Real Estate Investors Association of Greater Cincinnati

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…

Building wealth is all about the ROI (Return on Investment). Making your money work for you instead of just stock-piling it and hoping it will be enough to retire you.  As with any type of investing there is risk involved in being a real estate guru. But it has been my experience that the benefits far outweigh the risks. 

One of the most advantageous things about real estate investing is the ability to use leverage instead of cash to do your deals.  

Let’s say you have $50,000.00 that you would like to invest. You find a rental property selling for $60,000.00. The fair market value of the house is $70,000.  Banks will generally loan 70% of the fair market value. Therefore, you could get a loan for around $52,000. You use $10,000 of your “investment” money and purchase the rental property.  

If it’s a 3-bedroom house in a fair neighborhood.  The house would easily bring $750 per month or more in rental income. Yes, there are expenses—taxes, insurance, the payment on that mortgage, vacancy, maintenance. But even after all that, in effect the $10,000 you invested in purchasing this property is giving you a return of 15%.  How many other investments in your portfolio are showing you that kind of return? Don’t forget, you’ve only spent $10,000 of the $50,000 that you are planning to invest, so you can do it 4 more times. 

Another super quality of buying real estate is you earn that ROI tax deferred. ... Read More…

An interesting thing happens when people become successful real estate investors:  like any true convert, they start to want to proselytize. And one of the primary characteristics of any good missionary is the desire to emphasize the good and de-emphasize the downsides of one’s religion.

Have you ever noticed that most successful investors remember their early years in real estate as “not that hard”, or “scary, but doable”? Yet if you ask a new investor who’s in the midst of trying to find his first few deals, he’ll more than likely describe this time as “terrifying”, “overwhelming” or “nearly impossible”. 

Remember, dear readers, that your mentors and colleagues are (for the most part) not deceiving you intentionally, unless they’re trying to sell you something. It’s just that they want you to succeed as they’ve succeeded, and that, now that doing deals is second nature, they’ve honestly forgotten a lot of what it was like to struggle in the early years. You may have been guilty of this yourself: I know I’ve been. But unlike most of you, I have a forum from which to atone for my sins of omission. 

So, this one’s for every newbie who thought that he must be stupid for not being able to find a great deal his first week out, and for every old-timer who’s ever forgotten to mention to said newbie that, though a millionaire on paper, he’ ... Read More…

Sometimes I would love to go back in time, just to get a chance to do a few things differently than what I actually did…or didn’t do - of course, hindsight is 20/20 right? 

That hindsight, and all the things I did BEFORE I discovered lease/options that I wish I'd just skipped, is why I now stress to everyone who wants to start making money in real estate to consider lease/options FIRST. Please understand that this is not a suggestion based on selfish motives, it is based purely on experience. 

And the reason why I believe, and am convinced of the fact, that lease option strategies are the absolute best strategies in all of real estate investing for every beginning and seasoned investor to get involved with, is because it takes no capital, very little time, and minimal training, to start getting paid quickly in real estate investing.  

If you were to purchase an average rental property, in a typical neighborhood (let’s say for example a 3 bed, 1.5 bath home rents for $1,200, with a cost of $80,000), and assuming you did not use a private lender (most beginning real estate students do not have those) the monthly payment with a bank using your own credit on a typical commercial loan will cost you about $575/month, plus, let's say, $200/month for taxes and insurance is a total payout of $775/month.   

Now, that payment has to begin whether you have a tenant lined up or not! But for sake of our example, let’s just s ... Read More…

A short sale in real estate happens when a homeowner sells their property for less than the amount owed on the mortgage. The lender, or mortgage holder, agrees to accept a reduced payoff amount instead of foreclosing on the property. Short sales often occur when homeowners are struggling financially and can no longer afford their mortgage payments, but they want to avoid the more damaging impact of foreclosure.

Understanding a Short Sale

To fully grasp the concept of a short sale, it’s important to understand the dynamics between the homeowner, the lender, and the property’s market value. In a short sale, the property is usually considered “underwater,” which means that its market value is lower than the outstanding mortgage balance. This situation often arises due to a downturn in the housing market or an economic recession. Homeowners may opt for a short sale as a way to mitigate their losses and minimize the financial impact on their credit score compared to a foreclosure.

Special Considerations

A short sale, although a potential solution for homeowners facing financial difficulties, presents a unique array of challenges and considerations that need to be carefully evaluated.

1. Lender Approval: Approval from the lender is necessary for the short sale, as it involves receiving an amount that is less than the total owed. This process can be lengthy and complex, as lenders thorough ... Read More…

Long, navel-gazing post/manifesto ahead:

Anyone who's started a business will tell you that you HAVE to have a really big "Why"--bigger than 'the money' or the desire to not work for someone else--if you're going to get through all the hard work and disappointments and market cycles and fear.

For some people, it's the desire to spend more time with their children, or to create generational wealth, or to give, financially or in terms of time, in a big way to a cause they’re passionate about.

Since I don’t have children, my big why sort of falls into the latter category, but in a weird way.

I love real estate—it’s interesting, fun, creative, and the learning just never stops (which my ADHD brain loves). It also provides the financial freedom to spend a humongous amount of time on much HARDER thing that’s my real “Why”.

If you haven’t gathered this from talking to me or reading my posts, I’m a huge believer in and advocate for freedom in all of its forms—financial, personal, political, social, whatever.

It’s hard for people to feel, or be, free, or to want real freedom for other people, when they’re struggling financially. There needs to be a base level of financial security before humans can even start to creep out of survival mode and into “Impact” mode and “Betterment” mode.

The way *I* know how to get there, and I know how to CONVEY how to get there, is through owning and ... Read More…

I’m very slowly, very painfully, and with a lot of stops and starts, learning something uncomfortable about myself.

In my heart, I’m still the workhorse/get ‘er done/no one can outwork me, person I was 30 years ago.

I’m the one who’s always ready to jump in, take out the trash, move the chairs, stay up all night painting the unit for move-in tomorrow, stay late, handle the problem, make it work if it kills me.

And for a long time, that was a strength. It’s how I built credibility, survived early deals, got experience, and showed everyone that I wasn’t “above” anything and that I was useful.

But here’s the hard truth I keep running up against: that identity, that instinct, is now the thing holding me back.

Because every time I insist on doing work that someone else could do — even when I’m good at it, even when it feels virtuous — I’m stealing time and energy from the work that only I can do.

I have a lot of business (not something I necessarily recommend to others!) and that means a LOT of chances to jump in and fix things and be a team player and prove I’m not stuck up (which was the WORST thing someone could say about you on the Oakley Elementary School playground, and an accusation that still rings in my head lo these may years later).

It’s really, literally painful to think about saying things like, “I’m sorry you don’t have time to show that vacancy ... Read More…

If you got into real estate anytime in the last decade, you’ve spent most of your investing life in a market where prices went up, inventory stayed tight, and competition never really let up.

There are some real advantages to that kind of market. Flips, both wholesale and retail, sell fast. Renters are easy to find, and rents usually climb every year. The headlines are upbeat. Everyone feels smart.

It’s fun to be in the real estate business when the wind is always at your back.

The downside of that kind of market is, of course, that everyone wants to be in it. And that means that great deals are hard to come by.

When homeowners and investors are all racing to buy, prices get pushed up and profit margins get squeezed.

Finding deals that actually pencil out as long-term holds or really profitable flips becomes the hardest, most time-consuming part of the business. We find ourselves doing deals that are pretty marginal—because, well, they keep working out as long as the market stays hot, and prices keep going up.

But the one constant in the real estate market is change…and that’s what we saw in 2025.

Buyers hesitated. Inventory grew. Rents and house prices didn’t.

Logically, most of us get that lower sale prices and flatter rents aren’t a problem as long as purchase prices and payment terms come down even more.

Slower sales and less competition = more motivated sellers.

More motivated sellers = lower prices and better terms. ... Read More…

When I was 2 or 3 years old, my mother took me on trips to the library almost every week. While she checked out the latest mystery novels, I always went to the same shelf in the children’s section and pulled down the same worn, tea-colored book called “I Can’t, Said the Ant.” I must have made my mom check that book out 50 times. I had every word memorized, every illustration emblazoned on my brain, and every character befriended in my daydreams.

In case you missed out on this epic, the basic plot is that a teapot falls off the counter and breaks its spout, and if it isn’t put back up, it will die some horrible teapot death. All of the denizens of the kitchen—from the dinner bell to the pie to the pot—beg the (oddly, single) ant in the kitchen to get the teapot back to the counter and repair the broken spout.

Much rhyming ensues (“I can’t bear it, said the carrot” is one that still sticks with me), and ultimately, the ant, who initially, as you might guess from the title, doesn’t see how he can manage it, rounds up a work crew of insects and rescues the unlucky teapot from the floor.

Yes, this is going somewhere.

To this day, dozens of years later, I still think about that ant and his creative solutions to an impossible task when I think about the people I meet for whom “I can’t” is the final answer and the much smaller group of people I meet for whom “I can’t” is jus ... Read More…

Tax expert and investor Scott Ellsworth is joining us to share his best advice for year-end tax planning: what you can still do this year to lower your 2025 tax bill, what’s changed thanks to the Big Beautiful Bill, and what you might be missing if you haven’t talked to your CPA in a while. Listen in here