I’m seeing the same shift: light cosmetics are winning more often because they turn faster, carry less contractor risk, and keep you competitive on price; they boost rentability, shorten vacancy, and stack equity if you bought right.

BiggerPockets’ forums and their book The Book on Wholesaling Real Estate by Jamil Damji and Pace Morby is also a great starting point.REI Meetups: Check out NY-area real estate meetups and REI clubs (NYC Real Estate Investors Association, Meetup.com) — there you’ll find classes, mentors, and networking opportunities.Practice Talking to Sellers & Buyers: Even before you have a deal, practice analyzing properties, cold-calling, and building your buyer’s list.Start small, stay consistent, and focus on learning one piece at a time — you’ll gain confidence faster than you think.

PE often wants scale, track record, and systems; many first deals pencil faster with private lenders or JV partners you already know.

However if you’re talking about using the listing agent to represent both you and the seller as the buyer, I think that’s a terrible idea unless you have done dozens of transactions and know the contract and the whole process on an expert level.

Keep them warm with updates so your next approval is faster.

It's tempting to look bigger faster, but buying something a little smaller can really help learn the ropes with less pain.

Hi @Scott Green, it really depends on your cash flow goals and risk tolerance, paying it off gives peace of mind and stronger monthly cash flow, while reinvesting could grow your wealth faster if the numbers work.For another commercial property to make sense, the numbers should show stronger returns than your current loan cost.If the cap rate minus your financing rate still leaves positive leverage (meaning your debt helps, not hurts, your returns), then it could be worth pursuing instead of paying off your existing loan.

We've closed a buy-and-hold deal in 4 calendar days, using private lender funding.Other than cash, I don't know of a faster way ...

In a market where affordability is increasingly strained, it’s one of the few win-win setups: residents get a clean, stable place to live at a reasonable rate, and owners achieve strong cash flow and faster equity growth.The biggest differentiator between success and stress in this model is management.

just trying to automate my evaluation process and make it faster - finding the right property is a numbers and right markets game, and I need to evaluate at scale...