If you got into real estate anytime in the last decade, you’ve spent most of your investing life in a market where prices went up, inventory stayed tight, and competition never really let up.

There are some real advantages to that kind of market. Flips, both wholesale and retail, sell fast. Renters are easy to find, and rents usually climb every year. The headlines are upbeat. Everyone feels smart.

It’s fun to be in the real estate business when the wind is always at your back.

The downside of that kind of market is, of course, that everyone wants to be in it. And that means that great deals are hard to come by.

When homeowners and investors are all racing to buy, prices get pushed up and profit margins get squeezed.

Finding deals that actually pencil out as long-term holds or really profitable flips becomes the hardest, most time-consuming part of the business. We find ourselves doing deals that are pretty marginal—because, well, they keep working out as long as the market stays hot, and prices keep going up.

But the one constant in the real estate market is change…and that’s what we saw in 2025.

Buyers hesitated. Inventory grew. Rents and house prices didn’t.

Logically, most of us get that lower sale prices and flatter rents aren’t a problem as long as purchase prices and payment terms come down even more.

Slower sales and less competition = more motivated sellers.

More motivated sellers = lower prices and better terms. ... Read More…

When I was 2 or 3 years old, my mother took me on trips to the library almost every week. While she checked out the latest mystery novels, I always went to the same shelf in the children’s section and pulled down the same worn, tea-colored book called “I Can’t, Said the Ant.” I must have made my mom check that book out 50 times. I had every word memorized, every illustration emblazoned on my brain, and every character befriended in my daydreams.

In case you missed out on this epic, the basic plot is that a teapot falls off the counter and breaks its spout, and if it isn’t put back up, it will die some horrible teapot death. All of the denizens of the kitchen—from the dinner bell to the pie to the pot—beg the (oddly, single) ant in the kitchen to get the teapot back to the counter and repair the broken spout.

Much rhyming ensues (“I can’t bear it, said the carrot” is one that still sticks with me), and ultimately, the ant, who initially, as you might guess from the title, doesn’t see how he can manage it, rounds up a work crew of insects and rescues the unlucky teapot from the floor.

Yes, this is going somewhere.

To this day, dozens of years later, I still think about that ant and his creative solutions to an impossible task when I think about the people I meet for whom “I can’t” is the final answer and the much smaller group of people I meet for whom “I can’t” is jus ... Read More…

Ask any really successful real estate entrepreneur what resource has made them the most money, and if they’re answering truthfully, they’re going to say, “The people I’ve met.”

In fact, if you’re not making it a priority to spend time creating, growing, and nurturing your network of colleagues and financial friends, you’re making a big mistake.

I’m not a natural networker—I would, on any given evening, rather be curled up in front of a fire with a good book than at the hottest party in town.

In fact, if you’re ever AT a party with me, and you’re looking for me, I’m probably the one behind the potted plant playing with the host’s cat.

But, at the same time, I am very aware of how many millions of dollars my network has earned me in the past 2+ decades, and I’ve seen the nearly tragic consequences that NOT having a network when you need one can have.

Early on in my career, it was more experienced real estate association members who served as my backstop, confirming (or, in some cases, totally trashing) my evaluation of deals I was considering buying . Without them, I’d have made a lot of mistakes that I didn’t make and passed up a lot of opportunities I didn’t pass up.

Later in my business, when I started wholesaling, I rarely had to advertise my deals at all. And  I don’t just sell 90% of the deals I wholesale to members of my local REIA; I sell them to memb ... Read More…

For whatever reason, a lot of real estate investor have this idea that a career path in real estate is strategy-based; we’re all supposed to start with wholesaling, move on to the bigger checks (and bigger complications) of retailing, then buy single family rentals, and then, we we’re really knowledgeable, wealthy and experienced, end up in apartments or notes.

In real life, there’s no such prescribed life cycle; lots of people start out in rentals, or even note-buying; I myself discovered wholesaling only after nearly 5 years in the lease/option business.

But there IS a path that we should all recognize and be on that has nothing to do with our age at entry, or our favorite asset class or exit strategy, and that’s the journey from trading our hours for (highly-taxed) dollars to having our lifestyles completely paid for by our assets.

This metamorphosis takes place in 3 stages, the terms for which were coined by the great Pete Fortunato.

     Starters are folks who are still learning and exploring the trade. They’re willing to do what it takes to get educated and to do the hard work of finding deals, which means that, in a sense, they’re still trading hours (spend finding, constructing, and managing properties) for dollars. If they’re smart, they’re doing all this work to set the stage for the next step in their evolution, where they can produce more of their income from more tax-efficient, less strenuo ... Read More…

When you’re doing your first few deals—or doing your first few deals in a strategy that you haven’t explored before—you need help.

Maybe it’s help evaluating the deal. Maybe it’s help with negotiation or contracts. Maybe it’s help understanding how to ‘price’ the rent or sale price. Maybe it’s help understanding how the financing will work. But you’ll find yourself needing advice from people who’ve ‘been there, done that, got the T-shirt’ over and over again throughout your real estate career.

This is no small matter; it’s easy to lose a deal (or worse yet, do a bad one!) because there’s ONE hangup. ONE question that needs to be answered or ONE problem that needs to be overcome

1:  EVERY Friday morning at our online Haves and Wants meeting. It’s very common for members to attend with the “Want” of “I need someone to walk me through how to do this subject to deal I found” or “Can someone help me with evaluating a property I’m trying to buy?” and to get assistance either then and there, or later in the day from someone who volunteers to help out.

2:  At our monthly online General Membership Meetings. Each begins with an informal early bird session where you can ask questions, introduce yourself, and find out who does what.

3: At our monthly in-person Chapter meetings. If you happen to live in the Columbus, Cincinna ... Read More…

When you’re doing your first few deals—or doing your first few deals in a strategy that you haven’t explored before—you need help.

Maybe it’s help evaluating the deal. Maybe it’s help with negotiation or contracts. Maybe it’s help understanding how to ‘price’ the rent or sale price. Maybe it’s help understanding how the financing will work. But you’ll find yourself needing advice from people who’ve ‘been there, done that, got the T-shirt’ over and over again throughout your real estate career.

This is no small matter; it’s easy to lose a deal (or worse yet, do a bad one!) because there’s ONE hangup. ONE question that needs to be answered or ONE problem that needs to be overcome

1:  EVERY Friday morning at our online Haves and Wants meeting. It’s very common for members to attend with the “Want” of “I need someone to walk me through how to do this subject to deal I found” or “Can someone help me with evaluating a property I’m trying to buy?” and to get assistance either then and there, or later in the day from someone who volunteers to help out.

2:  At our monthly online General Membership Meetings. Each begins with an informal early bird session where you can ask questions, introduce yourself, and find out who does what.

3: At our monthly in-person Chapter meetings. If you happen to live in the Columbus, Cincinna ... Read More…

Lordy, people, there are SO many ways to put together real estate deals. SURELY there’s one out there that you’ll like/understand/benefit from.

If you don’t like full-on wholesaling—maybe because ugly houses repel you, or some of the areas that work well aren’t neighborhoods in which you want to spend time, or you don’t like making super-low offers—then learn how to do creative deals, and flip those.

Creative financing techniques—buying properties using seller-held mortgages, contracts for deed, lease/options, and subject to the existing loan—are usually thought of as ways for you, the buyer, to control real estate for some period of time so that you can exercise some exit strategy that requires control.

For instance, you might buy a property subject to the existing loan so that you can renovate it and rent it for the long term. Or you might get a “split funds” seller mortgage for a year because you intend to renovate and resell the property within that year. Or you might control the property with a lease with the option to buy so that you can sell it with a lease with the option to buy (with, of course, a higher overall price, higher down payment, and higher monthly payment coming to you than the ones you’re paying).

But, if done carefully (by which I mean with the right people, full disclosure, and all the contractual ‘i’s dotted and ‘t’s crossed) creative deals can also be ... Read More…

On our July 9^th episode of Real Life Real Estate Investing, we opened the lines for one of our favorite formats—Q&A Day. Vena tackled your real-world questions about buying, selling, renting, financing, managing, and more. If you missed it live, don’t worry—the answers are just a click away. Listen to the recording here 

And don’t forget to tune in every Wednesday at 5 PM Eastern—https://streamdb3web.securenetsystems.net/cirrusencore/WMKVFM.

&ck=0e1f16df-1530-4ee0-97cb-c2cd3feb46d8 ... Read More…

Several times in the past few months, I’ve found myself explaining to students that the reason they couldn’t sell their wholesale deal was that they’d overpriced it, and the reason they’d overpriced was that they’d made a common logical error in figuring out the value.

See if you can tell what it is:

The subject property has an after-repaired value of $100,000, and the house has an outdated kitchen, bath, furnace, and flooring.

However, the house also has a section 8 tenant living there who’s been there for 5 years and doesn’t want to move. The house is rented for $1,000/month, and the annual section 8 inspection just came back requiring that the basement walls be painted and that one room of carpet be replaced--$1,500 in work, total.

You are offering this property to landlords for $68,500 because $100,000 x .7 - $1,500 in repairs = $68,500.

Why is it not selling?

The answer is that it’s not a good deal, and you’ve conflated two different ways of analyzing a property.

You based your “value” on an “after-repaired value” calculation, and then didn’t estimate enough for repair costs to put the property into after-repaired condition.

By saying “This house is worth $68,000 to an investor”, you’re basically saying that with $1,500 in repairs, it would sell for $100,000. In fact, $1,500 will only put it into RENTAL condition, not RESALE condition.

It might even be TRUE th ... Read More…

Indulge me in a fable, and see if it jibes with your current, or perhaps past, experience as a developing real estate entrepreneur:

You’re standing on a sidewalk with your nose an inch away from a brick. It’s a good brick. You’ve studied it for a while, and you’ve come to the conclusion that it’s reddish, rough, and surrounded on all four sides by parts of other bricks. You’ve looked at it long enough to decide that it’s a pretty great brick.

Someone walks by and asks, what are you doing? Looking at this brick, you reply.

Are you sure it’s a brick you’re looking at? the stranger queries. You might want to take a step back, because there’s more to see here than you think.

So, you take a step back, and you realize that he’s right: the brick you’ve been so obsessed with is just one of many. In fact, from your new perspective, you notice out of the corner of your eye that there’s also something else--a hole, with glass and wood in it. Is that important? What does it do? Should you spend any time finding out more about it?

While you’re wondering, another passerby happens along and asks what you’re doing.

I’m looking at all these bricks, and this weird opening, you explain.

No, step back: you’re looking at a wall, says your new friend. That’s a window, and it opens and closes to let air and light in, and that particular one needs to be replaced.

So, you do, and you ... Read More…