Real Estate Investors Association of Greater Cincinnati

Most real estate investors eventually experience a deal that should have worked. The numbers penciled out, the assumptions were reasonable, and the market supported the strategy. 

And yet, somewhere along the way, the outcome fell short of expectations. Maybe the partnership became strained, maybe the timing was off, or maybe a decision made under pressure created ripple effects that weren’t obvious at the time. When that happens, we usually explain it in familiar terms: inexperience, bad luck, or lessons learned. But after working with hundreds of business owners and real estate investors, I’ve noticed a quieter pattern that rarely gets discussed. Many of these outcomes weren’t caused by bad math. They were caused by decisions made under stress. 

Every investment decision is made by a human nervous system before it’s made by a spreadsheet. When uncertainty rises—interest rate changes, compressed timelines, or volatile headlines—the body responds first. Heart rate increases, attention narrows, and urgency creeps in. From that state, even disciplined investors begin to behave differently. Some move faster than they normally would, pushing deals forward to avoid missing out. Others slow down too much, delaying decisions because everything feels risky. Still others avoid looking closely at problems, hoping they resolve themselves. These patterns don’t show up in underwriting models, but they shape outcomes all the same.&nbs ... Read More…

Running a real estate business can be incredibly rewarding — but it also comes with risk. Not just market risk or deal risk. People risk.

What happens if you can’t operate the business? Most owners intend to put a plan in place. Few actually get around to it.

And when something unexpected happens, families are left trying to figure out who runs the business, what needs to be done, and how to keep income flowing.

The good news? Making such a plan isn’t complicated. It just needs to be done.

The Two Phases of a Succession Plan

Phase 1: Short-Term Disruption (3–6 Months)

This is the “something happened” scenario — an injury, stroke, heart attack, or other temporary incapacity. In this phase, the goal is simple: keep the business running.

That means:

• Identifying someone who can step in temporarily
• Making sure they’re willing and capable
• Creating a way to pay them

How Do You Fund That?

If your business has reserves, great. If not — or if using reserves creates strain — there are insurance-based solutions designed to provide cash when you need it:

• Accident Plans – Lump-sum payments for covered accidents
• Stroke Plans – Coverage specific to stroke events
• Heart Attack Plans – Lump-sum support for cardiac events
• Cancer Plans – Financial protection tied to diagnosis
• Critical Illness Plans – Broader coverage combining multiple scenarios

These plans provide immediate liqui ... Read More…

My name is Robert, and I’m a Real Estate Association member. I have a confession to make:

I don’t want to quit my job. 

That felt a little strange to admit at first, especially because so much of what you hear online—and from a lot of real estate “gurus”—is about escaping your job as quickly as possible. Before I joined a Real Estate Association, I assumed that was the mindset I’d find there, too. I figured people might look at a job as something to get rid of as fast as possible. 

But here’s the thing: I actually like mine. 

Like a lot of people, I have a solid career, good benefits, and a financial life that already works. I’m not looking to fix anything. What I am looking for is a way to keep that stability going long-term—especially into retirement. I don’t want to replace my income today. I want to build income for later. 

That’s what brought me to real estate. 

I’m not chasing quick cash or trying to flip my way out of a job. I’m interested in building assets that produce steady, reliable income over time—ideally the kind that doesn’t depend on me working every day to keep it going. 

And that’s where being part of a Real Estate Association has been surprisingly valuable. 

It’s introduced me to people I wouldn’t have met otherwise—investors, lenders, vendors, and other professionals who each play a role in ho ... Read More…

I want to tell you about a client of mine who is a rehabber. A few months ago we sat down to clean up her books. One question I always ask my new clients is "How much have you been putting on your personal card?"

She didn't know. Not really. One of her subcontractors would send a worker to Home Depot for a missing fitting, a box of screws, another gallon of paint. She would just have them charge her personal card because it was faster than sorting out who should pay. She figured she'd catch up later.

When we went back through three months of statements, the number was just over $12,000. Twelve thousand dollars in one quarter!!!! Money she could have billed back to her clients as reimbursable expenses. Money she never saw again because she didn't have a system to track it, and by the time the job closed out, nobody remembered what was for which property.

Another piece that she didn’t think of…. because those purchases were sitting on her personal card and never made it into her books, she wasn't deducting them as business expenses either.

If any part of that story is resonating, this article is for you. Below is what I'd tell any investor, rehabber, landlord, flipper, wholesaler to put in place this week.

1. Get a Home Depot and Lowe's Pro account. Today.

This is the single fastest win in this whole article and it takes about ten minutes. Both stores offer free Pro accounts that let you:

• Attach a business card on file
• Pull purchase history
• Tag recei ... Read More…

What would happen if you were to step away from your business thoroughly?  

If that question just gave you the chills, then I have a few more for you:  

• Do you feel your business owns you instead of you owning the business?  
• Do you see poor communication in your team?  
• Do you feel compelled to be involved in every business-related decision?  
• Do you have a problem getting the results you desire from your staff? 
• Are you an entrepreneur looking to scale your business but don’t know how you’ll manage any more than you’re already doing?  

I was once told (while struggling with some of these questions myself) that your business is not measured by its success when you are there but by its success when you’re not there.  

It’s true. However, many real estate investors run businesses that cannot operate without them or, more likely, that they cannot release to run without them.   

Every business needs structure and organization, which grows as the company grows. 

For your company to grow, you must add more people to your structure. These people depend on your business for their livelihood, as will you. Think about it:   

When you first started, the entire burden was on you. You were the system. That is not a reali ... Read More…

Just this morning, I was having yet another conversation with a fellow educator about the frustration we have with students who have the brains, education, and resources to make deals—but who, month after month, do everything BUT make deals. 

We discussed people who spend big bucks on courses, set up their LLCs, draft land trusts, buy marketing/accounting/management software, attend REIA meetings religiously, have a color-coded filing system, get their real estate license, start a buyer’s list, concoct every conceivable question about every conceivable scenario in a deal… 

…in fact, do everything that it takes to be a successful real estate entrepreneur except make offers. 

Many of these people are successful in their other endeavors; many have good jobs, nice houses, great kids, you name it. But they can never seem to get to the point of actually buying a property, no matter what we tell them or how much time passes. 

What many of you seem to be waiting for is that NEXT bootcamp or the NEXT investor meeting or the NEXT meeting with their coach. 

And what you’re hoping for is that you’ll read something, hear something, or learn something that makes all the fear go away, makes you completely sure of yourself, and makes you 100% confident that the next step you take is the right one. 

I’m here to tell you, from the perspective of almost 2 decades’ experience, that the day you’re waitin ... Read More…

There’s a dark secret that many investors know but that no one seems to talk about much. It’s a secret that every full-time investor eventually discovers for himself or pays the consequences.  

To illustrate, let’s take 2 imaginary real estate entrepreneurs, Investor A and Investor B. For the sake of simplicity, let’s imagine that both investors start from the same place. Same income, same credit, same skill level. Then, both attend a real estate conference one weekend in hopes of finding a way to quit their jobs in short order and become full-time real estate entrepreneurs. 

The story of Investor A 

Investor A latches on to a landlording course. He’s attracted to the idea of building wealth and loves the tax-advantaged nature of rental properties. On Monday, he sets out to build a rental empire that will allow him to become financially independent in short order.  

“A” is very successful in finding under-priced rentals in his hometown. His typical deal looks like this:  

ARV:                     $150,000 

Repairs:                $20,000 

Purchase Price:    $85,000 

Rent/mo                $1,200   ... Read More…

Ya'll do realize the irony of asking the question, “I know you’re in a hurry, but is there any quick advice you can give me about how to get started?”, right?

Because I get asked some version of that question at least 100 times a year, always by a newer investor hoping that there's some wisdom I can drop on them in the time it takes to get from the elevator to my car when I'm running from one event to another. Wisdom, preferably, that will make their entry into the business rapid, painless, and above all profitable.

The irony is that there IS no single answer to the question, "How do I get started?".

In order to properly get into that topic, I'd need to know about you: your goals, resources, preferences, exit strategies, needs, wants, and and and...and in no circumstance would that be "quick" advice.

If there were such a thing as "quick" advice, there would be no need for mentoring programs like Fasttrack to Financial Independence. Or, for that matter, for 4-day bootcamps, or REIA groups, or any of the other support systems to which we are all so devoted.

Without knowing anything else about you other than that you don't seem like a crazy stalker who's following me out to my car to kill me, I can only tell you, GENERALLY, some of the things successful people when they get started. I can't tell you what deal to look for (until I know what you plan to do with it) or how to get money (until I know your credit score) or what to pay (until you give me the A ... Read More…

Lease Options and Subject Tos, aka “Getting the Deed” are two very popular ways to purchase real estate with little or no money down. Acquiring investment real estate can be handled with many different approaches, but these two techniques can be implemented with little or no money down in most incidences.

A lease option is a technique which involves gaining ‘control’ of a property, but not owning it. It is the right to possess a property now and purchase that property at some future date with terms you define when you buy it.

A “Subject To” is getting the deed to a property without getting a mortgage for the home. Instead, the seller signs over the deed to his home ‘subject to’ the existing mortgage. The buyer in this case makes the mortgage payments on the old loan, but does not need to get a mortgage themselves to acquire this home.

Both of these techniques usually require little or no money down.  In both of these techniques it is possible for the buyer to get money from the seller or the purchaser (or both!) in the beginning of the transaction. These techniques, when used properly, will provide for huge profits. They are both awesome, and when used hand-in-hand by investors are almost an unbeatable pair!

This short article is not meant to give details of each technique, but rather to show when you could consider either of them.  If you don’t understand how to document and protect yourself in each kind o ... Read More…

Does this sound like you? 

• You love going to association meetings and webinars, and hanging out in online fora reading about, asking questions about, and discussing real estate.
• You own several home study courses.
• You’ve been to multiple long-form workshops, seminars, and boot camps.
• You haven’t done a deal. 

If it does, I’ve got some good news and some bad news. 

The good news is, you’re not alone: 80% of all real estate newbies are in exactly this position. The bad news is, 80% of real estate newbies will never get out of this position. 

Now, I’ve never seen an actual study that says that only 20% of people who learn about real estate will ever do anything with that knowledge, but I CAN tell you that it’s a number that’s agreed upon by people who are in a position to observe (and fret about) the phenomenon. 

Group leaders and gurus who’ve been around for a while will tell you the same thing—about 1 out of 5 people who start their real estate education will never take it out into the real world and use it to make money. 

So what do we do with this sobering statistic? 

The first thing we should do is ask, “Why”? What is it that the 20% has or is or does that the other 80% doesn’t? 

Again, there aren’t studies that I know of that explain this, but I have a theory, and it goes like this: 

There are several psychological stages that a new i ... Read More…