How Many Rentals Can One Person Actually Manage?

Summary

BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast
Episode: How Many Rentals Can One Person Actually Manage?
Host: Dave Meyer (A) with Guest Henry Washington (B)
Date: November 19, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Dave Meyer and Henry Washington tackle a crucial question for every real estate investor: How many rental properties can one person realistically manage themselves, and when is it time to hire help? Pulling from their own experience and the BiggerPockets community, they break down self-management versus professional property management, discuss efficient deal analysis, and answer additional listener questions about BRRRR strategy neighborhoods and how to prepare before buying the first property. The tone is informal, insightful, and full of tangible, real-world advice.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. How Many Rentals Can One Person Manage? (00:00 – 09:33)

• Community Question: Austin from California asks about the limits of self-managing rentals and the systems required for scale.

• Henry's Experience:

  • Henry managed up to 65-75 units by himself before hiring a property manager, though "not well."
    • “I got to about 65, 75 units seriously before I hired out a property manager.” (01:40, B)
    • Key to his ability: Excellent tenant selection, reducing tenant-related headaches.
    • Real challenge emerged with multiple turnovers at once and balancing with other business (flipping 15-20 homes/year).

• Dave's Perspective:

  • Hit his management limit at 10 units (while maintaining a full-time job).
  • Outsourced maintenance first, kept tenant selection and leases in-house.
  • Distinction between Property Management (tenant relations, rent, fixing issues) and Asset Management (strategy, improvements, selling, etc.)
    • “Property management, it’s not even that time consuming. It’s just the, when the time comes, is very variable and you need to be very flexible.” (05:54, A)

• When to Hire a Property Manager:

  • It becomes essential when vacancy times increase, maintenance lags, or you begin to drop the ball on proactive care.
  • Dave found outsourcing allowed for faster growth: “I wish I did it sooner…that was what was holding me back.” (06:15, A)

• Building vs. Managing:

  • Past a certain unit threshold (about 30+ doors), self-managing is essentially running a property management company: need systems, people, processes.
    • “Once you get past a certain point…if your portfolio is big enough, you’re not self managing. … You’re just building a property management company in house.” (07:37, B)

• Memorable Moment:

  • Henry describes vacationing in Hawaii and receiving a text that someone drove through one of his houses—his property manager handled everything:
    • “I literally didn’t think about it again after I got that text message and I was like, great decision here.” (07:07, B)

• Notable Quote:

  • “If you can analyze deals and pick tenants, you’re 90% of the way there.” (02:52, A)

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2. Keys to Analyzing Deals Quickly & Confidently (12:44 – 19:09)

• Community Question: Shahab in Irving, Texas asks about analyzing deals swiftly, especially small multifamily or house hacks.

• Henry’s “Back of the Napkin” Method:

  • Initial screening is fast—look for rough ballpark viability (e.g. does it meet or beat the 1% rule?).
  • Reserve deep spreadsheet analysis for “level two” – only for serious contenders after first pass.
    • “Level one should be something you can do quickly that just lets you know what offer will get you in the ballpark.” (14:41, B)

• Dave’s Step-by-Step Process:

  1. Market Knowledge & Buy Box: Does this property fit your location, property type, and price (disqualify quickly if not)?
     • “It’s less about math. It’s mostly about knowing what you want.” (16:12, A)
  2. Calculator Analysis: Only for properties that pass step one, takes 10–15 minutes. Tools like the BiggerPockets calculator are handy.
  3. Double Check with Local Experts: Before offering, verify assumptions with your property manager/agent.
     • “A calculator is only as good as the numbers you put into it. If you’re just wrong on rent…you’re just wrong.” (17:05, A)

• Insight:

  • Don’t spend more than 30 seconds–a few minutes on step one; most deals won’t pass. If too many do, “your criteria are probably not strict enough.” (18:32, A)

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3. BRRRR in C/D Neighborhoods – Does It Work? (21:32 – 27:58)

• Community Question: Salvatore in Rochester, NY wants to BRRRR but only sees viable cash deals in C or D neighborhoods. Is that a problem?

• Location & Strategy:

  • Lower-tier neighborhoods on average appreciate less than A/B, but there are exceptions.
  • Success depends on your goals:
    • If you want appreciation: A/B are better bets.
    • If you want forced equity/cash flow: C/D can work well, as long as you buy deeply discounted properties and renovate.
    • “The reason you do the BRRRR is because you don’t need market appreciation. You’re forcing that appreciation.” (26:03, A)
    • “If you’re able to get into a property in a B or C class neighborhood…getting the equity bump on the buy, you’re forcing the appreciation, it’s cash flowing and you can pull 50% of your cash out. It’s pretty solid win in my book.” (27:58, B)

• Big Caution:

  • Don’t overpay in C/D neighborhoods expecting appreciation to bail you out.
    • “Are you paying cash for a property at retail value and then renovating it and then hoping the market appreciates?... That’s not going to work.” (25:07, B)
  • Take time to know the neighborhood and market dynamics (10-year appreciation, tenant demand, etc).

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4. Is It Ever Too Early to Take Action? (28:42 – 31:47)

• Community Question: Erica from Washington plans to house hack in about a year but wonders if now is too soon to talk to lenders or take action steps.

• Advice:

  • It’s never too early. Familiarize yourself with the process, meet lenders, attend local meetups, and get your finances in shape.
    • “Absolutely … I think it is very normal to spend a half a year or a year getting comfortable with the idea of investing before actually doing it.” (29:21, A)
  • Talking to lenders is useful – they’ll help you understand what you can afford and what to save for.
    • “Be honest with the lender and they will have an honest conversation with you.” (29:07, A)

• Preparedness vs. Fear:

  • There’s a difference between being thorough and stalling out of fear.
    • “Preparedness and fear are different questions. If you know you want to do this and you’re committed…do that, that’s just smart.” (31:02, A)

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Memorable Quotes

• “If you can analyze deals and pick tenants, you’re 90% of the way there.” — Dave (02:52)
• “Once you get past…30 doors plus…You’re just building a property management company in house.” — Henry (07:37)
• “I literally didn’t think about it again after I got that text message and I was like, great decision here.” — Henry, on hiring a property manager (07:07)
• “If more than like 30% of the things you look at pass step one, your criteria are probably not strict enough.” — Dave (18:32)
• “The reason you do the BRRRR is because you don’t need market appreciation. You’re forcing that appreciation.” — Dave (26:03)
• “Preparedness and fear are different questions.” — Dave (31:02)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Limits of Self-Managing Rentals: 00:00 – 09:33
• Streamlining Your Deal Analysis: 12:44 – 19:09
• BRRRR in Lower-Tier Neighborhoods: 21:32 – 27:58
• Prepping Before Your First Purchase: 28:42 – 31:47

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Tone & Style

Dave and Henry are friendly, candid, and use lots of real-world, “in the trenches” examples. They occasionally poke fun at themselves and each other, and their advice is actionable yet realistic—acknowledging that every investor’s “limit” and best path are highly individual.

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Takeaways

• Most can manage 5-10 rentals solo if working full time; more if you make it your day job and install good systems.
• Learning to choose good tenants and deals is far more powerful than any property management hack.
• Don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis: speed comes with experience, but knowing your “buy box” and market trumps any spreadsheet.
• BRRRR can work in C/D neighborhoods if you buy right and don’t count on market appreciation.
• It’s never too early to get educated and start practical steps—even a year before your first purchase.

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For more advice or to ask your own questions, join the BiggerPockets forums and community.

Transcript

[A]

How many rental properties can one person realistically buy? And even more importantly, how many properties can one person actually manage? Is it really possible to scale a rental property portfolio without property managers eating up all your profits? Today we'll dig into that question and much more. Hey everyone, I'm Dave Meyer, head of real estate investing at Biggerpockets. Thank you all so much for being here. And Henry Washington, thank you for being here helping me answer some of our community questions.

[B]

Hey man, this is one of my favorite formats to do is finding a way to answer questions and help the BP community.

[A]

Absolutely. Well, we got some really good questions from real investors on the Biggerpockets forums today. First up, we have an investor in California who's wondering when it's time to hire a property manager. Then we'll get into tricks for analyzing deals quickly, which is a super important skill to have in my opinion, and steps that you can take now even if you're not planning to buy a property for the next couple of months. We got that and a couple of more. Let's jump into it. Our first question comes from Austin in Reseda, California. I have no idea where that is, but Austin asked, is anyone that manages their own properties able to acquire many properties? What systems do you use to achieve scale? So I think the heart of the question here is like, at what point does self management become unreasonable? Or is there even a point where self management becomes unreasonable? What's your take on this?

[B]

Yeah, there's a point, but it's going to vary for every person depending on what kind of other job you have and how much time freedom it allows you, what kind of software systems you're using, what kind of processes you have in place. You know, you can be super efficient self managing with the right systems, a couple of VAs, but it does require you to know how to put those processes in place and know how to train the people you want on your team. You know, for me, I got to about 65, 75 units seriously before I hired out a property manager.

[A]

And you were doing all that yourself?

[B]

Yeah, not well.

[A]

Okay. Yes.

[B]

Okay. So the one thing I will say, I was good at picking tenants. And so the tenants I picked, it was a very rare situation where we picked a tenant that we had trouble collecting rent.

[A]

Same.

[B]

I just feel like at the heart of being a landlord, like you've gotta get good at tenant selection. I don't care what price point, what class neighborhood. There are people who suck at paying rent in an a class, $3,000 a month rental. And there Are people who suck at pay a rent in a D class, $500 a month rental.

[A]

Totally. If you can analyze deals and pick tenants, you're 90% of the way there.

[B]

Right. Like, you just have to look if you're going to self manage, like that's the skill you need to figure out how to hone is your tenant selection process. Because if you do that right, everything else is much easier.

[A]

Can I ask though, you, you were doing 60, 75, but you were working on your portfolio full time.

[B]

I had about 68 doors when I quit, so somewhere.

[A]

Oh yeah. Whoa. Okay. Your number is like 10 times higher than what I was going to say.

[B]

I started to realize between 65 and 75 units that like things were taking longer than I wanted them to take. Like turning a unit after somebody moved out was taking longer than I wanted it to take in. Finding a tenant and getting them in, the vacant units were taking longer. Like, because when you have that many units, like you're not just doing one turn at a time, you're sometimes doing three, four, five turns at a time. Plus, I was still flipping 15, 20 houses a year, so it was just a lot. But I still didn't want to turn it over. Like, it's just something in me didn't want to turn the business over. My property manager basically told me, like, you're probably paying more than 10%.

[A]

Oh, for sure.

[B]

And just lost rent collection and, you know, sitting with vacant units. So you might as well just pay me and let me do a better job than you.

[A]

Wow, that's impressive. I think I was at 10 units or so when I decided it was time to get some help. But I didn't go into full property manager at first. I hired a handyman who would take maintenance calls. And I still did all the tenant screening myself. I did all the leases, and I still did what I would call the asset management myself. And I think this is something that people get caught up on a lot and miss in rental property. Investing is there's, there's two jobs when you talk about being a manager. There's property management, which is dealing with tenants, finding tenants, making sure that they have a good quality place to live. Then there's asset manage, which is like, just what are you doing with the property? Are you making upgrades? When do you sell it, when do you invest in it? And that part, I think is always the hard part to outsource. That's kind of your job as the investor. For me, working full time, I found it difficult to get past 10 units and to do the property management piece well. Yeah, and I think you're totally right. Like I've been fortunate to have really great tenants pretty much universally. Never really had a problem there. The thing that kept dropping off for me is that asset management piece. I was not at the properties enough to notice when something was like starting to go wrong and being able to proactively fix it before something went really wrong. And like that was sort of where things started to break down. It really wasn't on the tenant side. And so that's sort of how I've thought about my portfolio structure and where I hire and get help later is focusing. Like I want to be able to asset manage well and I will pay people to do the property management because property management, it's not even that time consuming. It's just the, when the time comes, is very variable and you need to be very flexible. And that's hard for me, investing out of state and working 9 to 5. So that's really how I've thought about it and I don't regret it for a single second. It has been one of the best things I ever did. I wish I did it sooner because I actually think I'd own more units because like that was what was holding me back. In retrospect, I didn't want to manage more properties. Even though I had the capital to probably go buy more, I still felt.

[B]

Like, man, maybe I should have kept the property management in house until about two months in. I was on vacation in Hawaii and I got a text message that someone drove through my house. They jumped the curb because they were under the influence. They drove through the wall of the house. Luckily that wall led into the garage and they just drove through my garage, but not through the. And so like as a self manager while you're on vacation, that's a nightmare text to get.

[A]

Nightmare. Absolute nightmare.

[B]

But I looked at my phone, I looked at the pictures and I went, huh, that sucks. And then my property manager took care of the tenants, called the insurance company, filed the claim, got bids for the work, got the work done, got me the insurance payout, paid the, paid the contractor, and I literally didn't think about it again after I got that text message and I was like, great decision here. Yeah, can I give my property management hot take?

[A]

Yeah, please.

[B]

Once you get past a certain point in your portfolio in terms of number of doors, it's no longer self managing. Like even if you plan to continue to manage your own rentals, if your portfolio is big enough, you're not self Managing. You're just building a property management company in house. You have to have people, systems and processes when you get over a certain amount of doors. So you're going to need VAs or somebody in house that's helping you keep up with all this and systems that cost money in order. You're literally building out infrastructure for a property management company. I'd say probably 30 doors plus.

[A]

Could I tell you another reason? I knew it. To hire a property manager.

[B]

Absolutely, you can.

[A]

Do you ever get that recurring dream when you, like, show up to school and you're not prepared for a test or something? I know, it's like a really, like, popular recurring dream.

[B]

Yeah, 100%. Yeah.

[A]

But I was having this recurring dream where I just, just like forgot that I owned a certain property and like had it shown up there.

[B]

I have that literally all the time. I completely forget that I bought a property and I've just been sitting on it unrenovated. Not making that tree. Yes, all the time.

[A]

Yeah, that's so true. I'm always like, oh, no, I just bought it and just left it there for years. What is wrong with me? Wow. I need to. I'm going to start asking that to every guest on this show. I've never had that dream where you forgot about a property. Wow. All right, I'm glad we could talk about these things, man.

[B]

Real estate therapy.

[A]

All right, well, that was a very good question and I think hopefully we helped answer your question there, Austin, because it is really personal, but absolutely, you can do it yourself. I think almost anyone could do, you know, five to ten, probably by themselves. Realistically, once you get past that, it really depends. Are you working full time? Are you building a business? Kind of, as Henry said.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

All right, well, we have plenty more questions from the community, but we do have to take a quick break. We'll be right back. They say real estate is passive income, but if you've spent a Sunday night buried in spreadsheets, you know better. We hear it from investors all the time, spending hours every month sorting through receipts and bank transactions, trying to guess if you're making any money. And when tax season hits, it's like trying to solve a Rubik's cube blindfolded. That's where Baselane comes in. BiggerPocket's official banking platform. It tags every rent payment and expense to the right property and schedule E category as you bank. So you get tax ready financial reports in real time, not at the end of the year. You can instantly see how each unit is performing. Where you're making money and losing money and make changes while it still counts. Head over to baselane.com biggerpockets to start protecting your profits and get a special $100 bonus when you sign up. Thanks again to our sponsor Baselane. Let's talk about a Real Estate Backed Investment with major Tax Advantages Car washes PBR's Opportunity Fund offers accredited investors access to a high margin, recession resistant industry with passive income tax efficiency and significant upside potential. With operations in prime locations using best in class technology. Managed via a vertically integrated team, this fund is designed to deliver strong, stable returns. Backed by over $1 billion in assets under management. PPR has provided passive returns to thousands of investors since 2007. Don't miss out. Learn more [e-mail] PPRCAR that's biggerpockets.com PPRCAR.

[C]

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[A]

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[B]

Oh, absolutely not. It's literally on the back of a napkin. Yeah, and so let me put a caveat here because you're right. You need to be able to analyze deals quickly in order to make offers. And you need to be able to do it quickly so you don't get stuck in analysis paralysis. Because if you've got to go through some complex calculation every time you see a deal, you're going to second guess yourself. You're going to be playing with the numbers over and over again and you're not going to submit enough offers to get you where you want to go. And so I would suggest to people like if you are super detail oriented person. That's cool. Get yourself all the calculators and spreadsheets that you need, but only use those when you get to what I would call level two of analyzing a deal. Level one should be something that you can do quickly that just lets you know what offer will get you in the ballpark. Then you can make your offer or dive deeper into the deals that have a fighting chance of you getting them. So maybe you are analyzing a bunch of on market deals. You do it super quick back in the napkin and then you submit 10 offers and then you get a counter or two. Well then on the that counter or two you can plug those suckers into your super fancy schmancy, you know, crazy calculator, spreadsheet thing and you can, you can get the numbers right and spend the time on the appropriate deals and not spending that amount of time on every deal.

[A]

Now I think the thing that people get mixed up about that is that they think it's some math problem that you're running in your head. For me, there is a little bit of math you look at maybe rent to price ratio, something like that. But actually what it is, it's a function of just knowing your market really well. That's the most important thing you're looking at. Is this in a good neighborhood that I'm interested in buying in. That will disqualify probably half of them. I, I don't know, I'm just making, I'm making this up. It'll probably disqualify a lot. You know, is it on a busy road? I don't want it. Is it in some neighborhood that's super expensive and there's no juice? I don't want it. Is it in a neighborhood that's probably not going to have a lot of tenant demand? I don't want it. Those are the things that are going through my head. The second thing is knowing your buy box and comparing this property to the buy box. So that's honestly the first round of filtering is that I'm not like coming up with some cash on cash return. In my head I'm like, does this just kind of fit the kind of thing I'm trying to do? And it's less about math. It's mostly about knowing what you want. Which is why we talk so much about figuring out your goals in buy box and knowing your market enough to see if this particular property matches that. So for me that's phase one. Step two is putting into a calculator and again, by this time my career takes me 10 minutes or less, 15 minutes. At a certain point, you can use the bigger Pockets calculator. You know, there's plenty of guides on there. But that's where you really figure out, is this going to offer me the kind of return I'm looking for? And then I actually even go one step further and do sort of a third round. Sometimes this is after, you know, I put an offer right before I'm about to put an offer. That's where I would talk to my property manager or my agent and get just double checks on the assumptions that I'm putting into this deal. Because a calculator is only as good as the numbers you put into it. If you're just wrong on rent, yeah, it's going to show you an awesome roi, but you're just wrong. So that's where I sort of have someone else double check it. That's kind of the process I have getting good at step three. I don't think you need to be fast at that. You shouldn't be doing that that often unless you're like Henry and you're making offers all the time. But for someone like me, I don't need to do that all the time. 1 and 2 are really what I would focus on to be able to really look at the volume of deals that you need to be able to look at in order to find good deals with relative consistency.

[B]

My gut check is still where would I need to be for this to hit a 1% rule or better? 1% rule is about break even. Maybe you're losing just a little money. So if I'm better than 1% rule, at the price point I'm looking at, I'm probably going to be making money. And so I will then dig a little deeper if I feel like the property passes that, you know, that vibe check.

[A]

I literally, while you were talking, I just pulled up a property I was looking at. Before someone sent it to me, I asked what the year of construction was, what the rents are, if those are sustainable and the asking price. It hit 1% rule, it's in a good neighborhood. So now I'm going to move on to step number two and start checking this out. That's all it is. It took, you know, 30 seconds, 45 seconds to just be like, is this good enough? And you're going to look at a lot of them and honestly, they shouldn't be good, most of them. I'd say if more than like 30% of the things you look at past step one, your criteria are probably not strict enough.

[B]

Yeah, your analysis is off. There's no way.

[A]

You know, people get very frustrated by this. But that's the whole point is you have to be selective. Not every deal is meant for real estate investors. All right, great question. We have more, including questions about doing brrrrs and what kind of neighborhoods you should target for those. That's a great question. We'll get to that when we come back. Stick with us. Want to earn passive income every month without the hassle of property management? If you're an accredited or high net worth investor, PBR Capital Management offers a proven solution. Since 2007, PPR has helped nearly 2,000 investors earn over $100 million in consistent, predictable passive returns. Headquartered just outside Philadelphia, PPR manages a $1.1 billion diversified portfolio designed to provide steady income and long term growth. With decades of in house expertise, their team strategically mitigates risk to help investors achieve their financial goals. See how a PPR fund could fit into your portfolio. Visit biggerpockets.com PPR today, that's biggerpockets.com PPR.

[C]

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[A]

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[B]

I do have several, several follow up questions. One was, why do you have to pay cash? I agree with you. The other one is like, I don't know, you just have to know your market. So just because it's a C or D neighborhood doesn't mean it's not going to be an appreciating market. There are C and D neighborhoods and appreciating markets all over the country. And so I think this is more a function of understanding where you're trying to do a burr. And if properties go up in value in that market, you know, look at the 10 year adjusted appreciation rate and that'll let you know on average what you can expect properties to do when you zoom out over the long term. The other thing is I just sometimes think CND neighborhoods get a bad rap. People hear CND neighborhoods and they think, you know, crime and no appreciation and nobody wants to live there. And that's just not true. Again, you need to understand your market. Sure, there are some neighborhoods in almost every market that are going to be a problem, but there are a lot of C and D neighborhoods where you can get great numbers.

[A]

Absolutely.

[B]

My other caveat is it's the concern of the value of the home won't go up. Is that concern related to you needing the home to go up in value in order for you to refinance and pull your money out, or is that concern related to you just wanting a property that appreciates over time? Because my real concern with this is are you paying cash for a property at retail value and then renovating it and then hoping that the market appreciates enough over time for you to pull your cash out in a short period of time? Because that's not going to work.

[A]

Yeah, don't do that.

[B]

That's not going to work. But if you are like, even if you buy a bird deal in a not appreciating area or a very slowly appreciating area, as long as you buy that deal at a low enough price point, you can absolutely refinance it and pull your money out. It's just, did you get the property at a, at a low enough discount to enable you to pull your cash out?

[A]

Yeah, I totally agree with Henry. I think that this idea that you can find something that's distressed enough that you could buy it low enough to do a successful burr and it's going to be in a great neighborhood that appreciates more than the average in your market is just a Little bit unrealistic. I think the big change that we're going through right now is a change in expectations and this is just normal investing. Right. Like the reason you do the brrrr is because you don't need market appreciation. You're forcing that appreciation. You're doing the value add and so expecting to be able to do that and get market appreciation. Hopefully you do. But to me, the brrrr in today's day and age, the value of it is you get the value add, you get a pop of equity right up front, quickly, super valuable. That is amazing. And hopefully when you refinance it, you have a cash flowing property that is now renovated is going to have high tenant demand, is going to command good rents for the neighborhood. It's probably going to cash flow for you. That's more than enough for me. If you get that, that's great. If that market appreciates, that's also good. But if you go into an A neighborhood, for example, let's just play this out. You go in an Abraham neighborhood, it's going to be much harder to buy at the right price, as Henry alluded to. And, and it is very unlikely in A neighborhoods, no matter what market you're in, that you're going to be able to cash flow a property after you refinance it. It's going to be much harder to do that. So I think it's really a question of priority for me. I take the B or C class neighborhood, do the brrrr get a cash flowing property rather than be in a BNA neighborhood. But that's just me.

[B]

Yeah, I'm 100% with you. And I would also say in this market, I wouldn't expect you to be able to execute a full 100% brrrr in, you know, six months. Like. But if you're able to get into a property in a B or C class neighborhood that's got some slow appreciation, but you're getting the equity bump on the buy, you're forcing the appreciation, it's cash flowing and you can pull 50% of your cash out. It's pretty solid win in my book.

[A]

I 100%. I think that's a great deal. All right, but good question. I think that makes a lot of sense. Salvatore, let us know in the comments or on YouTube what you wind up doing with this project. We'd love to hear from you. We do have to get out here, but we have one more time. Quick question here. Fourth question comes from Erica in Washington who's also kind of just getting started in real estate, she asked, is it ever too early to start taking actionable steps? I plan to move to the market I choose to invest in and house hack a multifamily home, but I know I won't purchase property for at least another year. I'm not sure if I'm at the stage of speaking to lenders. Is this thought process holding me back? Should I reach out to local banks even if I don't have the savings I want yet? Any other advice on realistic will action steps to start taking early?

[B]

This question has you written all over it.

[A]

Me?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. All right. You just read it. You're just ready to go. You just want to leave.

[B]

I mean my, my answer is good job, keep doing that.

[A]

Absolutely, yeah. The reason I put this at the end with question is because it's easy to answer. Absolutely. The fact that you're on the biggerpockets forums asking questions is excellent. I think most people usually take, I don't know, 3, 6, 9, 12 months to get comfortable enough with the idea of real estate investing to want to pull the trigger on a deal. So I think you're absolutely talking about it. Go talk to lenders. I think that is totally acceptable as well. They are not as much going to look at in the first conversation how much savings you have. They're going to look at your debt to income ratios and they're going to help you understand what payments, monthly payments, you're going to be able to afford and just be honest with the lender and they will have an honest conversation with you in the meantime. I think you said you haven't moved to the local market. The other thing I would do is the second I move to that market, go to real estate investing meetups, start meeting people even before you are ready to go out and execute on a deal. That's going to be super helpful and comforting and getting you to know the right people and just keep doing this. Listen to the podcast, read a couple of books. But I think it is very normal to spend a half a year or a year getting comfortable with the idea of investing before actually doing it.

[B]

Yeah, I think the difference between her and what we hear a lot of investors say is a lot of new investors, they think they want to invest but they're not truly bought in yet and they're still scared. And the vibe I'm getting from her post is not that she's scared, she is trying to be as prepared as she possibly can and that may mean she needs to take some more time and save some more money. And she can learn that by talking to a lender. It may mean that she needs to focus on learning a little more about a person, particular strategy. When, when you have made the decision that you're going to do this and now the time you're spending is helping you become a better investor before you even start, like that's positive. If you have a plan and you're trying to execute that plan and you can talk to lenders and learn how much money you need to do the thing you're trying to do when you're going to need it by how much payment you can afford. And then you're taking steps along the course of a year to help you be prepared to do that. Like that's, that's great.

[A]

Absolutely. I love that advice. I think that's a very important distinction. Is like preparedness and fear are, are different questions. If you know you want to do this and you're committed and you're just getting all your ducks in a row, do that, that's just smart. If you're just stalling because you can't decide if you want to be in, I understand that that's a real issue. It's hard. But that, that's a different question. So I, I think for Erica, she seems to know what. And taking time to save up money and do that in a responsible way. I think you're doing exactly what you should be doing, Erica. So good for you. All right, that's what we got. We talked all about self managing. Henry and I talked about our dreams.

[B]

We did talk about our dreams.

[A]

Yes, we talked about our dreams. We talked about analyzing deals quickly, how to do a brrrr in the right type of neighborhood, and whether it's ever too early to start making moves into real estate investing. If you have questions you want Henry and I to talk about, you can always send them to us on Instagram, comment them in the comments on YouTube, or participate in the BiggerPockets forums. We have thousands of forum posts every single day where people are helping each other with their real estate journeys for free on biggerpockets.com you can go do that and we might just pluck your question right out of those forums if you are an active member of the community. So go check that out as well. Henry, thanks so much as always for your support in answering these questions. It's great having you here.

[B]

Glad to be here, buddy.

[A]

And thank you all so much for listening. We'll see you next time for another episode of the BiggerPockets podcast. Thank you all for listening to the Biggerpockets Real Estate Podcast. Make sure you get all our new episodes by subscribing on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or any other podcast platform. Our new episodes come out Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I'm the host and executive producer of the show, Dave Meyer. The show is produced by Ian K. Copywriting is by Calico, content and editing is by Eck Exodus Media. If you'd like to learn more about real estate investing or to sign up for our free newsletter, please visit www.biggerpockets.com. the content of this podcast is for informational purposes only. All host and participant opinions are their own. Investment in any asset, real estate included, involves risk, so use your best judgment and consult with qualified advisors before investing. You should only risk capital you can afford to lose and remember past performance is not indicative of future results. Biggerpockets LLC disclaims all liability for direct, indirect, consequential or other damages arising from a reliance on information presented in this podcast.