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Thinking about investing in long-term rentals? Finding the property is only half the battle. Getting it rent-ready, landing great tenants, and keeping everything running smoothly is where successful landlords get it right. So today, we’re flipping the script and bringing Ashley into the hot seat to share exactly how she does it, and the costly mistakes to avoid along the way!
Welcome back to the Real Estate Rookie podcast! Tony has spent years running short-term rentals, but in just three weeks, he’ll be self-managing a long-term rental for the first time. So Ashley, our resident long-term rental expert, is giving him a full crash course on everything she’s learned from owning and operating long-term rentals.
Ashley walks us through her make-ready “punch” list—including how to decide what your rental actually needs before you rent it out. Next, we’ll learn why it pays to list your rental early, how to run showings and open houses, and how to move applicants smoothly from first viewing to signed lease. Ashley also breaks down her step-by-step process for screening tenants and spotting red flags, setting clear income requirements, collecting a holding deposit, handling move-in inspections, and what every lease agreement should cover.
Whether you’re buying your first long-term rental or deciding whether to self-manage, this episode gives you the full playbook to get started!
Tony:
Today, we’re revealing that I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to long-term rentals because I haven’t had one in the better part of, I don’t know, seven years. And even when I did have one, I had a property manager running it for me. But in about three weeks, I’m going to be self-managing my own long-term rental. And quite frankly, I’m a little terrified. So we have our resident long-term rental expert, Ashley Kehr, who’s going to educate me on how to be a good long-term rental landlord since all I know how to do is welcome in. So Ashley, thank you for joining me on the Real Estate Rookie podcast today.
Ashley:
Tony, thank you so much for having me. I’ve been a longtime listener. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to come on here and share my expertise with you.
Tony:
You barely made the cut, but you are here. After
Ashley:
20 other people declined, you
Tony:
Are here. We have. You were the only one that was willing to fly to California to do this with me. So yeah, so context for all of our rookies. So Sarah, my wife and I, we are selling our current primary residence. We’re moving into a new primary and instead of… I’m sorry. So context for our rookie audience, Sarah and I are moving out of our current primary into a new primary. And instead of selling the old house, we’re turning it into a rental. The majority of our portfolio has always been short-term rentals. We had a few long-term rentals when we first started. When in terms of buy and hold, it’s been mostly short-term, which we know really, really well. But long-term rentals we don’t know as well because even when we had them, I had a property manager running them for us. So I need a crash course right now on how to be a really good, or at least as good as you are, long-term rental landlord and property manager.
So I think the first thing that comes to mind for me, Ashley, is just getting the property ready. On a short-term rental perspective, I know exactly what we need to do in
Ashley:
Between guests. You got to go above and beyond and decorate and furnish.
Tony:
All those things. But for getting a long-term rental unit ready, what’s the punch list that you typically move through when one tenant moves out and before you get it ready to list to market for the next tenant?
Ashley:
Yeah. So first of all, it depends. If this is a brand new property that you just purchased and it’s vacant compared to if a tenant moved out because you’re going to want to do a move out inspection with them, document any of the damage they did. But we’re going to say this is just a new property that you bought. We’re not going to talk about all the destruction you personally did to the property living there. But first of all, touch up paint. So are there marks on the walls, things like that? Touch up paint. It will just –
Tony:
So you’re only doing touch up. You’re not repainting the entire interior.
Ashley:
I mean, I’ve been in your house and I do not think that it needs a whole repaint job. No. If you have the paint color, you can take a chip of it. I would touch up paint. Then the next thing is, is there anything that actually needs to be repaired or fixed? So is there things that you have dealt with and lived with because it was your house, it’s like that saying the shoemaker’s kids never have shoes or whatever it is because he’s always busy making shoes for other people that are paying customers so his own kids don’t even have shoes. So it’s like you’re so busy with your other properties that you don’t have time for your own home, which is very true with me also. So I think it’s very hard to say if these are the things you must do, but to make it rent ready, it also depends on your market.
So are there things that are expectations in your market? So your washer and dryer, are you taking your washer and dryer with you? Are you taking your appliances or are you going to leave them? Because you’ll need to, most likely in your market, need to get new appliances unless the comps show that you don’t need appliances because no other rental offers appliances.
Tony:
Well, the good thing is that we can answer that question right now because I actually don’t know. We haven’t thought about appliances yet to even answer that question for you. But I think our initial thought process was that we were just going to take those with us because we want to make sure that we just didn’t want to have to buy new appliances, but you’re absolutely right. If all of the other comps in our area are offering them, then it’s probably something
Ashley:
That we – I mean, that’s a huge expense for somebody to go out, rent an apartment and then have to buy three to $5,000 in appliances to put in there. That might be too much for somebody in a rental. So yeah, that would probably be one of the big things I’d think about. And then just safety. Is there anything like, did you take any handrails down off your stairs that need to be put back up? Is there a window that doesn’t have a screen or something that someone could fall out of? A lot of safety things I would go through and say, “Well, what’s somebody going to sue me for? What’s a liability here? Is there a broken step that goes out your front door that you just lived with?” So things like that I would really go through your property for. All
Tony:
Right. I’m looking through some of the other properties in – That are for rent. That are for rent in our neighborhood. I do see –
Ashley:
I’m going to say that I would think not even – Most of them. Yeah, not even looking. I would think in your area that appliances are pretty standard.
Tony:
Yeah. I see a fridge in that one, which we were planning to keep for ourselves is take our fridge. I guess I’m getting a new fridge. I don’t see washer and dryer in this specific listing, but let me grab one more here.
Ashley:
That would be one thing that would be the appliance that I would say that would be left out. If there was going to be one that somebody had to supply would be that.
Tony:
Oh, okay. Oh yeah, because I’m looking at theirs and here’s their laundry room and there is no washer and dryer. So you’re saying leave the fridge.
Ashley:
Yep. The oven. Oh
Tony:
Yeah. Oven. Yeah.
Ashley:
Dishwasher.
Tony:
Yeah, all those appliances, but I can probably take my washer and dryer.
Ashley:
Yeah.
Tony:
And
Ashley:
That comp I think just shows that too there. Plus then you don’t have to maintain the washer and dryer. So what we do in a lot of our small apartments is we have them there, but we don’t maintain them or replace them. So that way we don’t want the maintenance issue of somebody calling and saying the fridge broke. I have $200 worth of food. I need somebody out here right now to fix it. But we have them in there as a courtesy, but I don’t want the headache of having to maintain them or replace them. Got it. And if at some time during their tenancy they have to replace it, then you pay 50 bucks or whatever to have Lowe’s take your old fridge or whatever and they put their new one in there, then we add an addendum to the lease that they own that fridge and that’s their fridge and they’ll take it with them.
Tony:
Okay. I think that’s solved. We’ll probably end up taking the washer and dryer with us, we’ll leave the fridge. Now in terms of the other parts of the house, are you always freshly snaking the drains before the new person comes in or servicing the HVAC or the water heater before? Are you doing a full reset on everything or only the things that have given you issues?
Ashley:
That’s a great idea to do that stuff. So probably should do all of those full turnover. But no, we do not unless there is usually a problem, then we fix it. But the HVAC replace the filters, but usually we make the tenants do that. So that should be done all the time anyways. But yeah, that would be a great idea to go through and sneak your drains because we do put in the lease in a lot of them is that any drains that clog, because what’s everyone’s nightmare? The toilet is plugged at 3:00 AM and I got a call from my tenant. Within the first, I think it’s 60 days or something, we will put in there that we will take care of or be responsible for any clogs in the drains because you have just taken over that property and it could be from the previous tenant, whatever it was in there.
But anything past that, that’s from you. That’s grease, that’s hair. We’ve literally had someone put a beer can down there before, had to have the camera go down and everything and it’s a crushed beer can. So after that point, unless it’s a small multifamily where there’s multiple units and then it’s all connecting into one drain, you really can’t do this. But in a single family home, this works well.
Tony:
So I feel like I have a good sense on what the punch list is for us right now once we move out. But as you think about marketing the property, this is one of the debates that me and Sarah were having is at what point do you start marketing it? So are you waiting until all of that work is complete and then you’re going through and taking your photos? Or for us, we live there right now so we can take photos right now with all of our stuff in there and start marketing it now. But I’m telling her, I feel like we should wait until we get everything out so people can visualize the space. So what’s your recommendation?
Ashley:
See, that’s a hard one because it’s been a long time since I’ve had to wait because I keep my pictures. So I just listed a unit before somebody moved out, but it was the pictures that I’ve had forever and the property has stayed the same. So I just reuse the same photos. So I have them without their stuff in it and then list it. But I do put in there that showings won’t happen until X date. So what you could do is you could still put the pictures up with all your stuff in it and I would also look at the comps. Do the comp show – It’s
Tony:
A mix.
Ashley:
Yeah. So there’s a mix of it. So I would list it to gauge interest, start getting your leads, but I would put in the listing showings will not, it’s currently occupied, showings will not start until X date. So then you’re at least generating your list of leads. So I use TurboTenant and in TurboTenant, you can do your whole listing in there, you post it and then people can inquire and there’s different things that they can do. They can fill out a pre-screener, but once they’ve put their information, usually their name, phone number, email as a lead, you can do certain things. You can send them the link to the application, you can send them a pre-screener, which is basically just like if your house is going to be no smoking, do you smoke? And if they say yes, then okay, you don’t even pre-qualify for apartment because it’s non-smoking.
Then whatever your rent to income criteria is, your credit score criteria, and then you can also send them a link to set up a showing. So with the showing, you set your availability. So you could say on September 20th from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM, I’m going to let people book a showing. So as you get these leads, you can start sending them the showing invites and they can select a time. So you get your calendar booked of when you want to do showings and then you will already have people in advance to start seeing it right when you have it ready.
Tony:
So let me ask a few follow up questions. I want to talk more about the showing piece, but do you typically or would you recommend that we get professional photos taken? Because we can just walk around with our iPhone photos, which some of these listings are. Or we could get the professional photos. Have you seen a difference in speed to rent? I think
Ashley:
If you have enough nice cameras looking around in the studio that you could take your own professional photos very nicely. But in my market, nobody does professional photos for rentals. Nobody. Even for real estate agents, it’s half and half. My agent does professional photos every single time, but it’s still a mix. So again, look at your market, but I think –
Tony:
Yeah. See, I’ll send these photos so we can put them up on the screen, but these ones are clearly professional photos that were taken. So I’m like, okay, if I want to rent quickly like that one, then maybe we need to do… So I can probably maybe wing it myself a little bit of AI help to make
Ashley:
It professional. Yeah, you might as well try. Yeah, with AI it’s easy.
Tony:
Yeah, we can reorg. Let the sunset out
Ashley:
The window.
Tony:
So we’ll keep it clean. Okay, cool. So it sounds like what you’re saying is we should probably just list it now, get some good photos with the current space so we can start gauging interest and start building that list. Okay, cool. So Sarah won that argument. She’s not here to know that. Okay. So once we have the listing up, TurboTenant, we’re also going to use, you’ve spoken really highly about TurboTenant, so I’m excited to get into that software. Where are they actually… Where’s all the places that that is being distributed? Is it Zillow? There’s
Ashley:
20 of them. They don’t do it on Zillow. Zillow’s very weird now where I think, I don’t know what they did, but I think they try and keep just their- Their ecosystem. Listings on theirs. So I haven’t seen any other software recently that pushes out to Zillow anymore. So you could do a separate listing. I tried that out recently where I put it on TurboTenant. TurboTenant I think pushes out to 17 or 20 different websites like apartments.com. Even goes to Craigslist. I actually get a lot of leads from Craigslist, which I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing yet. But yeah, so it pushes it all. So you fill out one form and it walks you step by step through the process of do you accept pets? Describe your listing. How many bedrooms? Do you have a washer and dryer hookup?
It walks you through, makes it super easy to give all the information you need to know for the listing, and then it’ll push it out to all those websites for you.
I recently tested Zillow recently and it was, I would have to say after using TurboTenant, it was an awful experience to get the listing set up and then to publish, but then to manage the leads. So the leads were coming in and there wasn’t a way I could… In TurboTenant, I can mass invite. So if I get 10 leads for the day, at the end of the day, I’ll go in, I’ll select them all, and then I’ll send a mass showing invite. In Zillow, there was not a way to do that. I had to individually go in. I had to individually message each of them when I decided to host open house. So it wasn’t as friendly and I didn’t like it, but it did give me more exposure, I guess.
Tony:
Zillow, if you’re listening, you guys got a separate game and make it easier for us landlords to do the mass action. Okay, so we post it on TurboTenant, we go to Zillow. As these leads start coming in, because you talk about sometimes doing individual showings, I’ve heard you mention open houses before. How do you determine when you do one versus the other?
Ashley:
Yeah. TurboTenant has it set up 15-minute windows, or you can select if you want someone to have a longer showing, you can do it longer. I do it 15-minute intervals. So I put the availability and then people book. You can fill out a showing instructions. So like, okay, you’re going to come to the front door on the left or park in this parking lot or whatever instructions they need to actually get to you while you’re doing the showing. And then they get a showing reminder, everything like that. I got so much interest in a property I recently put on there that all the 15-minute time slots filled up. And I decided that I would just take one of those one-hour blocks and I messaged everybody that had been a lead and I said, “On this day, from this time to this time, we’re going to be hosting an open house because of all of the interest.
If you already have a showing scheduled, you can decide to come to the open house or you can cancel your showing or you can keep your showing and we’re still going to honor it and you can still come to it or whatever.” So as many leads as you get, we had 70 leads for this property over, I don’t know, three day time period. And I don’t know, probably over the three days we had showings, maybe not even 10 of them showed up. So even though people book a showing, doesn’t mean they’re actually going to come. So an open house also reduces that, that if people don’t come, at least you’re getting some people to come. Gotcha. I don’t want to waste five hours during my week sitting in open houses.
Tony:
Do you double book people? Can you do that?
Ashley:
Not in TurboTenant, no, you can’t. But when I was using Zillow, I opened up the same window, so I was double booking using the two different where two people were getting the same time slot.
Tony:
Now say it is an actual appointment. Someone shows up, you open the door. Are you letting them roam freely? Are you doing the realtor tour or pointing things out? What’s your approach for people?
Ashley:
I’m laughing because Daryl’s sitting right over there and does all of them for me now. So I’m like, I can’t even lie and say that this is what I do because I haven’t done one in so long. But what I would do or I have done in the past is they come in and I leave them alone. I will sometimes print out a flyer. TurboTenant makes a flyer you can print and hands them information. But usually I just say, “My name is Ashley. Please feel free to take a look around. Let me know if you have any questions.” And I just let them go and I stay there. I, first of all, don’t like small talk anyways, and I’m not going to sell the unit like, “Oh my God, look at this beautiful window you could look out at and stuff.” So I know what I would like and I would like to just be left alone to look around and snoop around and see if I like it.
Tony:
Gotcha. Okay. So you’re not like… I was a leasing agent. I’ve mentioned this a few times before.
Ashley:
So you got to tell me how it’s actually done.
Tony:
Well, I mean, I was only there for eight weeks before I quit, so I don’t have a whole ton of experience, but it was a sales job, right? So we had to make sure that we were closing people, but I’m just curious what’s worked well for you. Okay. So we’ll do the showings. We’ll bring people in. Once I have my pool of candidates, how do I go from pool of people who’ve done the viewing, they like the property, what’s my next step? Am I sending applications out to everyone who’s interested? I know part of this gets California specific, right? Right. So we’ll add that caveat there, but just walk me through your process. After the showings, what are you doing next?
Ashley:
Yeah, so the day of the first showings, I always send everyone the application at the same time. So no matter if they have a showing whatever day, I’m sending them out to every lead that day. Everybody’s getting the application same time. I send those out and then we do the showings and then the applications come in. Some people will fill it out right away without even seeing the place. And that kind of annoys me because then I go through the process of screening them and then they cancel their showing and don’t even come or they look at it and they’re not interested anymore. So I try and keep the applications as close to the showings as possible to eliminate that extra work.
Tony:
Could you just wait to send the application until after like, “Hey, you have to walk the property to get the
Ashley:
Application?” Yeah, you could. But yeah, I just…
Tony:
Just to get as many applicants as possible. Yeah. Gotcha. Okay.
Ashley:
And then in New York State, you have to go in order of received. So I’m assuming that’s probably why a lot of people probably just submit it anyways or whatever. But then I go through the application process and go one by one. So TurboTenant’s super easy because they literally give you a checklist and they do an income verification report for you. They do the background check, the credit check. I always look at the documents they attach, so picture ID, payroll stubs, bank statements, proof of funds, things like that. I always manually look at it because I had somebody once submit fake pay stubs to me. I always double check now the company, the address, does the payroll taxes amount actually match what they’re being paid? So now I super analyze
Tony:
Those. I got to imagine it’s probably even harder or harder for landlords, but easier for tenants with everything with AI, right? You
Ashley:
Could probably AI a fake license because it’s just the photocopy you’re getting or a picture of it even. Yeah, I do worry about that.
Tony:
Okay. So you start screening everyone. Yep. And then how do you actually get to the point where you’re saying, “Yes, this is the person that I want to come live in my place.”
Ashley:
So once I’ve decided they meet the criteria, so I keep a specific criteria and I put that right into my listing so it’s very clear to everyone, this is what I do. A lot of times I do now is three and a half times the rent as your income. Really? Yep.
Tony:
Man, I wonder… Let me pause there because I’m curious if any of these other places are stating that directly in it. I don’t see anything on this one. I feel like three and a half would be tough in SoCal where we are at. No one’s mentioning anything about that, at least in these listings. Do you see other properties in your area that also have that
Ashley:
Reaction? So my primary that I moved out of that I tried to rent, I did three and a half and I got no interest. I got no applications. Interesting. And that was part of not the only reason, but part of the reason that I decided to sell it instead of renting it because New York landlord laws are so tough. I did an eviction. I filed it May 14th and the guy just got evicted a week ago, September 3rd, I think it was or something. So I don’t want to be stuck with a tenant in this house where it’s an expensive rental compared to my other ones where it’s a way bigger mortgage payment I would have to float if somebody lived there and didn’t pay rent. So I wanted very high criteria and I could not get anyone. I think I was doing 2,700 a month in rent or 2,800 and there is nobody that…
There was I think two people, but their income wasn’t even close to meeting that requirement. But my other ones are 600 to $1,000 a month where it’s easier to hit that. To cover that.
Tony:
Gotcha. Okay. So you start going through, you’re filtering out the people that don’t meet the right requirements. And then when you find the right person, what are you doing then? It’s like the Willy Wonka golden ticket. You’re reaching out to them and saying, “Hey, you’re the winner.” What is that process?
Ashley:
I used to do, and you should do this, is I used to do a hold deposit. TurboTenant doesn’t have a feature to do this where when I used to use AppFolio, when me and my partner had a huge portfolio, you just push a button and would charge someone $200 for their hold deposit, and then that would be taken off their security deposit.
TurboTenant doesn’t have a way to do that. I could manually go in, add the $200, and then they have to pay the whole deposit. But with these, I haven’t had a lot of vacancies in the last couple years, so I’ve just had three in the past couple months, and the turnarounds were so quick with when they were moving in that I didn’t charge a hold deposit on these ones. But I do recommend is getting the hold deposit. So I message them through TurboTenant. I like to keep as much communication in writing as possible. I never talk to my tenants on the phone ever. So I message and I say, “Hi, we’ve reviewed your application. It has been accepted. Here’s how we move forward if you are interested in it.” I give them 24 hours to put a hold deposit in and then to sign the lease agreement, and then I tell them what the next steps are.
In the application, I ask for their move-in date, so I already have a bunch of the information I need to do their lease agreement. So you’ll want to double check that. Do they have pets? Are they paying extra for the pet? You need to add that into the lease. What’s their move-in date? When’s the lease going to expire? Is it going to be one year? All these things. TurboTenant also has a lease form that walks you through. BiggerPockets has their leases created by an attorney. So there’s lots of places you can get lease agreements that are templates, but also state specific. State specific. But you can use those. But then I message and say, “You’ve been accepted. Here are the next steps,” like setting up the utilities in their name for their move-in date, things like that. And then I set the expectation of move-in date, and I give them three different dates to get the keys, days and time.
So even though their lease is starting September 15th, if that’s a Monday, I may let them move in on Friday so they have the weekend where I meet them to get the keys or whatever. So I say, “You just need to pay your security deposit and your first month’s rent before you get the keys. Add to move in, you’ll do a walkthrough inspection of the property.” And I send all of that in my first initial message.
Tony:
So once you have that, super logistical question, but I know when I was a leasing agent, we took security deposit, first month’s rent, and then when the first came around, it was prorated for however many days they were in the unit that month. Do you follow that same process?
Ashley:
Yeah. And there’s literally a button in TurboTenant where you can select that as to this is their move-in date and I’m prorating rent. Got
Tony:
It, got it. Okay. And then once they actually pick up their keys, what does your inspection on the initial walkthrough look like?
Ashley:
Again, I don’t do that. Actually, I started using a feature in TurboTenant where actually they can do their own inspection. So I give them, depending what… If they get the keys on a Friday, I’ll give them to Monday or I’ll give them 48 hours or whatever. But they’ll get the key and then they can go through and they actually document itself, take pictures and things like that. We already have pictures from when they moved out or from when we listed it. We take new pictures or whatever if we need to. And so we already have our kind of pictures of everything, but then we have them go through. And I used to be the person that would walk through and say, “Okay, let me know what you see. Is this anything you think that you would be charged for?” And it was very minimal stuff, which you would want to say, “Oh, that’s better for you as the landlord.
You don’t want them to point out a lot of things.” I would rather them be more thorough instead of causing arguments or disputes down the road. So I just moved in a guy and he went through and literally every little tiny thing you could imagine, he notated on there, but he took a picture, he wrote exactly where it was, and it’s this great form they fill out where it just goes room by room. And
Tony:
It’ through
Ashley:
Turbotenet. Yeah. But a lot of, I think, software has it, property management software that you can do these. But what I used to do before property management software was amazing. I literally just had a checklist and it would be room by room, and it would say living room, flooring, windows, window coverings, walls, lights, fixture, and then a line, and that was it. And then the person would just notate what they… Well, I would do it with them, walk around and I would notate like, “Oh, there’s a mark on the wall on the left side of the living room,” or something like that. So
Tony:
It’s all captured through there. And then you do the inverse when they’re moving out also through TurboTenant? Do they have
Ashley:
A – So the move out, Daryl actually does with them. So when he goes to collect the keys from them, he walks through and lets them know right then and there what they would be charged. In New York State, you have to give someone the option for a pre-move out inspection. So that’s always offered to them first as if they want someone to come two weeks before so they have the opportunity to fix it. So we give them the option, they can accept or decline. Most decline it unless they already know there’s a big issue that they’re going to be charged for.
Tony:
Now I’ve got the person we did our walkthrough. Just give me the… Because we talk about this a lot, that the lease becomes the referee for any disagreements between the tenant and the landlord. What are some must-haves?
Ashley:
First of all, a lease means nothing in New York State anymore. You have no leg to stand on as a landlord. It’s not like if a tenant violates anything, you can even evict them because they violated in New York. But must-haves are who is responsible for what? Utilities, the appliances, any common areas, any landscaping, mowing the lawn, the snow removal, but you don’t have to worry about that. But is there any kind of maintenance or cleaning you want them to take care of? Well,
Tony:
Let me ask, what is reasonable for the landlord to put on the tenant? Because I can’t necessarily see through the other listings that are for rent, what the landlords are requiring of the tenant without seeing their lease. So just generally speaking, what kind of things am I able to ask the tenant to take care of given that this is a traditional single family
Ashley:
Home? And see, those should be in the listing as in they’re responsible for the lawn care or if you pay for a service to come and take care of the lawn care every month, if that’s included or not, because that does play a big factor. Those little things can add up for the tenant if they don’t know that ahead of time. But I think for a single family home, you can ask for a lot more. So you can ask for them to completely take care of the property. If there are things that you know that you want done, like cleaning out the gutters, do you guys even have gutters here? I don’t know.
Cleaning the leaves out of the gutters. If that’s not done, that’s just going to ruin your property. So maybe that’s something you want to have someone come every fall and clean out the gutters or spring or whatever. But I think that it’s a single family home. It’s way more reasonable to ask them to treat it like their own home and take care of and maintain everything. As far as repairs though, you should be responsible for things like that. But maintenance and cleaning, and Daryl runs into this a lot more than I do, but some of the apartment complexes, people mistake the word for that the stove has grease in it, as in the stove is smoking, it’s broken. But no, it’s because you have grease covered in the bottom of your oven from not cleaning it. That is why it is smoking. So making that distinction too sometimes can be difficult.
Tony:
Okay. Do you think I can do this on my own?
Ashley:
Probably not. That’s why you have Sarah to help you do this. I can already picture Sarah at the showings and she is going to be phenomenal at selling that place to
Tony:
Rent. I hope so. Oh Ash, this has been super helpful. Like I said, obviously we’ve had long-term rental experience, but we always had a property manager and we self-manage everything on the short-term rental side, but this is just a slightly different way of operating. So it’s helpful to get the insights from someone who’s done it before.
Ashley:
You texted me a couple weeks ago to send you a copy of a lease agreement. Did you read that yet?
Tony:
No, no,
Ashley:
No. See, you can only help someone so much if they’re not willing to take the information you give to them and consume it.
Tony:
Yeah. What is it? You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink. Well, thank you, Ash. I feel much more prepared to step into this new phase of being a real estate investor, which is self-managing my own long-term rental, which is going to be literally around the corner from my house. I guess let me ask you, that’s the last thing, but should I let them know that I’m so close? I mean,
Ashley:
I’ve changed opinions over the years and for a while I was like, I do not want anyone to know I own this or be involved or anything. But now I feel like it’s easier because they know I’m just a person. I’m not some company, I’m not a property management company, but I don’t think you need to say you live just right around the corner. But it also really depends on the person.
Tony:
That’s
Ashley:
True. You’ll probably know within the first week of having them as a tenant, what type of tenant they are. If they’re already calling and saying like, “Oh, we decided we wanted to paint. Can you come over and paint?”
Tony:
Have you ever given a personality test to your tenants? Can you do that?
Ashley:
Is that violating fair helping out? Is that
Tony:
Legal? I don’t know. Someone help me out here. If
Ashley:
You’re house hacking and it’s your own primary residence – That’s true.
Tony:
There you go. There you go. All right. Maybe no personality test. We’ll pass on that one.
Ashley:
Well, thank you guys so much for joining us. I can only give so much information in my small limited but mighty portfolio as Chad Carson would say. So if you have advice for Tony, make sure to leave it in the comments of this YouTube video to help him get started on his new long-term rental journey. I’m Ashley, he’s Tony and we’ll see you guys next time.
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Explainer-What is Starshield, SpaceX’s military version of Starlink?
Processing Content
Overview bullets generated by AI with editorial review.
As more companies gear up for new servicing rules set for mandatory implementation soon, those ahead of the game are sharing tips for how to handle some particular aspects of the new procedures that can require more attention.
These include a deadline in the wee hours that’s part of Fannie Mae’s new escrow reporting rules, a fresh format that’s part of Freddie Mac’s expanded default paradigm and a written attestation in the Department of Veterans Affairs new
LoanCare, FICS and
While some aspects of the new VA partial claim
A written attestation is one of them.
That attestation has advantages over some alternative procedures that would have been more cumbersome, but still requires careful management, according to Brent Potter, chief operating officer at LoanCare, a subservicer handling the process for multiple clients.
“It’s going to take these customers probably somewhere around four months to work through this program: roughly 30 days to get from application to the point where they’re approved for trials. There are three months of trials. Then they have to sign an attestation,” he said.
The VA provides some specific requirements for attestation language, terms and timing in its guidelines; but certain aspects of the implementation are discretionary. Servicers must prepare their own agreements and decide how to communicate with borrowers about them.
“Understanding the customer’s true hardship and their ability to pay through conversation is critical since there is not a documented income assessment, so I think the communication side is where people will struggle,” Potter said.
A single team repeating a process typically helps uncover flaws faster than distributing it widely and also contains damage from mistakes. So that approach may help servicers determine what works best in handling the discretionary aspects of the attestation and communication around it.
“I highly recommend dedicated individuals speak to these customers. That way they can get a lot of reps early in the rollout of the process instead of spreading it across the teams,” Potter said.
He also recommends paying particular attention to alignment with the VA’s system.
“The other piece that is unique with the VA is how critical it is to work in their system to make sure that the coding of where the customer sits in the process aligns to what is in their system,” Potter said. “You should have proper oversight and controls for that,” Potter said.
The mandatory implementation date for the new VA partial claim is Nov. 28.
The new escrow reporting Fannie has added includes a predawn deadline that has drawn some concern from the industry. Some of the investor reporting that Freddie is adding also has a daily investor reporting requirement in the wee hours.
“A big concern has been the 3 a.m. cutoff,” said Audalia Henry, mortgage servicer product development manager at FICS, an industry software provider.
FICS used two application programming interfaces to handle the work.
“If they don’t have anybody working after 5 p.m. and people are still making payments after hours, then you can schedule your API to create a file with all the activity on the day’s date,” Henry said. “The second API can be scheduled to transmit that data.”
Servicers should have two required months of testing for escrow reporting under their belts by Nov. 13. Production should go live by Dec. 1, according to Fannie.
Chatter
One of the most popular benefits of the AmEx Platinum Card is its $600 FHR/THC credit: cardholders can receive up to $300 in statement credits each half of the calendar year, totaling up to $600 annually, for eligible prepaid Fine Hotels + Resorts (FHR) or The Hotel Collection (THC) bookings through AmEx Travel. A one-night stay qualifies for FHR, while THC requires at least two nights.
Today, USCardForum member 吹小号的鹅 discovered the following language on AmEx’s qwww test site, suggesting that changes to this benefit are on the way:
Effective January 1, 2027, Fine Hotels + Resorts® bookings will require a minimum two-night stay to be eligible for the $600 Lodging Credit.
Starting January 1, 2027, FHR bookings would require a minimum two-night stay to qualify for the credit. FHR hotels tend to be expensive, but with just one night required today, plenty of cardholders can still get good value from the $300 credit—if nothing else, it makes a one-night luxury hotel splurge relatively affordable. With a two-night minimum, however, FHR’s typical rates could easily leave you spending far more than you intended just to use the credit. This would be a devastating devaluation.
The qwww test site also hints at the following additions:
AmEx Platinum will add a $250 annual Airbnb Experiences credit, but there will be a requirement to unlock it—apparently, you will first need to book an Airbnb Luxe stay.
The FHR credit will be rebranded as the Lodging Credit and expanded to cover Airbnb Luxe stays.
Airbnb Luxe is Airbnb’s collection of high-end properties. A quick search turned up properties generally starting at around $1,000 per night—even pricier than FHR hotels. We suspect this benefit will be of little use to the vast majority of our readers.
Based on past experience, information that surfaces on AmEx’s qwww test site tends to be fairly reliable. We’ll update this article once the changes are officially announced.
Sprott Gold Miners ETF (SGDM -5.26%) offers equity exposure to North American gold miners, whereas abrdn Physical Silver Shares ETF (SIVR -5.74%) tracks the spot price of physical silver bullion directly.
Investors seeking exposure to precious metals must choose between owning the physical commodity and owning the companies that extract it. While both funds provide hedges against market volatility, they respond differently to commodity price swings and to the operational risks inherent in the global mining sector.

SGDM – Sprott Funds Trust – Sprott Gold Miners ETF
$69.78
–5.26% (–$3.88)

SIVR – Abrdn Silver ETF Trust – Abrdn Physical Silver Shares ETF
$53.00
–5.74% (–$3.23)
52wk Range
$55.46 – $96.50
Dividend & Yield
$0.73 (0.99%)
52wk Range
$43.85 – $115.26
Dividend & Yield
N/A

SGDM – Sprott Funds Trust – Sprott Gold Miners ETF
$69.78
–5.26% (–$3.88)
52wk Range
$55.46 – $96.50
Dividend & Yield
$0.73 (0.99%)

SIVR – Abrdn Silver ETF Trust – Abrdn Physical Silver Shares ETF
$53.00
–5.74% (–$3.23)
52wk Range
$43.85 – $115.26
Dividend & Yield
N/A
| Metric | SGDM | SIVR |
|---|---|---|
| Issuer | Sprott | Aberdeen Investments |
| Share price | $74.94 (as of 2026-10-09) | $57.60 (as of 2026-10-09) |
| Expense ratio | 0.46% | 0.3% |
| 1-yr return (as of Oct. 9, 2026) | 23.9% | 22.9% |
| Dividend yield | 1.0% | n/a |
| Beta | 0.54 | 0.50 |
| AUM | $656.2 million | $4.1 billion |
Beta measures price volatility relative to the S&P 500; beta is calculated from monthly returns over the available fund history (up to five years). The 1-yr return represents total return over the trailing 12 months. Dividend yield is the trailing-12-month distribution yield.
The abrdn Physical Silver Shares ETF is more affordable for long-term holders, carrying a 0.3% expense ratio compared to the 0.46% fee charged by the Sprott Gold Miners ETF.
| Metric | SGDM | SIVR |
|---|---|---|
| Max drawdown (5 yr) | (45.0%) | (52.3%) |
| Growth of $1,000 over 5 years (total return) | $3,078 | $2,640 |
The abrdn Physical Silver Shares ETF seeks to replicate the market value of physical silver by holding bullion in secure vaults and aims to track the spot price after accounting for operating expenses. Its largest positions include physical silver at 100.00%. Because it tracks a commodity rather than operating businesses, its sector breakdown is not reported. The fund was launched in 2009.
In contrast, the Sprott Gold Miners ETF holds a portfolio of 48 companies rather than raw gold, focusing on gold producers in the United States and Canada. Its largest positions include Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd (AEM -5.20%) at 9.80%, Newmont (NEM -4.03%) at 7.58%, and Barrick Mining (ABX -4.51%) at 7.50%. It concentrates 100% of its assets in the basic materials sector and usually commits 90% of its net assets to its underlying index. The fund was launched in 2014.
For more guidance on ETF investing, check out the full guide at this link.
When comparing the Sprott Gold Miners ETF (SGDM) and the abrdn Physical Silver Shares ETF (SIVR), investors should consider several key factors. Let’s see what they tell us about each fund.
First, we should discuss the differing strategies of each fund. SGDM is a gold ETF, but it holds shares of gold-mining companies rather than physical gold bullion. It therefore carries risks beyond the price of gold alone, as labor disputes, supply chain disruptions, and natural disasters can all affect the prices of the stocks it holds. SIVR, by contrast, is a silver ETF that holds physical silver. Its performance is tied to the spot price of silver.
Two other important factors are historical performance and income potential. As for performance, SGDM has generated a total return of 190% over the last five years, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.7%. SIVR, meanwhile, has delivered a total return of 153%, with a CAGR of 20.4%. As for income, SGDM has a dividend yield of 0.97%, while SIVR pays no dividend whatsoever.
One final factor to weigh is cost. SGDM has an expense ratio of 0.46%, and SIVR has an expense ratio of 0.30%. Both of these rates are around the average for the ETF universe. For context, a person who invests $10,000 in each fund should expect to pay $46 in annual fees for their SGDM shares and $30 in annual fees for their SIVR shares.
In summary, although SGDM and SIVR are both precious metals ETFs, they have several key differences. SGDM, with its holdings of gold miners, has delivered higher returns and higher income. However, SIVR offers pure-metal exposure, untethered from operational risks, and lower fees. In a head-to-head matchup, investors are likely to be drawn to whichever fund more closely matches their own investment profile. Those willing to accept greater risk may choose SGDM, while those who are more cost-conscious may select SIVR.
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source
In 2006, Mostafa Terrab, one of this article’s co-authors, was appointed directeur général of OCP, a Moroccan fertilizer company. He was immediately charged with transforming the financially struggling phosphate-rock producer into a firm intent on feeding the world sustainably through high-quality plant and animal nutrition.
Key Points
College counseling is the work of getting a student from “I think I want to go to college” to an enrolled freshman at a school the family can afford. It covers choosing where to apply, figuring out what each school will cost, planning for the SAT or ACT, writing the essays, and hitting a dozen deadlines over about 18 months. Some of that help comes free from a high school counselor, and some families pay for it, which is why TCI tracks how much a college admissions consultant costs.
What most counseling gets wrong is the order. Admissions comes first and money comes last, which is how a family ends up in April holding an acceptance letter and a $35,000-a-year gap. What follows covers each piece of college counseling, what it costs, who should pay for it, and a grade-by-grade timeline, with the financial plan for paying for college treated as the first decision rather than the last.
College counseling is guidance that helps a high school student plan for, apply to, and pay for college. Three kinds of people deliver it: the school counselor assigned at a public or private high school, an independent educational consultant (IEC) a family hires, and the staff of free college access programs run by nonprofits and the federal government. All three cover the same core jobs, and they differ in how much time they have for one student and whether the cost of college is part of the conversation.
Time is the constraint. The American School Counselor Association reports a national ratio of 372 students per school counselor in 2024-25, against its recommended 250 to 1. Those counselors also handle scheduling, mental health, and graduation requirements, and a NACAC survey reported by Education Week found public school counselors spend about 21% of their time on college advising, compared with 47% at private schools. At 372 students and one-fifth of a work year, each student gets a few hours of college advising across four years, which is why the college application checklist ends up on a parent’s kitchen table.
Independent counselors fill that gap for a fee. The Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA), the largest professional group for private counselors, counted about 2,600 members in 2022, and families work with them by the hour or through a package that runs from sophomore or junior year through enrollment. TCI has reviewed the major firms, including Empowerly, CollegeAdvisor, and Solomon Admissions Consulting.
A college counselor does five jobs: builds the college list, sets the financial plan, maps the testing strategy, coaches the essays, and manages the applications. A sixth job, sending transcripts and the school report, can only be done by the high school, which is one reason even families who hire a private counselor still need a working relationship with the one at school. The table below shows what each job includes and who typically handles it, and the sections that follow take them one at a time, starting with the one that should come first: what the family can pay.
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| Job | What It Includes | School Counselor | Private Counselor |
|---|---|---|---|
| College List | Reach, match, and likely schools based on grades, scores, major, size, and location | Limited | Core Service |
| Financial Fit | Budget ceiling, net price estimates, FAFSA and CSS Profile, merit aid strategy | Limited | Varies |
| Testing Plan | SAT vs. ACT, test dates, retakes, whether to submit scores | Yes | Yes |
| Essay Coaching | Brainstorming, drafts, feedback on the personal essay and supplements | Limited | Core Service |
| Application Management | Deadlines, recommendation letters, activities list, interviews, award comparison | Yes | Yes |
| Transcripts And School Forms | Official transcripts, school report, counselor recommendation | School Only | Cannot Provide |
Good college counseling sets a budget ceiling before the college list exists, then checks every school against it with a net price estimate. A net price is what a family pays after grants and scholarships, and it has little to do with the sticker price: private colleges now discount tuition 56% on average, so a $75,000 school and a $35,000 school can cost the same family the same amount. Every college has been required to post a net price calculator since 2011 under the Higher Education Opportunity Act, and the Department of Education’s net price calculator center explains how they work, though TCI’s reporting shows college cost estimates are far from accurate and should be treated as a range.
The ceiling itself is simple arithmetic. Add what the family has saved, what it can pay from monthly income, what the student can borrow on their own, and what the student can earn. The example below shows how a family with $40,000 in a 529 plan and $800 a month of room in the budget lands at a ceiling of about $28,100 for freshman year.
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| Source Of Funds | How It Was Calculated | Per Year |
|---|---|---|
| 529 Plan Savings | $40,000 balance spread over four years | $10,000 |
| Parent Cash Flow | $800 a month from current income | $9,600 |
| Student Federal Loan | Dependent freshman Direct Loan limit | $5,500 |
| Student Summer Earnings | Part-time and summer work | $3,000 |
| Maximum Net Price | The number every school on the list has to clear | $28,100 |
The student loan line matters more than it used to. A dependent freshman can borrow $5,500 in federal Direct Loans, rising to $7,500 a year by junior year with a $31,000 total, and the full federal student loan borrowing limits haven’t changed for undergraduates. What changed on July 1, 2026 is the parent side: Parent PLUS loans are now capped at $20,000 a year and $65,000 total per student under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which closes the escape hatch families used when a school came in over budget. Anything above those caps means private student loans with a cosigner, or a different school.
A counselor who takes money seriously will also walk the family through the aid forms. The FAFSA produces a Student Aid Index, which drives federal and most state aid, and TCI’s financial aid calculator estimates it in a few minutes. A group of mostly private colleges also requires the CSS Profile, which the College Board makes free for families earning up to $100,000. The counselor should be able to explain which schools on the list meet 100% of demonstrated need, which ones are no-loan colleges, and which ones hand out merit scholarships at private colleges to students in the top quarter of the applicant pool.
That last point is where admissions strategy and money strategy meet. A student applying as a top-quarter candidate at a school that discounts heavily will get a better net price than the same student applying as a reach candidate at a school that doesn’t, and a counselor who only talks about getting in will never raise it. It’s the same logic behind TCI’s list of colleges that offer free tuition below an income cutoff: the school’s aid policy, not its sticker price, decides the bill.
A counselor turns a vague preference (“somewhere warm, not too big”) into a list of eight to twelve schools sorted into reach, match, and likely categories, and every school on it should clear the budget ceiling. Likely schools are the ones that get skipped in the rush to build the top of the list, and they’re the ones that matter most, because a likely school the student would be happy to attend at a known net price is what makes an Early Decision gamble or a long reach affordable. Free tools such as the College Scorecard and the sites in TCI’s college comparison tools roundup cover the raw data, and a counselor adds judgment about fit.
That judgment is the part families pay for. Counselors read the signals in why college acceptance rates keep dropping, know that the published rate at a public flagship hides a much lower rate for out-of-state applicants, and will say out loud that applying out of state at a public university is a full-price decision for most families. They also know what admissions officers weigh and how it differs by school, which TCI covers in what colleges look for in students.
A counselor also protects a student from false precision. Online chance calculators feel scientific, but TCI’s look at how accurate college admissions calculators are found they can’t see the things that decide close cases: institutional priorities, major capacity, geography, and the rest of the applicant pool that year. A good list is built to survive being wrong about any one school.
Counselors don’t tutor for the SAT. They build the testing plan: which test, which dates, how many attempts, and whether to submit the score to each school. The plan starts with the PSAT/NMSQT in October of junior year, moves to a first SAT or ACT in the spring of junior year, and leaves room for one retake in the fall of senior year. TCI’s breakdown of SAT vs. ACT vs. CLT explains how to pick between them, and the math course sequence a student follows from 9th grade has more to do with the eventual score than any prep course.
Whether to test at all stopped being a question for a growing list of schools. MIT, Dartmouth, Yale, Brown, Harvard, Penn, Cornell, Stanford, and Notre Dame are among the schools that brought back testing requirements, and TCI maintains the full list of colleges requiring SAT and ACT scores again. At schools that stayed test-optional, a counselor’s job is to compare the student’s score to the school’s published middle 50% range and advise on submission school by school.
The prep itself is a separate purchase, and a cheap one if the family wants it to be. The College Board’s free Bluebook practice tests and Khan Academy’s official SAT prep cover the content for nothing, and TCI’s reporting on how much SAT prep costs and the best SAT prep courses covers paid options from self-paced courses to private tutoring. Scores still carry weight on the money side even where they don’t on the admissions side, because merit aid formulas at many schools are built on GPA and test scores.
Essay coaching is the service families most associate with private counseling, and the one with the clearest ethical line. The Common App personal essay runs up to 650 words on one of seven prompts, and selective schools add their own supplements, so a ten-school list can mean 15 to 25 separate pieces of writing. A counselor helps the student find the story, structure the draft, and revise it, and keeps the whole stack on a schedule that matches the application deadlines.
The line is between coaching and writing. A counselor who edits a sentence for clarity is doing the job. One who rewrites the essay in an adult’s voice is committing fraud on the student’s behalf, and admissions readers who see thousands of 17-year-old essays a year can tell. Colleges have also set their own rules on AI-assisted writing, and the safest assumption is that anything a student submits must be their own work in their own words, the same standard that applies when colleges look at a student’s social media.
Timing is the practical advice. The personal essay should be drafted the summer before senior year, before classes, sports, and seven supplements compete for the same weeks. Essay-only hourly help is also the least expensive way to buy counseling, which TCI’s piece on what a college admissions consultant costs breaks down.
Application management is project management. The Common App opens August 1, Early Action and Early Decision deadlines fall on November 1 and 15 at most schools, Regular Decision deadlines cluster between January 1 and 15, and decisions arrive in March and April with a May 1 commitment date. A counselor tracks recommendation letters (asked for in the spring of junior year), the activities list, interviews, and application fee waivers across every school on the list.
Early Decision deserves its own conversation because it is a financial decision disguised as an admissions one. ED is binding, so a family that applies early to a school without first running its net price calculator has agreed to attend before it knows the price. The counselor’s job is to make sure that’s a deliberate choice, and to know how changing a college decision after acceptance works if the aid offer doesn’t match the estimate.
The job doesn’t end at acceptance. In April, a counselor lays the award letters side by side, strips out loans so the family compares grants to grants, and identifies where a financial aid appeal has a case, such as a competing offer from a peer school or a change in family income.
College counseling costs anywhere from nothing to six figures. The high school counselor is free, as are federal TRIO programs such as Upward Bound and nonprofit college access programs for students who qualify. Independent counselors charged a mean of $230 an hour in IECA’s 2022 State of the Profession survey, and most full-service packages ran between $4,000 and $7,500, with a mean of $6,450, up more than 25% in three years. New England and urban areas run about 10% higher, and TCI’s college admissions consultant cost breakdown covers what families get at each price point.
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| Option | Typical Cost | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| High School Counselor | Free | Transcripts, school forms, deadlines, basic list and testing advice |
| College Access Programs | Free | First-generation and lower-income students who qualify for TRIO or a nonprofit program |
| Hourly Independent Counselor | $230 an hour on average | Essay feedback, a list review, or a single financial aid question |
| Full-Service Package | $4,000 to $7,500 (mean $6,450) | Families who want one person managing the whole process from junior year on |
| Premium And Boutique Firms | $10,000 to six figures | Families targeting the most selective schools who will pay for former admissions officers |
The premium tier is a different product. Firms staffed by former admissions officers at selective schools charge $10,000 and up, and the best known charge far more. TCI has reviewed several, including Command Education, Top Tier Admissions, Spark Admissions, and Prepory, and the pattern is the same: the fee buys time and attention, not a different set of admissions rules.
Two cost details get missed. The same IECA survey found 77% of members offer lower-cost options such as hourly work, smaller plans, or sliding scales, and 79% do some pro bono work, so a family that can’t afford a package can still buy three hours of list review and essay feedback. The other detail is tax treatment: college counseling is not a qualified 529 plan expense, so it comes out of pocket.
Most families don’t, and the ones who benefit most share a few traits. A private counselor earns the fee when the student attends a large public high school with a caseload near or above the 372-to-1 national average, when the student is first-generation or has learning differences that complicate the process, when the family is chasing merit aid across many schools, or when the parents want to buy back the 18 months of project management. Recruited athletes are a special case, and TCI’s look at the best niche sports for college admissions explains why that path has its own timeline.
Families who can skip it include those with a strong school counseling office, a clear in-state plan at a public university, or a student starting at community college and transferring. The money math still has to happen, and TCI’s college ROI calculator and analysis of whether college is worth it do that part without a fee.
Red flags are easy to spot once named. No counselor can promise an admission outcome, and anyone who does is selling something else. The 2019 Varsity Blues prosecutions were built on a counselor who claimed a “side door,” and IECA’s ethics rules bar members from accepting payment from colleges for placing a student. A counselor who offers to write essays, claims connections in admissions offices, or won’t put pricing in writing fails the test, and so does one who has nothing to say when a family asks about net price.
Four vetting questions cover most of it. Start with membership in IECA, HECA, or NACAC, then move to caseload, because a counselor working with more than 25 or 30 seniors a year is giving each one less than the package implies. The question that separates the good ones is how they build a financial ceiling into the list, and a vague answer there is the answer. Close by getting the full fee schedule in writing before the first paid meeting, the same way you would before signing up with any financial advisor.
Formal college counseling starts in the fall of junior year for most students, and that’s the right time to hire a private counselor if you’re going to. The money work starts in 9th grade, and the single most important reason is the FAFSA base year. The FAFSA uses income from two tax years before the student enrolls, so for a student entering college in fall 2028, the 2028-29 FAFSA will use the family’s 2026 tax return, a year that spans the spring of sophomore year and the fall of junior year. Large capital gains, Roth conversions, or a one-time bonus in that year raise the Student Aid Index and shrink need-based aid, and no counselor hired in junior year can undo it.
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| When | Admissions Work | Money Work |
|---|---|---|
| 9th Grade | Pick the math and course sequence, go deep on one or two activities, learn how GPA works | Check 529 balance against the target, have the first “here’s what we can pay” talk |
| 10th Grade | Take the PSAT 10, explore majors, make informal campus visits | Run a net price calculator on three schools to see the range, note that the FAFSA base year starts January 1 |
| 11th Grade Fall | Take the PSAT/NMSQT in October, start formal counseling, draft the first college list | Set the budget ceiling, avoid large capital gains or Roth conversions in the base year |
| 11th Grade Spring | Take the first SAT or ACT, ask teachers for recommendation letters, visit top choices | Run a net price calculator on every school on the list, cut schools that miss the ceiling |
| Summer Before 12th | Write the Common App personal essay, start supplements, decide on Early Action or Early Decision | Gather tax returns and account statements for the FAFSA and CSS Profile |
| 12th Grade Fall | Common App opens August 1, early deadlines November 1 and 15, retake SAT or ACT if needed | File the FAFSA and CSS Profile as soon as they open, apply for outside scholarships |
| 12th Grade Spring | Regular decisions arrive March and April, commit by May 1 | Compare award letters side by side, appeal where there’s a case, finalize loans |
The 9th and 10th grade work is light but real: pick the right course sequence, look at the 529 balance against the goal, and run a net price calculator on three very different schools so the range stops being abstract. Junior year is when the list, the testing plan, and the budget ceiling come together, and the summer before senior year is for essays. Senior fall is forms and deadlines, and TCI’s FAFSA deadline tracker covers the federal, state, and school dates, including the 2027-28 FAFSA that opened early on September 23, 2026.
Starting late is recoverable but expensive. A family that begins in the fall of senior year loses the Early Action round at most schools, writes the essays in weeks instead of months, and has no time to fix a testing plan or a budget problem. The list shrinks to schools with later deadlines and rolling admissions, and the family should expect to pay a premium for a counselor willing to take on a senior in October. Families in that spot should start with why the FAFSA is worth filing even when they assume they won’t qualify, because that form is the one deadline that can’t be negotiated.
Mostly, yes. “College counseling” is the broad term for help planning, applying to, and paying for college, and “admissions consulting” is what private firms call the paid version. The difference that matters is scope: a college admissions consultant sells a package focused on getting in, and the financial fit work described above is something families should ask about rather than assume.
Yes. School counselors are school employees, and their college work, including transcripts, the school report, and the counselor recommendation, costs nothing. The limit is time, with a national average of 372 students per counselor, which is why the college application checklist is something families should own themselves.
No. Admissions decisions belong to the colleges, and a counselor who promises an outcome is either misrepresenting the service or planning something improper. Professional counselors coach the application, and TCI’s reporting on what colleges look for shows how much of the decision sits outside any applicant’s control.
No. College counseling, test prep, and application fees are not qualified 529 expenses, so paying them from a 529 triggers income tax and a 10% penalty on the earnings portion. Those costs come out of pocket.
Sometimes, and families should ask directly. Most counselors will help with the FAFSA and CSS Profile mechanics, but fewer will build a budget ceiling into the list or compare award letters, and that is the part that decides what the family pays. TCI’s order of operations for paying for college is the framework a counselor should be working from.
It’s never too late to get help with essays and deadlines, but after October of senior year the counselor is managing a crisis rather than a plan. The Early Action window has closed at most schools, and the FAFSA base year passed two years earlier. A family starting that late should file the FAFSA immediately and focus the list on schools with rolling or late deadlines.
Editor: Colin Graves
The post What Is College Counseling? What It Covers, What It Costs, And When To Start appeared first on The College Investor.
American Express could be preparing a new Airbnb benefit for the Platinum Card, according to information spotted in what appears to be an Amex test environment.
The rumored changes reported at USCF include a new $250 annual Airbnb Experience credit, although there looks to be an important catch. The credit may need to be unlocked by first booking an eligible Airbnb Luxe stay. The same source also says the current Fine Hotels + Resorts credit could be rebranded as a broader “Lodge Credit” that would also work with certain Airbnb luxury stays.
The information comes from qwww links which is a test environment for American Express products and should not be treated as final. There are still plenty of unanswered questions, including exactly what type of Airbnb Luxe booking would unlock the $250 credit, how long the credit would remain available after unlocking, and whether the current Platinum hotel credit amount or timing would change.
There’s no official word from American Express yet, so all of this should be treated as a rumor for now.