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Amex Site Redesign Makes It Easier to Add Amex Offers Manually


Amex Site Redesign Makes It Easier to Add Amex Offers Manually

American Express has redesigned its website, making it easier to quickly add Amex Offers to your cards. As you can see in the image above, each offer now has a + button that you need to click to add that offer to the selected card.

But you can quickly click this button continuously on multiple offers now. Before the redesign, when clicking Add Offer, it would open the offer details and you would need to wait a few seconds.

Now after clicking the + button, it will quickly add the offer without opening details, while you keep adding other offers.

This is only a minor improvement for those who like adding these offers manually. But it’s worth mentioning that you are better off doing this with automatic tools such as Savewise, Max Rewards or CardPointers. These tools help you add the same offer to multiple eligible cards. When adding offers manually to one card, that offer will disappear from other cards in your name.

Why Scholar Rock Stock Bounced Higher on Monday


One pundit believes the share price could rise in excess of 50%.

Monday was a good day to be invested in Scholar Rock (SRRK 6.31%) stock. The clinical-stage biotech received a nod from an analyst initiating coverage on its shares, a move that sent its price more than 6% higher across the day. That rate was well higher than the 0.5% increase of the S&P 500 index.

A bullish start

Well before market open, Leerink Partners’ Mani Foroohar launched his coverage of Scholar Rock, rating the healthcare stock as an outperform (i.e., buy) at a price target of $51 per share. That anticipates considerable growth in the value of the company’s equity, as it’s — coincidentally — more than 51% higher than Scholar Rock’s most recent closing price.

Image source: Getty Images.

The biotech’s leading investigational drug is apitegromab, an add-on therapy that targets a disorder called spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). According to reports, Foroohar’s main source of optimism is the prospects for the drug, which is currently being reviewed for approval by both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA, a regulator for the European Union).

In his inaugural note on Scholar Rock, the analyst also waxed bullish on the background of the company’s team, characterizing it as the most experienced in the commercialization of rare diseases among its covered healthcare stocks.

High potential

If Scholar Rock can win approval from one or both of those major regulators for apitegromab, it would be well positioned for success. However, I need to caution that getting the green light isn’t enough for a biotech — a new medicine must be effectively rolled out and marketed if it’s going to have any chance at success. So far, though, the indications look good for the company.

Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Financial institutions compete with ChatGPT on consumer advice


Consumers increasingly are looking to AI for financial advice.    Fifty-one percent of consumers are looking to AI for financial information or advice, according to a recent JD Power report.  Most are tapping ChatGPT and Google Gemini, but some users are using Microsoft Copilot, Meta AI and others, according to the report.  Consumers are asking the […]



How Successful Sales Teams Are Embracing Agentic AI


Imagine creating a perfect replica of your top-performing sellers—but instead of someone whose capacity for work is limited by time and geography, this replica can work alongside human sales reps continuously. These autonomous personal agents can identify, nurture, and even close deals by engaging customers across channels. Their power lies not just in executing tasks, but in thinking ahead: anticipating next steps, adapting to changing market conditions, integrating across systems, and continuously learning.



Making $92,000 (Tax-Free) from One Real Estate Deal


Think you need a big bank account or extensive investing knowledge to buy a rental property? Today’s guest got started with no money down, and this first real estate deal would open the door to multiple deals and six-figure profits. How did he pull it all off? You’re about to find out!

Welcome back to the Real Estate Rookie podcast! Tony Borman hit it out of the park on his first two deals. After buying his first property with $0 down and selling it for a $50,000 profit only a couple of years later, he then found and fixed a property that gave him a $92,000 tax-free payday. But then he hit a snag in his investing journey—buying a rental that lost money once property taxes spiked and going through not one, not two, but seven different contractors on his very first house flip!

Despite the recent hiccups, Tony is investing for the long haul, and in this episode, you’ll learn how keeping your W-2 job can help you absorb large losses as you’re learning the ropes. Tony also shares about the difficulty of finding (and keeping) great contractors, the biggest mistakes rookies make when analyzing rental properties, and the risks every investor needs to know about before tackling home renovations!

Ashley:
Today’s guest spun a $0 down starter home into a surprise 50 k profit, then turned those funds into a $92,000 tax-free payday,

Tony Robinson:
But then almost nearly lost everything to a nightmare flip. So stick around slurring the exact moves and the mistakes that can launch or sink a rookie investor.

Ashley:
This is the Real Estate Rookie podcast. I’m Ashley Kehr.

Tony Robinson:
And I’m Tony j Robinson. And today we’re joined by another Tony. Tony, thanks for joining us today, brother.

Tony Borman:
Thanks so much for having me. Appreciate it.

Ashley:
Okay, so let’s start off, when you first walked into that 1950s Jacksonville Fixer Upper, what hit your nose? What did the walls look like? Tell us about this property and how baroque you were feeling right when you walked in.

Tony Borman:
Yeah, absolutely. So this is a handful of years back. My wife and I were young, early in our careers and decided it was time to try to buy a property. So this was every bit of house we could afford, probably a little bit that we didn’t. And yeah, the place was in rough shape. We got it from a guy going through a rough divorce, and so it was like grimy, just needed a lot of TLC and a lot of love, so nothing super major. It was pretty cosmetic, but it just needed a lot of TLC.

Ashley:
So how did you purchase this property? What did the funding look like for it?

Tony Borman:
Yeah, so like I said, I mean we were young and broke. We actually didn’t even put any money into the down payment on this one. We did a three and a half percent down loan, but we actually borrowed that 3.5% from my father-in-law. So we had $0 into the deal. Like I said, the mortgage payment was everything we could afford, so it was scary.

Ashley:
So after you’ve got this property, tell us about you and your wife walking through it. You said that it was in somewhat disrepair. Describe it for us.

Tony Borman:
Yeah, it had really good bones and cool character. 1950s house in Jacksonville we’re kind of outdoorsy kind of people that had a big yard with really cool big trees on it, and so we really kind of fell in love with what it could be, but it had a lot of work to be done to get there. Really. The other thing about this house was part of us being able to just barely afford it. This house was actually right on the fringe of a pretty rough area, Jacksonville, so that was kind of another curve ball of this house that made us feel a little uneasy.

Tony Robinson:
Yeah. So you had location as one potential challenge, but you also mentioned several times already that you probably couldn’t afford this house when you bought it. So on the day that you guys actually closed, what maybe disaster scenarios were running through your mind and did any of those actually happen?

Tony Borman:
Yeah, great question. So when you buy your first house, there’s all kinds of unknowns. You don’t know what you don’t know, and it’s kind of just the overall, the overarching what could happen. As an example, one thing that we really struggled with at that property was it was on a well pump providing all the water to the house, and that pump gave us all kinds of problems, that whole system and whenever it went out, we didn’t have water to the whole house and no money to get the plumber out there. So those are kind of the times where you really had to grit your teeth and get through it.

Ashley:
I had a similar situation at a property where I had, and this is lucky enough, it was my business partner and he was going to move into one of the houses on the property and he was going to rehab it while he lived there. The day he moved in, we had no water, and it ended up the well was dry, which is not a very common thing to happen around us. And so he lived between there in an Airbnb, he’d go and shower and stuff, and he actually bought a Lowe’s bucket with a toilet seat, and that was his bathroom for a couple of days while all of this was being repaired. So I can understand your frustration of not having the water. And then once they kind of figured things out, they’d take the bucket of water from the pond and then dump it into the back of the toilet and stuff and got really crafty with it and it’s like, geez, thank you for taking this sacrifice for our business. I don’t have

Tony Robinson:
To do that. Where’s the social content with this Home Depot’s toilet seat?

Ashley:
You know what? I’m going to find a picture. I know there’s a picture of it somewhere. Yeah,

Tony Robinson:
That’s the stuff you don’t see much yet. Talk about a pretty situation. Well, Tony, I know you spent a lot of nights and weekends DIYing, right? You had the paint roller obviously dealing with the well issues. Was there any project that almost made you quit to just say, Hey, this real estate investing thing, it’s not going to work out for us? And if so, what kept you pushing when you were getting close to that point of giving

Tony Borman:
Up? Yeah, good question. Honestly, it was kind of the opposite. Thankfully for me, doing this work at that first house made me realize how much I enjoyed it. It’s not something for everyone. It’s not something everyone can do or has the time to do, but I really did enjoy it. And so that went a long way. You work your nine to five all day, and then you come home and you work six more hours painting your house. That’s not easy to do if you don’t like what you’re doing. So that is something that I realized during that first house was that, Hey, I actually do doing this and it doesn’t really feel like work to me. But with that question that brings up kind of a funny story, and I wouldn’t say a repair that almost broke us, but we were talking about how we could barely afford this house. Something that we did while we lived there was actually what I now know is house hacking, but I didn’t know at the time, but we had rented out a room and we actually ended up having to evict the roommate, which I don’t know if I’ve heard that on a house hack before.

Ashley:
That’s an awkward living situation.

Tony Borman:
Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Tony Robinson:
Tony, I’m just curious, how do you deliver the eviction notice when they’re in the same house as you? Do you just tape it on the door to their bedroom or

Tony Borman:
Literally, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Tony Robinson:
Yeah, that is insane. What led to you wanting to evict that person? Honestly, I think that’s almost like a nightmare scenario for a lot of folks who think about the rent by the room or house hacking strategy where they’re in the same unit as you. What were the signs that made you say, okay, this is not going to work out having you live under our roof?

Tony Borman:
Yeah, it just kind of slowly deteriorated. It started with late rent, then no rent, multiple months with no rent. Again, we’re living together so I can see what you’re doing. It’s clear you’re not really trying to go get a new job or anything. So it was just like, obviously this isn’t going to work out.

Ashley:
That almost makes it worse that you can see, oh, they just door dashed of Amelia. That could have been put to the rent payment and they could have been eating rice and beans or whatever.

Tony Borman:
Yeah, it’s frustrating. Yeah,

Ashley:
There was this time that I did an eviction with a tenant, and it was the worst eviction I did because her grandfather lived with her, and when I showed up with the cops to actually do the eviction, he had a garbage bag around him used as a diaper. It was so awful and sad, and just the way she had her, actually it was her grandpa, her grandpa living with her like that. I just lost all respect for her in that aspect, besides the whole not paying rent thing. But I saw her a couple of weeks later after the eviction at my gym and I was like, you know what? Good for her. She’s going to work out. Maybe she’s getting her life together, whatever. No, she was bee lining it right to the tanning, and I was like, are you kidding me? You can afford to go tanning, but not pay your rent or buy a diaper for your grandpa. But yeah, so I can’t even understand your frustration.

Tony Robinson:
So Sony, this project just in general, quickly, how long did it take you from the day that you guys moved in until all of your renovations were complete?

Tony Borman:
So we ended up being in that house for almost three years. Actually when we bought it, it wasn’t our plan to do a live and flip, but we were kind of held to that geographic area through work. Those situations ended up ended changing, so we were able to kind of move on from there, and that’s when we decided to go ahead and sell it. So it was about three years that we lived there.

Tony Robinson:
And I want to talk about once the house hit the market because it sold in, or at least went under contract in two days, the wire shows up. And I guess how much did you make from that sale and how did that compare to the nights when you had that non-paying tenant living in your spare bedroom to try and make the mortgage?

Tony Borman:
Yeah, absolutely. So honestly, as we went through the process of, okay, we’re getting ready to sell, we’re going to keep on make these renovations before we do it, I was really projecting us to just get out of it alive, break even essentially. And so as it came together, we met with our realtor. He came up with a list price that honestly I thought was too high and thankful for him for talking me into it. Obviously it wasn’t too high, it went under contract really quickly, but it all just happened so fast and really kind of hit us in the face of like, wow, this is powerful stuff.

Tony Robinson:
And how much did you guys make on the sale?

Tony Borman:
Yeah, so we cleared 50,000 on that sale.

Ashley:
And how long did you live in the property?

Tony Borman:
Three years.

Ashley:
Three years? Yeah.

Tony Borman:
So again, we didn’t put any money down on the property. We kind of just worked on it as we had little money over time, so really didn’t have much into it. And then to walk away with a $50,000 payday really, really kind of latched us onto this real estate thing.

Ashley:
And how much was your mortgage payment every month?

Tony Borman:
I think it was only about 1100 there.

Ashley:
And then you had your tenant paying some of that?

Tony Borman:
Yep. Yeah.

Ashley:
So basically you lived in that house for free, you got the mortgage payments backed, the principal, the interest.

Tony Borman:
Yeah. Yeah. And then onto the next one.

Ashley:
Yeah. So I guess for anyone eyeing their first live and flip, which upgrade do you think made that resale value so high? What would you recommend that someone should be doing for cosmetic or a big repair to really add value?

Tony Borman:
Yeah, it’s funny because looking into that is actually when I first stumbled upon BiggerPockets, the big things you typically hear about kitchen and bathroom, which we did certainly work on. But something I’ve kind of realized in my experience so far is I really think that there’s potentially a lot of weight behind lower upgrades, but more kind of character items. So a couple of the things we did at that house was I put some new planter boxes outside and we had a nice fire pit area, for example. Those are pretty inexpensive things, but as people come onto the property, they can kind of see themselves living there. So I really think those kind of homey characteristics go a long way and don’t really get talked about that much.

Ashley:
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Tony Borman:
Yeah, so something we learned on that first house was we didn’t finish all of the work making the house nice and pretty until right before we sold it. So we didn’t really personally get to enjoy the fruits of that, obviously, aside from the payday. But so as we were looking into this next live-in Flip, it was top of mind that let’s do the work first and actually enjoy the niceness of the product when it’s done. So we actually ended up just renting a place, a small place month to month after we sold that first house and then worked on this next house for a couple months before we moved in.

Tony Robinson:
So Tony, break down the numbers for us. You renovated this house and you said it took a couple of months, but you made the decision to refinance this property after you guys made those renovations. So break down those refinance numbers for us. How much did you actually spend on the rehab? What did that property appraised for and how did you turn that into again, that $92,000 tax free check?

Tony Borman:
This property, we paid 292,000 for, we put about 47,000 into the renovation. So we were about 339 into it and then went into the refinance process and had the property appraised for 500,000. So we were able to get a new loan of 400,000 and still have 20% equity in the property.

Tony Robinson:
Tony, that is amazing. So there’s a few terms I want to break down there, but before we even do that, how did you get this property at such a steal? Because to get a property at 2 92 that with only $40,000 in rehab appraised for 500, that’s a really, really strong margin. How did you find such a good deal?

Tony Borman:
So I got to give a little credit to the COVID pandemic, so we got some lift from that certainly. But honestly, this was, I guess this is my, but this was another divorce. Sea House had fallen out of contract a couple of times. This was a great example of worse house in the nicest neighborhood. It’s a mile from the ocean, great schools, just a great area and a house that just needed some love again. And I think the combination of how long it had been on the market and how many times it had fallen out of contract, the sellers were just ready to get rid of it. So it was definitely a steal for sure.

Tony Robinson:
So it was just on the MLS?

Tony Borman:
It was on the MLS? Yep.

Ashley:
What was it originally listed for?

Tony Borman:
I think like three 20?

Ashley:
Yeah. And then you got it down to 2 92.

Tony Borman:
2 92, and we even got a full 3% seller credit. So that covered all the closing costs on that one.

Tony Robinson:
So I want to break down the math here for the rookies that are listening. So Tony bought this house at $292,000. He then invested another $40,000, or you said $47,000 into the rehab. So you’re all in for 3 39 on this deal and it appraises for $500,000. Okay, so now the difference between Tony’s all in costs, the 3 39 and the 500, what is that? $161,000 spread between those two figures? So Tony, the bank was willing to give you the 400 K. Your initial mortgage balance was somewhere south of 300, and that’s how we landed on that $92,000 tax free. And guys, for all of our rookies that are listening, when we talk about the Burr strategy, this is the burr. You buy a property undervalued, you put money in to increase the value, and then you get to keep the difference tax free because it’s a loan, it’s not income, it’s a loan. You get to keep that difference tax free, and we’ve seen many, many people build their portfolio time and time and time again. Attorney, last question from you on the refi piece, oftentimes there’s called a seasoning period where after you purchase a property, a bank wants you to wait a certain time period before you do the refinance. Were you subject to that seasoning period? And if so, how long was it?

Tony Borman:
Not that I am aware of, probably because it was our primary, but we did purchase this property with the intent of selling after the two years so we could avoid capital gains. So we had waited that long, but at that point, loved the house so much, decided we were going to stay and just do the refi instead.

Tony Robinson:
Okay, so you had waited two years before you did the refinance?

Tony Borman:
Yeah.

Tony Robinson:
Right. Gotcha, gotcha. Ash, I think most banks, at least what I saw, was a six month minimum.

Ashley:
Yeah, six to 12 months. Okay. So now that money has hit, did you feel like freedom or was this like a $90,000 wait on you and what kind of stopped you from adding any lifestyle creeping?

Tony Borman:
Great question. I think it just comes down to what your goals are and what you’re working towards. Super important to whether you’re doing this on your own or with your spouse. In my case, my wife and I do this together and we do annual meetings together to talk about what we’re working towards, where we’re going. And I think just that alignment of understanding we’re working towards something bigger. It’s not about this $90,000, let’s go spend it. So it wasn’t money we felt like we now had. It was like, okay, here’s for the next one.

Ashley:
Well, congratulations on not feeding into that lifestyle creep, I guess. Now that you’ve done this deal, what was next for you after that when you decided to stay in this property and not sell it?

Tony Borman:
At this point? We’re really ready to get into a purely investment property. Up to this point, we’re doing kind of quasi live and flip kind of thing. So really wanted to get into more of just an investment property, wanted to start building a rental portfolio. So our next step from getting this $90,000 windfall was looking for a rental property.

Tony Robinson:
And where did you guys go, Tony, to find that deal?

Tony Borman:
So just about 45 minutes away from where we live is a little bit of more of a BC class area, working class, and just a lot more affordable prices and numbers that worked for rentals

Tony Robinson:
And for all of our listeners. Tony, what market are you in?

Tony Borman:
Yeah, so I am in St. Augustine, Florida, which is kind of part of the greater Jacksonville area. So I’m in St. Augustine, and then our rental is in Palatka, Florida.

Tony Robinson:
So on this palatka rental, you take the funds from this refinance. How much did you put down and how did your initial underwriting compare to what actually happened?

Tony Borman:
Yeah, so we did a traditional investment loan on this, so they wanted 25% down, so we did 25% down. I think the purchase price on this one was 165,000, and we also did some repairs on this property. One quick tip I would say in that regard is looking back on how I managed that, it was definitely a very inefficient use of cash, combining the 25% down and a property that needs work. That’s just a lot of cash to use on a single property. Had I done it again, I probably would’ve just bought turnkey rentals, maybe for example, I could have bought a few of those. So definitely a learning lesson there. But in terms of how the numbers worked out, this one penciled out to where we were expecting about $200 in cashflow a month. This rents for 1550 after accounting for repair expenses, property management taxes, we were expecting about $200 in cashflow. The curve ball that got hit with us here on this one though, was the tax increase on the property that got assessed after we purchased it. So I’m not looking at the numbers right now, but the original tax amount that I had projected based on the county records was call it $150 a month, and I think almost tripled per month. So it essentially wiped out that cashflow that we had.

Tony Robinson:
And I want to talk about that because we’ve heard that multiple times on the podcast here where the property taxes end up changing significantly from hey, when you underwrote it, and then what it actually is when you take ownership of the property, and I’m no property tax expert, so take this with a grain of salt, but typically the way that it works is that counties will assess, if you look up a property’s address and your county assessor’s website, there’s an assessed value of that property, typically not directly related to the market value. They have their own assessment process, but they’ll have an assessed value and sometimes they’ll assess that on some regular cadence. It could be annually, it could be every five years, whatever that cadence is, it varies from place to place, but it also often gets re-triggered on the sale of the property.

Tony Robinson:
So if the part property hadn’t been assessed in quite some time, maybe it hadn’t changed hands in quite some time, that assessed value might’ve been incredibly low. And then once the sale happened, it triggered a reassessment which increases those property taxes. So one of the things that I like to do when I’m looking at properties is trying to understand when was the last year that was assessed? And that’ll give you a better sense of, okay, well what should I expect going into next year? And sometimes you can call the county and say, Hey, what is your calculation for property taxes? When we bought our hotel, that’s what we did. We weren’t sure how the property taxes were going to change. We just called them and said, Hey, we’re looking at buying this property, walk us through the math behind what the property tax will be if we buy it X price. And we were able to back into it in that way. So I’ve heard it many, many times that the taxes have hit folks Ash, have you ever had a similar jump like that in your portfolio?

Ashley:
Not anything crazy like that. Not huge significant, just small increases, but you get the letter ahead of time letting you know what your current assessment is and what it’s going to change to. I’ve actually had it where the tax rate changes. So even though my assessment went up a little bit, the tax rate decreased. So I actually was paying a little bit less in taxes so it could go the other way. I have to say that’s probably pretty, pretty rare. And it was a very insignificant amount of money, but even though it was assessed more, because I’m always looking like, should I dispute this? But then I looked and I was like, oh, it’s actually less I’m going to be paying this year.

Tony Borman:
Another thing I would mention, just while we’re on that topic, is to make sure you look out for any kind of homestead exemptions as well. If the current owner has a homestead exemption, you’re not going to have that exemption when you turn it into a rental.

Ashley:
That is such a great point. There’s also, in New York, we have a star savings. We have a VA discount, which is probably across the country. And then there’s also a senior citizen discount too. I don’t know what they call that, but that could be on there too. And you’re right, that is, you have to actually read the tax bills, just don’t go what it says on Zillow or what the owner is telling you, actually look up the physical tax bill, which would be on the county website. Sometimes if you’re paying school taxes, they’re on the school website and get those physical copies or just ask the seller of the property for the physical copies of them.

Tony Robinson:
So Tony, if you were underwriting that same deal today, I guess, what line items would you look at and just as you think about your next deal, what is the one thing that you’re like, okay, I’m always going to check for this, and I’ll give you a quick example in our portfolio, because we had a rehab that we did that we turned into a short-term rental, and we had this sewage smell that we couldn’t fix in one of the bathrooms, and we did all this stuff. And turns out that my contractor, when they did the rehab, didn’t put a P trap. And now anytime we do a rehab, we say it’s the P trapp there. Did you do the P trapp? There’s a million other things that are happening in the rehab that we’re obviously checking, but one of the questions we always ask now is, is there a P trap? So what is your P trapp for property taxes as you look at your next deals?

Tony Borman:
Yeah, I mean, I think it comes down to being conservative. You don’t want to, I think we all can get into a place of where you kind of number yourself out of a deal. So you don’t want to get too conservative, but you always want to be conservative with your numbers. Certainly, obviously in my case, next rental I buy in Palka, Florida, I’m literally just going to triple the rate. And the reality is, worst case scenario, it doesn’t go up that much, and I’ve just got that much more cashflow, right? The other thing is something I don’t hear a lot of people do when they’re starting out is the whole going with property management. That’s something that I would definitely recommend and do again myself, but from a budgeting standpoint, I think that that also gives you a little bit of a cushion. I’m still using property manager on that property. I think it’s worth it to me, but in the event that cashflow goes down even more, I still have kind of a break glass option of doing the property management myself and getting that cashflow back.

Tony Robinson:
Alright guys, stick around because up next is the $2,000 tuition flip. There were ghosted contractors, flea bombs, and a nine day fire sale exit. So we’ll hear what happened right after. A quick word from today’s show sponsors. Alright, Tony, up next. You got a $60,000 house that looked like a steal, but I guess it kind of quickly went off the rails. So give us the kind of quick and dirty, what were the kind of blinking red signs that maybe you missed before you signed the deal?

Tony Borman:
Yeah, so now we’re coming into this past year. So obviously with interest rates, the rental market isn’t as great or buying rentals, the numbers aren’t as great. So I was looking into more of a flip in the meantime to kind of generate some funds. So I’ve been getting deals from wholesalers. This is one I got from a wholesaler, went and looked through it. I actually ended up originally going under contract on it at 80,000 and got cold feet after walking the property some more and as it set into me of how much work this place really needed. So we actually fell out of contract originally, and then the seller contacted me again a few weeks later and said, do you want it for 60? At that point, having already kind of gone through the motions and trying to make it work at 80, I was like, oh, it’s 60. I can definitely do this. Let’s do it. Yeah, I mean, just to kind of paint a picture, this is a 1940s concrete block house. You walk into the house and there’s no ceilings, no drywall, no floor, no electric. I mean, it’s about as far gone of a place as you can get.

Tony Robinson:
So Tony, let me ask Greg, because you had done a few rehabs already with the live and flips some minor cosmetic improvements on the rental property. As you walked this one, what gave you the confidence, whether justified or unjustified, what gave you the confidence to walk into a house in such a disrepair and say, I think this is a good next step for us? And let me ask some concept. The reason why I ask that is because I do think that it’s important for investors to maybe challenge themselves to take on projects that are a little bit more challenging than what they’ve done before, because I think that’s how you get better as a real estate investor. But I also think that maybe there’s a point where you step too far outside of your existing skillset and knowledge base where you end up jumping into maybe a deal that could be dangerous for you. So how do you gauge when you’re in that growth opportunity versus a dangerous opportunity? So as you were walking the deal, what was going through your mind to say, okay, I think this is a good next step for us?

Tony Borman:
Yeah, I think my big blunder, to be honest with you is that I did not as far gone as the property was. The whole structure was still there. And so I was originally thinking that it was still work that I could do myself, which I was used to doing. I know I’ll put in the hours, it’ll get done as fast as I can do it kind of thing. But after getting into the nitty gritty, walking with a couple contractors realized that it needed some significant structural work, which needed a licensed contractor, permits the whole shebang. So that was really the big hiccup was all of a sudden my reliance on an outside contractor to get the work done.

Ashley:
When did you start to realize that you’re going to lose money and you need to exit this property?

Tony Borman:
It was really kind of just as the timeline kept getting pushed out, just kind of based on my W2 work. I’ve done a lot of project management. So from a rehab project management, I’m really organized. I have a whole timeline out. So as I continued to struggle with contractor after contractor and the house was sitting, I’m now projecting a finished date out into the fall, getting into the holidays when you don’t want to be trying to sell a house. So that’s when I really started to think I might want to get a different exit here.

Tony Robinson:
Can you tell us really quickly, Tony, about I guess some of those challenges? I know that there was a Mercedes driving pit bull breeder, you had GCs ghosts in you flea infested inspections. I guess how did each of those obstacles impact and adjust both the budget and the calendar

Tony Borman:
From a contractor perspective? It’s rough out there, and I think we’ve all heard that, but I didn’t realize quite how rough. So yeah, one of the examples, I had a contractor out showed up in a nice Mercedes, kind of said the right things, got down to the nitty gritty of asking what paint colors I wanted in the finish. Ended up sending me a formal bid online asking for a deposit. But one of the things you can obviously do and I would recommend is to look these people up on social media. So this guy, for example, you go to his Facebook page and it says he’s a dog breeder. Nothing about contracting. There’s no pictures of work he’s done. So I got a bad vibe from him and just told him I was going to go a different route. A couple months later, I saw in our local investing Facebook group that somebody had in fact paid him a deposit and he disappeared. So I dodged a bullet on that one, but I went through, I think seven different contractors on this house. None of them actually ended up swinging a hammer.

Tony Robinson:
So Tony, let me ask, right, because that’s a lot, and I think that there’s a lesson in there. What do you think was the common denominator amongst all seven of those folks that you now know to look out for before you hire someone else?

Tony Borman:
I think part of the challenge with the sourcing a contractor is the reality is the good contractors don’t need work. So when you put a post on Facebook in the investment group or whatever the case may be, you’re trying to find a contractor on your job. The guys that are coming out and saying, yeah, I’ll be right there. There’s probably a reason that they don’t already have work going on, at least in our market. From what I see, the good contractors are just going from job to job and they don’t need to market or look for new work. So ideally, I think the best way to get a good contractor is through word of mouth. Somebody used them and hopefully just doesn’t happen to need them right at this time. So you can use ’em kind of thing. But I would say once you do find the good contractor, make sure you take care of ’em.

Tony Robinson:
So let’s talk through how you eventually walked away from this deal, right? Because I mean, honestly, Tony, you had two really three successful deals. You have the first live and flip net at 50 K. The second live and flip, you refinance and get almost a hundred grand. You get the long-term rental, which even though it’s not giving you the cashflow you want, there’s still some upside there in terms of equity and depreciation and all those different aspects. And then you kind of get your face punched in on this last deal. So how did you walk away from it? Did you see it all the way through? What was your actual exit strategy?

Tony Borman:
Like I said, as I kept looking at the schedule and it getting pushed out and another contractor falling out, I decided it was time to at least try to sell it just for sale by owner, put a sign out front, put a QR code on there with some information sheet, and just put it up for cash. I listed it for 85,000 cash, and my thought there was, I can still work towards what I’m doing. I can still try to get this property done, but in the meantime, if somebody’s willing to just take it off my hands for 80, 85 K, then maybe it’s better for me to just walk away at this point. And I’ll say it’s one positive about the whole kind of working at W2 and doing investing on the side. I didn’t need to make money from this flip. I wasn’t dependent on it. It wasn’t paying my bills or anything. And so I was perfectly okay with this just being a learning lesson in the end.

Tony Robinson:
But Tony, I think it also illustrates how critical it was that you didn’t buy that deal originally at the 80 k and that you got it at the 60 k because had you bought it 80, instead of losing two grand on the deal, you would’ve lost 22,000, $22,000 on the deal. So I think it goes back to if you can buy at a really good price that oftentimes can offset other things that go wrong on the deal, and this is a perfect example of that.

Tony Borman:
Absolutely.

Tony Robinson:
Yeah. Agree.

Ashley:
Well, Tony, thank you so much for joining us today. Can you let everyone know where they can reach out to you and find out more information?

Tony Borman:
Yeah, absolutely. Instagram’s probably the best spot. You can just look, Tony Borman my name, and feel free to reach out if you’re in the area or you’re investing from out of state. I’m happy to connect.

Ashley:
Well, thank you so much. We really appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today and to give some lessons learned. I’m Ashley. He’s Tony, and we’ll see you guys on the next episode of Real Estate Rookie.

 

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Michigan Credit Union Offering a 4.99% 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate Special


It seems more and more banks and lenders are banking on mortgage rates moving lower in the near future.

The latest being a Michigan-based credit union, which decided to offer a below-market mortgage rate to its members.

Part of the reason is because they have excess cash. The other is that they think mortgage rates are going to come down.

As such, they can snag more customers now and lock them in with a rate that can’t be beat.

It makes you wonder if the worst truly is behind us mortgage rate-wise.

Why a 4.99% Mortgage Rate Now?

Michigan Legacy Credit Union is running a mortgage rate sale of sorts, phrased as a “member giveback.”

For a limited time, the credit union is offering a below-market mortgage rate of 4.99% to its members.

That’s significantly cheaper than the going rate for a 30-year fixed at the moment, last reported to be 6.35%, per Freddie Mac.

The rationale is driven by a few things, one clearly being that its newsworthy to offer a super low mortgage rate at a time like this.

They got my attention and the attention of other journalists, including the Detroit Free Press who initially covered this story.

Another is that because business has been slow for a while, they’ve got excess cash that needs to be deployed.

Remember, banks (and credit unions) need to lend the money they bring in as deposits, and it seems this is a good middle ground for the cash.

Speaking of, only $25 million will be offered via this deal, so it is limited in nature. And it’s reserved for locals, as the credit union only has branches in Flat Rock, Highland Township, Pontiac, Warren, and Wyandotte.

However, Michigan Legacy Credit Union considers itself a “low-income credit union,” so those funds should go fairly far on your average home purchase.

This deal is good for both home purchases and those refinancing a mortgage not currently with the credit union.

It does require one discount point paid at closing, so on a $300,000 loan, we’re talking $3,000, which is fairly reasonable and normal to get a below-market rate.

Are Banks and Lenders Front Running Lower Mortgage Rates?

Aside from that, their president Carma Peters noted that if mortgage rates fall in the future, their customers would be less likely to refinance.

After all, if they have a significantly lower rate than what’s currently available, it would take even lower rates for a refinance to make sense.

However, she did note that rates are projected to drop further, something a lot of folks seem to believe these days.

Recently, Chase Home Lending launched a refinance sale themselves, offering reduced interest rates to their customers for a limited time.

This feels somewhat similar, and I surmised that Chase might be doing it because they expect even lower mortgage rates in coming months too.

So in a sense they’re kind of front-running this expectation and attempting to drive more business, knowing rates could be even cheaper soon.

But it still gets them the business today and disincentives a refinance if their customer already locks in a low rate.

You do wonder though if they’re wrong and mortgage rates somehow turn higher. Anything is possible, and we saw basically the same exact thing last year.

When the Fed finally cut, mortgage rates bounced higher. That may or may not happen this year, and even if it does, it could prove temporary.

There does seem to be a decent tailwind for lower mortgage rates at the moment, more so than there was last year now that Trump’s policy stuff is baked in and the labor market appears to be cracking.

Colin Robertson
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(Ends 9/17) Chase Southwest Personal Cards: 100,000 Points with $4,000 Spend In 5 Months


Sites with affiliate links are saying this will end on 9 a.m. ET on Wednesday, September 17, 2025

The Offer

Direct Link to offer (be sure to choose the card version)

Chase is offering the following bonus on the Southwest Plus, Premier, and Priority cards:

  • Earn 100,000 points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 5 months from account opening.

Offer valid through 9/17/25.

 

Card Details

  • Annual fees are not waived the first year; note: annual fees have increased: Plus is $99, Premier is $149, Priority is $229.
  • Card earns the following rates:
    • 2x/3x/4x points for Plus/Premier/Priority for every $1 you spend on Southwest Airlines purchases
    • 2x points for every $1 you spend on Rapid Rewards hotel and car partners
    • 2x points per $1 you spend on local transit and commuting, including rideshare
    • 2x points per $1 you spend on internet, cable, phone services, and select streaming
    • 1x points for every $1 you spend on everyday purchases
    • Special rates on specific cards:
      • Plus: 2X at Gas stations and Grocery stores on the first $5,000 in combined purchases per year.
      • Premier: Earn 2 points for every $1 you spend at grocery stores and restaurants on the first $8,000 in combined purchases per anniversary year. 
      • Priority: Earn 2X at Gas stations and at Restaurants
  • First checked bag free. Cardmembers and up to 8 additional passengers in the same reservation can check their first bag at no additional cost. (Since Southwest no longer offers free checked bags for everyone, they added it as a benefit for cardholders.)
  • No foreign transaction fees on all 3 cards
  • Cardmembers and up to 8 passengers in the same reservation will board with Group 5 giving them earlier access to overhead bins.
  • Seat selection within 48 hours prior to departure when available. For the Plus card it’s for a Standard seat. For the Premier and Priority and for both business cards it’s for Standard or Preferred seat.
  • Get 25% back on in-flight purchases
  • The Plus and Premier get  2 earlybird check-ins per year
  • Premier card gets 15% Flight Discount each year on your cardmember anniversary (Excludes Basic fare); Plus card gets 10% Discount.
  • Premier and Priority earn 1,500 tier qualifying points towards A-List status for every $10,000 spent, with no limit on the amount of TQPs you can earn
  • The Premier personal card earns a 6,000 points anniversary bonus; the Plus earns 3,000 points anniversary bonus; the Priority earns 7,500 anniversary bonus
  • The Plus and Premier personal and business cards get a new benefit of 2 earlybird check-ins per year
  • Priority card gets: Preferred Seat selection at booking when available, Upgrade to Extra Legroom seat within 48 hours prior to departure when available, Earn 2,500 tier qualifying points towards A-List status for every $5,000 spent annually.
  • All cards (besides Plus personal and Plus business) earn 1,500 tier qualifying points towards A-List status for every $10,000 spent, with no limit on the amount of TQPs you can earn.
  • All cards (besides Performance Business) get 25% back on in-flight purchases.
  • Southwest credit cardholders get 10,000 Companion Pass-qualifying miles which brings down their overall miles required to get the pass from 135,000 to 125,000
  • Chase 5/24 rule does apply to this card
  • How Much Are Southwest Rapid Rewards Points Worth?
  • Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About The Southwest Companion Pass

See the post: Chase Southwest Cards Increase Annual Fees & Change Benefits for a roundup of changes in benefits and fees on the new updated card.

Our Verdict

This is the best signup bonus offer we’ve seen on the personal Chase Southwest cards. The best we’ve seen in the past was 85,000.

This offer is also available via referral links. The old referral links show ‘offer not available’ and reroute to the new offer. I’m not certain that referrals track in that case, let us know if you have experience. Regardless, you can likely generate a new referral link and that should work cleanly. No referral sharing in the comments below.

I like the long five months to meet the spend requirement. This makes it easier, and can also potentially help for timing the Southwest Companion Pass. 

We’ll add this eventually to our list of Best Credit Card Signup Bonuses. Before applying, check out these 26 Things Everybody Should Know About Chase Credit Cards.

  • Follow-up post: Getting Two Years Southwest Companion Pass With The New 100k Card Signup Bonus (2026-2027)

No referral sharing in the comments below.

How Physicians Are Using Technology (and Smart Systems) to Create More Income in Their Practices Without Burnout



Physicians are no strangers to change. But in recent years, many of us have felt the mounting pressure: increasing administrative tasks, declining reimbursements, and growing burnout.

It’s not just a matter of making ends meet. It’s about preserving the energy, time, and clarity we need to deliver the level of care our patients deserve.

If you’re in private practice, you may have found yourself wondering: Is there a better way to run my practice—one that’s sustainable for me and better for my patients?

The good news is: yes, there is.

More and more physicians are discovering ways to both improve patient care and generate additional income using technology and smart systems already within reach. Here are three of the most practical, proven approaches.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. Any investment involves risk, and you should consult your financial advisor, attorney, or CPA before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The author and associated entities disclaim any liability for loss incurred as a result of the use of this material or its content.

1. Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM)

Remote Patient Monitoring allows physicians to track chronic conditions like hypertension, diabetes, and heart failure using connected devices patients use at home—such as blood pressure monitors or glucose meters. These devices transmit data directly to your practice, allowing for more continuous, personalized care.

The best part? This model supports early intervention, reduces ER visits and hospitalizations, and empowers patients to stay engaged in their care.

For physicians, RPM is also reimbursable—often around $100 to $120 per patient per month—making it one of the most effective ways to create a recurring revenue stream that rewards better patient outcomes.

I recently spoke with Dr. Tyler De Jong, an internist in Southern California, who implemented RPM through the platform DrKumo.

“I was a reluctant client,” he said. “But once we saw how it actually helped our patients and created steady income for our practice, it became a no-brainer. We were communicating more, intervening sooner, and the tech support made it seamless for our team.”

This is a perfect example of technology enhancing—not replacing—the physician-patient relationship.

2. Chronic Care Management (CCM)

If you’re regularly managing patients with two or more chronic conditions, you’re already doing the kind of work CCM was designed to support: reviewing labs, adjusting medications, coordinating with specialists, answering questions between visits.

CCM allows you to structure this care, often delegating it to your medical assistant or nurse, and receive reimbursement (typically $60–$90 per patient per month) for the time spent improving outcomes outside of face-to-face visits.

Patients benefit from better continuity of care, consistent check-ins, and fewer gaps between appointments. And your practice benefits from a reliable monthly income stream without adding new patients or hours.

It’s one of the clearest examples of a win-win model that rewards the proactive, thoughtful care physicians are already providing.

3. Office-Based Procedures

This is one of the most overlooked opportunities sitting in plain sight.

Many physicians have the training and ability to perform reimbursable in-office procedures but rarely offer them consistently—or bill for them properly. This includes:

  • Joint injections
  • Skin biopsies
  • Cryotherapy
  • I&Ds
  • EKGs and spirometry
  • Endometrial biopsies

Adding just a handful of these procedures per week can translate to thousands in additional income per month, without adding new patients or major overhead.

These services also improve access and convenience for your patients, and allow you to maximize the value of each visit. It’s one of the fastest ways to make your existing practice more profitable.

It’s Not Just About Revenue—It’s About Better Care

I want to be clear: these strategies aren’t about chasing profit at the expense of patients. Quite the opposite.

They’re about creating a practice that allows you to:

  • Spend more time with your patients
  • Intervene earlier and more effectively
  • Offer services that are convenient, high-quality, and coordinated
  • Reduce hospitalizations, complications, and delays in care

And yes, they also happen to support the financial health of your practice, so that you can continue serving patients without burning out or scaling unsustainably.

The truth is, when physicians are supported—clinically and financially—patients win, too.

The Common Thread: Leverage

All three of these strategies—RPM, CCM, and office-based procedures—have one thing in common: they allow you to leverage what you already have.

You’re not launching a new business or seeing more patients. You’re:

  • Leveraging your existing patient base
  • Leveraging your clinical staff
  • Leveraging your existing skill set
  • Leveraging reimbursable services for care you’re already providing

This is exactly the kind of leverage physicians need more of. Because the solution to burnout isn’t always outside of medicine—it’s often inside your practice, if you know where to look.


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Final Thoughts

If you’ve been looking for a way to improve the financial sustainability of your practice and elevate the care you provide, these strategies are an excellent place to start.

They represent a new model of practicing medicine—one where the systems support the physician, the patient, and the mission of care.

This is how we protect the joy of practicing medicine.
This is how we take back control, not just of our income, but of our ability to make an impact.

If you’re exploring these options or have questions about implementation, feel free to reach out or share what’s working in your practice. We’re all in this together.

This post is for educational purposes only and not to be considered financial advice. As always, do your own due diligence before making any investment decisions.

Were these helpful in any way? Make sure to sign up for the newsletter and join the Passive Income Docs Facebook Group for more physician-tailored content.


Peter Kim, MD is the founder of Passive Income MD, the creator of Passive Real Estate Academy, and offers weekly education through his Monday podcast, the Passive Income MD Podcast. Join our community at the Passive Income Doc Facebook Group.

Further Reading



For the first time since 2019, the Fed could split both ways on a rate decision



In a sign of how unusual this week’s Federal Reserve meeting is, the decision it will make on interest rates — usually the main event — is just one of the key unknowns to be resolved when officials gather Tuesday and Wednesday.

For now, it’s not even clear who will be there. The meeting will likely include Lisa Cook, an embattled governor, unless an appeals court or the Supreme Court rules in favor of an effort by President Donald Trump to remove her from office. And it will probably include Stephen Miran, a top White House economic aide whom Trump has nominated to fill an empty seat on the Fed’s board. But those questions may not be resolved until late Monday.

Meanwhile, the U.S. economy is mired in uncertainty. Hiring has slowed sharply, while inflation remains stubbornly high.

So a key question for the Fed is: Do they worry more about people who are out of work and struggling to find jobs, or do they focus more on the struggles many Americans face in keeping up with rising costs for groceries and other items? The Fed’s mandate from Congress requires it to seek both stable prices and full employment.

For now, Fed Chair Jerome Powell and other Fed policymakers have signaled the Fed is more concerned about weaker hiring, a key reason investors expect the central bank will reduce its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point on Wednesday to about 4.1%.

Still, stubbornly high inflation may force them to proceed slowly and limit how many reductions they make. The central bank will also release its quarterly economic projections Wednesday, and economists project they will show that policymakers expect one or two additional cuts this year, plus several more next year.

Ellen Meade, an economics professor at Duke University and former senior economist at the Fed, said it’s a stark contrast to the early pandemic, when it was clear the Fed had to rapidly reduce rates to boost the economy. And when inflation surged in 2021 and 2022, it was also a straightforward call for the Fed, which moved quickly to raise borrowing costs to combat higher prices.

But now, “it’s a tough time,” Meade said. “It would be a tough time, even if the politics and the whole thing weren’t going on the way they are, it would be a tough time. Some people would want to cut, some people would not want to cut.”

Amid all the economic uncertainty, Trump is applying unprecedented political pressure on the Fed, demanding sharply lower rates, seeking to fire Cook, and insulting Powell, whom he has called a “numbskull,” “fool,” and “moron.”

Loretta Mester, a former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, said that Fed officials won’t let the criticisms sway their decisions on policy. Still, the attacks are unfortunate, she said, because they threaten to undermine the Fed’s credibility with the public.

“Added to their list of the difficulty of making policy because of how the economy is performing, they also have to contend with the fact that there may be some of the public that’s skeptical about how they’ve gone about making their decisions,” she said.

David Andolfatto, an economics professor at the University of Miami and former top economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said that presidents have pressured Fed chairs before, but never as personally or publicly.

“What’s unusual about this is the level of open disrespect and just childishness,” Andolfatto said. “I mean, this is just beyond the pale.”

There are typically 12 officials who vote on the Fed’s policies at each meeting — the seven members of the Fed’s board of governors, as well as five of the 12 regional bank presidents, who vote on a rotating basis.

If a court rules that Cook can be fired, or Miran isn’t approved in time, then just 11 officials will vote on Wednesday. Either way, there ought to be enough votes to approve a quarter-point cut, but there could be an unusual amount of division.

Miran, if he is on the board, and Governor Michelle Bowman may dissent in opposition to a quarter-point reduction in favor of a steeper half-point cut.

There could be additional dissenting votes in the other direction, potentially from regional bank presidents who might oppose any cuts at all. Beth Hammack, president of the Fed’s Cleveland branch, and Jeffrey Schmid, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, have both expressed concern that inflation has topped the Fed’s 2% target for more than four years and is still elevated. If either votes against a cut, it would be the first time there were dissents in both directions from a Fed decision since 2019.

“This degree of division is unusual, but the circumstances are unusual, too,” Andolfatto said. “This is a situation central banks really don’t like: The combination of inflationary pressure and labor market weakness.”

Hiring has slowed in recent months, with employers shedding 13,000 jobs in June and adding just 22,000 in August, the government reported earlier this month. And last week a preliminary report from the Labor Department showed that companies added far fewer jobs in the year ending in March than previously estimated.

At the same time, inflation picked up a bit last month and remains above the Fed’s 2% target. According to the consumer price index, core prices — excluding food and energy — rose 3.1% in August compared with a year earlier..

With inflation still elevated, the Fed may have to proceed slowly with any further cuts, which would likely further frustrate the Trump White House.

“When you get to turning points, people can reasonably disagree about when to go,” Meade said.