This was due to finance arbitrage like many retail bankruptcies, They were selling furniture/TV/appliances for 2 decades financed at 3-4% and borrowing at 2-3%, now their billions in floating rate notes are at 7-8% but only getting the fixed 3-4% for the washing machines etc They lost 77 mil last year and rising fast so had to Chapter 11 to stop the bleeding.Next 1-2 years will be very interesting in markets/CRE etc.

You can only watch so much daytime TV (while all your friends are working).

That means SOP's with a video of every lock, every TV, links to their manuals and troubleshooting sites, photos of everything, reminders for when the last time the batteries were changed out, documenting every possible Q&A, documenting what constitutes an emergency, training them, recording them, giving them feedback after reviewing their communications, and having company operating procedures well documented to build them up to where they know as much as possible about the property without actually having visited it. 

I watch the tv show renovation aloha which is flips in Oahu.  

The owner gets their original list price, realtors get their reno money back, anything else is split 50:50.Never rely on a TV show for guidance in real estate.

I, actually WE, my wife & I are partners in this endeavor, have deals in FL, GA, OH, LA, OK, TV, & AZ.

., the big screen TV?

I think reducing debt, and having optionality to go from investing to leisure is an immeasurable joy. 

You have 168hrs in a week, if you truly care about investing in your future, turn off the tv, hell throw the tv out!

Side Note: Whenever I see a TV/Newsletter/Podcast pundit making a bold prediction by assessing the odds at 40% - I always think of this Wall Street Journal 2018 piece.40% is 100% correct, all the time.