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Why the Philippines seems stuck in an ‘recurring cycle of underachievement’

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Why the Philippines seems stuck in an ‘recurring cycle of underachievement’



When the Philippines took over from Malaysia as chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), expectations ran high that the country could use its one-year term to attract investment and catch up with the more successful neighbors driving the region’s growth story. 

With two months left in 2026, those hopes have been dashed. The country has been Southeast Asia’s worst-hit by high energy prices since the U.S.-Iran war began in February. 

“For decades, the Philippines has been described as a country of enormous promise. It has a young population, a large domestic market, a strategic location, and a highly capable workforce,” Ruben Carlo Asuncion, chief economist of the Union Bank of the Philippines, says. “Yet it has often struggled to convert these advantages into sustained gains in investment, productivity, and competitiveness.”

He notes that the start of 2026 brought expectations for strong growth supported by easing inflation, lower interest rates, resilient household spending, and infrastructure investment. “Instead, the economy faced a series of shocks that slowed momentum and reignited inflation pressures,” he says.

What was meant to be a breakout year, highlighted by the Philippines’ turn as ASEAN chair, has instead become a case study in how the country keeps falling short: its structural advantages are outweighed by corruption, institutional dysfunction, and energy insecurity. 

Some of the Philippines’ woes—particularly energy prices—are out of the country’s control, and may ease in 2027. In fact, the World Bank expects a rebound to 5.2% in 2027, on higher public spending and easing inflation.

Even so, Asuncion sees larger challenges ahead. “The more important question is whether the country can finally break free from its recurring cycle of underachievement.”

Middle-income status a ‘milestone, not a destination’

Peter L. U, dean of economics at the University of Asia and the Pacific in Manila, says the university’s early forecasts put GDP growth above 5% this year, similar to the World Bank’s estimates.

However, high oil prices and cuts in public spending—enacted in the wake of a billion-dollar flood control infrastructure scandal last year—have since dragged this forecast down to a meager 3.7%. 

The one bright spot is the World Bank’s reclassification of the Philippines as an upper-middle-income economy this year. Yet Asuncion calls it a “milestone, not a destination.”

“Many countries reach middle-income status. Far fewer successfully make the transition to becoming high-income economies…the challenge for the Philippines is no longer how to achieve growth, but how to sustain and improve the quality of that growth,” Asuncion says.

The Philippines’ sluggishness is a contrast to Vietnam, the other Southeast Asian country to get upper-middle-income status this year. Vietnam is expected to grow 7.8% in 2026, according to forecasts from the Asian Development Bank. Exports are also booming, reaching about $375 billion in the first eight months of the year. The Philippines, by comparison, just exported $64 billion. 

U puts the milestone in more domestic terms.

“It’s like a child who turned 13, yet is still the same person with the same maturity they had yesterday. That child will need to continue working hard to continue learning more, acquiring more skills and virtues to become an adult,” he says. 

One of the biggest obstacles to climbing the income ladder is that investors still struggle to find projects worth backing. Steep electricity costs—some of the highest in Southeast Asia—as well as bureaucracy and corruption, also raise the cost of doing business. 

Exposing decades-old problems

The biggest drag on the Philippine economy, however, may be entirely out of its control. Continued tensions in the Middle East will keep energy prices elevated for the foreseeable future, driving inflation in the Philippines.

“Oil prices had already begun to come down but spiked again on renewed clashes around a month ago,” U says. Inflation is back at its April peak of 7.2%.

The Philippines is still absorbing sharply higher prices of fuel and fertilizer, along with a peso trading at record lows against the dollar. Those pressures feed into prices across the board, says Michael Ricafort, chief economist at the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation.

Ricafort cautions that inflation could pick up further through second-round and pass-through effects, including higher transport costs, businesses pushing for higher prices, rising inflation expectations, and wages. The increase in Metro Manila’s daily minimum wage from 695 to 755 Philippine pesos ($10.91 to $11.85) in September could also lead to pay hikes in other parts of the country, he adds.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the country’s central bank, has also been hiking interest rates to rein in inflation—moves that will dampen the consumption spending that has traditionally driven the economy. On Oct. 22, the BSP raised its benchmark rate by 50 basis points to 5.5%. And more hikes could be coming: Nomura now expects the Philippine central bank to raise rates by another 75 basis points to 6.25% by February.

Yet Asuncion argues that these external events exposed the Philippines’ existing weaknesses. “Economies inevitably face external shocks. What differentiates successful economies from struggling ones is the strength of their institutions and their ability to respond effectively,” he says. “The energy shock highlighted the country’s dependence on imported fuel, while the flood control controversy reinforced concerns about governance, accountability, and the efficient use of public resources.”

U makes a similar point: the Gulf conflict and last year’s flood-control scandal mirror challenges long familiar to the Philippines.

“The Middle East conflict and the resultant oil price spikes have been recurrent going back to the 1970s. Similarly, corruption scandals in the Philippines seem to also be recurrent,” U says.

Turning the tides

With just a few months left in the year, attention is back on the Philippines to see whether it can turn things around, starting with the ASEAN Summit in November and into 2027. 

“The ASEAN Chairship has opened important economic opportunities, although many of the benefits will take time to materialise and build on initiatives already underway,” Victor Andres Manhit, president of the Manila-based consultancy group Stratbase, says. He adds that key developments include the signing of the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement expected during the summit.

While the ASEAN Chairship may have provided a platform and opened doors to raise the Philippines’ profile on the investment stage and position it as a key player in the region, “whether the Philippines walks through them depends largely on governance and execution at home,” Asuncion says.

The Philippines does have some structural advantages, despite the grim short-term outlook. “The country’s geostrategic location, abundant natural resources, large and young population, and investment opportunities remain important strengths,” Manhit says. 

Ricafort also sees opportunities in what has been touted as one of the Philippines’ greatest strengths: a young population of more than 115 million, with an average age below 25. “The Philippines has been in a demographic sweet spot since 2015, with the majority of the population already of working age,” he says.

Yet this window is also narrowing fast. U warns that declining birth rates and slipping educational quality, as well as the rise of AI, could affect sectors that rely on young workers, like the business process outsourcing industry. 

And if there’s one insight from the past year, it’s that institutions are still the the foundation of a well-functioning economy. “The lesson from 2026 is straightforward: there is no shortcut around good governance,” Asuncion says.

“That is ultimately the difference between an economy that is perpetually promising and one that finally fulfills its promise.”

AI Can Draft in Seconds. Can You Afford to Check Its Work?

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Key Takeaways

  • Before you automate a deliverable, write down who will check it, how long that check should take and what happens when the check fails.
  • The economic value of generated output depends on how cheaply and reliably a competent person can verify it in the real decision.

The first time I watched a machine draft something that looked finished, I almost signed off. The language was clean. The structure made sense. Then I tried to check three claims against the source material and burned more time reconstructing the case than the draft had saved. Speed had moved. The cost had not gone away. It had just changed rooms.

I remember the annoyance more than the draft. The tool had done its job. The review path had not.

Here’s my situation, so you know where I’m coming from. I founded Main & Machine, an AI implementation firm for small and mid-size businesses, and I also sit in the buyer seat when technology lands in a real operating company. (Disclosure for the editor: I have a financial relationship with Main & Machine.) I teach management and entrepreneurship at Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business. Across those chairs I keep seeing the same pattern: owners celebrate generation and underbuild verification.

Most shops treat “human in the loop” as a checkbox on a vendor slide. That move fails in practice. The economic value of generated output depends on how cheaply and reliably a competent person can verify it in the real decision. U.S. Census Bureau data from late 2025 through early 2026 put overall business AI use in the 17% to 20% range, with more firms still planning to join them. The next wave will not stall because models got worse. It will stall where checking stays slow, opaque or socially expensive.

I used to treat a second click as proof of judgment. Wrong. A second click can still leave you with one judgment if the reviewer never saw the underlying case on independent terms.

Price the review path before the draft

Before you automate a deliverable, write down who will check it, how long that check should take and what happens when the check fails. Generation reduces first-draft cost. Uncertain output creates a checking obligation. When verification is fast and error is reversible, the gain survives. When checking requires scarce expertise, reconstructing evidence or absorbing liability, the apparent speed just moves cost downstream.

The principle fits in one line: Cheap output with expensive verification is still expensive work.

Try the same pricing this week. Pick one workflow you want the machine to touch. Estimate minutes to generate and minutes to verify on a hard case. Skip the polished demo. A restaurant owner might let a tool draft the weekly schedule and still need a manager who can read labor rules and walk the floor. A clinic owner might let a tool summarize intake notes and still need a clinician who can open the raw chart. If the hard-case check cannot fit the day, the automation is not ready.

Give reviewers a route the machine did not frame

A reviewer cannot meaningfully check an automated recommendation when the system is also the only account of the underlying case. When evidence, framing and conclusion arrive through one interface, disagreement requires reconstructing information the reviewer never independently saw. Time pressure then makes rubber-stamping rational.

The principle: Review needs an independent path to the facts.

Build that path on purpose. For high-stakes work, keep a sampled set of raw inputs available beside the machine’s summary. Ask the reviewer to name the decisive evidence and the uncertainty before the recommendation appears, then compare reasons. A franchisee can do this on customer-complaint drafts. A contractor can do it on estimate language. A professional-services owner can do it on client memos. Agreement alone proves little. Shared framing can produce shared error. What matters is whether disagreement can change the action and survive in the record.

Rehearse the override under pressure

An override that exists only as a policy or a button is not a reliable safeguard. Automation reduces exposure to normal system dynamics, while the ugly cases compress time and raise uncertainty. People need practice recognizing, deciding and acting without the automated system when the answer feels wrong.

The principle: Practice the no until it is usable.

Run a short drill this month. Take three recent outputs the team almost shipped. Hide the machine’s confidence language. Ask a named owner to reject one of them with a written reason and an alternate next step. Then watch whether the rejection sticks or gets smoothed over because the draft sounded finished. Automation leaves a harder residue: The exceptions that remain are ambiguous, rare and consequential. If your team only ever sees clean demos, they will not keep the skill they need when the residue shows up on a Tuesday afternoon.

Here’s where I’d start this week: Pick one AI-assisted workflow, write the review minutes and the independent evidence route on a single page, and run one override drill with the person who actually owns the outcome. Say it to the team before you expand the tool’s reach.

The draft that looked finished still sits in my mind. The checking cost was the real product. Build that first, and the machine earns its keep.

Key Takeaways

  • Before you automate a deliverable, write down who will check it, how long that check should take and what happens when the check fails.
  • The economic value of generated output depends on how cheaply and reliably a competent person can verify it in the real decision.

The first time I watched a machine draft something that looked finished, I almost signed off. The language was clean. The structure made sense. Then I tried to check three claims against the source material and burned more time reconstructing the case than the draft had saved. Speed had moved. The cost had not gone away. It had just changed rooms.

I remember the annoyance more than the draft. The tool had done its job. The review path had not.

Here’s my situation, so you know where I’m coming from. I founded Main & Machine, an AI implementation firm for small and mid-size businesses, and I also sit in the buyer seat when technology lands in a real operating company. (Disclosure for the editor: I have a financial relationship with Main & Machine.) I teach management and entrepreneurship at Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business. Across those chairs I keep seeing the same pattern: owners celebrate generation and underbuild verification.

Mortgage Rates Catch a Small Break Despite Hot GDP

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Mortgage Rates Catch a Small Break Despite Hot GDP


Mortgage rates are a hair better today, with bond yields moving back below 5% on cooler-than-expected inflation.

At last glance, the bellwether 10-year bond yield was down about six basis points to around 4.98%.

That’s thanks to a mixed bag of economic reports released this morning, including PCE and GDP.

The move also incorporates the Fed meeting from yesterday, in which they held rates firm as expected and reiterated they’d take things one step at a time.

Despite that, mortgage rates appear mostly stuck at these higher levels with little to set them free.

Inflation Data Cooperates, Sending Bond Yields and Mortgage Rates Lower

The Fed’s so-called preferred inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, showed headline PCE up 3.6% from a year earlier, which was just below expectations of 3.7%.

In addition, core PCE was up 3.1% in September, which was exactly in line with forecasts.

So while inflation is still front and center, it didn’t get any worse than feared despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

That was the big report we needed to cooperate and it did what it needed to do.

It explains why bond yields are dropping today, with the 10-year down a sizable six basis points or so to 4.98%.

For bond investors, that’s what matters. Inflation eats away at the value of a bond’s fixed payments, so any hint of it getting worse tends to send yields higher. And vice versa.

If the move holds, mortgage rates should drift a little lower today as well, though it won’t be a major difference from yesterday.

Simply put, it’s not going to make or break your loan application, but it’s better than going even higher.

[Try out my mortgage rate calculator to quickly compare different rates and payments.]

Why Isn’t Hot GDP Pushing Mortgage Rates Higher?

Normally, signs of a hot economy spell bad news for mortgage rates.

The other big report we got today was GDP, which revealed that the economy grew at a 3.4% annualized pace in the third quarter, exceeding the 3.1% forecast.

Strong economic growth puts pressure on the Fed to hike, so Warsh will have less room to defend his current wait-and-see approach.

Of course, that seems to be priced in already with the odds of a quarter-point hike at the December meeting hovering around 80%.

Additionally, tech earnings from Alphabet led to a selloff today, which has been a big driver for lower mortgage rates lately.

This might explain why bond yields are still quite a bit lower on the day despite the mixed data.

We also got weekly jobless claims today, which came in at 194,000, slightly below the 200,000 forecast.

It’s yet another sign that the labor market seems to be holding up just fine, though we do get the monthly BLS jobs report next Friday.

Mortgage Rates Appear to Be Elevated for Longer

The cliché “higher for longer” thing sounds better as “elevated for longer” to me.

The slight difference in framing is rates aren’t necessarily going any higher, but are staying elevated for a longer-than-anticipated period of time.

In other words, we might be stuck with these 7%+ mortgage rates for longer than we thought.

Not necessarily going back to 7.5%, 8%, etc.

There are still too many things in the way of markedly lower mortgage rates, including intense AI spending and the Middle East conflict, which could get worse.

On the one hand, that means we aren’t going to get any major relief until those things go away.

On the other, it means there are possible levers to pull to get mortgage rates lower again.

We know what needs to happen. If we make those things happen, we can get real relief.

The good news for now is mortgage rates avoided any major setbacks related to the Fed meeting and the many economic reports released this week.

Read on: How are mortgage rates determined?

Colin Robertson
Latest posts by Colin Robertson (see all)

Buy Atmos Rewards Points with Up to 110% Bonus

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Buy Atmos Rewards Points with Up to 110% Bonus


Alaska Airlines is back with another promotion on purchased Atmos Rewards points, and some members are seeing a targeted bonus of up to 110%.

That’s a pretty good offer, bringing the cost down to approximately 1.79 cents per point, including taxes.

The promotion runs through November 7, 2026, and the bonus varies by member. Some accounts are seeing a maximum bonus of 90% or 100%, while others are getting up to 110%.

Buy Atmos Rewards Points with Up to 110% Bonus

The bonus you receive depends on your account and how many points you purchase.

Here’s how the pricing works at the highest bonus levels:

Bonus Cost Per Point
90% bonus 1.98¢
100% bonus 1.88¢
110% bonus 1.79¢

For example, with a 110% bonus, buying 20,000 points would get you another 22,000 bonus points, for a total of 42,000 Atmos Rewards points.

That purchase would cost $752.50, including the 7.5% federal excise tax, bringing your cost down to about 1.79 cents per point.

The bonus tiers can vary by account, so you’ll need to check your personal offer to see how many points you must purchase to unlock the maximum bonus.

How to Get the Bonus

  1. Visit the Alaska Atmos Rewards Buy Points page.
  2. Sign in to your Atmos Rewards account.
  3. Check your targeted bonus offer.
  4. Select the number of points you want to purchase.
  5. Complete your purchase by November 7, 2026.

The bonus should be displayed before you complete your transaction. Limit on purchased points has been temporarily increased as well from 100,000 to 250,000.

Purchases are processed by Points.com, so they generally won’t count as airline purchases for credit card bonus categories.

Guru’s Wrap-up

A 110% bonus is one of the better offers we’ve seen for buying Alaska Atmos Rewards points.

The program has some valuable airline partners, including American Airlines, Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific. That can make buying points worthwhile, especially when you find a good business class redemption.

But at 1.79 cents each, these points still aren’t cheap. I wouldn’t buy them speculatively just to build up a balance.

If you’ve already found an award flight and need more points to book it, this could be a good opportunity to save some money.

INVESTMENTS

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INVESTMENTS



Provided to YouTube by Beyond Measure Records

INVESTMENTS · Ocean Wisdom

Big Talk, Vol. 1

℗ Beyond Measure Records

Released on: 2019-10-11

Composer: Ocean Wisdom
Lyricist: Ocean Wisdom

Auto-generated by YouTube.

source

First-Time Landlord? How to Find Great Tenants on Your Own (Rookie Reply)

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Ready to rent out your property? Set up the right systems from day one, and you’ll attract better tenants, avoid costly rookie mistakes, and keep more cash flow in your pocket!

Welcome back to another Rookie Reply! We’re starting today’s episode with a first-time landlord who is renting out his home near a military base and wants to get it right from day one. We’ll share the resources for every step of the leasing process, plus what to know before renting to service members. Then, a new house hacker wants property management software that will grow with his portfolio. Ashley explains what to compare before you commit, including payout times, hidden fees, and the tenant experience. Plus, the property management perks that come with BiggerPockets Pro.

Finally, another first-time landlord gets ready to place his next tenant without an agent. We map out the DIY turnover, from move-out inspection to listing, screening tenants, and setting the right rent! We also cover the one mistake to be cautious of, and when hiring a property manager is actually the better deal.

Ashley:
Today’s rookie reply is about what happens after you decide to become a landlord. The property is only the beginning. You also need a leasing process, clean books, reserves, and a plan for the next vacancy.

Tony:
We have a first time landlord near a military installation, a house hacker choosing property management and accounting software, and a landlord who wants to handle a turnover without an agent.

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

Tony:
And I’m Tony J. Robinson. And with that, let’s get into today’s first question. So our first question today comes from Sergio in the BiggerPockets forums. And Sergio says, “I’m preparing to rent out my home in upstate New York near a military base, and I want to make sure I approach it the right way from the beginning rather than learning everything the hard way. For those that have experience with rentals, especially in military markets, what are some of the biggest issues I should prepare for as a first time landlord? I’m particularly interested in things I can do upfront to reduce problems later, such as tenant screening, lease terms, security deposits, maintenance and repairs, property management insurance, and handling vacancies or unexpected expenses. I’d also appreciate any advice to renting to military families or service members. Are there particular considerations with PCS moves, deployments, or the Service Members Civil Relief Act that I should understand before putting the property on the market?
My goal is to treat this as a long-term investment and put the right systems in place from day one. What do you wish you had known before renting out your first property? This is a great question, Sergio. And actually my very first rental ever was in a military or near a military base in Louisiana. And my very first family was a military family who worked at the base. So I have a little bit of experience with this, but honestly, I had a property manager who was doing all of the work for me. So my first piece of advice would be to hire a property manager. I mean, you said you’re planning to rent out your home, but you didn’t say if you were doing self-management or giving out to a manager. So if you really do have a lot of these questions and you would just feel more comfortable passing it off to someone else, then consider hiring someone to do it for you because that was my approach and that’s what worked for me.
Now that said, it’s a much different time today with the tools and the systems and the software. And as I’m getting back into the long-term rental space with my first long-term rent in a long time, we actually are self-managing. So I’ll tell you what I’m using and then obviously I’ll pass it off to Ashley because she’s got way more experience than we do. Because you mentioned a few things here, Sergio. You talked about tenant screening, lease terms, security deposits, maintenance repairs, all those different things. What I did, and actually there’s an entire episode that Ash and I just did where she walked me through the process of telling you how to be a good landlord. But once we had the listing up and ready, I listed it in two places. I went to Zillow, I went to TurboTenant. And as all those folks came in, I had just a standard reply that said, “Hey, here’s everything you need to know about the listing.
Here’s how you can go through our pre-approval process and here’s our open house.” And the first open house is actually happening tonight. So I think a lot of these questions you have, Terjo, you’ll be able to answer as you start going through the tools, the software, it’ll really guide you through this process. But Ash, I’ll let you maybe give some more detailed answers around the tenant screening and the insurance and unexpected things you wish you knew before you started.

Ashley:
Yeah. And I think there’s so many free resources, but also that can become overwhelming. But pretty much every property management software that’s out there has free guides, free blog posts, free downloads, free checklists, all these things that you can use to actually set up your own processes and kind of learn what that is. I personally use TurboTenant and within TurboTenant, they basically give you step-by-step instructions of how to do it. So whenever I go to move someone in, it gives me a dashboard with a checklist of did you create the lease? Did you send it out for signature? Did you sign it? Did you set up their move-in inspection? Did you save their move-in inspection? Did you collect their security deposit? And it literally gives you step-by-step. So it’s very hard not to do everything that you’re supposed to do because it’s right there in front of you.
And one of my favorite things is the lease generator they have that you select what state you’re in and sometimes even more specific, what your city. So when I click New York, they will say, are you in New York City or outside because there’s different laws and regulations based on that. So then it goes through and tells me, make sure you have this in your lease, you need to include or not include this and different things to think about. So starting by looking at different property management software can really help. Even if you don’t have your deal yet, it can kind of tell you the things that you’re going to need to put in place, the systems, the processes and give you a feel of what to do because as soon as you get a property under contract, you should be starting to think about your leasing process, your rent collection process, any of those things.
And having that software right away is going to make it so much easier. You can start onboarding your tenant, your property before you actually even close on it in most cases so that day one, you’re closed, you’re ready to have your new tenant set up in your portal and ready to go so they can make payments online, they could spend maintenance requests online, things like that. So my first step would be doing a demo of property management software. Sometimes it’s a webinar you can get on. Sometimes it’s actually a person walking you through, which is a great resource for you to ask questions about the leasing process and different things like that that you don’t understand or whatever. So that would be a great starting point is doing demos of property management software that actually handle all of these systems and processes for you.

Tony:
Ash, are you at all familiar with the Service Members Civil Relief Act?

Ashley:
I am not. I have to say that I’ve never heard of that, but I would say your best bet is to… There’s a group called, I think it’s Military to Millionaire or something like that, is find Facebook groups or even go to the BiggerPockets forums. And there’s a lot of different groups for veterans or active members or retired members of the service with these real estate groups that I’m sure could help with that better than Tony and I could.

Tony:
I just looked it up really quickly and I’m learning a lot here, but basically it says it’s a federal law that provides legal and financial protections to active duty military personnel, reservists and National Guard members help them focus on defense without facing severe disadvantages at home. So the things they get, there’s a 6% interest rate cap on things like debit cards, credit cards, auto loans, and mortgages. I wasn’t aware of that. Lease contract and termination so they can early terminate residential leases without penalty. Same thing for automobile leases, even things like cell phones, internet, gym memberships, home security. So it looks like there’s just a lot of things that if someone gets moved because of their commitment to national defense that they have a legitimate reason to get out of those things, which I totally agree with. So yeah, I would agree with Ash trying to connect with some of those folks.
But I think also working with someone who knows a good property manager again could be a resource for you here as well, even if you don’t necessarily hire them. Hey, can I pay you for an hour of your time to talk through some of this? Or an attorney, real estate attorney in your market, pay them for an hour of their time to the ins and outs of how this applies for your specific area.

Ashley:
Okay. Coming up, a new house hacker wants software that will still work at 20 doors. We’ll talk about what must scale and what can stay simple. We’ll be right back. Sergio’s question is about designing the landlord process before the first tenant. Mike is doing the same thing with technology after closing on his first small multifamily. So question number two is, what is the best property management software for a beginner who’s planning to scale? I just closed on my first property, a small multifamily. I’m house hacking and I’m trying to set up my systems right from day one so I’m not ripping everything out and switching platforms two years from now. My goal is to buy roughly one property a year and build a real estate portfolio over the next decade so I care more about what scales cleanly than what’s cheapest this month. Right now I’m leaning toward RentReady with the REI Hub accounting integration.
RentReady for rent collection, leases, screening and maintenance and REI hub underneath it for the actual double entry books, balance sheet and schedule E income tax time. The flat unlimited units pricing on RentReady appeals to me since it shouldn’t get more expensive as I add doors and having real accounting in place early feel smart from when I’m sitting in front of a lender for the next deal. But I keep seeing TurboTenant coming up too and I don’t have hands-on experience with it. So I’d love to hear from people actually running these day-to-day. If you’re managing a growing portfolio, what are you using? Would you pick it again? For anyone on Rent-Ready and REI Hub, is the integration actually seamless and at what point did adding REI Hub become worth it? So for TurboTenant users, how does it hold up as you scale and how do you feel about the tenant side fee structure?
Anything you wish you’d known before committing to a platform, especially around clean books for financing future deals. Just trying to get this right once so I can just build on top of it. Appreciate any real world input. Thanks. Okay, well this is a great question. I think it leans into my previous answer, do demos of all the software. There is lots of different property management software, especially when you have smaller, fewer deals. I will comment on the seamlessness of the actual bookkeeping. I used AppFolio before when me and my partner had over 130 units combined. We were using AppFolio where everything is integrated. You don’t need anything else, but it’s very, very expensive. So I would not even consider AppFolio unless you have a hundred units. But with that, it was so much easier to have it all together and integrated. So I do like the fact that you want to use something that integrates with the property management software for the bookkeeping.
With RentReady, if you are a BiggerPockets Pro member, you actually get RentReady for free. So I would definitely check that out. If you’re a BiggerPockets Pro member, you also get to Baseline, their smart bookkeeping for free too. So it’s not directly integrated into TurboTenant or RentReady, but it also is free too. So I’d look into that. But also they are a banking platform for landlords, so I would look at that as your banking piece because REI Hub doesn’t have that actual bank account piece that Baseline does have too. So the nice thing is they do have multiple options and I think a lot of these property management software, they’re comparable apples to apples, especially TurboTenant and RentReady. I feel like they competed in the same exact space, have a lot of the same features, but I would do the demos on each of them to see which one you like to use easier, but also make a list of what you actually want from the property management software.
What are the things you need? Do you need messaging? Do you need them to submit maintenance requests? All of these things, and then actually go through each platform and see what their process is for each of those different things. This I think is something that’s often overlooked is how long does it actually take? Once your tenant pays rent, how long does it take for them to process that rent payment and for you to actually get it into your own bank account? Because if this is your only property and you’re depending on that rental income to pay your bills or whatever for that property and it’s rental income’s coming in by the fifth and then on the 10th you’re paying the utility bills or something from that payment, you want to know exactly how long that’s going to be. Then any additional fees that… So with AppFolio, when I use that, there was additional fees to add on all these different things that made it very expensive.
So when someone does pay the rent, are they getting charged? Are you getting charged to actually process it or is it included? Is it free? It makes you look at all of the additional fees, but then look at the customer side of it too as far as your renters. Is the app user friendly for them? Are they going to get frustrated with it? Because guess what? If your tenant has an issue making a payment, submitting maintenance requests, they’re not going to call up TurboTenant or RentReady. They’re going to come to you first and that’s just going to cause more headaches for you too.

Tony:
Ash, obviously, you’ve got so much more experience than I do. I will just say again, as I get back into the long-term rental space with this first rental that we’ve in the last, gosh, six years since we’ve had a long-term rental or five years maybe, I’ve been using TurboTenant and it’s been actually a pretty good experience. Even when we had o own long-term rentals, I didn’t self-manage any of it. So going through this for the first time as a self-managing long-term rental landlord, a lot of experience on the short-term rental side, first time on the long-term rental side, it’s been pretty intuitive and I like that everything is kind of housed in one place and I can market it, invite tenants to apply, screen folks, build the leases, do all those things. So to your point, Ash, I like the idea of doing demos, but I think the bigger takeaway or the bigger lesson I want to share with Mike is, and this is really for everyone, is that sometimes you do have to switch software.
And while obviously we want to make sure that we choose the right software to begin with, as your portfolio changes and grows over time, maybe the software that you started with doesn’t work for the portfolio that you have when it’s five years down the road. For us, when we first started bookkeeping, we were using Cessa, and I still think Cessa’s a great tool for investors as they’re initially getting started, but as our business matured and growed or grew, we realized that we needed QuickBooks. Now we switch everything over to QuickBooks. So sometimes your software does need to change. So I think the bigger goal is like, “Hey, can I find something today that works where I’m at? Let me learn that tool.” And if I do get to a point where I need to switch, that’s okay because it’s probably a good thing. It means the portfolio is growing.
So I think all the tools work well. I don’t think you’ll necessarily go wrong by using a RentReady, a TurboTenant, basically any of these guys. They all are great products. It’s just which one do you like more? Which one’s more intuitive for you? Which one do you feel like you can get the most value out of today?

Ashley:
Yeah. And one thing to add onto that, Tony, about having to switch is make it easy on yourself to actually switch. I pretty much keep two sets of everything. I keep the lease agreements, all the documents stored in TurboTenant with the tenant, things like that, property information, stuff like that. But for all the stuff that I’m adding or even receipts in my bookkeeping, I keep them separately in a Google Drive folder because when I’ve switched before, I had a huge headache of pulling all of that information out of the software and AppFolio did not make that easy at all because they didn’t want people to leave. And so they made it so difficult for you to actually offboard from them. So make sure you’re setting up something where you are able to actually, if whatever software you choose, if it’s going to be super difficult and you have to go one by one by one to actually download documents that you had saved in there, just take a couple of extra seconds and just throw them into a Google Drive folder or something like that also.
But yeah.

Tony:
You could probably use your favorite AI tool today to do a lot of that manual data extraction for you now. So if you have built up really a lot of your receipts and PDFs and all those different things you’ve saved inside of some tool, give it to Claude or ChatGPT and it could probably download it pretty quickly for you and organize it inside your new Google Drive. All right guys, after the break, we have the Maryland landlord who wants to turn over a rental without using an agent. So we’ll map out the DIY leasing process and the mistakes that can erase those savings. We’ll be right back after this. All right guys, our last question today comes from Paul and his first tenant is moving out and he wants to market, screen, and place the next tenant himself to improve cash flow. So Paul says, “I’m a new landlord over the past two years and I’m looking to turn over a property in Montgomery County, Maryland when the first tenant lease ends without the assistance of a real estate agent.
Can you all provide some recommendations for marketing, advertising? For example, where’s the best place to list and the best application/screening tools available? Look into DIY this time to help with cash flow.” I think first, Ash, obviously again, I’ll defer to you here because you’ve got way more experience than I do, but let’s just talk about the timeline a little bit around what that looks like. So he didn’t say, he says when their lease ends, so I’m assuming that it’s sometime soon, but the general timeline is that once you get their notice that they’re actually leaving, you do your pre-move out inspection, you get an ability to give them a chance to make whatever repairs they need to make before they move out. And you also get a chance to say, okay, what am I definitely going to need to replace once this person leaves? You start building out your scope of what that looks like.
If you’ve got a handyman or whoever, go get some bids, make sure that they’re aware of what needs to be done. And then once they move out, you start tackling those things, repairs, the cleaning, take good photos. We can talk about the photos really quick, Ash, because I’m curious what your take is on this, but I’ve been seeing a lot of, in a negative way, a lot of chatter on social about these AI generated listing photos where it has the photo, but then it’s like, what’s possible with AI? Are you seeing any of that in your market where people are enhancing their listing photos with AI and just what’s your general take on that?

Ashley:
I think people are still using phones from 2005 in my market to take pictures of their properties, to be honest.

Tony:
I like the old Razor flip phone taking pictures on their Blackberries.

Ashley:
I guess for me, it might be hard to tell if it’s AI generated unless I’ve actually gone to see the property. So I’m not seeing as far as a MLS listing, I haven’t seen anything that stands out to me as like, oh, this is super AI generated or whatever. What I have seen is this virtual staging, which we’ve seen for a while, but they’ll do a virtual staging and then the empty room of what it actually is, and then the next room virtual staging and then what it is actually empty. But no, I haven’t seen a ton of that. When I just listed a property, we were having the house power washed and the agent just said, “Just make sure it’s done by showings. It doesn’t matter for the pictures because we can just touch up the pictures or whatever.” So we’re seeing that, I guess, a little bit of Photoshop, but I feel like that’s probably always happened.

Tony:
Yeah. I’ve just been seeing headlines over certain cities or even states that are talking about maybe not allowing for some of these AI enhanced photos. I’m looking at an article right now where they’re talking about it in Detroit. Should we have these over-enhanced AI photos and should that be fair to the tenant? So anyway, Paul, just something for you to consider is getting the photos taken. Then we move through the photos, you create your listing, you do your showings, then you screen all the folks that have come in, start the lease process, then you move in. Again, given that I’m going through this right now, I’ll tell you what process I followed for the listing that I have. First, I called Ashley and talked to her for an hour and said, “Hey, tell me everything that I need to do.” And then we went out –

Ashley:
Also a side note, he FaceTimed me and we were eating the same exact thing for dinner.

Tony:
We were. What like a twin moment, right? We’re both eating Chipotle, just so happens at the exact same time, halfway across the country from each other. But I called Ashley, gave me all the insight. So what we did was we got the property ready, so we took a bunch of photos. And we actually did use AI on our photos, but we did it just to remove some of the furniture that was left over because we were still kind of moving out, but we hadn’t taken everything out and we’re like, “We don’t want to keep waiting.” So we just had AI just remove the photos. So we didn’t virtually stage, we didn’t enhance the paints and all these different things. The house looks like the house, we just had to remove the furniture. But then we listed the listing. I listed it through TurboTenant and I listed it through Zillow.
And it was interesting because Ash and I were talking and she gets a lot of interest in her listings through TurboTenant. I got way, way more through Zillow. The majority of the folks who have reached out have all come through Zillow. So it could just be market dependent on where you’re at on which one does both, but I would recommend list on both places, that way you get the maximum exposure. And then I was actually kind of going back and forth doing research because I am doing this myself. I’m like, “Hey, what are the laws in California say around the applicant screening process and how do you choose the right person?” I actually found out that California has a very specific law. You have two options. The first option is anyone that applies and meets your specific qualifications, and obviously there’s a lot of rules around what the qualifications can be and can’t be, but if you have someone who applies, whoever the first one is, the first applicant that meets all of your qualifications, that’s who you have to lease the house out to.
Or you have a second option of letting everyone apply and then you can choose amongst the people, again, within a reasonable degree of flexibility, you can choose the tenant that you actually want, but then you have to refund everyone else who wasn’t selected their application fees. So those are the two options. So I opted for the latter so I could have some flexibility on who I actually choose. And now we’re doing the first open house today to see who actually wants supply and go through that process. So that’s what we’re doing right now to lease our unit.

Ashley:
Did you give them the link to the application already or are you waiting until after the showing to send out the link? Or could people actually apply now if they wanted to?

Tony:
Yeah, I actually followed your advice where I gave them the pre-screen through Turbo Tenants. TurboTenant’s a quick pre-screen, so no one’s paid for anything yet. And then I’ll give them the application links after the actual showing today, and then we have the second one on Friday, so two days from today. And then only those folks who actually come to the open house are the ones I’m giving the applications to.

Ashley:
Now with that law in California that you have to refund them the application fee, what about the background and credit check fee? Is that considered that application fee?

Tony:
I would assume so. Anything that they had to pay for fee wise, I was assuming I’d have to pay them back for everything. I think when I did the math, it was like 90 bucks. So if I have 10 people apply and I only choose one, I got to refund nine times 98, 800.

Ashley:
And technically you’re not even refunding them because it’s not like that money is going to you.

Tony:
Came to me.

Ashley:
Yeah.

Tony:
So I’m giving them the money back. But I weigh the pros and cons, and it’s like given that this is my first time self-managing that peace of mind to me it’s worth the extra several hundred bucks, but it’s not a fun thing to do. And when you think about the profits on a long-term rental, that could eat up a good chunk of your profits for the first year, right? So you’ll have to pick and choose what makes the most sense for you, but we just wanted that peace of mind to be able to choose the right person.

Ashley:
We just did a couple showings the other day and it’s the most interest I’ve gotten in a while on… Actually, there’s been two apartments that I’ve rented, but it’s been a while since I’ve actually rented and both got a lot of interest and people are just filling out the application without even seeing the property. So then I started… Usually what I would do is do it where I don’t send out the link, but somehow I messed up on one of them where the link was still out there or whatever so they could apply. And it was just people just applying, applying. And then I would send them the invite to set up a showing and they would not even set up a showing at all. And it’s like, I’d really, really like you to see this property before I go and approve you and then I have to wait to see if you accept because then you’re probably going to want to do a showing.
So that is why I really like doing it after the showings or the open houses that you’re doing is like, okay, here’s the link and send it out or whatever. But the pre-screener is also a great thing to do first because if you say in your listing, we don’t allow pets and then they put in there that they have a pet and it’s not a service animal. Okay, sorry, unless you’re getting rid of your dog, you don’t actually fit this property or whatever. If your minimum credit is going to be 600 that you’re going to accept and they put that their credit is 450, which I’ve had happen before. I put it very clearly in my listing what the requirements are, but people don’t read the listing and that’s the point of the pre-screener of don’t waste your money applying because this is my criteria that you have to reach to actually get approved.
And if they’re already admitting their credit is 450, why pay for an application and go through that whole process?

Tony:
Ash, what about the process for setting the actual rents? There are a lot of different tools out there I think to help you do that. And what we did is I just looked… My neighborhood is very kind of unique because my entire little subdivision of my town didn’t exist prior to 2017, I want to say, or 16, maybe it was the first house. So we’re a relatively newer neighborhood. So I really kind of drilled down my search to houses in this newer subdivision and that’s how I landed on what is the going rate for that specific type of home? But what’s your favorite way to identify what you should be pricing your units at?

Ashley:
I’m watching the apartment complexes in the area because to live in one of the… At least in the apartment complexes and the small rural towns I invest in, there aren’t a lot of amenities. So it’s not like you are moving into the complex because they have a gym, they have a pool. These have none of that. It’s just the complex. One of them is an eight unit and there’s just a bunch of eight units on the property or whatever, and you have a common washer and dryer in the hallway that you use, and that’s literally the only amenity. But is that actually amenity, not having a washer and dryer in your unit and having to share it with seven other households? Not really. So I always look at those as a comp because I think that people would prefer to live in a single family home, a duplex, or even just a four unit than an actual complex that has no amenities for you and you’re having to live with all these other people having to deal with things.
So I always look at what they are renting as a good comp for me because I think I will be able to at least get what they are asking for because maybe I have a private yard or whatever, a garage that they can use or different things like that where the apartment complex doesn’t have any of that. So I basically base it off of that. I did get called out on Instagram. Someone sent me a DM and I love it that people do this to me and call me out because it does make me second guess and it’s just making me a better investor. But I put out how we had 77 leads. We had 15 applicants. We did how many showings or whatever on this property. I listed that the rent was $800. It was a two bed, one bath, and the person said, “Your rent is way too low if you’re getting this much interest, blah, blah, blah.” And that is such a valid point.
The way I framed this property is this unit is on the third floor of the building. So no elevator, you have to walk up to the third floor. So that right there, the first set of stairs is outside. It’s on the exterior. So you’re walking up one outside, then you go in and then you go up another set. Then it is a haunted house. If you buy any book on Western New York hauntings, this property is listed in there. I take all of these things into consideration. I think people don’t want to live here, so I want to keep myself a little bit below what the market rent is for a two bed, one bath. So now I’m definitely second guessing myself as maybe I shouldn’t be doing that. So really a lot for me, to be honest, is guesstimate what it should be. I’m looking all the time what’s being rented and what it’s being listed for.
Unfortunately, because it is such these smaller markets, it’s so hard to use any kind of rent estimator because there’s not enough data because there’s so many small mom and pop investors that still stick their sign up front that no software, no AI is going to know that that was rented for X amount of money. So it is gruesome, but I’m also just making sure, okay, if this makes it more affordable for someone and I’m still making money, it’s actually not a bad thing at all.

Tony:
Yeah, that’s interesting guys, because when I first listed this long-term rental that we’re working on, I literally had I think four, maybe five people reach out within the first 30 minutes. Now these weren’t applicants, but they were just people requesting more information or asking questions. And as soon as I saw that, I was like, “Man, I think it might be too cheap.” So I went in there, I immediately increased it. I didn’t increase it a ton. I think I take it by a hundred bucks or something like that. But that was my thought process. And I think that might be the only downside or thing to consider about doing it on your own is could you potentially rent it for more and rent it faster if you use an actual leasing agent or property manager to do it for you? And if your property sits empty for three months and it rents for $200 less per month, well, did you really save any money by doing it by yourself?
So I think that’s the only question to really ask before you Paul decide to do this on your own is how quickly do you think you can rent it out for and do you think you’ll actually be able to do it at a reasonable rent?

Ashley:
Yeah. And to kind of add to that though is where are they getting their information from? Is it just because they’ve rented so many units in that area is that they have that knowledge? So I would ask those questions. When I used a property management company, they had no units. We were their first units in those markets. They had other towns and stuff, but it varies from town to town specifically. So make sure if you are hiring someone because of that reason that they actually have experience in that exact market, that exact town too. Well, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Real Estate Directy. I’m Ashley Hughes Tony. And if you guys have a question, head over to the BiggerPockets forums. We’ll see you guys next time.

 

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Down 40%, Is Robinhood Stock a Buy on the Latest Dip?

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Down 40%, Is Robinhood Stock a Buy on the Latest Dip?


Robinhood Markets (HOOD -7.21%) shares have continued to struggle, with the stock down about 40% from its all-time highs. It’s trended downward since late September, and a disappointing after-the-bell third-quarter earnings report on Oct. 27 only compounded its malaise.

Let’s take a closer look at the broker’s results and prospects to see if this dip is a buying opportunity.

HOOD Robinhood Markets

$84.99-$6.60 (-7.21%)

NASDAQ · As of 4:00 PM ET 10/30/26

Crypto continues to weigh on results

For the fourth consecutive quarter, Robinhood saw a significant decline in cryptocurrency revenue, which took away from what otherwise was a solid report. Once one of the online broker’s biggest growth drivers, its Q3 crypto revenue plunged 55% to $120 million.

Crypto trading is high-margin and not easily replaced with other revenue streams. As such, the company remains committed to growing this business. In fact, in June it completed its acquisition of WonderFi, which operates Canadian crypto exchanges Bitbuy and Coinsquare.

Meanwhile, it sees a big opportunity in tokenized assets following the launch of its Mainnet blockchain network in July. It is particularly optimistic about DeFi perpetuals, which are non-expiring crypto contracts that let you bet on rising or falling asset prices with leverage.

Overall transaction revenue jumped by 19% to $867 million. Robinhood’s entry into the prediction market led the way, with event-contract revenue up sixfold to $173 million. Options revenue surged 31% to $399 million, while equity revenue jumped 41% to $121 million.

Net interest revenue declined by 9% to $415 million, while other revenue jumped 61% to $142 million. Robinhood Gold subscriptions rose 34% year over year to 5.2 million.

Total platform assets jumped 19% to $396 billion, and the number of investment accounts rose 9% to 30.4 million. Net deposits, meanwhile, grew at an annualized growth rate of 17% relative to total platform assets.

Adjusted EPS, meanwhile, fell 3% to $0.60. That topped the analyst consensus of $0.56 in adjusted EPS. The adjusted results excluded a $0.07 unrealized loss related to its venture capital fund.

Robinhood is the sole initial trustee and brokerage firm for Trump accounts, which completed automatic enrollment for nearly 70 million accounts in the third quarter. This does not mean the accounts are active, but children born between Jan. 1, 2025 and Dec. 31, 2028 are eligible for a one-time $1,000 government contribution. Meanwhile, the Dell Foundation has funded 25 million of these accounts with $250 each.

Looking ahead, Robinhood said Q4 was off to a good start, with October deposits up over $13 billion, including $6 billion from the Dell Foundation contribution. It said average daily volumes for equities, options, and cryptos were down about 5% from Q3.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Is the stock a buy?

Outside crypto, Robinhood has been seeing strong transaction volume and driving growth with newer products like its prediction market offering, Gold accounts, and credit cards. Meanwhile, being a Trump account trustee has opened up another nice revenue opportunity.

The biggest issue for the company has been that crypto trading comes with high bid-ask spreads and much higher take rates, so the big decline in revenue it’s seen over the past year in this segment hurts its bottom line. However, the company isn’t sitting still in this area, and it will start to face much easier crypto comps starting in Q1.

The stock trades at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of about 26.5 based on analysts’ 2027 estimates. That’s not a bargain-basement valuation, but given the opportunities ahead and the fact that crypto trading should no longer be a huge drag next year, it’s getting close to the time when investors should start considering buying this growth stock. It likely has one more tough quarter ahead before growth accelerates in 2027.

Samsung Built the Foldable First. Now Apple Wants the Creator Crowd

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Samsung Built the Foldable First. Now Apple Wants the Creator Crowd



The next smartphone war is being fought one creator at a time.

Macklem warns U.S. deficits could push up Canadian borrowing costs

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Macklem warns U.S. deficits could push up Canadian borrowing costs




Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem warned that U.S. borrowing is on an unsustainable trajectory as he offered an unusually blunt assessment of American tax and spending policy, which is putting pressure on global bond yields.

100% Back On YouTube Channel Memberships Up To $6

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The Offer

Check your Bank Amerideals/Chase for the following offer:

  • Get 100% Cashback on YouTube channel memberships up to $6
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Our Verdict

Good way to support YouTube channels you enjoy without having to actually spend any money. 

Hat tip to avsterbone

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