors, but don’t go anywhere. Predictions from Fannie Mae and Redfin on where home sales volume’s going next year on the other side.
Welcome back to On the Market. We are breaking down the latest headlines. Let’s move on to our second headline, which reads Real estate news. Redfin predicts Brighter Market next Spring expands team, but also we saw another headline that said Fannie Mae, existing Hope Sales Odd Pace to hit nearly 30 year low despite lower rates. So we’re hearing sort of conflicting news about what’s going on with transaction volume and we of course talk a lot about on the show about home prices, but transaction volume is really a very good indicator for the health of the housing market. It’s a big important element of GDP. All of our friends and listeners who rely on transaction volume like real estate agent mortgage lenders are probably very curious to know what’s going to happen here. So Henry, what’s your take on this? Do you think that we’re going to start to see the market thaw a little bit as we head into 2025?

Henry:
Yeah, I mean I do. We’re still seeing transactions happen. There are a subset of people who still want to move. Yes, there’s a lock in effect happening, but we have to remember that people don’t just move for one reason. People have to move for work. People have to move because they’ve got to get closer to family. People have to move because they’re trying to get away from family. There’s other factors that are causing people to want to move. And so I do think we’re going to see a bump after the holidays just naturally we get a bump in the market at that time. But if rates are sub 6%, I find it hard to believe that we won’t see more transactions.

Dave:
What do you think, James? You think that we’re on pace for more?

James:
It’s been very strange. Right now we have about 34 listings going on for dispose of flip product, which is usually pretty looked at. We’re on the higher price point on the market, but it’s fully renovated. And right now we have about 30% pending. Typically we run about 55 to 65% pending. The thing that I have noticed is the bodies haven’t increased since rates have fallen. It’s not that we’re not selling, we’re not transacting like Henry says, but the average showings, there’s been a couple that have been around the median home price numbers and that’s usually your sweet spot. As rates fell, I was thinking we were going to get a surge in activity and it has been flatlined, we’re still getting one to two show winds a week. And so I think the people still buying, there’s still only so many people out there that can really transact even with rates and housing costs as high as there is.
So there’s going to be some sort of middle point, whether it’s a little pullback in pricing as rates come down, there will be a sweet spot. And I do think there is more buyers coming to market. I think it was last week reported that 11% more mortgage applications got applied for. And then the interesting thing is about the whole lock-in effect though 20% more refi requests. And so I think everyone’s thinking it’s going to loosen up inventory, but what if it doesn’t? Because now everyone who was at seven and a half to eight is just locking in and they’re not moving either. But so those are things to watch. But as of right now, I’m not seeing any bodies increase and eventually it will come, but to my surprise right about now, the market picks up a little bit. Rates are lower, we’re technically cheaper than we were in the first quarter of 2024 and we’re not seeing the bodies.

Dave:
People keep saying this and it makes sense to me that we’ve just sort of exhausted the number of people who want to buy at a high six rate. And I know we’re at low six, but I think it’s just people who are willing to pay sort of any price despite rates have probably moved by now. And now we’re just into a pool of potential buyers that are a little bit more hesitant at least. But I am optimistic that we’re going to start to see a bit of an increase next year. It’s got to get better. It’s hard to imagine it getting worse, at least to be. So I think it’s going to start to get better. And then I actually, I put this on Instagram the other day, but the amount of work from home is really declining.
And very famously we saw Andy chassis, the CEO of Amazon call all their employers back to work five days a week this week. And I found this data that showed that in 2021, about 18% of workers worked from home, at least part-time, 2022 it went down to 15% and now it’s down to 13.8%. So it’s steadily declining. And it just makes me wonder if people who move during the pandemic are going to start to have to move back. And although that’s not the wide open market that we’d all hope for where there’s plenty of inventory and plenty of demand, it could at least push some people back into the market because things are improving a little bit and it’s required for their lifestyle.

Henry:
That’s one of the things that’s happening here in northwest Arkansas. Walmart has made that call about two months ago, and so we’ve started to see people trickle back in to northwest Arkansas, and that is stimulating the housing market, especially in that mid tier home. So the more expensive luxury homes still take a while to sell, but kind of that second tier home, when you’re upgrading from your first three bed, two bath up to your four bed, three bath kind of home, that median range, we’re starting to see more buyers enter that market. As we have high income earners who are coming back to the market,

Dave:
It’s probably, I would imagine also as a landlord, a pretty good sign for vacancy rates and flips because some people might be moving back and not ready or financially unable to buy a house, but it will increase demand for rentals as well.

Henry:
And it’s increasing demand for short-term rentals as you have people who are coming back here and having to spend time looking for a home or having to spend time waiting until a home gets built. We’ve seen our short-term rentals get booked for longer stays for people who are either moving back to the area or having houses built.

Dave:
Alright, well let’s move on to our third headline, which was taken from the Wall Street Journal. It was called The State of America’s Wallet. I really enjoyed this article, but basically it goes through different personal finance metrics through sometimes contradictory and sometimes confusing elements of what’s going on with Americans. So some of the highlights are that compared to 2019, credit card debt is at an all time high. Just to be candid, it’s at over $1.1 trillion. But if you actually break that down on an individual basis, Americans are now earning more than inflation. So we have real wage growth for the first time in a couple of years. Americas have higher earnings bank balances and compared to their disposable income, the debt ratio on that credit card debt is actually a little bit lower. There’s a bunch of other interesting stuff in there though. So Kathy, curious, what do you make of the state of the average American’s finances right now?

Kathy:
Well, from what I’ve seen from charts, and again, there is no average American, right? Yeah,

Dave:
That’s true

Kathy:
From what I’ve seen is the savings rate has gone down, but that’s partly because there’s been more opportunity to put it elsewhere. Why would you just have it sitting in a savings account when you could have it in a money market account or buy some treasuries and make some money on it? So the money for many people is still there, it’s just invested. But with that said, there is the credit card issue, and it’s the same with housing taking an average. It just doesn’t make sense when you’re talking nationally. There are people who are on more fixed incomes, they maybe aren’t as educated, they maybe have more blue collar jobs and inflation has come down. But just the growth rate, a lot of people are like inflation came down. That doesn’t mean prices came down. It just means the rate of those prices going up has slowed down.
So for people on fixed incomes, it’s tough time. There’s so much increase in prices from housing to insurance. I mean we’ve talked about this at length. You go to the grocery store and you come out with a bag of groceries, it’s like, what did I get for this price? So I think there’s still sticker shock for a lot of people, but that’s more on the fixed income area. Then you’ve got a whole nother group that is doing great. They are seeing wage growth, they are seeing opportunity and have certainly benefited from asset growth whether in the stock market or in housing. So it’s the tale two worlds and to me makes no sense to just give averages out there. There are people suffering and there are people really benefiting from things that have happened. But based on the last story of why is the market frozen with housing, I mean, look at where we are. We’re at a very uncertain time. The election is freaking people out. It could go either way. Here we are again at a stalemate like who’s going to win? And I think that that causes the pause of people just kind of not knowing what to do right now.

Dave:
Definitely I agree that’s slowing down the housing market and I think historical precedent shows that we’ll probably see an uptick in real estate transaction regardless of who wins. People stop buying just before the election and then once there’s some more certainty they start buying again. So that would be interesting. The one thing that’s just really stuck out to me in this article, the car ownership expenses, just how expensive it’s gotten to own a car. Everyone knows that prices went up, but this shows that since 2019 insurance, we talk about housing insurance all the time, car insurance has gone up 50%. Explain that to me. That doesn’t make any sense to me. Are people getting in 50% more crashes? I don’t know. Meanwhile, repairs and maintenance are up 40%, so it just feels like getting kicked when you’re down. It’s the situation where you have new cars are more expensive, used cars are way more expensive, maintenance is more expensive, insurance is more expensive. It’s just like all these little things really add up to reduce your spending power and makes you understand why. Even though at the broadest level we do see GDP growth, why people aren’t feeling great about the economy because these little things that really impact their lives, it’s been relentless. It’s terrible.

James:
I mean, I actually thought this article was somewhat of a positive compared to, I’ve kind of looked at it, I’ve had kind of more of a negative outlook on this, but I’m like, okay, well 4 0 1 ks are rising a little bit. People, maybe the credit card debt isn’t as bad for the individual, but there’s a certain breaking point where I’m still like, these costs are just snowballing insurance utility costs are brutal right now too. Property taxes, as people trade out their houses, those things reset. All these things start snowballing and pinching the consumer. It’s kind of came to this slow and I feel like we’re flattening out because of these expenses just because people have to think about it and they value their lifestyle more and they’re like, well, these things are costing more. I’m just going to stay where I’m at and until I think some of these costs start getting some relief and I don’t know how they’re going to get some of these costs down, like insurance, that’s not going to go down.

Henry:
Nope, never.

James:
Who knows? It could keep dramatically increasing the amount of claims that were out there the last two years. We might be just in the beginning of this increase. And so these things are pinching and it’s causing the slowdown across the board and they do need to figure out how can you get other out the Fed cutting their rates that’s going to help with credit card rates. We got to get people spending. I did think a couple of ’em, the stats, I’m like, well, individual 4 0 1 ks are rising and maybe it’s not as bad as I thought it was. I thought America was going broke 12 months ago.

Dave:
Yeah, I agree that the 401k, I thought the credit card debt was really encouraging. And just to clarify, right, there is a ton of credit card debt, but you have to remember that with all the money printing that went on over the last few years, the value of the dollar has declined. And so the value of that credit card debt is actually not as bad as it sounds like it would be because if you look at credit card debt as a percentage of disposable income or as a percentage of monetary supply, like the total amount of dollars that are out there, it’s actually better because there’s way more dollars out there right now. And yes, 1.1 trillion of them are in credit card debt, but that’s actually not any real worse percentage wise than it has been over the last couple of generations. It just feels like a mixed bag.
And you actually see that if you look at the consumer sentiment charts, this is something that gets put out by the University of Michigan. They just measure how consumers are feeling about economy. It looks like one of those EKGs at the hospital. People are like, it’s good, it’s terrible, it’s good, it’s terrible. And every month it just kind of changes. No one really can get a good read on the trend direction at least. Alright, we have to take one last short break, but when we come back we’re going to talk about how Gen Z stacks up in the home ownership race. And the answer’s probably going to surprise you. Stay with us.
Hey everyone, welcome back to On the Market. Alright, let’s move on to our last headline today, which is how Gen Z outpaces past generations in the home ownership rate. And this was surprising to me that Gen Z has taken the lead in the home ownership rate. So basically there’s a survey and it shows what different generations their home ownership rate was at the age of 24 years old. So for Gen Z at 24-year-old Gen Z member, 28% of them own a home, which was kind of high. I was pretty surprised by that. For millennials that rate was 24.5% and Gen X had the lowest at 23.5%. And I’m just curious, Henry, since you’re a resident Gen Z expert here, tell us what all you youngins are talking about with the housing market today.

Henry:
I think this is, in my opinion, this is just a function of the access to information at a younger age. And specifically we’re talking about financial education, right? Financial education wasn’t something that was taught to the general public in a school system. It still really isn’t. But people at a younger age are growing up with technology in their hands at a younger age. And there are more people like us Yahoos out there teaching people about how to build wealth, about how to make money. There’s plenty of financial educators on TikTok teaching people that you can build wealth and you couple that with everything else that we talked about on this podcast. You couple the fact that the knowledge is out there on top of the fact that they understand that housing is not really affordable, life is not really affordable. I have to do something to create more income so that I can have the lifestyle that I want. And so it’s forcing them to think, what can I do with this money to make me more money so that I can afford a home so that I can afford to do the things that I want to do so that I don’t have to worry about going to the grocery store and not being able to afford the things that I want. So you’ve got the circumstance plus the information and then people are taking action with it at a younger age.

Kathy:
I totally agree with you, Henry, that people have more information today, more education, but this article is talking about 2021.
If you have access to information and you’re looking at it and saying, wow, it’s cheaper for me to own than to rent. These young people are smart enough to do that. I just don’t know if that’s going to continue based on where we are today, where the payment is double, maybe what some of those younger people got into. I hope that now that rates are a little bit lower and people have access to information and can say, if I’m going to stay in this place and get all the other benefits of homeownership, which is paying down that loan and hopefully seeing appreciation over time and getting some tax benefits. If you put that all together that it makes sense maybe to have that higher payment or if it’s just more expensive to rent than to own. But that is not the case today. It’s way, way cheaper to rent than to own. And it’s maybe not the best financial decision for some people if they’re going to be paying double to own than to just rent a nice apartment somewhere they could invest elsewhere. So I will be curious to see what the data says after 2022 new data.

Dave:
I have the same exact question, Kathy. I was thinking Gen Z sort of came into this era, at least for the survey like young twenties during a fantastic time to buy real estate and now the pendulum has swung totally in the other direction and now it’s an extremely difficult time to buy real estate. And if you look at some of the data, the job market is particularly tough on young people right now. And so I think it’ll be interesting to see if they’ll be able to keep up. Hopefully as the market gets a little bit better, we’ll be able to see these young people buying homes. Just a critical part of the housing market and the entire economy building wealth and stability. Long-term is for young people to be able to buy homes.

James:
And I think I really like what Henry said. People were at home, they were bored, they educated themselves and that’s why, and luckily there’s things like BiggerPockets and they can actually get good information. When I was their age, there was not all that information. I would Google and look for documents and news articles. But the one thing I will say, I talked to a lot of these Gen Zs that are the short-term rental investors and the ones that bought some of their own homes. They are trying to figure it out. And I give them a little bit of resilience because they is harder, but they’re not throwing in the towel. They are still trying to do different things. They’re raising money. And so I think that’s the one really positive and silver lining to that is they saw the success, they felt the success, and they are still trying to figure it out and create the new plan. And that’s the cool thing because I would’ve thought they would’ve kind of thrown in the towel a little bit more, but they are shift in, they’re moving, they’re really trying to figure it out. And that’s the cool thing.

Dave:
Yeah, that’s very encouraging. So I mean it’s also very counter to the mainstream media narrative that everything about Gen Z’s finances is screwed up. And I’m sure there are a lot of unique challenges, but clearly there are some bright spots too and some opportunities for young folks to get into the housing market as well.

Kathy:
And they’ve kind of lived in a time when they haven’t really seen home prices go down for a while and they are seeing the stock market having not really gone down for a while. So I would imagine it would feel like, oh man, I got to get in because prices are going to keep going up. And based on the lack of supply, that could be true that prices could continue to go up until there’s more supply. Obviously in areas where there’s oversupply like Austin and I think Nashville and Denver prices are coming down a little bit, but still so high. Still so high. So I would imagine the mindset is a little different than maybe a millennial who saw their parents lose their homes, saw prices come down dramatically. It maybe wasn’t as urgent. I need to get into this market. Watching people lose so much money.

James:
I’m excited for is when Jen Alpha starts buying, and then we’re going to start hearing like this cashflow is riz this cashflow, and we’re going to hear all these terms coming out.

Dave:
I’m retiring at that point. I can’t learn all those new words.

Henry:
Yeah, because right now it’s pretty mid, so pretty soon. Pretty soon it’ll be better.

Dave:
Alright, well thank you all so much for joining us, James, Henry, Kathy, I think the next time I’m going to see you guys is in Mexico. Is that right?

Kathy:
Oh my gosh, I’m so excited. It’ll

Dave:
Be fun. Let’s

Kathy:
Go. Bep con’s going to be lit. I have Gen Z kids, right? I have to learn this

Dave:
Stuff. There you go. Well hopefully we’ll see you all there. Come check us out. We’re going to actually, this year we’re doing a podcast meet and greet part of BP Con where we’re just kind of hanging out and chatting with listeners of the show. So if you are a listener of On the Market, come check us out. I don’t know the date and the time on the top of my head, but it’ll be on the agenda. Come hang out with Kathy Henry, James, and myself in Mexico. It should be a really good time. Thank you all so much for listening. We’ll see you soon for another episode of On The Market. On The Market was created by me, Dave Meyer and Kaylin Bennett. The show is produced by Kaylin Bennett, with editing by Exodus Media. Copywriting is by Calico content and we want to extend a big thank you to everyone at BiggerPockets for making this show possible.

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In This Episode We Cover

  • How Gen Z became the leading young homeowner generation
  • Lower rates, but still struggling affordability and the real solution to our housing problem
  • Optimistic news from Redfin about the 2025 spring housing market and the big JUMP in mortgage applications
  • The average American’s personal finances and whether they’ll be able to eat the cost of recent inflation
  • The downfall of work-from-home and why more Americans may be moving (and buying houses) soon
  • And So Much More!

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Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.

How You Can Legally Minimize Rental Property Taxes as Much as Possible

As a landlord, you probably already know that taxes are unavoidable, but that doesn’t mean you can’t minimize them and keep more of your hard-earned cash. The IRS can be your friend who gives you their notes before the test or the bully who takes your lunch money. It’s all about how you utilize the tax code in your favor. Here’s a little guide on how to play the tax game without paying a cent more than necessary.

Tax Advantages Of Rental Properties

First off, depreciation is your best friend. The IRS lets you deduct the wear and tear of your property over 27.5 years. So, while your house may actually be appreciating in value, on paper, it’s “wearing down,” which magically reduces your taxable income. Next, we have deductible operating expenses like insurance, taxes, and more that can significantly lower your tax bill. Finally, there is capital gains tax relief that comes into play when you hold your property longer than one year, which you may qualify for.

Another tip: if you’re planning to sell your rental property, the 1031 exchange is your golden ticket. This lets you reinvest the sale proceeds into another rental property and defer paying capital gains tax. It’s like pressing pause on taxes while you grow your real estate empire.

How is Rental Income Taxed With a Mortgage

Next, if you’ve got a mortgage, you’re in luck. The interest you pay is fully deductible. Think of it like this: every time you make that monthly payment, a chunk of it goes towards lowering your tax bill. And if you use part of your property as your primary residence and rent out the rest, you can even deduct the interest on the rental portion. Sadly, the principal paydown is not tax deductible. 

6 Tips To Reduce Your Rental Income Tax

Actively Managing

One of the lesser-known tricks is actively managing your property. According to the IRS, if you spend at least 750 hours a year managing your rentals, they consider it “active” income rather than passive. This classification opens up more deductions, which means more money stays in your pocket. The more involved you are in your property’s upkeep, the bigger the tax benefits. There are several factors to be considered active, so talk with an investor-friendly CPA to learn the ins and outs of qualifying. 

Track and Deduct All Expenses

Keep a detailed list of every single expense related to your rental. We’re talking about everything from new appliances to marketing costs and travel expenses. Even the miles you drive to and from the property are deductible. Miss a deduction, and you might as well be tossing money out the window. Even the HOA fees you may pay are deductible. Finally, we can benefit from them telling us our trash cans were out an hour too early. 

Depreciate Capital Investments 

If you made any big-ticket upgrades like installing a new HVAC system or putting on a fresh roof, you can depreciate those over time. Depreciation accounts for the natural decline in the value of assets over time. Maintaining your property, and will the IRS reward you for it? That’s a rare win-win for both of us.

Make Borrowing Your Friend

When you take out a loan or line of credit for your rental, the interest is deductible, too. It’s another win-win: you get the cash to improve your property, and you get to reduce your tax bill. Just be careful not to overdo it—too much debt might limit your financing options down the road.

Reduce Capital Gains Tax

Now, if you plan to sell the property, brace yourself for capital gains tax, but don’t worry—there are ways to soften the blow. If the property was your primary residence for at least two of the last five years before selling, you can exclude up to $250,000 ($500,000 for married couples) from capital gains. For those thinking long-term, careful estate planning can help defer and even eliminate capital gains taxes when passing properties on to your heirs. Selling your property or gifting it to a family member will trigger a gain tax. Tax rules swing in our favor, though, when it is an estate gift instead.

Review your property tax assessments regularly

Over-assessed properties mean overpaying taxes. Compare your property’s assessed value to similar ones in your area, and if it looks off, appeal the assessment. You’d be surprised how often tax assessments are higher than they should be. The process to appeal property taxes varies by jurisdiction, so make sure to familiarize yourself with the deadlines and procedures needed. There are even companies that will do all of the work for you in return for a percentage of the money they saved you if you are confused by the process or don’t have time. 

Managing rental properties is a juggling act, and taxes are just one of the balls in the air. But with these tips, you can minimize your tax bill and keep your investment profitable. If all these deductions and tax strategies sound overwhelming, don’t sweat it. Software like Baselane can help you stay organized. It simplifies bookkeeping and rent collection and even helps you categorize all those deductible expenses, so you’re not scrambling at tax time. Take it from me, the guy who regularly used to not keep up properly and would turn on panic mode each tax season. 

These are just a few of the strategies to remember, and you should always consult with a tax professional who works with investors. Every deduction is a step toward paying less and keeping more of your rental income, which is exactly how you want to play the game.

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.

5 Steps to Starting a Short-Term Rental Business

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How You Can Take Full Advantage of the Federal Rate Cut

A few months ago, slowing down the nation’s rate of inflation seemed insurmountable for the Federal Reserve Bank. Now that inflation is at 2.5% and the Fed announced a sizable half-point rate cut on Sept. 18, inflation has continued to slow to such an extent that another large rate cut is being discussed

For the real estate industry, such news, after two years of despair amid post-COVID rate hikes, is like having a birthday and holiday season arrive in quick succession. The question for many investors is how best to take full advantage of the rate cuts.

Mortgage rates have already dropped in the wake of the first Fed rate cut and are expected to keep their downward trajectory through 2025, should rate cuts continue. The movement is “reviving purchase and refinance demand for many consumers,” Freddie Mac chief economist Sam Khater said in a statement.

Fed chairman Jerome Powell told the National Association for Business Economics in prepared remarks on Sept. 30:

Looking forward, if the economy evolves broadly as expected, policy will move over time toward a more neutral stance. But we are not on any preset course. The risks are two-sided, and we will continue to make our decisions meeting by meeting.”

Don’t Expect a Dramatic Change in Rates

Though welcome, don’t expect mortgage rates to fall dramatically beyond their current rate of around 6%. That’s because the Fed’s recent move was mostly baked into the current rate, so further cuts will be needed to continue moving the needle. In addition, mortgages tend to be influenced by, rather than move in tandem with, the Fed’s actions.

“Long-term mortgage rates will fall if economic data indicates a weakening economy,” said Melissa Cohn, regional vice president of William Raveis Mortgage, a mortgage lender in Shelton, Connecticut. “Employment numbers will be key.”

The Fed rate cut affects the rates that banks charge each other overnight. In turn, a host of different short-term rates are reflected in the prime rate, which ultimately filters down to real estate. Real estate is also affected by long-term bonds, particularly the 10-year Treasury yield.

Refinancing

For homeowners or investors forced to buy or refinance at high rates over the last couple of years, a refinance to almost two points lower will bring some much-needed relief. The decision to refinance now or wait differs from buyer to buyer, depending on your plans for your property. 

If you plan to stay or keep your property long enough to recover closing costs and other fees— about 2% to 3% of the loan amount—it might make sense to refinance now and benefit from lower monthly payments. When banks offer no- or low-cost refinances, it often results in higher rates, and the fees will be added to the loan cost.  

Ruth Bonapace, a senior mortgage loan officer at US Bank, told BiggerPockets that she offers this lending advice to borrowers who are unsure about refinancing:

“If you think there might be another rate drop in the near future and you want to lower your payment now but don’t want to risk paying closing costs twice, then you can often have the lender cover the costs in the form of a sizable lender credit. You won’t get the rock-bottom rate because the lender has to build in that cost. But it is a stepping stone, almost a no-brainer, to just lower your payment for as long as it takes until you can step down again.”

In general, the larger your mortgage, the more likely this scenario makes sense. Why? Most closing costs are not tied to the loan amount.”

Bonapace illustrates a common scenario: 

“A borrower with a 7% rate wants to lower it to a new rate of 6% on a $200,000 mortgage with zero discount points. Did you know that if you wanted the lender to cover $2,000 of the $5,000 in closing costs, the rate would probably go up to 6.25% for that rebate, and the closing costs you pay would be $3,000? (The one point equal to a quarter-percent off the rate is meant for illustration purposes only and can vary, but it is typical for most 30-year fixed mortgages. Closing costs likewise vary.)

“Now, if your loan amount is $600,000, for the 6.25%, you get $6,000, covering all costs in this scenario. So you’ve effectively got a free refi, and if you do it again in a few months, you won’t have to incur costs twice. With a $1 million mortgage, the rate might only go from 6% to 6.125% because you might only need a half point to cover the costs.

Some banks and nonbank mortgage companies advertise “no-cost” refinances. It’s the same concept, and the ads make the phone ring. But just about any experienced loan officer will know how to do this and can explain it in more customized detail than we can here. It’s worth asking.

Bonapace stresses that closing costs on a refi are usually lower than on a purchase, as borrowers might not need to do an appraisal, title insurance will be less, and a refi can be closed with a title company rather than an attorney.

Use the BiggerPockets mortgage calculator to determine if a refinance makes sense.

New Investment Loans for Landlords

Rather than calculating the cost of refinancing, investors may want to calculate the cost of not borrowing money now. 

Factor in lost rental income, lost depreciation (both long-term and short), lost equity buydown, and lost equity on the purchase price. Then factor in the cost of a refinance in a 12-to-24-month time frame when rates have dropped further, and house prices have increased, and you’ll probably find buying now makes more sense than waiting.

Look at Your Financial Life Holistically

Real estate investing for landlords is all about cash flow. It’s a good idea to examine every aspect of your financial life to see where a rate cut can help you increase the amount of money you will have in your pocket at the end of the month—not just from rent. 

The more money you have, the more you can invest or use it to help secure your real estate business with repairs. A cash-out refinance to a lower rate could also help you pay off high interest rate debt elsewhere, such as credit cards and student loans.

Here are some key aspects to examine.

Your car loan

Car loans track with the yield on the five-year Treasury note, which is influenced by the Fed’s key rate. Assuming your credit history is good, and you are not buying a luxury vehicle and can put some money down, a lower interest rate will help decrease payments. Shop around because rates and prices for new cars can differ markedly. Shop for the car price (including all fees) first, as opposed to the monthly payment, and then work on the payment.

Credit cards

Many investors fund rehabs and even purchases using credit cards, so a lower rate could make a big difference. The interest rates you pay on any balances you carry should fall after the Fed has acted, though it may vary by carrier. Also, it may take two or three statement cycles before you start seeing a lower credit card rate.

Again, your credit score matters. If you are shopping for a credit card, the 25 biggest credit card issuers’ rates are generally 8 to 10 percentage points higher than smaller banks or credit unions. Zero-rate balance transfer cards that can buy you at least 12 to 18 months of interest-free payments can allow you to meaningfully pay down the principal you owe. The best credit card debt is the debt that has been paid off.

Student loans

Most student loans are not affected by interest rates, as the vast majority are from the federal government, which has its own interest rates on student loans that are not tied to the Fed. However, lower interest rates could still help you reduce your student loan payment. 

Cash flow from an income-producing property (financed with a lower rate) could pay down your educational debt. Alternatively, if you have a high student loan interest rate, borrowing at a lower interest rate to buy and flip a home or renovate and do a cash-out refinance to a lower rate could help you clear your debt in one fell swoop. Ditto for credit cards.

Final Thoughts

Rate cuts are at the beginning of their cycle. Many economists expect cuts to continue until 2026. Real estate investors wondering whether to hold tight and wait until the end of the cycle have to weigh where the market will be in 18 months. 

Continued cuts will stimulate construction and the actions of buyers and sellers, resulting in increased activity and likely an increase in house prices. So, if you’re thinking about buying and holding a rental property now, even if it doesn’t cash flow, by the time you refinance, it probably will once the Fed has finished cutting rates. In any case, it would have increased in equity.

House flippers will have the advantage of having more buyers able to qualify for loans when their projects are complete. Assuming a flip project takes six to eight months, values will likely have increased, too, adding profit to the flip. 

All this means is that lower interest rates are a reason to be cheerful about investing in the future.

This article is presented by Dominion Financial

dominion financial logo

Dominion Financial Services is a national private lender for real estate investors offering a full suite of residential real estate loan products, including Short-Term Bridge and Long-Term Rental. Since its founding in 2002, Dominion Financial Services has funded more than 13,000 projects nationwide, totaling more than $3.6 billion in originations.

Dominion Financial Services offers Long-Term Rental Loans with a DSCR Price-Beat Guarantee and Short-Term Bridge Loans with up to 100% LTC and no appraisal.

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.

Buying His First Rental at 19 by Doing What Most Newbies Are Afraid to Do

How hard is it to buy a rental property in 2024? With all the buzz around high interest rates and soaring home prices, you’d think that investing in today’s market is a lost cause. But if a nineteen-year-old can take down his first real estate deal with very little education or experience, there’s no reason why you can’t invest, too!

Welcome back to the Real Estate Rookie podcast! After learning about FIRE (financial independence, retire early), Elijah Berg realized that wealthy people had something in common. They weren’t just investing in stocks; they also owned real estate! Determined to follow in their footsteps, Elijah started saving for a down payment and built his buy box. Next, he found an investor-friendly agent and lender to help him find and fund his property. Eventually, he found a diamond in the rough—a duplex in an A-class neighborhood.

Tune in as Elijah walks you through his first deal and shares some personal finance tips that helped him prepare for his first investment. In this episode, you’re going to learn why time in the market is still more important than timing the market, and why new investors shouldn’t allow fear of the unknown to stop them from investing in 2024!

Click here to listen on Apple Podcasts.

Listen to the Podcast Here

Read the Transcript Here

Ashley:
We have heard from our rookie audience that you would like to hear more from true rookies. And today we are bringing on a guest who has one property that he purchased within the last year. Of course, he hopes to eventually retire from real estate, but he is just getting started. He is definitely the inspiration we might all need right now that buying real estate after the low pandemic interest rate is still very possible. This is the Real Estate Rookie podcast. I’m Ashley Kehr, and I’m here with Tony J Robinson.

Tony:
And welcome to the show where every week, three times a week, we bring you the inspiration, motivation, and stories you need to hear to kickstart your investing journey. Now Elijah, welcome to the podcast brother. Super excited to be chatting with you today, man.

Elijah:
Hi Tony. Thank you. It is more than a pleasure to be here with you guys

Tony:
At 19 years old. It’s an incredible accomplishment to already be investing in real estate.

Ashley:
Yeah. Elijah, to start the show off and you went into mention your 19 year, so what were you doing before you bought your first property?

Elijah:
A little background about me. I work at m and t Bank. I’m the vocal custodian there. I’m a boxer, registered boxer within raised gym. I do a lot of fishing, play video games sometimes, but not so much then. So that’s kind of why I came dressed like this and not my suit that I wear at the bank to show I’m not some guy with a top hat and a monocle and I’m just like a normal kid. Most people are calling me a kid still, but I’m kind of an adult now. So I learned fire, financially, independent, retire early after doing some digging.

Ashley:
So Elijah, just real quick, when you discovered fire, what made you decide that you were going to use real estate as your vehicle to reach that financial independence?

Elijah:
And I knew during when I was doing penny stocks and trading all that, I knew there’s no way all the big money getters, there’s no way all the big fish are sitting here doing this. There has to be something different and it’s real estate, which it is crazy enough to think that. And honestly, with it being real estate, I think you have to kind of find your own Why? Just because real estate was kind of the top end. Me starting off in residential, my end goal is to be commercial, eventually move to hotels and big syndications like that. So that’s the end goal. But starting small like this, you got to realize that you have to find love in this. I wouldn’t be doing, there’s the reason why I quit trading and investment and stuff like that. I didn’t love it. I had no control over that variable. In real estate, you have a lot of control. It’s a lot more forgiving and I actually love it. I love saying that I’m the landlord. I love going to my property, rehabbing it every day. It’s something that I love. I’m building quite literally an empire. This is an empire. This is why I love it.

Tony:
Now, Elijah, I’m super curious man, because we have a lot of folks who are, you said you’re 19, but we have a lot of folks who are in their twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, who haven’t yet figured out how to save the capital that’s required to actually go out and purchase real estate. And these are people who have maybe had two or three decades on you to actually save that money. So I think the biggest question for me right now is how did you as a teenager accumulate enough capital to actually go out there and buy something?

Elijah:
Yeah, that’s a really good question, Tony, which it’s kind of like a caveat, kind of like a trick question kind of because you got to think of it like me being so young, thankfully I took the path out to learn this and I never grew up on bad debt. I didn’t have the time to learn how to improperly use a credit card or how to take on bad debt. And then now I’m in some rabbit hole. I’m the most frugal person ever. When I go to the grocery store, I only go there to get what I need and then I’m out. I’m not getting bag of chips and all this because all that stuff, even though it’s small, it really does add up over time. Instead of driving to my fishing spot, I’ll go ride my bike to my fishing spot. That’s how frugal that I’ll really get.
So yeah, I was 14. Yeah, I would say I was 14 when I first started. I would say a job. I was mowing my neighbor’s lawn for money on the weekend, and then at 16 I actually got my working papers. I worked at Dunkin Donuts for a long time. Well, not a long time, only two years just to save up as much for my car. And then after I bought my car, I was like, wow, I just worked all that time just to buy this car and now my money’s gone. I have a car, but now I have no money.

Ashley:
You didn’t have that gratification of the kind of reward. Yeah.

Tony:
Elijah, I want to go back to your point though about the saving piece because again, the initial capital is where a lot of folks get stuck. So obviously you’re working full-time at 16 years old, which is amazing. But maybe what were some specific personal finance tips that you employed that you can maybe share with the Ricky audience to help them save for that first deal?

Elijah:
Yeah, so going back to how I said because of my age, I really wanted to not start off on the wrong track, taking on huge student loan debt, taking on huge credit card debt and doing all this nonsense. I kind of took the time out to really study and how I can save as much as I possibly can from the initial starting point when I bought my car and went from zero in my head was because I’m so young, I don’t have any bills, I don’t have anything, bills my gas and food that I wanted to really get. So I said in my head, I’m saving everything I can to put this money in because in order to make money, you have to spend money. So I’m saving the most that I can in order to hopefully project me somewhere into wherever I want to be one day, which is here. And from that time, I had no clue it was going to be real estate. I had no clue I was going to buy my house, which is really crazy to think about how in that short amount of timeframe that I switched from saving as much as I can to hopefully use it one day to better myself to now investing in real estate.

Ashley:
After a quick break, we’re going to hear more about how Elijah sourced his first property with an investor friendly agent. Do you need a great agent too? Go to biggerpockets.com/agent. Welcome back to the show. Elijah, when you were saving, did you have a number in mind or did you do any kind of research, get a pre-approval to know how much capital you actually needed to buy your first property?

Elijah:
So I never actually had a budget starting. I invest in Liverpool, New York, which is right across from Syracuse, New York, not that far from Buffalo, which is again, it’s super crazy to be here, Ashley, and he is like, you’re not even that far away. It’s only a couple hours. But yeah, I knew I didn’t want to invest in a single family I knew wanted to go multifamily, literally only about a five or 10% difference between buying a fourplex and buying a single family unit and maintaining it and managing it apart from the cost and why not? So I was hoping to get a fourplex, but the market here in Liverpool was kind of hard for that. So I settled for the duplex, which going back to knowing your market kind of, that’s what I mean. You kind of have to know your market and where you’re buying because with my DTI knew that I needed to have the initial capital, which depending on what loan you’re using, that’s going to be however much you’re going to be putting down.
I needed to have my personal reserves, six months of personal reserves. I wanted to have 5% reserves for the property in case a heater goes out, whatever goes out, I still have that initial reserve set aside, not counting it within the cashflow reserve, CapEx, whatever. That’s kind of when I refine, I didn’t know, okay, what loan product do I really want to use in order to minimize my initial down payment, which is at the end all be all is going to keep more money in my pocket at the end of the day. So at that time, that’s right. When the new Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, 5% down, that new loan came out.

Ashley:
The conventional one?

Elijah:
Yep. Yeah. Yep. Conventional 5% down Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac. So we used that. And at the time, which is no longer available right now, there was a DL grant for first time home buyers, which my loan officer very recommended me to use. Otherwise my DTI would be way too high for me to afford this. So with those two, that’s how we really initially afforded purchasing the property using that grant, which is no longer, I’m sure other banks have it. I mean T doesn’t right now. So it was only distributed per bank for first time home buyers. So I was really lucky to get a part of that.

Ashley:
Did your loan officer tell you about this grant?

Elijah:
Yes, yes, she did.

Ashley:
Oh, cool. Yeah. Awesome.

Elijah:
That’s the one thing I didn’t know about real estate is you could have an agent who’s not really an investor agent, they’re going to go to the house and they’re going to show you cabinets and stuff like that. They’re not going to really show you the divot in the ceiling. That’s going to be a big CapEx problem or how the area is that’s going to be in the market rent. So with my lender, I knew I wanted to have a real estate investor friendly landlord lender, which me working at the bank, I literally sat right across from her on Wednesdays. So it was a lot easier to communicate with her versus having to do it over email or everyone call it like that.

Ashley:
And for anyone who isn’t sitting right next to a lender, you can go to biggerpockets.com/lender. And I think when you are talking with lenders, that is a great question to add to that initial consultation is do you have any grants available? Great question to add.

Tony:
Just one follow up to that too. And Elijah, you make a great point, and Ashley and I have talked about this in the podcast before, but as you are shopping for especially your first real estate deal, when you go talk to lenders, don’t necessarily tell them, Hey, this is the loan product that I want. The goal and the better strategy is to say, Hey, here’s the goal of what I’m trying to accomplish. I want to buy a small multifamily, and when you say Liverpool in the Liverpool area, and hey, what do you think is the best loan product for me? And then let them assess your entire situation and say, well, hey, Elijah, you’re actually a first time home buyer, so we can use this and we can combine it with this, and now you’ve got a really low cost loan product to use. So important thing you walk into the bank and you say, here’s my goal. Don’t walk into the bank and say, here’s a loan product that I want to use.

Elijah:
Exactly. They’re going to stick you with that.

Tony:
Yeah, yeah. They’ll just give it to you. Right. So Elijah, we have a sense of the buy box. We have a sense of the kind of debt that you used, but I like to maybe get into some more specifics about the property itself. So we know it’s a duplex. How did you actually find this deal?

Elijah:
Yeah, so it was actually through my realtor who I found on BiggerPockets.

Ashley:
Awesome. We love that. In the forums or on the agent finder?

Elijah:
On the agent finder, what I did is I put in my, okay, I’m going to get into something that you shouldn’t do in a second, but Steven, thank you so much for everything. I wouldn’t be here without you, which I found him on the BiggerPockets. So again, what I did do, which I don’t think you should do, is I went on the agent finder and I messaged every single one of the agents to kind of just find who I really wanted to work with. Because before I got into finding an agent, one of my workers at the bank kind of recommended me to an agent, but he was one of those agents who aren’t really a real estate investor agent. So after messaging all of those agents on the BiggerPockets forum, I was kind of like, okay, I want to go view. How am I going to know?
How are you going to work for me? If we’re just sitting here talking, we’re not actually viewing their properties. And I’m actually glad I did this, which I’m not recommending again. So I visited a property with one of those agents, correct, and I told them from the very beginning that this is my first property I want to, and I’m talking to multiple other agents just so I can see how things go. So viewing the first property, the first agent, I’m not going to say any names or anything like that. He was kind of just the other agents kind of just let me walk through. He wasn’t really showing me, look at this dip in the ceiling, that’s going to be a huge CapEx problem. Look at the foundation. That’s going to be another huge CapEx problem. He was kind of just letting me walk out and feel it out the same.
So I was like, okay, maybe that’s just how it is, maybe it’s not. So I went to go review it with the other agent. This wasn’t Steven, and it was kind of pretty much the same thing. And I was like, okay. But the moment I talked to Steven, it was a game changer. Within my first couple sentences, I was like, I’m kind of trying to escape the rat race. I see my path through real estate. And he was like, oh my gosh. A lot of people talk to him and they want to go view properties and all this stuff, but they haven’t even read a book of Rich Dad Port Avenue or something like that. They haven’t begun to get their first step of self-education before trying to go out and do all this stuff. So the very moment that I even spoke to Steven and walked into the property, he was like, look at this, look at that.
Look at this, look at that. You don’t want this, you don’t want that. I wouldn’t buy this. I wouldn’t do that. And that’s the realtor who I wanted. I got a little bit backlash from that because working with Steven after that, the other two realtors who I kind of was like, okay, not to really say I don’t want to work with you anymore, but kind of just terminating the relationship, not like that I owe them anything. I was only viewing the property. You only get the money off of the sale, off of the property, and I kind of got a relationship backlash or that, why are you talking to this realtor when you’re talking? You know what I’m saying? Yeah.

Tony:
And Elijah, you said that you don’t recommend doing it that way, but honestly, I think there’s a lot of value in getting a good feel for an agent before you actually decide to work with them. Now, I’m not a real estate agent, so don’t quote me on this, but obviously with the legal changes, the NAR settlement that happened earlier this year, I’m almost certain now that before an agent can even show you a property, you have to sign a buyer’s representation agreement now. So that exact strategy might be a little bit more difficult, but there’s still other ways, I think, to suss out who the agents are and which ones you want to work with. So it sounds like Elijah, this investor-friendly agent that you met through bp, they were the ones that found that duplex for you. And was it just listed on the MLS?

Elijah:
Yep. We visited, it was every single weekend for that initial, it was January towards the beginning of January where I was like, okay, when am I? I’m done waiting in time to pull the trigger. Met Steven from then until April. We were visiting properties every single weekend, and so it was this one property, it just came on the market. He sent it to me and he was like, I think we should check this out. I was like, okay, let’s go check it out. And the moment we got there, it’s an A class, I would say it’s an A class neighborhood. It is definitely a class neighborhood. It was very good walkthrough and all that. And at the end of the walkthrough he was like, yeah, we’re not getting this. There’s no chance. It was just that good. And he was like, I myself would put an offer on this if you don’t. So that was kind, okay, I got to do this. But he was like, we’re not getting this. So he is like, do you still want to put an offer on this? I was like, yeah, well why not?

Ashley:
Yeah, you might as well try

Tony:
Elijah. One quick follow-up question. When did you actually close on this property?

Elijah:
It was July 31st

Tony:
Of this year?

Elijah:
Yes.

Tony:
Awesome. So the reason why I ask that is because there’s a lot of real estate investors who say that there are no good deals on the MLS, but I think you just proved that depending on your strategy, depending on your location, depending on your kind of business plan, there are very much still deals available directly on the MLS. And kudos to you for using that. It was an easy resource for you.

Elijah:
Yes, definitely. I do think it’s a little bit of luck because there was 10 investors who looked at the property before me, and I’m technically not the first place winner, the first place buyer. His lender couldn’t, or his lender decided, you can’t afford this. So they backed down to the second place buyer who was me. So in some way I think it was kind of luck, but not really, because I’m the one who put in this time, dedication, education and determination, blood, sweat, and tears to actually be here. So in some way I think it’s a little bit of a mix.

Tony:
Alright guys, we have to take our final break, but more from Elijah on how to break into today’s market as a rookie right after this. Alright, let’s jump back in with Elijah.

Ashley:
So what was the actual asking price of this property?

Elijah:
So it was 165,000 and I put in an offer 180, which was my highest that I was going to go.

Ashley:
And did they accepted it right away or did you have to counter with them at all?

Elijah:
Yep. So because the first place winner, I’m not sure how much he offered, it was probably way above 180, but his lender said, Nope, you can’t afford this. So they kind of just went down to the second solution.

Ashley:
So then they came back to you. And that is why it is always so important to put an offer in because you never know what could happen if there is an offer higher than you, because I’ve had that happen before too, where something happens and they come back to me and say, you know what? We’d actually like to take your offer. So such a great idea. Patience put in that offer no matter what, and thank goodness you did. Yeah. Okay. So now you’ve got this property. What were you looking at as far as the rehab? How much did you estimate for the rehab and how much did it actually cost to do the rehab on the property?

Elijah:
So that’s kind of something that I’m still in the middle. I’m myself am doing the rehab. I inherited one side of the unit, so I don’t plan on rehabbing that until the tenants move out. The other unit, the first time I walked into there, I was like, oh my gosh, I’m going to have to rip down this wall. There’s a lot of cracks in the wall and stuff. I’m going to have to rip up this floor. The floors were completely shot when I said, oh my gosh, I’m going to have to rip down all these walls to all the cracks and stuff like that. I didn’t realize that the walls were plaster and not drywall. So all I had to do was scrape and joint and whatever. It’s not drywall or it’s water. Damn drafted tape, take it all out. And the floors were just extremely well worn.
I didn’t have to take ’em up. All I have to do is take a drum stander to it. So it’s simple stuff like that, which kind of saved me from the moment that I purchased this property. And I’ve been doing rehab on this every day. I’ve spent probably $10 on just stuff, even only $10 because most of the stuff I’ve already had, or I’m just getting from my mentor, working under his wing for a long time. I’m kind of just using his tools. I thought I was going to have buy all these sheets of sheet rock, go in there, take all it. But in reality, it’s just a lot. Nothing’s hard. It’s just a lot of tedious work, like scraping the walls and then taping and then jointing, and then painting over that and then drum sanding, applying the polyurethane, stuff like that. It’s really just tedious work. Nothing’s hard or really that expensive.

Tony:
Should learn a lot Elijah is what it sounds like, man.

Elijah:
Yeah, it’s a lot of YouTube university,

Tony:
A lot of YouTube university, which is good. I guess one last follow up question. You said the purchase price was 180, and I know you had the grant that assisted with the down payment. So Elijah, what was your actual out of pocket expense to purchase the property?

Elijah:
Like my cash to close or what my loan value is right now?

Tony:
Your actual cash to close, how much did you have to bring to the table?

Elijah:
So my cash to close was around, it was 19, around 19,000.

Ashley:
And that was with closing costs? Everything.

Elijah:
Yep. Everything,

Ashley:
Yeah. Very nice. For a conventional loan. And what was your interest rate on this loan?

Elijah:
It was, so I was supposed to have a lower interest rate because I’m an employee of the bank, but because I was able to get that loan, they’re like, nah, you can’t. That’s the funny thing about underwriters

Ashley:
Can’t double dip.

Elijah:
Yeah. So it was 6.5.

Tony:
That’s actually pretty good.

Elijah:
Historically, this is what a lot of people don’t see is historically interest rates were a lot higher than some six, seven, even 8%. And even worrying about that small interest rate, the appreciation of your house appreciates by 5% every year. So while you’re worrying about some 6% interest rate there, property of your house of the value is going up by 5% each year. So it doesn’t really, a lot of people don’t really get that part.

Ashley:
Tony, I think one takeaway for you here is that Sean needs to get his next job at the bank while he’s in high school so that he gets a discount on interest rate to buy houses for you. There you

Tony:
Go. So Elijah, I guess what would you say, because you’ve taken this deal down in a time when a lot of people with maybe more life experience, with maybe more cash, with maybe more resources have been sitting on the sidelines because they feel that 2024 isn’t the time to invest in real estate. I guess, what would you say to those folks you think that maybe right now is not the best time,

Elijah:
Not the best time to be sitting on the sidelines,

Tony:
Not the best time to invest in real estate?

Elijah:
Honestly, you just question really why? Because in my eyes, 2024 is kind of the golden age to be investing in real estate. So there’s people who think that not investing right now is going to get you anywhere because the interest rates and all this stuff. Investing in real estate is not about timing the market, it’s about time in the market. So it doesn’t really make sense to be sitting on the sidelines. And I kind of thought that that was my ideology too, is if I just wait it out and wait for the interest to go lower and stuff like that, things’ are going to get a lot better. But how I just saying it’s about time in the market, that’s how you make the most money is through cashflow and appreciation and outweighing all those other stuff that of course is going to affect the market that you don’t really have a controllable variable over kind of getting over that fear is what is really going to determine to turn the tables. The discussion I had with my mentor LaShaun is it was like I took a year of just going through financial education, how to actually manage the property, accounting, insurance, stuff like that. A whole year of just educating myself before and obviously saving the capital to actually pull the trigger to LaShawn. It was kind of like, why? What are you waiting for?
And the end all be all, it was just fear. And to him he was like, what are you afraid of? And it’s just all the other variables that everyone like, what if the house burns down? Or what if this goes on and I don’t have enough money saved up? But at the end of the day, that’s just fear. As long as you’ve saved, as long as you’ve done what you needed to do on your terms of due diligence, then that should all be taken care of. At the end of the day, if that ever does come up,

Tony:
Elijah, you bring up fear, which I think is an important thing for us to probably close out with. But fear is sometimes a good thing, right? Because if you are operating inside of your comfort zone, you’re typically not fearful. But if you’re operating inside of your comfort zone, you’re also not growing, you’re also not getting better. So if both of those statements are true, then the only way that you can grow as a person, as a real estate investor, as an entrepreneur is to step outside of your comfort zone, which always induces a little bit of fear. And I think the question for the Ricks that are listening is what kind of person do you actually want to be? Do you want to be the person who continues to let their fears counsel the action, the actions that they do or that they don’t take? Or do you want to let your goals and your visions be the thing that drives your next step? So I know a lot of folks are sitting on the sideline, they have that fear, but guys, fear is a good thing because it means you’re stepping into something new. And for you, Elijah, again, super impressive. You’re able to break past that and do that scary thing, and obviously it’s worked out pretty well for you.

Elijah:
Yes. To add on to that really quick, Tony, me being a boxer, there’s not really anything scarier than getting up into that ring and knowing the guy across from you is trying to knock your head off. So how Mike Tyson’s trainer Cusato said, everybody has fear, and if you don’t have fear, then either you’re lying or something’s wrong and you should go to the hospital like a deer. Yeah, like a deer in the middle of the woods. Once he hears that twig of a snap, he’s gone. That fear keeps him alive. Just like how it keeps us humans alive. It’s a natural instinct like what you should be using. And that’s how Mike Tyson really became who Mike Tyson was. He used that fear like a fire and fire can either burn your house down or you can cook your food. So that’s kind of how I use my fear.

Ashley:
Elijah, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re going to link your information into the show notes. If you’re watching on YouTube, it’ll be in the description. Thank you so much for taking the time, giving back, and sharing your journey and providing so much information to the rookies that are listening today.

Elijah:
Yes, I’m really glad that you guys were able to listen to me today. Hopefully I can be that beacon of light to people around my age or people of all ages who are kind of just lost in the dark and really need that push of motivation. At the end of the day, I’m not that lion who’s up top. I’m still that lion. I still have that hunger. I’m still climbing the hill. Once you’re up top, you’re up top. So I’m still climbing that hill. You always got to be hungry. You always have to strive. You always got to better yourself.

Ashley:
I think anyone who’s over the age of 19 is probably thinking right now. I wish I would’ve started when I was 19,

Elijah:
And that’s what everyone is saying to me, which is why I am

Ashley:
There. Might be a little remorse and regret listening to this episode too. But Elijah, congratulations on making such smart decisions at such a young age. Thank you again for coming onto the episode. I’m Ashley, and he’s Tony. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Real Estate Ricky.

Help Us Out!

Help us reach new listeners on iTunes by leaving us a rating and review! It takes just 30 seconds and instructions can be found here. Thanks! We really appreciate it!

In This Episode We Cover:

  • How Bryan snowballed $20,000 into eleven properties (in under four years)
  • Building your real estate portfolio faster by moving to a low-cost-of-living area
  • How to get your spouse on board with your real estate investing dream
  • Using a HELOC (home equity line of credit) to fund more real estate deals
  • How to pivot to another investing strategy when things don’t go to plan
  • Why you always need an exit strategy whenever you buy a new property
  • And So Much More!

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Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.

Active vs. Passive Investing: Make Higher Returns With Less Headache?

Can you make the same returns as active real estate (if not more) with “passive” real estate investing? What if you’ve got a busy day job, hobbies you want to pursue, or don’t have the landlording drive to build a rental property portfolio? Well, passive income investing might be just what you need. How do you know you’re the right fit for it, and what kind of real estate investments are the most passive? We’re giving you what you need to get started.

We’ve got two active and passive real estate investors, Devon Kennard (former NFL player!) and Kathy Fettke, on the show to break down the differences between active and passive real estate investing. We’ll discuss who should invest in each type and whether it’s worth it to stay at your job and invest passively on the side. Plus, we’re all sharing our favorite active and passive investments that we’re putting our money into today.

But how much of a return can you make when you’re investing passively, doing less of the work? We’re giving you real return numbers from some of our passive income sources so you can know what to expect when putting your money to work.

Click here to listen on Apple Podcasts.

Listen to the Podcast Here

Read the Transcript Here

Dave:
Real estate investing is a grind. We love it, sure, but it’s definitely a grind. Finding deals, negotiating with sellers, vetting tenants, preparing properties, it all adds up to a lot of time and effort to generate the cashflow that you want and need. But there’s another way to invest in real estate, passive investing. That can be as simple as putting your money in a fund or a syndication, forgetting about it for a while, and then collecting a return later. But of course, there are trade-offs with this approach. You can’t just do that and expect the same types of returns that someone who’s working really hard on their investments every single day are going to generate. It really is a spectrum or a continuum of different opportunities for investors. Some things super active and can generate high returns. Other things are super passive. You basically do to nothing, but you’re going to give up some returns today. We’re going to get into this and break down everything you need to understand about those trade-offs. We’re going to talk about the pros and cons of active versus passive investing and why each strategy might be right for you.

Dave:
What’s up everyone? It’s Dave. Today’s Wednesday, meaning that we are doing our deep dish episode, and for today’s discussion about passive versus active investing, I’m bringing on two investors with a wealth of knowledge on both sides of this debate. First, we have Kathy Ficke, who is my friend and co-host on the market podcast. She’s been investing across the spectrum of passive and active investing for many, many years. And Devon Kenard who invests both actively and in dozens of different syndications and is growing a passive lending business right now. So it’s going to be a great conversation and I think you’re going to learn a lot about where you might want to fall along this active passive spectrum. In the conversation, we’re going to be talking about what types of investors benefit from passive investing and who is a better fit for more active types of strategies. We’ll also talk about why many investors choose to transition from active investing to passive investing over the course of their real estate investing careers. And we’ll discuss how passive investing can sometimes mean both less headaches and higher returns. That and much more with Kathy and Devon. So let’s bring ’em on. Devon Kenard, welcome to the BiggerPockets podcast. Thanks for joining us.

Devon:
Thanks for having me.

Dave:
Yeah, it’s going to be a fun show. Kathy Fettke, thanks for being here as well.

Kathy:
Thanks for having us here. This is fun.

Dave:
Well, we’re here of course, to talk about active versus passive investing and from my understanding, you both do a little bit of each, as do I. But before we get into sort of the debates, the pros and cons, let’s just set the stage and help people understand the spectrum of passive versus active investing that we’re talking about. So Kathy, I’ll just start with you. How would you define active investing?

Kathy:
Active investing means you’re actively doing stuff. You’re involved in it maybe fixing and flipping and wholesaling. Being a real estate agent. These are all things that require your time.

Dave:
Alright, and then Devon, could you tell us what passive investing means in your world?

Devon:
Yeah, I would say I consider passive very individual based on how much time you’re willing to put into it. So I think you got to kind of determine, for me, while I was playing in the NFL, my rule was five hours. I had five committed hours that I can devote to real estate and that was my definition of passive. And today I have more time on my hands. So I still consider myself a majority passive investor, but I’m willing to put more time into it. So maybe that’s more like 20 hours a week. I consider both of them passive, but depending on where I was at in my life kind of dictated what that looked like.

Dave:
That’s a great point because it really is a spectrum. There’s not these two buckets where you place some investments into the passive bucket and some in the active bucket, even certain types of investing, it can fall along this continuum, but even certain deals can sort of vary over the course of your ownership of that deal, how active or passive they could be. Just as an example, I’ve had a house hack where I did some works and upgrades on it myself. That was pretty active. I moved out of the country. I have a property manager managing it now. I do pretty much nothing with that property. So there’s not like long-term rental is active and multifamily is passive. That’s not really how it works. It’s sort of this broad spectrum and we will get into this just in a minute, just where certain things fall. But Devon, from my understanding, you started when you were still playing in the NFL very on the passive end of the spectrum. Where are you now that you have 20 hours to invest, what types of deals are you doing and what are your more active types of deals?

Devon:
Yeah, I would say my more active activity is probably in my private lending company, but more or less, I’m reading Scaling Smart now from Kathy and Rich, but more or less how to build the infrastructure so it can remain what I consider to be passive now. But I would say that’s more of my active activity with my portfolio of properties. I own 29 units now. I still consider that relatively passive. I’m going through a Sixplex renovation in Tampa, Florida right now, and I have boots on the ground there that manage the day to day and I get to spend limited time on making sure everything is going on and going according to plan, but it’s still fairly passive to me. So I still consider myself a passive investor, but it goes back to I am spending more time than I was while I was playing though

Dave:
I love that you’re planning ahead to keep something passive because that is, I feel like that’s just such a common story in real estate. We’re like, oh, I started this passive business and now I’m working 65 hours a week on what was supposed to be my retirement job. So we’ll get to that later, but planning ahead is obviously a good way to keep it more passive. What about you, Kathy? You do a little bit of everything. How would you describe your portfolio these days on this spectrum?

Kathy:
Well, when it comes to rental properties, as we talked about last time I was on the show, I like to buy newer properties that require very little of my work and my time. The active part is actively finding the right market, actively finding the right property manager and then buying something newer in a growth market so that I just don’t have repairs to worry about for the most part, have a good experience property manager in place and it’s pretty darn passive. Also because my husband does the accounting, so super passive for me.

Dave:
That’s another good strategy for key afis. Passive is just pawn it off on your significant other.

Kathy:
Absolutely. But then also syndications are typically a passive way to invest and we do invest in other people’s syndications, but I’m also a syndicator and as the gp, the general partner, I’m very active, those projects that is absolutely active, but I’m also an investor in it, so I’m passive in it too. So syndicators could be both in the same deal.

Dave:
So it sounds like you both are at least somewhat similar to how I do it. It’s just a combination of passive and active investing and a lot of times people introduce themselves, I’m an active investor, I’m a passive investor. But I think over time to grow and to scale, you have to do a little bit of both because if you’re active in every deal, you just can’t do that many deals. There’s just only so much time in the day. So you have to figure out the right balance and that’s what we’re going to be talking about in today’s show. Before we move on and talk about how to create that balance, I just want to sort of different strategies because the ones that are active I think are a little more obvious to people. Anything that’s owner occupied, like a house hack, a live and flip, pretty much any kind of flipping it is kind of pretty active.

Dave:
And then short-term rentals, long-term rentals. If you’re self-managing, at least I consider all of those sort of on the active side of the spectrum. On the passive side, there are a couple ones that we don’t really talk about on the show like REITs, which are publicly traded, real estate investment trusts. That’s as passive as it gets because you could open a trading app, buy a stock and a real estate trust and do absolutely nothing. You could do that. Kathy and Devon both talked about syndication, so you can invest with another investor, you can do funds which is similar to a syndication. You could buy notes like Devon does. Or the other one I would say is turnkey rental property investing. So where someone buys a property for you. So that’s sort of the most passive side. And then I guess if you have a rental property or a short-term rental, but you have a full-time property manager that’s like, what is that? Right in the middle of the spectrum I guess. Right in the middle, yeah. Yeah. Okay. So that’s the midpoint. So hopefully that helps frame this conversation. So Kathy, I’ll start with you. Who is passive investing for

Kathy:
Someone like Devon when he was playing football? Oh man, the hours he’s explained to me before, it is just nonstop. So busy professionals who have a career that they love and they’re making plenty of money in it and they don’t want to shift into another job that happens to be real estate. There’s a lot of confusion about that. People think the only way to invest in real estate is to flip homes when actually that’s a different way to have a job, not necessarily investing.

Dave:
That is exactly what it is. I haven’t flipped a home because I already got a job. There’s other ways to invest in real estate. So was that your experience, Devon? Did you know you wanted to invest in real estate and you then picked a type of real estate investing that matched your lifestyle? Or were you just looking for places to put your money while you had a full-time job?

Devon:
It was very much kind of find an investment strategy within real estate that fit my lifestyle. There’s a lot of people who will say, you can’t invest passively. Real estate’s an active business and all that. And I just never really believed in that notion. For me, it was either figure out how to do it passively or don’t do it at all, and being in a career that I knew was going to end, I’m like, I have to figure out how to do it. So I just looked at it from a lens of how do I invest in a way that I can still have my time, but I can grow a real estate portfolio?

Dave:
Well, you clearly did that, which is quite impressive.

Kathy:
Another person who’s ideal for passive investing is maybe somebody who lives in a high priced market like me. Many people who live in California just have a hard time making the numbers work. Definitely for regular rentals, short-term rentals can be a little bit better, but again, that’s a little bit more active. If you’re managing it, you’d have to find a property manager for that and that can be a bigger cut for short term, they take a lot more. So if you live in an expensive market, you almost are forced to be passive because that’s how we started. We’re like, oh, we can’t make the numbers work here. We’re going to have to invest somewhere else. We chose Dallas, Texas. That was a three hour flight from us, so we had to learn how to rely on other people.

Dave:
That totally makes sense. And I realize now we titled the show like active versus passing, and now we’re just talking up all the benefits of passive investing. But Tavan, tell me what are the trade offs? Because there obviously there’s no right answer here, but so what are some of the downsides of passive investing?

Devon:
Well, I’ll say the first thing. It’s hard to invest passively if you don’t have any capital and active investors, their kind of advantage is they can trade time for money. I can do this flip cheaper instead of hiring a contractor, I’m going to do the work. All of this stuff, when you’re investing passively, you have to have some level of capital. Now that doesn’t necessarily always mean it has to be your own capital, depending on what you’re doing. Maybe you can raise capital, maybe you can use the banks, but you’re going to have to be able to have some kind of financial savviness or savings, something to invest. So that’s one negative. If you want to invest truly passive, it’s hard to do if you don’t have access to capital. And another thing is depending on the strategy, the returns may not be as big.

Devon:
For instance, our good friend James Danner, he might flip a property and he’s looking at the margins that he can make on that flip. I’m not going to make those same margins if I go to flip because I’m going to hire a GC to handle the whole thing and then they’re going to probably upcharge me and I don’t know the price of things, so I’m not going to grind them down the way James can. So me and James could buy the exact same property and the numbers could look completely different and I can almost guarantee his will look better because he’s more active. So I think depending on your strategy, your return may not be as high and you do need some level of capital or access to it.

Dave:
That’s a very good point. I think that’s why Devon, we probably see so many people start active. I think that a very common trajectory for investors is starting active. And then once you have capital and once you know the game well enough that you can vet operators and people to invest with, then you move more passive over time. At least. I actually put this in my book. I obviously made a graph of it. I love making graphs and I’m a weirdo, but it was just showing most people start at a hundred percent active investments and then aspire to at some point in their career. For me it’s like 15, 20 years in to get to a hundred percent passive investing. And you sort of do that transition over time. We got to take a break, but first a heads up, if you’re enjoying this conversation and want to learn more about passive investing, be sure to subscribe to the Passive Real Estate Investing podcast on YouTube or any podcast platform. It’s BiggerPockets newest podcast. Kathy was actually recently a guest on that show too. And every week host Jim Pfeiffer will talk about strategy, wealth building and risk management specifically for syndications and other types of passive investments. That’s the Passive Real Estate investing podcast. Go check it out. All right, we’ll be right back after a few ads.

Dave:
Welcome back to the show. Here’s more with Devon and Kathy. So I know everyone says this. People who are very active, like disparaged passive investors and be like, oh, the margin’s not so good. There is truth to that, but I’m going to challenge that wisdom a little bit because it’s only true if you really know what you’re doing. So for example, in my investing career, the things I quote buy actively by direct small, multifamily, single family homes are things that don’t require a lot of rehab or renovation because I just don’t have that skill. So I will take money that I want to put to value add investing, and I’ll give it to a syndicator or I’ll put it into a fund because yeah, I’m giving up a couple percentage points to that syndicator, but if I did that myself, I would lose 20%. I don’t know how to do that. And so I think people are like, oh, it’s not the maximize return, but when you look at yourself as an individual, could you really get that return? Because for me, giving it to someone who knows what they’re doing, I’m still getting a better return because I’m giving it to a competent operator who’s going to be a good steward of my investment.

Devon:
Well, I want to add to that. I kind of think if you’re truly a passive investor, I even mentioned this in my book coming out, real estate side Hustle and I say it is kind of playing checkers and chess, you’re looking at it completely differently because if I have a day job that I’m making good money at, I don’t have the time to be active and I don’t want to try to take on an active investment that’s going to take away from my day job. So investing passively in getting a lesser return, but netting it out over what my life looks like and being able to perform well at my job. Or maybe it’s somebody who wants to travel the world and do that. So it’s not monetary gain, but it’s like the lesser return to be able to live life how you want to, I think is worth it. And I see a lot of passive investors, they kind of think they’re playing the same game as the active person. When you need to look at it differently, you’re investing passively for a reason. Stop comparing yourself to the returns that the active guy is getting when you have a different objective.

Dave:
That’s a great point. And yeah, it’s also about sustainability. You could do a lot of active investing and burn out pretty quickly, but if you do passive investing, you could just keep doing it because it’s not super intense and it’s not interrupting your lifestyle. And I think your point about your other career is really important, Yvonne, because picking stuff that allows you to keep doing well at your job allows you to generate more capital to invest passively with. At least that’s how I’ve always looked at it. I work and I care about my non-real estate career. And by being good at that job, I have the security, I have health benefits. I have a lot of things that allow me to take risks with my other investing that I probably couldn’t if I was just going full on into active investing.

Kathy:
It’s like all our books apply here, Dave, start with strategy, right? Too many people don’t start with strategy. And then Devon, the real estate side hustle, he puts four different ways to invest passively in that book and is really well-written and exactly the way I would’ve described investing in passive. When you are a busy professional who’s good at your job, you’ve got doctors, you’ve got lawyers, people, tech industry that’s kind of, I’m from the San Francisco Bay area. These people work 60 hours a week. They don’t have time to be flipping houses on the weekend, but they make money and they want to be investing it because Devon says something really good in his book that as a football player, as a pro, what did you say? It’s like three and a half years is the average career.

Dave:
Yeah. Oh my God, really?

Kathy:
Yeah. So you’re making a bunch of money, but for three years. So man, if you don’t invest that, well, you could end up broke after being rich and that’s no fun. It’s better just to be broke and never know what it was like to be rich than rich and then broke. But then he says, but that could be anyone, right? That could be anyone could get cut after three years no matter how good you are. So having that backup plan and investing the money that you make from that career like Devon did, so that when his very long career actually eight years, nine years,

Devon:
Nine, nine, yep.

Kathy:
Nine came to an end. He set himself up well instead of spending it all along the way,

Dave:
I think we’ve all shown our bias here when we’re talking about active invest investing. But let’s talk about active investing. I started as a fairly active investor I guess I would say, and I know you guys do stuff on the more active side of things. So Kathy, why don’t you tell us who’s active? Good for

Kathy:
People who have more time, who have the ability to learn and are passionate about that thing that they’re learning. If you treat the thing you’re actively going to do a business or a job and you become very, very good at it and that’s your job and you love it, then that’s who it’s good for. When Rich and I did a couple of flips and we weren’t good at it, that just was clearly not our forte, and we learned that pretty quickly. I also tried to wholesale once, or maybe it was subject to, it was one of those, and the lady that I talked to was so mad she came into my office and threw food at my office manager,

Dave:
Oh my god.

Kathy:
Because apparently I was very rude in the way that I made the offer. So it was pretty early on. I’m not good at this. I don’t like knocking on doors and trying to negotiate these deals, whereas other people are great at it. So just like any job, you got to love it. You got to invest in it so that you really understand it, put time in it and be passionate about it and you’ll be successful. But dabbling, dabbling is where people get in trouble with active investments. Like a family member who’s like, oh, the next door is for sale, I’ll just buy that. And never had time to fix it up. Had it for two years, lost a ton of money, actually I think eventually lost it in foreclosure. So dabbling in active is risky.

Dave:
Devon, what about you? Who do you think succeeds as an active investor?

Devon:
Someone who has the time ultimately and the desire to do it more actively? My biggest active activity now is my private lending company. And reason why I’m doing that is I have a chance to earn a higher return. I can invest passively in private debt funds and get a 10% return, or I can do it on my own and build the infrastructure and be a little more active and annualize a 16 to 18% return on my money because when you really run the numbers, that’s what it is. So I’m like, okay, is it worth being a little more active and getting a higher return? And with where my life is now, I think it is because that money is going to be money I can live off of as well as continue to keep investing. So I think the time and your willingness to kind of devote a little bit more time, but that was my factor is like I looked at lending and I’m like, I know I want more income. I can do it passively and get a 10% return, or I could do it actively and get 16 plus I’m going to be a little more active and try to build it the right way to where it’s not too active. But that was my decision and I think people in that position could make the same choice.

Dave:
That’s a great point. And I mean I don’t blame you. The difference between 10%, 16% return may not sound like a lot, but it’s a huge amount. So that’s worth it for your time and you’ve still found a way to do it. So that is why people say doing active can be really beneficial. I will say that I also just think active is really good for newbies. And I know that’s not always the most logical thing, but from my experience, I learned so much by self-managing for a few years. You learn so many of the things that we’re talking about today. First and foremost, you learn the things you like and you don’t. Like Kathy said, I never tried flipping, but I just learned that heavy renovation just wasn’t for me. It was too stressful for me having a full-time job and trying to coordinate with contractors while I was at work and it just wasn’t right for me.

Dave:
I learned that I do love acquisitions, I love looking for markets, I like those kinds of things. And so it sort of sets you up for the future of your career, even if you don’t want to be a full-time investor. Even when I was active, I never intended to be a full-time real estate investor, but I did it to get my hands dirty and learn a little bit. And I do think that makes sense for a lot of people who could even just be active with one or two deals. It’s not like you have to scale this active portfolio, but just being there and learning with your hands on a project can be really beneficial to people. The other thing that I think is also super valuable for people to be active is people just hate their jobs. I don’t know, I dunno how else to say it, but people always ask, should I quit my job and go to real estate? Do you like your job? Because if you like your job, no, stay with your job and invest passively. But if you really hate your job, you could probably make a career in real estate investing, but you should know that it’s just going to be another job.

Dave:
But if you feel like you’ll like being a full-time real estate investor and you’ll find it more fulfilling and enjoyable than working in whatever career you have currently, then that might be good for you.

Kathy:
I do want to say something about that though. I was at the investor event and Kim Kiyosaki spoke and a woman got up and said, I am so scared. I’m so scared to invest because I have this great career and I’m just so afraid that if I dive into real estate, I’ll fail. And Kim looked at her and said, well, why would you do that to yourself? And what she meant was, yeah, why would you leave a successful career to dive into one you have no clue about? And that’s what so many people don’t realize is that real estate’s a career and it takes some time to learn and you hopefully don’t have a doctor who just was like, Hey, I just decided to be a doctor and this dives in and no, it takes years. So Kim was just basically saying in the beginning, you’ve got to set yourself up, have enough savings in place, you just don’t make the leap thinking that you’re just going to be able to get up to speed immediately have reserves in place. Nothing beats the comfort of having reserves.

Dave:
Alright, time for one last break. Thanks for sticking with us. Let’s jump back into this week’s deep dish. So tell me Vonne a little bit about your investing, why now that you have some more time of all the ways you could invest, why did you choose node investing and doing private lending?

Devon:
It’s something I dabbled in while I was playing. My big motivation was once my fast money, I call it income from my job is done, I’m going to have a chunk of money invested, but I’m going to run out if I don’t have any other consistent income coming in. And I was doing a lot of research figuring it out because I was a big cashflow guy like, oh, I’m investing in these for income and what I was looking, I own 29 units now and the income I was generating, I wasn’t on track to hit the income levels that I wanted. And the lending business seemed like the right solution for me to offset the other income I already had coming in from syndications and my portfolio, but then also give me that money so I can keep growing that portfolio.

Dave:
I mean that makes total sense from a strategy perspective. I’m just curious if you entertained other ideas, if you had done burrs or flipping with your time instead that wouldn’t have gotten you the cashflow you were looking for.

Devon:
I think it would’ve, especially flipping. It definitely would’ve, but I don’t want to be active to that level. Although I’m more active in my private lending business, I’m working really hard to build out SOPs, bring in virtual assistants, onboarded software to where a lot of the backend work is going to be handled. And I get to do a lot of finding the borrowers, going to networking events locally, doing the kind of stuff that doesn’t feel like work to me and have a lot of the backend stuff handled, but still get those kind of returns that we discussed a little bit ago. So if I were to go into flipping, I’m going to be a lot more active and I didn’t want that. So I’m like I can kind of use my capital to maybe even joint venture into some flips if I want that opportunity with contractors.

Devon:
But I didn’t want to become a flipper myself. And then same way I could do the birth strategy, but the cash flow is not that great. I refinance out and I got all my capital back. But what about the consistent income for something? For me, I want a certain level of income consistently and I didn’t feel like Burr was that strategy. So with what I’m doing now, I can generate that income and then continue to buy properties, 50% LTV, which is kind of my marker and kind of on your guys’ model, buy a lot of stabilized properties. I do do some of value add but mostly stabilized and continue to grow my portfolio like that.

Dave:
I love that. It’s just such a good example of how customizable these different strategies in real estate is in general because as Devon said, this is his quote, active part of his portfolio, but is probably way more passive than what other people would consider, right? And it’s just finding something that works for you. And again, knowing so clearly what you want seems like has allowed you to say out of all these different strategies along the spectrum of active versus passive, you’ve found the one that not only is the right time commitment but generates the right type of returns, not that you’re looking for in your career. That’s super cool. Alright, well we do have to start winding down here, but I want to know from each of you if you were giving advice to someone in our audience, what’s one active style of investment you’re excited about right now and what’s one passive style of investment that you’re interested right now? Devon, I’ll start with you.

Devon:
Passive came up to mind first. So on the passive side, I’m really still buying good quality single family properties. I like that’s what I’m going to continue to do. I’m leaning more towards your guys’ strategy with more renovated, buying good paths of growth. I think that’s a great route to go. And reason why I like that, right, better than a lot of even syndications and stuff is just because you have control. So what I like with my assets is I get to decide when I refinance, I get to decide if I want to do a heloc, I get to make all the calls on it and I’m really enjoying having that flexibility. So I love that On the passive side, on the active side, I think it kind of depends on your goals. But being a lender myself, I know a ton of people making a killing with fix and flips. I think there’s risk in that. But if you’re willing to go all in and you’re in a growing market, I think you can make what I’m seeing some of these fix and flippers make. I’m like, geez, man, more power to you

Dave:
Totally.

Devon:
If you’re willing to do that, it’s a good business. I would say you need a distinct advantage in that maybe contractor relationships if you’re not one yourself, but I think that’s a great way you can make large chunks of money and pile up some good capital in a short amount of time. So I would recommend that on the active side and in between, I think private lending, I think more people with self-directed IRAs could get into lending. I think more people with capital just sitting in bank accounts could get into lending. So I think if anyone’s out there looking for something in between, I think it’s a vehicle that a lot of people forget.

Dave:
That’s great advice. I was going to give the same advice about flipping, but I felt like a hypocrite. I was like, I don’t flip past this, but I don’t. But for people who want to be active, the margins are great right now. I know it sounds counterintuitive because so many people have, there’s so media headlines about what’s going on in the industry, but talk to a house flipper who’s experienced, they’re doing just fine right now. They are doing just fine. I

Devon:
Didn’t realize they were making as much as they were until I started underwriting some of their deals and seeing, and I’m like, goodness,

Dave:
Yeah, maybe you should be doing some equity deals instead of this loans. Devon. Yeah, seriously. What about you Kathy? What are you recommending on either end of the spectrum right now

Kathy:
What I’m excited about on the active side is build to rent. I think I’ve talked about that on the market a few times where we’re building a build to rent communities right now in the San Antonio area. We have a single family rental fund in Dallas that’s fun on the active side, but I also get to be passive in those too, because you can be the gp but you could also invest in your own deal and kind of like Devon said, have a little bit more control over that. And then on the totally passive side, I’ve been kind of dabbling, as you said, I like to dabble in some of these more exotic type properties where you get to use it but also make money on it. So an example is I have a developer friend in Utah right by where Deer Valley is doubling in size.

Kathy:
So right there, I love areas where there’s growth happening. And the ski resort is going to be the biggest in the country, huge resort. And we bought an eighth of a share in one of the short-term rentals right near it through our friend who’s the developer, and they just manage everything. We still get to use it six weeks out of the year, but otherwise it cash flows. If we don’t want to use the weeks that we have, we can put it on the short-term or long-term market or use it for third homes. So there’s all these personal uses because for so many years I was buying properties in places like Ohio and Detroit and I was never going to see these properties and certainly never using them. And so now it’s like, ooh, I could possibly get the same kind of return but get to use it and it’s cool and exotic. So I’m just kind of looking into those and already the appreciation has gone up. The thing isn’t even done. I mean our unit’s done, but the whole development isn’t done yet and it’s gone up dramatically in price. So that’s kind of fun too.

Dave:
Awesome. Great, great advice. For mine, for active investment, I need to come up with a name. I’m not good at branding things, but I’ve been doing something called, I’m just going to term the delayed cosmetic burr is like this thing that I keep doing where you buy a property, it’s stabilized and it’s cash flowing as is, and it’s a good asset in a good neighborhood. And then you just bur it opportunistically. I’m not going to force it vacant. I’m not going to buy a vacant, I’m going to buy it with people in it and then one unit at a time. As people move out, I’m going to plan out a cosmetic burr and I’m going to renovate it and then I’m going to refinance it. When I’ve done that to all the units, and I know that doesn’t sound like rocket science, but I think this artificial urgency around a burr talks a lot of people out of it.

Dave:
You have to do the bur, you have to sell it within two months. You have to do everything. It’s a flip, but it’s not a flip. You could just buy it and you can have it like cashflow while you wait to do a renovation. And so that’s sort of what I’ve been doing with my active portfolio. And again, to maintain time, I do it one at a time. I’m not doing multiple renovation projects at once. I’ll just do this when I have these units. And then honestly, it’s a great way to get deals because I’ll buy a deal that maybe is a 2% cash on cash return, I don’t care, then I’ll renovate it six months from that. Then it’s an eight or 10% cash on cash return. Great. And now it’s in a really good condition. I’m not going to have to take care of it a lot for the next couple of years I’m super happy.

Dave:
So I’ve been doing that more on the active side. And then on the passive side, I’m just going to say I’ve been investing in debt funds, definitely not getting that 16 to 18% return divide is getting, but you could get eight to 10% pretty reliably in a debt fund. And if you work with a reputable operator, the risk is I think pretty darn low. And you’re doubling a high yield savings account. You’re probably tripling what you can get on bonds these days. And so if you’re looking for additional cashflow with truly nothing to do, debt funds are a pretty good way to do it. Alright, well thank you guys so much for joining us. This was a fun conversation and hopefully it helps you all understand the spectrum of active to investing and that you don’t need to make a decision. You don’t have to be an active investor or a passive investor. You can customize real estate to whatever works for you. And you can see just examples of how Kathy, Devon and I have each done that in our own careers and in our own investing journeys and encourage you to do the exact same. Honestly did not mean for this episode to become like a book discussion, but all three of our books came up. So if you want to grab Kathy’s new book, scaling Smart Tamon, when does your new book come out?

Devon:
October 15th. So right after bp,

Dave:
Well, two weeks from now I think from when this will air. So check out Devon’s new book as well. It’s Real Estate Side Hustle is what it’s called.

Devon:
Yeah, yeah.

Dave:
Awesome. Check that out and congratulations ahead of time. And we’ll put a link to both of those books in the notes below. So check those out. Alright, well Devon, thanks so much for being here.

Devon:
Thanks for having me. This was a blast.

Dave:
Yeah, likewise. And Kathy, thanks as always for bringing your expertise to the show.

Kathy:
Thank you. It’s great to be here and I hope to see you all at BP Con is going to be a blast. I’m bringing the whole family, the grandkids, everybody.

Devon:
Me too. Kathy, you convinced me. Whole family’s coming out. I can’t wait.

Dave:
Oh, excellent. Awesome. Well, when this episode comes out, we’ll all be hanging out in Mexico. So hopefully you’ll be listening to this on your plane ride to BP Con and you’ll see all of us there. Yeah, I’m actually, I’m doing talks with each of you individually, so I’m doing one with Devon about passive investing and doing one with Kathy about data analysis. So this will be a lot of fun. Alright, well thank you all so much for listening for BiggerPockets. I’m Dave Meyer. We’ll see you all soon.

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In This Episode We Cover:

  • Active vs. passive real estate investing and which one YOU should choose
  • How much you can make with passive investing and the returns we’re getting
  • Why you may NOT want to quit your job to go into real estate (you can STILL invest)
  • Real estate note investing and why Devon is going all-in on this active/passive investment
  • Why new real estate investors should NOT be passively investing…yet
  • And So Much More!

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Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.