Guides
Buying your first rental, analyzing deals, financing them, and scaling a small portfolio without losing the math.
Start here · 7 min read
One realistic first deal walked end to end, with the down payment, closing costs, reserves, and underwriting a self-manager actually lives with.
Guide · 8 min read
A ten-second screen, not a buy signal. What the 1% rule measures, where it lands across named metros, and when to switch to real underwriting.
A back-of-envelope screen that assumes half of rent goes to operating expenses. Where 50% holds, and where it over- and under-shoots.
Guide · 9 min read
The honest version: when remote self-management works, how to pick the market by the numbers, and the local cost stack to underwrite first.
Structures, the 50/50 splits that actually work, capital calls, buyouts, and the tax filing reality for two people buying one rental.
What to read before you close on an occupied rental: the leases, estoppel certificates, payment history, and the deposit transfer on the settlement statement.
The LTV caps, the six-month seasoning clock, the closing costs, and the before-and-after payment math, from someone not selling you the loan.
Skip the $5,000-per-door guess. Derive your reserve from component life, vacancy, and your insurance deductible, then reconcile the three rules of thumb.
How each loan underwrites, what it costs, and the exact landlord situation where conventional, DSCR, or a portfolio loan is the right call.
Both DSCR conventions worked on one duplex: NOI over annual debt service, and gross rent over PITIA. What a good ratio is, and why it moves.
BRRRR worked the deal that pencils and the deal that traps your cash, side by side, with the rates written down so you can swap in your own.
Guide · 7 min read
A DSCR loan qualifies on the rent, not your income. The formula on a real one-unit deal, the real thresholds, and when it is the wrong tool.
The GRM formula, a worked duplex example, the 4 to 7 band, and the failure case where two identical GRMs cash flow opposite ways.
Guide · 10 min read
A HELOC funds the down payment, but you now carry two payments against one stream of rent. Here is the double-payment math, with the variable-rate stress case.
Buy a place, rent the part you do not need. A worked duplex from 5% down to the Schedule E split most guides skip.
Guide · 11 min read
FHA, VA, and conventional loans for a duplex to fourplex you live in, with the self-sufficiency test and 75% rental-income math worked out.
The honest version: gross rent to NOI to free-and-clear cash flow, three scenarios at 3, 6, and 10 units, and the tax bill nobody nets out.
One duplex, taken from list price to an offer: rent verification, the 1% and 50% screens, line-item expenses, NOI, cap rate, cash-on-cash, and reserves.
Build your own comparable-rent set for a property you are underwriting, see why automated estimates run hot, and adjust comps you can defend.
The accidental landlord's sequenced checklist: date-of-death appraisal, conveyed leases, a fresh 27.5-year schedule, and the honest sell-or-keep math.
Sort every settlement-statement line into deduct now, amortize over the loan, or add to basis, with the depreciation consequence of each.
The agency floors (15% on one unit, 25% on 2-4), the reserves nobody mentions, and how 15, 20, and 25 percent down change your return.
A rental loan costs more than the mortgage on your own home. Here is the actual mechanism, Fannie Mae's LLPA grid, and the levers that move it.
A 10-year duplex hold worked cash flow by cash flow, the XIRR shortcut, and why IRR matters less when you never plan to sell.
Guide · 12 min read
A no-dog-in-the-fight cost table for one LLC, separate LLCs, and a series LLC at 2, 5, and 10 doors, plus the record-keeping that decides it.
The 10-year cost of holding an LLC, set against the equity you are actually protecting, plus the due-on-sale trap on a mortgaged property.
Deeding a financed rental to an LLC can let the lender call the loan. What Garn-St Germain and Fannie Mae actually allow.
Operating expenses divided by effective gross income. The line-item stack, the 35-45% benchmark, and why a low ratio means you forgot something.
The investor read on price-to-rent: low-ratio metros cash flow, high-ratio metros bet on appreciation, and how the bands map to underwriting.
One fourplex, three NOIs: the listing's pro forma, the T12 receipts, and the normalized number with 5% vacancy and 8% management charged in.
The 75% rule, the Schedule E add-backs, and the records that make your rental income count when you buy the next property.
The free method: BLS jobs, Census households and permits, and HUD rent trends, weighed together to judge a metro before you buy.
One $250,000 duplex, run through every financing fork: owner-occupied vs investor, conventional vs DSCR vs portfolio, and where the down payment comes from.
An investor-grade inspection framework: read remaining component life as future capex, turn findings into reserves and a smarter offer.
The hub for self-managers: know your equity, know your return on each door, then protect, grow, or exit on purpose with the math worked out.
The 200-unit formula is useless on 3 units. Count vacant days, not vacant units, and price the lost rent with economic vacancy.
The operating model for student rentals: guarantors, joint-and-several vs by-the-room leases, the August turn cycle, and the premium-vs-wear math.
The financing ladder from conventional loans to the Fannie Mae 10-property limit, then DSCR and portfolio loans, plus the reserves and records lenders grade.
The four numbers that decide if a Housing Choice Voucher pays: payment standard vs market rent, the inspection delay, and a rent floor that survives a layoff.
How owner-financed deals work from the buyer side: down payment, promissory note, the interest-rate floor the IRS sets, and the balloon you have to plan for.
One mortgage payment is really three things. Which part is deductible, which is not, and the exact year escrow taxes count.
A buyer-side look at the turnkey premium: what “done” really costs in return, how to audit the pro forma, and the patterns that should stop you.
Two tools, one lawsuit, very different price tags. The worked exposure model and a decision table by unit count for 1-10 unit landlords.
DP-1 vs DP-2 vs DP-3, what loss-of-rent actually pays, and the gaps that bite self-managers: tenant belongings, floods, and vacancy.
The one metric that settles sell-or-keep, plus the after-tax net you would actually walk away with, recapture and all.
All guides · written by a landlord, not a marketing team.