@Lauren Redies I lived 5 mins east of Brookside Park for 5 years and watched it grow.

I successfully completed all required coursework and passed my exams this past August 2025, and I’m now in the early stages of building my property management business.At this time, my focus is exclusively on third-party property management — helping owners manage their existing rental properties.

Our market has been pretty slow for the past 3 years but has picked up recently as interest rates have come down and buyers seem to be coming off the sidelines. 

I did my background research and found out that I could possibly find a lender that would fund the deal as a DSCR loan as the ratio was very good at 1.25 and I had the funds for 25% deposit.However, I wasn't able to close with the initial lender that pre-approved me as a new investor because one of the units in the 5-unit was a Studio and the size was under 400sqft (as against their internal requirements).I have been under contract for the past 3 months and only have 28 days left to close, if not I'll lose my Earnest Deposit and all the time and efforts I've put into making this deal work and currently unable to find a reliable lender as they keep mentioning that I'm a New Investor with no Experience - as my first property is still under 1 Year of Ownership.Please...I'm asking all knowledgeable investors and direct lenders here to come to my aid at this point as I don't want to lose the property nor the money I've spent so far in this deal.

Curious about your "18" unit number as the min metric?

Over the past 8 years I have added between 10 and 100 properties to my portfolio each year (I also sell properties from my portfolio each year too).

Sorry you had to go through that, holding costs piling up while a contractor drags a project out is one of the toughest situations for any investor.This is a solid reminder for all of us to double-check licenses, verify recent projects directly with past clients, and structure payment draws based on actual completed work.

I've been having a problem these past 5 years that I've managed my dad's fourplexes.

Hi Daniel,I've been employing a similar approach in Uptown over the past couple years. 

My income has doubled in the past year.