A recent episode of the Netflix show called Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj recently came out and in my personal opinion, perverted the truth when it comes to what so many of us do with real estate investing.  Has anyone watched it and seen how he skewered @James Wise ?  Now I know that James' political views lean to the right (which may have made him a target since Hasan is equally to the left).  Still, what Hasan portrayed in the episode if far from the norm.  I get the big corporations running their business like a machine.  Doesn't change the fact that most of us are mom and pop organizations just trying to provide for our families.  Have you seen it?  Have you seen how the supporters of the show are now attacking James' YouTube channel?   

Wow thats some great free exposure for Jim to be on a netfix show.

Haven't seen it but sounds intriguing... will watch!

And yeah, Netflix exposure is big time these days. Their stock is wayyyy up

Originally posted by @Darren Sager :

A recent episode of the Netflix show called Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj recently came out and in my personal opinion, perverted the truth when it comes to what so many of us do with real estate investing.  Has anyone watched it and seen how he skewered @James Wise?  Now I know that James' political views lean to the right (which may have made him a target since Hasan is equally to the left).  Still, what Hasan portrayed in the episode if far from the norm.  I get the big corporations running their business like a machine.  Doesn't change the fact that most of us are mom and pop organizations just trying to provide for our families.  Have you seen it?  Have you seen how the supporters of the show are now attacking James' YouTube channel?   

 The personal attack on me aside, Hasan Minhaj is broadcasting inaccurate facts to millions of people. This is incredibly dangerous for our entire industry.

Originally posted by @Jay Hinrichs :

Wow thats some great free exposure for Jim to be on a netfix show.

Maybe his "merch" sales will go up.  

@James Wise

I bought my first house with you guys and had a great experience. I watch lots of your stuff on YouTube. I don't agree with your politics and I think the eviction merch is in bad taste. To each their own.

I typically enjoy Hasan's show.

With that said-

It was ridiculous for him to beat up on JW like that. I am liberal leaning and JW is completely correct about starting eviction process right away. Its disgusting to take a clip from months ago and frame it as if it were said yesterday.

I wonder how these people would feel if they went to work and they didn't receive a paycheck?

Never seen the show or heard of this Hasan guy before, but just Googled him and it appears he's a comedian.  If that's the case, you really can't really take anything he says too seriously.  

Trump is so completely polarizing nowadays, that anytime i see someone proudly displaying their Trump politics (either for or against) within a business context, i just assume they WANT to drive off people with different views, AND that is more important to them than their business success.

I have all kinds of strong political viewpoints myself, but never mix them with business, and i think to do so shows pretty bad professional judgement... and apparently getting roasted on netflix of all places kind of confirms that.

"when someone tells you who they are, believe them"

Just because someone is a mom and pop organization doesn't mean they don't operate their business like a machine as well.

They can often be worse due to ignorance of laws, codes, rent control rules, ect. 

I don't have Netflix, but I just drove home to watch the 22 minute version of this episode on youtube.  This was nowhere near as bad as I thought, is there a longer version on Netflix that is worse?   

In the youtube version, he does a reasonable job covering why "cancel rent" is a bad idea at least.  Everything else is basically just going over the realities that anyone paying attention would be aware of.  Renovictions, slumlords, the eviction moratoriums, etc.  He makes fun of JW a little bit but nowhere near as bad as it sounded. 

Originally posted by @Kyle Parks :

@James Wise

I bought my first house with you guys and had a great experience. I watch lots of your stuff on YouTube. I don't agree with your politics and I think the eviction merch is in bad taste. To each their own.

I typically enjoy Hasan's show.

With that said-

It was ridiculous for him to beat up on JW like that. I am liberal leaning and JW is completely correct about starting eviction process right away. Its disgusting to take a clip from months ago and frame it as if it were said yesterday.

I wonder how these people would feel if they went to work and they didn't receive a paycheck?

Thanks for the feedback Kyle. I appreciate that and I also appreciate that your politics are different from mine but we still have common ground to work together. Couple things of note.

1. The Eviction merchandise is toungue and cheek as Evictions hurt us more than anyone. We are the victims of Evictions, not the tenants.

2. The content he took and framed as if it was said in response to COVID-19 isn't just months old. It was from 2018. The tenant in question stopped paying rent in spring 2017 lol.

Originally posted by @Nicky Reader :

I don't have Netflix, but I just drove home to watch the 22 minute version of this episode on youtube.  This was nowhere near as bad as I thought, is there a longer version on Netflix that is worse?   

In the youtube version, he does a reasonable job covering why "cancel rent" is a bad idea at least.  Everything else is basically just going over the realities that anyone paying attention would be aware of.  Renovictions, slumlords, the eviction moratoriums, etc.  He makes fun of JW a little bit but nowhere near as bad as it sounded. 

 The Netflix version and YouTube version are one in the same. Where things get dicey is in the comment section of the response video I published. It's not so much what Hasan Minhaj said but rather how his audience reacted....Read the 100's of comments to get an idea what I am talking about. The mindset they have is dangerous to all.

Originally posted by @James Wise :

Originally posted by @Nicky Reader:

I don't have Netflix, but I just drove home to watch the 22 minute version of this episode on youtube.  This was nowhere near as bad as I thought, is there a longer version on Netflix that is worse?   

In the youtube version, he does a reasonable job covering why "cancel rent" is a bad idea at least.  Everything else is basically just going over the realities that anyone paying attention would be aware of.  Renovictions, slumlords, the eviction moratoriums, etc.  He makes fun of JW a little bit but nowhere near as bad as it sounded. 

 The Netflix version and YouTube version are one in the same. Where things get dicey is in the comment section of the response video I published. It's not so much what Hasan Minhaj said but rather how his audience reacted....Read the 100's of comments to get an idea what I am talking about. The mindset they have is dangerous to all.

I say this with respect, and I agree with a lot of your policies towards how to manage this class of rentals (I am in the same kind of "savage" area, maybe not as bad though) but you have a high profile channel and your presentation about some of these issues does come off as cruel at times. 

We here in Ohio have enjoyed pretty reasonable protections for both landlords and tenants, but pissing "the masses" off is just going to push those protections away from us.  I get that it probably earns you a lot of views, but this sort of super confrontational attitude is doing us no favors in the long run.  

That said, I dont think you deserved the personal attacks.  

Originally posted by @Nicky Reader :

Originally posted by @James Wise:

Originally posted by @Nicky Reader:

I don't have Netflix, but I just drove home to watch the 22 minute version of this episode on youtube.  This was nowhere near as bad as I thought, is there a longer version on Netflix that is worse?   

In the youtube version, he does a reasonable job covering why "cancel rent" is a bad idea at least.  Everything else is basically just going over the realities that anyone paying attention would be aware of.  Renovictions, slumlords, the eviction moratoriums, etc.  He makes fun of JW a little bit but nowhere near as bad as it sounded. 

 The Netflix version and YouTube version are one in the same. Where things get dicey is in the comment section of the response video I published. It's not so much what Hasan Minhaj said but rather how his audience reacted....Read the 100's of comments to get an idea what I am talking about. The mindset they have is dangerous to all.

I say this with respect, and I agree with a lot of your policies towards how to manage this class of rentals (I am in the same kind of "savage" area, maybe not as bad though) but you have a high profile channel and your presentation about some of these issues does come off as cruel at times. 

We here in Ohio have enjoyed pretty reasonable protections for both landlords and tenants, but pissing "the masses" off is just going to push those protections away from us.  I get that it probably earns you a lot of views, but this sort of super confrontational attitude is doing us no favors in the long run.  

That said, I dont think you deserved the personal attacks.  

 All fair points.

I normally lean towards being liberal and actually like Hassan’s show. However, he does not portray the whole picture of ****** tenants and why the tenants are being evicted. People that don’t know will believe partial truths without their own research.

I am also surprised he didn’t bring up BiggerPockets in his show about the “Landlord Mob getting together and finding ways to evict poor old tenant.”

It’s a show to get people riled up and generate views and his attack of @James Wise definitely is the perfect scapegoat for this by playing on partial clips of what he says in his videos. Each time I saw a clip of JW, I would think to myself “I wonder when the editors will display why the tenant is being evicted? The tenant has probably been living in their for free for months on end before COVID started.”

@Kao Saeteurn

Exactly. Throw a clip or two from JW's "tenants from hell" series on there. Show the whole picture. I see Holton Wise signs all over town- they are respectable and provide good places for people that had they not owned them would probably be ********s. That's the thing I hate - all the people with their hands out blaming others for their laziness and stupidity.

I watched the Netflix segment. Sad to see a member of our community singled out like that. This is a good reminder for us to always run our businesses professionally and treat our customers and tenants with utmost respect.

There are some interesting things that Hasan gets wrong, although aside from him singling out individuals:

First, there are about 45M units of rental housing stock in this country. Over half of that housing stock is 1-4 unit property, and almost all of this property is owned by investors with 10 or fewer properties. The "Invitation Homes" people, or institutional investors generally account for only 1-2% of the total ownership of single family rentals in this country and I extrapoloate, a similarly small percentage of the 2-4 unit market. So many people in our industry get this wrong, because these big companies make headlines. I imagine (but don't have specific data to back this up) that the institutional big boys gain increasing market share as the property size increases. But they really are an almost total non-factor in the small residential real estate market, with the possible exception of Atlanta. Hasan conflates this fact, when he mentions invitation homes, and then subsequently states that 11.5% of single family homes are bought by investors - THAT may be true, but in the context that they are being bought by US.

So, nearly all - perhaps 98% or more, of the small residential properties in this country are owned by investors like us here on BP. Because we can buy property with Fannie Mae mortgages, we have extremely low interest rate risk, and so far, it seems that our community have been far less impacted than the apartment folks. 

Second, the small mom and pop landlord, us, here on BP -- we know that we are unlikely to be saved by anyone. We have no lobby. Certain segments of the population trash us generally, even though the vast majority of us are normal people using this as one part of our long-term approach to building wealth. Even though we are overwhelmingly reasonable people who hope to provide a quality experience and build equity and cash flow over time. We know that we have to be self-sufficient and that there will be no pity party for us if we are unable to make our mortgage payments. None of us expect a handout. Nearly all of us have been wary about a potential market change for years. 

As a result, we are as a group extremely well capitalized, and I suspect much better capitalized than the big institutional boys. I'm sure there are exceptions, but all our pollign points to financial strength from our community. In contrast, the institutions aren't the boss of their own businesses, their shareholders are. They HAVE to capitalize aggressively to meet performance thresholds, and I'd be willing to bet that their financing is not the sweetheart deal that many of us enjoy with a low fixed rate 30-year amortization profile. The typical BP investor has conservative underwriting, 6+ months reserve, and likely uses a long-term fixed rate mortgage. 

I bet that the typically institutional investor has much less in reserve, much more interest rate exposure, and a much more aggressive debt schedule, in addition to higher average default rates on rents currently. 

To me, this suggests that Hasan is wrong in his assumption that the smalltime landlord will lose their property, and instead that a large amount of institutional capital is about to get screwed. It suggests to me that new entrants into the landlording space will scoop up much existing inventory in the next few years, and that the individual landlord will continue to gain market share.

Originally posted by @James Wise :

Originally posted by @Darren Sager:

A recent episode of the Netflix show called Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj recently came out and in my personal opinion, perverted the truth when it comes to what so many of us do with real estate investing.  Has anyone watched it and seen how he skewered @James Wise?  Now I know that James' political views lean to the right (which may have made him a target since Hasan is equally to the left).  Still, what Hasan portrayed in the episode if far from the norm.  I get the big corporations running their business like a machine.  Doesn't change the fact that most of us are mom and pop organizations just trying to provide for our families.  Have you seen it?  Have you seen how the supporters of the show are now attacking James' YouTube channel?   

 The personal attack on me aside, Hasan Minhaj is broadcasting inaccurate facts to millions of people. This is incredibly dangerous for our entire industry.

 You already have a reasonably stellar no nonsense reputation. The extra exposure might only magnify this for the investors you service. For those reading , I am quite the critic usually and James, the BP dude, has been solid as a rock with advice and doing everything by book. Good luck !

Originally posted by @Scott Trench :

I watched the Netflix segment. Sad to see a member of our community singled out like that. This is a good reminder for us to always run our businesses professionally and treat our customers and tenants with utmost respect.

There are some interesting things that Hasan gets wrong, although aside from him singling out individuals:

First, there are about 45M units of rental housing stock in this country. Over half of that housing stock is 1-4 unit property, and almost all of this property is owned by investors with 10 or fewer properties. The "Invitation Homes" people, or institutional investors generally account for only 1-2% of the total ownership of single family rentals in this country and I extrapoloate, a similarly small percentage of the 2-4 unit market. So many people in our industry get this wrong, because these big companies make headlines. I imagine (but don't have specific data to back this up) that the institutional big boys gain increasing market share as the property size increases. But they really are an almost total non-factor in the small residential real estate market, with the possible exception of Atlanta. Hasan conflates this fact, when he mentions invitation homes, and then subsequently states that 11.5% of single family homes are bought by investors - THAT may be true, but in the context that they are being bought by US.

So, nearly all - perhaps 98% or more, of the small residential properties in this country are owned by investors like us here on BP. Because we can buy property with Fannie Mae mortgages, we have extremely low interest rate risk, and so far, it seems that our community have been far less impacted than the apartment folks. 

Second, the small mom and pop landlord, us, here on BP -- we know that we are unlikely to be saved by anyone. We have no lobby. Certain segments of the population trash us generally, even though the vast majority of us are normal people using this as one part of our long-term approach to building wealth. Even though we are overwhelmingly reasonable people who hope to provide a quality experience and build equity and cash flow over time. We know that we have to be self-sufficient and that there will be no pity party for us if we are unable to make our mortgage payments. None of us expect a handout. Nearly all of us have been wary about a potential market change for years. 

As a result, we are as a group extremely well capitalized, and I suspect much better capitalized than the big institutional boys. I'm sure there are exceptions, but all our pollign points to financial strength from our community. In contrast, the institutions aren't the boss of their own businesses, their shareholders are. They HAVE to capitalize aggressively to meet performance thresholds, and I'd be willing to bet that their financing is not the sweetheart deal that many of us enjoy with a low fixed rate 30-year amortization profile. The typical BP investor has conservative underwriting, 6+ months reserve, and likely uses a long-term fixed rate mortgage. 

I bet that the typically institutional investor has much less in reserve, much more interest rate exposure, and a much more aggressive debt schedule, in addition to higher average default rates on rents currently. 

To me, this suggests that Hasan is wrong in his assumption that the smalltime landlord will lose their property, and instead that a large amount of institutional capital is about to get screwed. It suggests to me that new entrants into the landlording space will scoop up much existing inventory in the next few years, and that the individual landlord will continue to gain market share.  

People can debate on their like or dislike of how I run my show and business. Is it professional? Is it unprofessional? Too rough? Not rough enough?...etc....The show is divisive, no argument there. It takes on topics that are very important to people who are on opposite sides of the spectrum. One person is being stolen from and another is losing their home. This is going to get people hot. In business or in this case media, you're never going to create a product that is appealing to everyone. There are always going to be population segments that do and do not like what you've got to offer. I do not run away from that. In fact, I embrace it.

The big thing is, my show is ACCURATE. It paints an ACCURATE picture of the industry I am a part of. What you see from me is REAL. These are REAL occurrences. These are REAL things that EVERYONE is going to deal with if they dip their toe in the industry I am involved in. 

Hasan's Netflix show on the other hand, was both divisive and INACCURATE. That is dangerous. That is the problem. The misrepresentation of facts that he is publishing to millions of people is what you should all be worried about. That is the real issue here. As for me I've got no problem having jabs thrown at me. Or in this case, thousands of jabs lol. I'll still watch the dude on TV, he's funny.

Originally posted by @Matt R. :

Originally posted by @James Wise:

Originally posted by @Darren Sager:

A recent episode of the Netflix show called Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj recently came out and in my personal opinion, perverted the truth when it comes to what so many of us do with real estate investing.  Has anyone watched it and seen how he skewered @James Wise?  Now I know that James' political views lean to the right (which may have made him a target since Hasan is equally to the left).  Still, what Hasan portrayed in the episode if far from the norm.  I get the big corporations running their business like a machine.  Doesn't change the fact that most of us are mom and pop organizations just trying to provide for our families.  Have you seen it?  Have you seen how the supporters of the show are now attacking James' YouTube channel?   

 The personal attack on me aside, Hasan Minhaj is broadcasting inaccurate facts to millions of people. This is incredibly dangerous for our entire industry.

 You already have a reasonably stellar no nonsense reputation. The extra exposure might only magnify this for the investors you service. For those reading , I am quite the critic usually and James, the BP dude, has been solid as a rock with advice and doing everything by book. Good luck !

 Thanks Matt. I appreciate that.

First I'm a police officer in the 2010 era now a landlord, I must be a glutton for punishment! Anyway, James unfortunately the media and these types of shows rarely get the full truth. Its slanted a certain way to fit their agenda for a reason. I'm watching it now, you're an easy target for them. 

Originally posted by @James Wise :

Originally posted by @Scott Trench:

I watched the Netflix segment. Sad to see a member of our community singled out like that. This is a good reminder for us to always run our businesses professionally and treat our customers and tenants with utmost respect.

There are some interesting things that Hasan gets wrong, although aside from him singling out individuals:

First, there are about 45M units of rental housing stock in this country. Over half of that housing stock is 1-4 unit property, and almost all of this property is owned by investors with 10 or fewer properties. The "Invitation Homes" people, or institutional investors generally account for only 1-2% of the total ownership of single family rentals in this country and I extrapoloate, a similarly small percentage of the 2-4 unit market. So many people in our industry get this wrong, because these big companies make headlines. I imagine (but don't have specific data to back this up) that the institutional big boys gain increasing market share as the property size increases. But they really are an almost total non-factor in the small residential real estate market, with the possible exception of Atlanta. Hasan conflates this fact, when he mentions invitation homes, and then subsequently states that 11.5% of single family homes are bought by investors - THAT may be true, but in the context that they are being bought by US.

So, nearly all - perhaps 98% or more, of the small residential properties in this country are owned by investors like us here on BP. Because we can buy property with Fannie Mae mortgages, we have extremely low interest rate risk, and so far, it seems that our community have been far less impacted than the apartment folks. 

Second, the small mom and pop landlord, us, here on BP -- we know that we are unlikely to be saved by anyone. We have no lobby. Certain segments of the population trash us generally, even though the vast majority of us are normal people using this as one part of our long-term approach to building wealth. Even though we are overwhelmingly reasonable people who hope to provide a quality experience and build equity and cash flow over time. We know that we have to be self-sufficient and that there will be no pity party for us if we are unable to make our mortgage payments. None of us expect a handout. Nearly all of us have been wary about a potential market change for years. 

As a result, we are as a group extremely well capitalized, and I suspect much better capitalized than the big institutional boys. I'm sure there are exceptions, but all our pollign points to financial strength from our community. In contrast, the institutions aren't the boss of their own businesses, their shareholders are. They HAVE to capitalize aggressively to meet performance thresholds, and I'd be willing to bet that their financing is not the sweetheart deal that many of us enjoy with a low fixed rate 30-year amortization profile. The typical BP investor has conservative underwriting, 6+ months reserve, and likely uses a long-term fixed rate mortgage. 

I bet that the typically institutional investor has much less in reserve, much more interest rate exposure, and a much more aggressive debt schedule, in addition to higher average default rates on rents currently. 

To me, this suggests that Hasan is wrong in his assumption that the smalltime landlord will lose their property, and instead that a large amount of institutional capital is about to get screwed. It suggests to me that new entrants into the landlording space will scoop up much existing inventory in the next few years, and that the individual landlord will continue to gain market share.  

People can debate on their like or dislike of how I run my show and business. Is it professional? Is it unprofessional? Too rough? Not rough enough?...etc....The show is divisive, no argument there. It takes on topics that are very important to people who are on opposite sides of the spectrum. One person is being stolen from and another is losing their home. This is going to get people hot. In business or in this case media, you're never going to create a product that is appealing to everyone. There are always going to be population segments that do and do not like what you've got to offer. I do not run away from that. In fact, I embrace it.

The big thing is, my show is ACCURATE. It paints an ACCURATE picture of the industry I am a part of. What you see from me is REAL. These are REAL occurrences. These are REAL things that EVERYONE is going to deal with if they dip their toe in the industry I am involved in. 

Hasan's Netflix show on the other hand, was both divisive and INACCURATE. That is dangerous. That is the problem. The misrepresentation of facts that he is publishing to millions of people is what you should all be worried about. That is the real issue here. As for me I've got no problem having jabs thrown at me. Or in this case, thousands of jabs lol. I'll still watch the dude on TV, he's funny.

 They misrepresent in order to push a political and economic ideology. 

I voted with my wallet and unsubscribed from Netflix long ago. A drop in the ocean, to be sure.

@James Wise

I just watched the covid episode. Never heard of this guy before @Darren Sager ‘s post.

James, what’s this guys beef with you? Do you guys know each other? Love the merch btw!

Originally posted by @James Wise :

Originally posted by @Scott Trench:

I watched the Netflix segment. Sad to see a member of our community singled out like that. This is a good reminder for us to always run our businesses professionally and treat our customers and tenants with utmost respect.

There are some interesting things that Hasan gets wrong, although aside from him singling out individuals:

First, there are about 45M units of rental housing stock in this country. Over half of that housing stock is 1-4 unit property, and almost all of this property is owned by investors with 10 or fewer properties. The "Invitation Homes" people, or institutional investors generally account for only 1-2% of the total ownership of single family rentals in this country and I extrapoloate, a similarly small percentage of the 2-4 unit market. So many people in our industry get this wrong, because these big companies make headlines. I imagine (but don't have specific data to back this up) that the institutional big boys gain increasing market share as the property size increases. But they really are an almost total non-factor in the small residential real estate market, with the possible exception of Atlanta. Hasan conflates this fact, when he mentions invitation homes, and then subsequently states that 11.5% of single family homes are bought by investors - THAT may be true, but in the context that they are being bought by US.

So, nearly all - perhaps 98% or more, of the small residential properties in this country are owned by investors like us here on BP. Because we can buy property with Fannie Mae mortgages, we have extremely low interest rate risk, and so far, it seems that our community have been far less impacted than the apartment folks. 

Second, the small mom and pop landlord, us, here on BP -- we know that we are unlikely to be saved by anyone. We have no lobby. Certain segments of the population trash us generally, even though the vast majority of us are normal people using this as one part of our long-term approach to building wealth. Even though we are overwhelmingly reasonable people who hope to provide a quality experience and build equity and cash flow over time. We know that we have to be self-sufficient and that there will be no pity party for us if we are unable to make our mortgage payments. None of us expect a handout. Nearly all of us have been wary about a potential market change for years. 

As a result, we are as a group extremely well capitalized, and I suspect much better capitalized than the big institutional boys. I'm sure there are exceptions, but all our pollign points to financial strength from our community. In contrast, the institutions aren't the boss of their own businesses, their shareholders are. They HAVE to capitalize aggressively to meet performance thresholds, and I'd be willing to bet that their financing is not the sweetheart deal that many of us enjoy with a low fixed rate 30-year amortization profile. The typical BP investor has conservative underwriting, 6+ months reserve, and likely uses a long-term fixed rate mortgage. 

I bet that the typically institutional investor has much less in reserve, much more interest rate exposure, and a much more aggressive debt schedule, in addition to higher average default rates on rents currently. 

To me, this suggests that Hasan is wrong in his assumption that the smalltime landlord will lose their property, and instead that a large amount of institutional capital is about to get screwed. It suggests to me that new entrants into the landlording space will scoop up much existing inventory in the next few years, and that the individual landlord will continue to gain market share.  

People can debate on their like or dislike of how I run my show and business. Is it professional? Is it unprofessional? Too rough? Not rough enough?...etc....The show is divisive, no argument there. It takes on topics that are very important to people who are on opposite sides of the spectrum. One person is being stolen from and another is losing their home. This is going to get people hot. In business or in this case media, you're never going to create a product that is appealing to everyone. There are always going to be population segments that do and do not like what you've got to offer. I do not run away from that. In fact, I embrace it.

The big thing is, my show is ACCURATE. It paints an ACCURATE picture of the industry I am a part of. What you see from me is REAL. These are REAL occurrences. These are REAL things that EVERYONE is going to deal with if they dip their toe in the industry I am involved in. 

Hasan's Netflix show on the other hand, was both divisive and INACCURATE. That is dangerous. That is the problem. The misrepresentation of facts that he is publishing to millions of people is what you should all be worried about. That is the real issue here. As for me I've got no problem having jabs thrown at me. Or in this case, thousands of jabs lol. I'll still watch the dude on TV, he's funny.

Yeah, I did watch your channel and knew it was real.....   The thing is people vote with emotions, and lawmakers govern towards those emotions. Evictions are pretty emotional. Being broke is emotional...  Going up against that emotion with a bold and divisive voice, even if you are 100% technically correct, you will get absolutely trounced in the court of public opinion, (as you see here) and my fear is you will take others that don't run our businesses the same way, down with you, as laws get written and new politicians get elected. 

I would never suggest anyone muzzle themselves, but times are only going to get more and more against us, especially if these economic disparities keep getting worse.    

I also don't agree with Scott's assumptions that the big guys will be in trouble and the little guys will clean up. I've already seen big hedge funds come out here to Columbus and snap up just about everything possible. They have all the REO agents and auctioneers in their pockets already. They get deals I will never have a chance at, and in bulk. They also have the weight and the attorneys to make sure those laws actually help push US out, even if we do have 6 months reserves and 30 year mortgages.

Originally posted by @Taylor L. :

Originally posted by @James Wise:

Originally posted by @Scott Trench:

I watched the Netflix segment. Sad to see a member of our community singled out like that. This is a good reminder for us to always run our businesses professionally and treat our customers and tenants with utmost respect.

There are some interesting things that Hasan gets wrong, although aside from him singling out individuals:

First, there are about 45M units of rental housing stock in this country. Over half of that housing stock is 1-4 unit property, and almost all of this property is owned by investors with 10 or fewer properties. The "Invitation Homes" people, or institutional investors generally account for only 1-2% of the total ownership of single family rentals in this country and I extrapoloate, a similarly small percentage of the 2-4 unit market. So many people in our industry get this wrong, because these big companies make headlines. I imagine (but don't have specific data to back this up) that the institutional big boys gain increasing market share as the property size increases. But they really are an almost total non-factor in the small residential real estate market, with the possible exception of Atlanta. Hasan conflates this fact, when he mentions invitation homes, and then subsequently states that 11.5% of single family homes are bought by investors - THAT may be true, but in the context that they are being bought by US.

So, nearly all - perhaps 98% or more, of the small residential properties in this country are owned by investors like us here on BP. Because we can buy property with Fannie Mae mortgages, we have extremely low interest rate risk, and so far, it seems that our community have been far less impacted than the apartment folks. 

Second, the small mom and pop landlord, us, here on BP -- we know that we are unlikely to be saved by anyone. We have no lobby. Certain segments of the population trash us generally, even though the vast majority of us are normal people using this as one part of our long-term approach to building wealth. Even though we are overwhelmingly reasonable people who hope to provide a quality experience and build equity and cash flow over time. We know that we have to be self-sufficient and that there will be no pity party for us if we are unable to make our mortgage payments. None of us expect a handout. Nearly all of us have been wary about a potential market change for years. 

As a result, we are as a group extremely well capitalized, and I suspect much better capitalized than the big institutional boys. I'm sure there are exceptions, but all our pollign points to financial strength from our community. In contrast, the institutions aren't the boss of their own businesses, their shareholders are. They HAVE to capitalize aggressively to meet performance thresholds, and I'd be willing to bet that their financing is not the sweetheart deal that many of us enjoy with a low fixed rate 30-year amortization profile. The typical BP investor has conservative underwriting, 6+ months reserve, and likely uses a long-term fixed rate mortgage. 

I bet that the typically institutional investor has much less in reserve, much more interest rate exposure, and a much more aggressive debt schedule, in addition to higher average default rates on rents currently. 

To me, this suggests that Hasan is wrong in his assumption that the smalltime landlord will lose their property, and instead that a large amount of institutional capital is about to get screwed. It suggests to me that new entrants into the landlording space will scoop up much existing inventory in the next few years, and that the individual landlord will continue to gain market share.  

People can debate on their like or dislike of how I run my show and business. Is it professional? Is it unprofessional? Too rough? Not rough enough?...etc....The show is divisive, no argument there. It takes on topics that are very important to people who are on opposite sides of the spectrum. One person is being stolen from and another is losing their home. This is going to get people hot. In business or in this case media, you're never going to create a product that is appealing to everyone. There are always going to be population segments that do and do not like what you've got to offer. I do not run away from that. In fact, I embrace it.

The big thing is, my show is ACCURATE. It paints an ACCURATE picture of the industry I am a part of. What you see from me is REAL. These are REAL occurrences. These are REAL things that EVERYONE is going to deal with if they dip their toe in the industry I am involved in. 

Hasan's Netflix show on the other hand, was both divisive and INACCURATE. That is dangerous. That is the problem. The misrepresentation of facts that he is publishing to millions of people is what you should all be worried about. That is the real issue here. As for me I've got no problem having jabs thrown at me. Or in this case, thousands of jabs lol. I'll still watch the dude on TV, he's funny.

 They misrepresent in order to push a political and economic ideology. 

I voted with my wallet and unsubscribed from Netflix long ago. A drop in the ocean, to be sure.

 I did too, but ironically it was because it was showing me right-wing conspiracy theory propaganda!    I guess their algorithm needs a tuneup.