All Forum Posts by: Don Konipol

I am looking for a case study or resource that has various examples of investing from 1 deal in MF to an establised portfolio..

I simply want an illustration of the capital that was compounded over time to the point of creating wealth and spendable income for the owner. 

We’re selling a SF rental property and offering seller financing.  We’ve bought, sold and created a handful of notes but they’ve always been to individuals.  

Do you treat underwriting an LLC buyer differently than an individual? We've previously used Call the Underwriter to underwrite individuals, but my understanding is that compliance is less of a concern when selling to an LLC?

Are there any LLC-buyer specific potential pitfalls that we should be wary of?

We’ve had one group want to do the purchase within a trust; specifically put the property in the trust and then sell the trust.  Any concerns with doing this rather than a straightforward sale and having them handle trust steps after the sale and without our participation?

We don't plan to sell the note, BUT we want to keep that exit open should the need arise. Anything unique about re-selling a note held by an LLC that we should take into account? Are they more/less desirable than a typical owner-occupied note?

Any recommendations on attorneys that would have experience in this that could advise and handle the transaction (in Birmingham, AL)

Thank you in advance for sharing your experience and wisdom.

I was in a contract for a duplex, the appraisal come back materially lower than asking price, 14% cheaper, the seller made my agent to challenge the appraisal by submitting a set of comps at and beyond asking price in the same area, we ask my lender to revalue, the revaluation result came back, same price as initial appraisal. The seller is not willing to lower the price, so I decide to walk out the deal. The seller is being difficult, first said only return half my deposit, now not willing to return whole deposit using me passing the inspection date as excuse, my agent is fighting for me and said to the seller it is about financing bank is not lending at the asking price, the contract has general terms about financing, it is a standard contract my agent offered, my agent told me he is going to call the title company, hopefully title to return my deposit.  It is my first out of state investing deal, Ohio is one of state does not need lawyer to review contract, so I have not hired a lawyer to review my contract. 

Any other investor has experience this before and what are the course of actions I can take to have my deposit back?

Has anyone here successfully raised over $1M in equity for a real estate deal using an online platform? If so, which one, and what was your experience? I’m evaluating:

1️⃣ Fundrise – Open to all investors, $1B+ deployed, low fees, good for smaller raises.
2️⃣ CrowdStreet – $3B+ raised, focuses on large commercial deals, accredited investors only.
3️⃣ RealtyMogul – $500M+ raised, REITs & individual deals, open to non-accredited investors.
4️⃣ EquityMultiple – $300M+ raised, high returns, accredited investors only, mix of equity & debt.
5️⃣ Yieldstreet – $1B+ raised, alternative assets beyond real estate, typically $10K+ minimum.

Would love to hear from anyone who has successfully raised capital on these or other platforms!"

Airbnb just dropped their Q4 numbers, and something caught my eye that hosts need to pay attention to: while they're raking in $2.5B in revenue (up 12%), they're dumping massive resources into platform "improvements" - 535 of them to be exact.

As someone who follows the hosting space closely, here's what's interesting: they're clearly betting big on AI and tech upgrades, but what does this mean for hosts' bottom lines? Are these changes going to help you get more bookings, or are they just making the platform more complex?

Veteran hosts - have you noticed any impact from these updates on your booking rates or revenue? And for those thinking about jumping into hosting in 2025, with Airbnb's stock jumping 14% pre-market, is this the signal you've been waiting for, or does all this platform tinkering make you nervous?

The growth numbers are impressive, but I'm more interested in hearing from the people actually powering this platform. How are these changes playing out in your day-to-day hosting operations? 🏠

P.S. If you want more insights in the STR Market make sure to get our newsletter to stay up to date: https://www.biggerpockets.com/podcasts/short-term-rental

My wife absolutely hated real estate once I bought my 3rd or 4th rental house. I begged her for me to get rental #5. Then promised her my 10th rental would be my last. Then more deals fell in my lap. I was buying and holding 2 houses a year for the first 5 or 6 years. She went nuts on me for doing it anyway without her being on board. I wanted to create generational wealth, have a hedge against inflation with my $ and diversify my wealth, vs being 100% in the stock market. It was so bad, the kids would even tell me to stop buying rentals because they would hear her complain to me every time I bought a new house.

Fast forward to now, 10 years since we bought our first rental. She retired 3 years ago due to the mailbox money being well above her income which was 65k/year. The real estate profit is around 240k/year now. I bought her a couple brand new cars in the last 5 years to keep her happy. And to show her that real estate isn't so bad and allows us to have more time off to do whatever we want and not worry about finances ever again. And I just bought her a 350k condo in AZ for us to enjoy on getaways and not rent out. She's on board now, but she still demands me to quit buying. lol. I told her I'm done. 29 SFR is enough. This was my journey with getting my wife on board. It wasn't easy and I'm not sure she ever was on board. But she now sees the rewards of buying and holding rentals after 10 years.

My advice is to spend money on her along the way. Don’t vomit her with real estate shop talk if she’s not really into it. Keep the conversations about RE minimal unless she initiates it. And when you have major cap ex issues that come up, keep some of it or all of it on the down low. Spending money on cap ex still freaks out my wife. It’s just part of the business so I don’t even flinch. But it stresses her out. Good luck! And hopefully she teams up with you and gets into it. If my wife was more on board with RE investing, I think I could be making two or three times the cash flow. But I’m cool with what I have and now a happy wife, so I’ll stop buying rentals and stay away from Zillow. lol

We were deep into due diligence on a loan purchase, and everything looked solid. The initial title report came back clean—no liens, no encumbrances, no red flags. But as part of our SOPs, we always verify title details using additional sources. That’s when we spotted something our initial search didn’t pick up—a recorded contract for deed that had been filed after the prior owner sold the property.

We immediately went back to the title company and had them recheck. Sure enough, the results revealed a serious issue. A previous owner had sold the property but continued collecting payments from buyers under a contract for deed. These buyers had nearly paid off their purchase when they were suddenly told they were being evicted—despite having proof of payment and an agreement that should have protected them. Their attorney was already preparing to file a lawsuit, meaning any purchase of this loan would immediately become a legal battle.

To make matters worse, the seller was trying to structure the contract with no reps and certs, which meant if we had proceeded, we would have taken on the full risk with no recourse. Title insurance wouldn’t have covered the lender policy based on their exclusions. That could have been a $100k mistake. 

But experience teaches you two things: Always have a solid contract agreement and understand it (which we did and why we did not sign a contract with no reps and certs) and that due diligence isn’t just about relying on vendors—it’s about knowing when to dig deeper. This is why having strong processes in place is critical. If we had simply accepted the initial report, we would have walked into a financial disaster. Instead, we protected our investment by following our SOPs, verifying everything, and never assuming the first answer is the full story.

thats what I meant there is no field on MLS at least in the markets I work to put into the listing you load into MLS a fee for the buyers agent. I think though you can maybe in the private remarks alude to the fact that seller is willing to pay a buyers broker.. But not exactly sure on that either.. I just know at least on my development here in Oregon as I field many of the buyers agents calls when my wife is to busy to talk to them. One of the first things they will ask is are you paying a BAC.. And when they do write offers the commission is in the offer and its a point of negotiation.. Agents will ask for anything from 2% to 3.5% its up to me to counter.. I like this because I can counter back a flat fee and its in writing and their buyer has to agree to it.. So its up to the buyers agent to justify their worth in the transaction.