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The New York State Board of Regents voted on September 14, 2026 to stop requiring students to pass Regents exams to earn a high school diploma, approving a plan that makes this year’s seniors the last cohort held to the 25-year-old five-exam standard. Students graduating in the 2027-28 school year and after will receive a single New York State diploma with no separate assessment requirement attached.
The timing is awkward: many colleges have spent two years moving the other direction, and every Ivy League school now requires SAT or ACT scores again.
The three existing credentials (local diploma, Regents diploma, and Regents with Advanced Designation) collapse into one, with advanced work recognized through a seal or endorsement instead. Regents exams survive as a measure of state standards, and the Education Department will build new high school accountability tests to satisfy federal ESSA requirements.
Districts will design their own local assessment strategies covering classroom work, performance tasks, and educator observation, alongside expanded credit options such as dual enrollment coursework that counts toward both a diploma and a degree. Regulatory amendments will be a Board discussion item in February 2027 and come back for adoption in June 2027, according to the Daily News.
A high school diploma is what drives a person’s next financial decision. It determines college admission and federal aid eligibility, and parents read it as a signal that a student can handle college-level work — the assumption sitting underneath every calculation of whether a degree will return more than it costs.
New York graduated 85% of its 2021 cohort within four years, per state data. Removing the exam requirement would almost certainly lift that rate without changing the underlying skills behind it.
The downstream costs would inevitably fall on the student and society as a whole. Remedial college courses carry tuition and consume federal loan eligibility while awarding no degree credit, and researchers put the national bill at roughly $7 billion a year, The 74 reported. Fewer than 10% of students assigned to remediation earned an associate degree within three years in the underlying study. That is borrowed money spent relearning high school, added to a national balance that just reached $1.86 trillion.
And for society, we want an educated populace. Without a basic measuring tool of what the results are, it’s impossible to correct learning deficiencies.
State officials argue the exams were asked to do three incompatible jobs at once: measure standards, drive accountability, and certify college readiness. Assistant Commissioner Zachary Warner told the Board the change has “nothing to do with lowering standards,” and pointed out that elite private schools skip Regents exams entirely and their graduates do just fine. The strongest argument is that a single timed test in June is a poor readiness signal compared with four years of evidence. But that’s also a position that mirrors the reasoning behind the spread of test-optional admissions policies.
There is also an equity case too. Students who finish every required course but fail one exam currently leave with no credential, pushed toward low-wage work or a restart through trade programs financed with their own borrowing.
The big case against removing the exam is simply understanding whether high school graduates completed with enough basic knowledge to continue onward in education or their careers. Board members raised the objection themselves. Vice Chancellor Judith Chin asked how the state would ensure reliability and said “many of us are questioning whether or not we as a Regents are dumbing down the assessment,” according to an account of the meeting. Regent Weinman Shorenstein questioned how the state would compare outcomes across districts using different local assessments. Neither question got a full answer, and the replacement framework does not exist yet.
The problem is that the state is removing a common yardstick and promising to design its replacement during the same window. Three risks follow:
New York is running an experiment California already started. The University of California went test-blind in 2021, and the results at one campus are hard to ignore: UC San Diego’s remedial math enrollment went from 32 students in fall 2020 to 921 in fall 2025 (11.8% of the incoming class) a nearly 30-fold jump, Inside Higher Ed reported. We covered how recently the campus ran out of seats in its remedial math course.
These students were admitted on strong GPAs alone. More than 600 UC faculty have since signed a letter asking the system to reinstate testing for applicants, arguing that grade inflation and AI-assisted work have broken the transcript as a readiness signal, the Daily Bruin reported.
New York is now removing its last external check at the high school level, despite having the California data already in hand.
The pattern seems to be repeating itself: remove a measurement, watch the credential inflate, then find the issue later when somebody is paying tuition for it. Test-optional admissions masked poor math preparation at the high school level before anyone quantified it, and families end up paying the costs through extra semesters and debt loads that keep climbing at graduation.
For New York families, the practical move is to stop treating the diploma as evidence of readiness. Have students sit the Regents exams anyway (they still exist) and treat dual enrollment or AP results as outside verification, especially since 66% of high schoolers say their schools steer them toward four-year college without a clear read on preparation.
Plus, as more and more colleges are requiring the SAT and ACT again, getting a jumpstart on those national exams will give you a clear sense of any gaps and preparation that may be needed.
Watch three dates. State Education Department staff return to the Board in November 2026 with revisions to New York’s federal ESSA plan. Then draft regulatory amendments will be up to the Board in February 2027, with adoption scheduled for June 2027 and an effective date of July 1, 2027.
The detail that matters most is what the new statewide high school accountability assessment actually measures and looks like. There’s sadly a high potential New York will have removed a key standard without replacing it with a solid new one.
Editor: Colin Graves
The post New York Ends The Regents Exam Requirement — And Hands Districts The Job Of Defining A Diploma appeared first on The College Investor.
A new study reveals that clear AI oversight drives higher financial returns, better performance, and increased confidence across the workplace.
LuxExperience (LUXE +19.44%) stock is surging today following the release of the company’s quarterly results. The luxury brand e-commerce specialist’s share price was up 19.2% as of 10:15 a.m. ET.
Before the market opened this morning, LuxExperience published results for the fourth quarter of its 2026 fiscal year — which ended June 30. Despite posting a loss in the quarter, the company’s share price is being buoyed by strong quarterly sales growth.
Image source: Getty Images.
In fiscal Q4, LuxExperience’s revenue grew roughly 7.6% year over year to reach 663.8 million euros. While the company posted a net loss of 26.3 million euros after recording a profit of 603.7 million euros in the prior-year quarter, performance was still better than expected. A one-time large bargain-purchase gain drove the big net profit in the prior-year quarter, and solid sales growth in the most recently completed quarter has investors feeling more bullish about the stock.
Today’s Change
(19.44%) $1.39
Current Price
$8.54
Market Cap
Day’s Range
$7.88 – $8.65
52wk Range
$6.54 – $11.38
Volume
620.9K
Avg Vol
129.9K
Gross Margin
44.35%
Along with its solid fiscal Q4 results, LuxExperience guided for sales growth to accelerate in the current fiscal year. The company also expects significant profitability improvement and a non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) margin between 2% and 3%. While the company still has a lot of work to do on its turnaround, its recent quarterly report and guidance suggest that progress is being made.
Keith Noonan 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.
Chase is back with another mortgage rate sale, something they’ve done several times over the past couple years.
They don’t advertise the exact amount of the discount, but common knowledge says it’s 25 basis points (0.25%).
So if the hypothetical rate offered were 7.125%, perhaps you can get a rate of 6.875% instead.
That sounds pretty good, especially swapping out a 7-handle for a 6-handle.
But maybe this new sale tells us something more, that rates could be at/near another top.
It’s been a rough few months for mortgage rates, culminating in them rising above 7% for the first time since early 2025.
They’re now near two-year highs, which if reached, you’d then have to start looking at those really ugly rates from late 2023.
At that time, the 30-year fixed hit a scary 8%, though at the time mortgage spreads were blown out and that’s no longer the case.
So getting back to 8% seems very unlikely at this juncture, even with bond yields elevated.
And even climbing much higher from here could be a stretch.
Remember, mortgage rates are now up a full percentage point from year-ago levels, which is a lot.
Sure, inflation has ramped up again, but it’s tied mostly to the conflict in the Middle East.
It’s not the widespread inflation we had back in 2022-2023 that touched everything.
It’s concentrated inflation that’s mostly tied to the conflict, with some AI capex and sticky services thrown in for good measure.
In other words, significantly higher interest rates might not be warranted today as they were back then.
Now back to that Chase mortgage rate sale. Typically when you’re urged to do something before it’s too late, there’s usually another opportunity.
Chase wants to ramp up its lending volume so it’s extending a discount to prospective customers.
They know rates are “high” right now and are doing their best to alleviate some of that sticker shock.
But perhaps they think rates are more or less at the top again, and offering rates below-market is a winning proposition for them.
Even a rate of 6.75% is a good deal for them if going rates are in the low-7s and there’s an expectation that we are at/near the top.
They wouldn’t mind holding a bunch of high-6% mortgages if rates stay in the mid-6s for the foreseeable future. It’s a decent return for them.
Now this is just a theory I’m positing, but it runs parallel with the thought mortgage rates could also top out with a Fed rate hike.
Yes, a Fed rate HIKE could signal the top for mortgage rates as well.
Lately, they’ve “defied” the Fed, meaning on the day the Fed hikes, mortgage rates tend to fall.
This isn’t that surprising because firstly, the Fed doesn’t set consumer mortgage rates.
Many people seem to think the Fed has a direct impact on mortgage rates. They don’t.
The Fed simply controls short-term rates, specifically their overnight lending rate known as the fed funds rate.
The 30-year fixed mortgage is anything but short, obviously.
That brings us to number two; Fed rate decisions are often baked into longer rates like the 30-year fixed well ahead of time.
So there can be a sell the news moment when it actually happens. It’s typically not a big surprise on the day.
But the market can take a breath when the Fed finally does act.
And right now it feels like the market really wants a Fed rate hike, whether warranted or not.
Read on: See how much that higher rate actually affects your payment with my mortgage rate calculator.
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Not sure if this will work for all Chase Southwest cardholders or just some, share your experiences in the comments below.
At 7 a.m. Eastern Time today, the price of oil sits at $108.34 per barrel, using Brent as the benchmark (we’ll explain what that means shortly). That’s an increase of $1.77 since yesterday morning and roughly $40 more than at this time last year.
| oil price per barrel | % Change | |
| Price of oil yesterday | $106.57 | +1.63% |
| Price of oil 1 month ago | $90.94 | +19.13% |
| Price of oil 1 year ago | $68.72 | +57.65% |
Nobody can predict the future path of oil prices with certainty. A range of factors influence how oil trades, yet supply and demand remain the main drivers. When fears of economic slowdown, conflict, or similar shocks rise, oil prices can move sharply.
The price you see at the gas pump reflects more than just crude oil. Also built in are the costs of refining, distribution through wholesalers, various taxes, and the margin your neighborhood station charges.
Crude oil is still the largest single driver of the final pump price, typically representing over half of each gallon’s cost. Spikes in oil prices tend to push gas prices higher in short order. But when oil prices decline, gas prices often ease down gradually, a behavior known as “rockets and feathers.”
In the event of an emergency, the U.S. maintains a stockpile of crude oil known as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Its main goal is to safeguard energy security when disasters strike—think sanctions, severe storm damage, or war. It can also do a lot to ease the pain of sudden price jumps when supply gets disrupted.
It’s not a permanent fix, as it’s more meant to provide immediate support for consumers and ensure critical parts of the economy like key industries, emergency services, public transportation, and so on can keep operating.
Both oil and natural gas play key roles as major sources of energy. A big change in oil prices can affect natural gas by proxy. If oil prices increase, some industries may swap natural gas for some segments of their operations where possible, increasing the demand for natural gas.
Oil prices are often measured by two key benchmarks:
Between the two, Brent is a better representation of global oil performance because it prices much of the world’s traded crude. It’s also often the best way to review historical oil trends. In fact, the U.S. Energy Information Administration now leans on Brent as its primary reference in its Annual Energy Outlook.
When you look at the Brent benchmark across multiple decades, you’ll see that oil has been anything but consistent. It has experienced spikes driven by wars and supply cuts, as well as crashes linked to global recessions and an oversupply (called a “glut”). For example:
In short, oil’s historical performance has been far from steady. It’s massively affected by wars, recessions, OPEC whims, evolving energy initiatives and policies, and much more.
Looking to stay up-to-date regarding the latest energy developments? Check out our recent coverage:
The current price of oil per barrel depends largely on supply and demand, including news about potential future supply and demand (geopolitics, decisions made by OPEC+, etc.). In the U.S., prices also move based on how friendly an administration is to drilling, as it can affect future supply. For example, 2025 saw the Trump administration move to reopen more than 1.5 million acres in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas leasing, reversing the Biden administration’s policy of limiting oil drilling in the Arctic.
The price of oil updates constantly when the “futures” markets are open. A futures market is effectively an auction where people agree to buy or sell oil in the future. As long as people and companies are trading contracts, the oil price is changing.
In short, shale is rock that contains oil and natural gas. Think of shale as energy yet to be tapped. The more shale the U.S. accesses, the more energy we’ll have—and the more easily oil prices can keep from spiking as much thanks to a greater supply.
When oil is expensive, it tends to make everyday items cost more. This can be related to energy (your heating, gas utilities, etc.), but it’s also due to the logistics involved with making those items accessible to you. Shipping, for example, can affect the price of things at the grocery store, as it’s more expensive to get those products from warehouses and farms onto the shelf.
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Your first rental cash flows just fine, but it needs some work, and in order to scale your portfolio, the next big decision hits: Should you hold and repair, or sell it and cash in? Today, we’ll show you how to tell a “keeper” from a potential money pit before you spend a dollar more!
Welcome back to another Rookie Reply! This week we’re tackling three more questions from the BiggerPockets Forums. First up, we’ll hear from a couple choosing between house hacking and flipping houses and show them why it might not have to be either/or. Next, an NYC investor is debating between two real estate markets, and we’re breaking down how to *make his money go as far as possible.*
Finally, a landlord’s first long-term rental needs significant repairs, and he’s questioning if it’s worth renovating or if it’s finally time to sell. There’s a crucial step he needs to take before making that decision, and we’re uncovering exactly what it is!
Ashley:
Most rookie investors are not choosing between a perfect deal and a bad deal. They’re choosing between imperfect options, limited capital, and the fear of making the wrong first move.
Tony:
Today’s questions all come from the BiggerPockets Forums, and we’re going to talk about whether to flip or house hack first, how to think through a first out-of-state investment in 2026, and how to decide if a cash flowing rental with major repairs is still worth keeping.
Ashley:
This is the Real Estate Rookie Podcast. I’m Ashley Kehr.
Tony:
And I’m Tony J. Robinson. With that, let’s get into today’s first question, which comes from Ivo in the BiggerPockets Forum. So Ivo says, “My wife and I are looking to make our first real estate investment and we’re trying to decide the best way to start. We’re currently debating between doing a house hack or going for a fix and flip that wouldn’t require a major rehab, something more cosmetic. I’m personally leaning more so towards starting with a fix and flip so we can build some capital first. Then the plan would be to move into a house hack, likely a multifamily property, live there for a while, and potentially do another fix and flip while we’re there. After that, we move out and keep the multifamily as a rental. Do you have any advice on the best way to approach this strategy, especially as a first investment?” Great question.
Honestly, I feel like you could. I don’t want to overwhelm you, but it almost feels like this isn’t necessarily an either or an or thing. Depending on how much capital you have, maybe there’s an opportunity that you can do both because they’re serving slightly different purposes. Now, for rookies that are listening that aren’t familiar with the phrase house hack, a house hack is basically when you buy a property and you live in it in addition to renting out some additional space to generate rental income. So to Ivo’s point, it’s like maybe you buy a triplex and you live in one unit and you rent out theother two. Maybe you buy a duplex and you live in one side, you rent out the other. Maybe you buy a five bedroom house and you sleep in one bedroom and you rent out the other four. You can house hack in a lot of different ways, but the essential idea is that you’re renting out the extra space that you’re not using.
If you have enough capital to cover a three and a half to a 5% down payment, sometimes these loans, I talk about NACA a lot on the podcast, maybe you can even get into a loan with 0% down. But the goal is that if you’ve got enough capital to cover a 0% down to a 3.5% down to a 5% down payment, well, maybe you can go and get your house hack done immediately. And while you’re doing that, take whatever additional capital you have left over and go tackle the house flip. So again, all this depends on how much capital you have. So if you don’t have a ton, then we do have to choose. But I think my first kind of gut reaction is that maybe these aren’t mutually exclusive and maybe there’s a path to do both of those. You do the house hack while also continuing to look for the flip.
Ashley:
I also think that you can basically accomplish this with one property. I don’t know if that’s what you were trying to say, Tony, but you can do the live and flip.
Tony:
No, that’s great. I was actually saying two separate properties, but yeah, you’re right. You could combine them into one as well.
Ashley:
So if you buy a property, you have to live in there for a year for your loan that you would get. But if you live in it for two years, you won’t have to pay taxes when you sell the property because it’s been your primary residence for two years. So over the course of two years, yes, it’s not technically house hacking unless you’re going to rent out the rooms or you’re going to get a property with another unit in it, still your primary residence. So let’s say you’re going to go after a duplex. You live in one, you fix up that side, you have a tenant in the other side, and then after two years you sell it and hopefully it has a lot more value because you renovated it and rehabbed it. One thing that I have seen people do, and I think this is even maximizing it, is when they move into the property, they fix up one unit and then they end up switching units and then they go and fix up the other unit.
I’ve seen people do this whether they’re house hacking or not, but basically when they purchase a property, one unit is vacant, they say to the tenant next door, “Hey, we’re going to renovate this. We’re going to let you have first dibs at this. This is what the rent will be and then you can move into there or whatever.” And hopefully the tenant says yes and they move into that new one and then you can go to work on that other one and renovate that one the second year while you’re living in it. Then at the end of those two years, go and sell the property, hopefully make a huge profit and you won’t pay any taxes on it. So when you’re doing just a regular fix and flip and it’s not your primary, you’re going to be paying a boatload of taxes on that property.
So I think if you like the house hacking idea and you want to do some renovation work and do a live and flip, this might be a good compromise for you where even if you don’t make as much and if you had two separate properties, maybe you could maximize more, but with this, you’re going to save so much money in taxes by doing it this route too.
Tony:
I think the last thing I’d add to that too, Ash, is that, and I say this a lot in the podcast, is that oftentimes it also does come down to personal preference. Between the idea of house hacking and between the idea of flipping, which one do you just generally feel like you would enjoy more? Which one aligns better with who you are as an investor? Which one. My wife would hate the idea of us house hacking. For her, it’s like there’s no amount of money we can make from a rental that would make her enjoy the idea of sharing walls with our tenants.That’s just not something that would excite her. Short-term rentals on the other hand, she was very excited about that and she can see herself doing that. So I think you’ve got to ask yourself just of those strategies, which ones align better with who you are as a person and which one ultimately gets you closer to the goal that you’ve got?
If the goal right now is just a big chunk of cash, Flippington give you that. If the goal is, hey, can we reduce our monthly living expenses and can we start building some long-term wealth? Then house hacking makes more sense. So part of it is personal preference. Both strategies work. You can be successful with either one. So I don’t think you can necessarily go wrong with either route.
Ashley:
Coming up, a New York investor is planning his first out-of-state rental for 2026. We’ll talk about how to keep deal one simple when your long-term goals are much bigger. We’ll be right back. Ivo’s question was about which strategy should come first. Our next question is from Jose in Manhattan who is planning his first investment property in 2026 and already has a bigger long-term portfolio vision. Hi all. I am a 29-year-old male based in Manhattan looking to purchase my first investment property in 2026. I am currently eyeballing either the Orlando or Atlanta market to make my first investment with my wife. Generally speaking, this first investment will serve as strong foundation for becoming familiar with the real estate investing process and for establishing a portfolio we plan to grow. All subsequent deals will be similar up until we have enough property and equity that will allow us to pivot into larger commercial deals 10 years or out.
Considering the above, we plan to take the slow burr approach where we will be looking for an opportunity that will allow for some forced equity in the midterm time horizon. With that, we’re looking for homes that only need small cosmetic lifts right now, but may allow for some ADU accessory dwelling units, opportunities or other enhancements further down the line. We currently have about $50,000 ready to deploy for a down payment for our first investment, and we’ll be contacting different lenders to see what our purchasing power is and what different debt products may be offered. My wife and I have a combined net worth of over 320,000 between cash, IRA, 401 and standard brokerage accounts, and we earn over 325K annually with expectations for the income to grow so we feel like we have a strong financial base to allow us to go out and take calculated risk.
As an additional note, we have family friends in both Orlando and Atlanta, so that largely plays a big factor in narrowing down to those two markets as that will allow us trusted boots on the ground as a long distance investor. Some additional pros for each city. We used to live in Atlanta for a couple years, so the market is not completely foreign to us. My cousins are actively participating in a rehab in Orlando, so they already have a great team to work with there that I can likely tap into. I will still do my own due diligence. Any thoughts, tips, or even just introductions would be very much appreciated. Okay, so that’s awesome, Jose, that you are in a position financially and also mentally and you’re ready to go, you’re ready to take action and implement some real estate investing on your first deal. So it looks like really what your dilemma here is is to which market you should pick.
And I love it that you chose markets where you know that you have advantages already. You have one with boots on the ground, you have one where there’s already a team in place. So the next question I would ask is, have you narrowed it down to specific neighborhoods within those cities and how does your budget fall? How far does that, what was it, 50K I think to invest? How far does that 50K get you in each of those markets? So I don’t know really what the median home price is in either of those markets off the top of my head, but is one going to get you a property in a rundown area, high crime, not a great school district? And one, is it going to get you maybe a B class property where better schools, less crime, things like that. So I would start there with, have you gone and looked at any specific neighborhoods in those cities above and beyond just what your advantages and opportunities already are there?
Tony:
Ash, there’s one thing that I just want to call out in the question here because it’s a bit of a, to me like a contradiction, but Jose mentions wanting to use the Burr strategy, but then also wanting to focus on properties that “only need small cosmetic lifts.” And I think those two are somewhat opposed. Sometimes you get lucky and you find just a really well-priced property that really does truly just seem like a small cosmetic lift. But generally when we talk about the Burr strategy, we’re trying to find properties in distress. So it generally means physical distress. Again, sometimes it can be a seller in distress and they’re willing to take a big haircut on the price because they themselves are in some form of distress. But oftentimes it’s the property that’s in distress. So you say slow burr, but the time of the Burr doesn’t really matter.
It’s like how cheap are we. At what discount are we buying that property in relation to what the after repair value is going to be? And the only way that we get that gap big enough is if we buy a property in distress. So I just flag that because Jose, I don’t want you to go into this with these unrealistic expectations. You’re going to find these properties that’ll need small cosmetic fixes and that you’re able to do any sort of truly successful Burr where you’re able to increase the value. Now, you did mention earlier in the question that you guys are more so focused on appreciation. So if by slow Burr, you mean small cosmetic fixes, understanding that today it’s not necessarily going to increase the value, but in 10 years from now we’ll hopefully have built some equity, it’s a different story, but I wouldn’t necessarily call that a Burr.
We’re just buying a property and we’re banking on appreciation. A burr is, hey, we’re going to force appreciation rapidly in the next three, four, five, six months, and we’re doing that by buying a distressed asset. So just a distinction I feel is important for Ricky’s understand. All right guys, we’re going to take a quick break, but when we’re back, a Ricky landlord has a cash flowing rental with major foundation and water issues. So should he fix it? Should he keep it, sell it, move on? We’ll cover that right after a quick break. All right guys, so our last question is from Joe in Cleveland and he already has his first rental, but now the property needs major repairs and he’s trying to decide whether this is a keeper or a lesson he should cash out of. So Joe says, “I own a single family home that I rent long-term and it’s cash flow positive.
There are foundation issues, water leaks into the unfinished basement when it rains, and the basement is used for laundry, so tenants have to go down there. It’s at a point that the entire interior needs to get repainted. The first floor hardwood could use refinishing. The small deck out back needs to be repaired, probably even torn down and rebuilt, and the main door needs to be replaced. This is to name the majority of the bigger cost repairs. I bought the home for $145,000 five years ago, and it’s probably worth 200K today with a good foundation. I’ve been wanting to own rental properties and continue to expand my portfolio, and I was planning on taking the equity I have in this home and using it to fund the purchase of additional properties. But now that so much has to be done to this home, should I sell it and take the profits or should I spend all this money on fixing it and keeping it?
I worry because it is a 100-year-old home and I feel the problems might never end, but it is a nice home for a rental. And in the five years that I’ve had it, I’ve never had a problem finding renters. Seeing this is my first rental, I don’t have experience in this world and I’m learning as I go. I really appreciate any guidance.” It’s a great question. How do you decide when to keep versus when to sell? I think there’s a few though process here that I would look at. Number one is how much equity have you actually built and what is your return, not just on your cash flow, but what is the return you’re currently getting on your equity? Sometimes when we do that calculation, we realize that if I actually go redeploy this capital, all this equity that I built up into another deal, I can actually get a better return.
If we just look at the cash on cash we put into the deal, that’s one number. But if we look at the actual equity that’s sitting in that property and we measure our cash flow against that, we get a slightly different picture and that helps us decide if we should stay or if we should pivot. So that’s one kind of calculation to go run because if you’re like, “Man, I’ve got…” Actually, I don’t think you will in this situation because you bought it for 145, you said it’s worth 200, so maybe there’s not a ton in there. You didn’t say what your loan balance is, but let’s say that maybe you only owe 120 or 105, something like that. So you’ve got maybe 95K in equity. And if you’re barely breaking even on that $95,000 in equity, well, then there’s a good argument to be made if you go redeploy that somewhere else, you can potentially get a better return.
So that’s the first thing that I would focus on.
Ashley:
But he also says that it’s. Or Tony, real quick, he says it’s only worth the 200,000 with a good foundation. So that means he has to go in and add in all those repairs too before it’s worth the 200,000. Yeah,
Tony:
That’s a good point. So maybe there’s even less equity in there than what it is. And this is the other element that I was going to hit on too, is that I also think that there’s just maybe a peace of mind component of real estate investing that we can sometimes consider as well. And if a property, even if it performs well, if it does nothing but cause you headaches and that there’s a time component that’s incredibly draining, sometimes that in and of itself is a potential reason to move on from a deal. It’s like, yeah, the property does great, does all these things, but man, I spend so much time thinking about it and worrying about it and doing all these things, and I’ve got these other rentals maybe make a little bit less, but I don’t have to think about them. I would take more of the not thinking about it rentals and make a little bit less than the one that does a little bit more, but eats up more of my time.
And that’s a trade I would make almost every single time. So there’s the calculations that we can run, but then there’s also just the bandwidth calculations we can look at to see if it actually makes sense for us.
Ashley:
I think the first thing that needs to be done is you need to get actual estimates on what these repairs will actually cost. I had a house where you would go upstairs of the house and you would put anything on the floor and it would literally roll down the slope of the house. I though this was going to be so expensive, but we wanted to sell the property. It ended up being $7,000, which yes, $7,000 is a lot of money, but the value of the property from if I had showings and someone walked into it and they’re literally walking downhill to get to the next bedroom, even though it’s on the same floor, compared to paying that 7,000 where the house is now level and even, it was so worth that putting in that 7,000. And I thought it would be more like $20,000, $30,000.
I just had this kind of stigma that foundation work and stuff like that costs way more money than what it actually did. Then again, I got another property quoted and that one was $20,000. So it can vary, but I think it’s worth going in. Even the deck repairs, maybe a handyman can kind of patch it together for you or get it to where it’s going to last a couple more years or something like that. So you could at least go and sell the property with a functional deck. So that I would recommend as your first step is to going and getting those estimates and not actually just assuming they will be expensive because it could really go either way. It could be cheaper than you think or it could be even more expensive than what you think. But I think having those estimates will really help you make the decision if it’s worth putting the money into this property to either keep it or to sell it.
And then also, as Tony said, with the debt, how much you own the property, if you’ll be recouping some of your costs, your down payment, maybe it is better just to exit the property if you don’t have the funds to put into it to fix all of these things and make it better.
Tony:
Ash, last thing I’ll add is that’s also the reason we want to make sure that we’re setting money aside every single month for things like reserves, CapEx, because although all of these repairs, it kind of sucks when they happen, they are somewhat expected. We know that a certain point we’re going to have to repaint. We know that at a certain point we’re going to have to swap out HVAC systems. We know that a certain point appliances need to get repaired. We know that a certain point the water heater’s going to give out. All these things have a shelf life. So setting money aside on a monthly basis is part of our job as real estate investors and even more so as part of our job during the analysis phase to make sure that, hey, if we are setting money aside from the revenue that’s coming in, do we still have enough meaningful cash flow left over?
So just a business discipline that we need to make sure rookies are developing as well.
Ashley:
Well, thank you guys so much for joining us on this episode of Real Estate Rookie. If you’re not already, make sure you are subscribed to our YouTube channel at RealEstateRookie. If you have a question that you would like answered, head over to biggerpockets.com and check out the forums and we may pull your question to be featured on the show. I’m Ashley, he’s Tony, and we’ll see you guys next time.
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As more states have begun to introduce wealth taxes, billionaires and other ultrawealthy individuals have been forced to make the hard choice between sucking it up and paying the bill or moving elsewhere.
Those who have chosen to dodge proposed wealth taxes in states including California and Washington have flocked to Florida. Billionaire Californians face a one-time 5% tax on their net worth, so some, including Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and venture capitalist Peter Thiel, left California for Miami.
Washingtonians who make at least $1 million will also face a flat 9.9% tax starting in 2028, and executives once based there, like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, have also left for Florida.
Florida has become a safe haven for the ultrawealthy because it has no state income tax, and it’s also solidified itself as an epicenter of luxury and lavishness. Plus, they’re free from the burden of a wealth tax. Three of the primary localities where the ultrawealthy are flocking include Miami, Palm Beach County, and Naples.
Florida has no state income tax, no capital gains tax, and no wealth tax, but the math on how much billionaires or the ultrawealthy save by living there is a bit more complicated. That’s because the ultrawealthy’s income typically comes from a stock sale or a dividend rather than a salary. Take Larry Ellison, for example. By making an estate in Palm Beach County his primary residence before selling Oracle stock, the billionaire saved an estimated $1 billion in taxes, according to Forbes.
Wealth taxes hit assets like stocks, real estate, and art rather than income, as MIT Sloan notes.
But the wealth tax is still what garners the most attention. California’s Proposition 40 would slap a one-time 5% levy on the net worth of billionaires who lived in the state after Jan. 1 this year. Fortune’s Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez previously estimated the departures of billionaires like Page and Brin could cost the measure some $29 billion of the $100 billion it’s after.
So the wealth tax is what encouraged some billionaires to move, but the income and capital-gains taxes they’ll never pay again are what keep them there.
Miami is where wealth migration is most prominent: 19 of Florida’s 20 richest billionaires officially reside there. Many of them cluster on the same guarded islands like Indian Creek (a.k.a. Billionaire Bunker), where Bezos has assembled a property compound worth more than $230 million. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Page, and Thiel also live there.
Citadel’s Ken Griffin also moved his hedge fund’s headquarters to the city, and Page has spent more than $180 million building a compound in Coconut Grove. Meanwhile, Miami’s millionaire population has grown 94% in just a decade, to nearly 40,000, according to Henley & Partners’ World’s Wealthiest Cities in 2025 report.
“It’s one of the best cities in the entire world,” Miami developer Robert Rivani recently told Fortune. “It’s just a great place to live. It’s a great political landscape for people who want to expand, raise families, and that leads to having great real estate growth. All the big guys [are] moving down here.”
Palm Beach County has also become a major wealth hub. Larry Ellison made a 16-acre Manalapan estate his primary residence, about 10 miles from Mar-a-Lago. Griffin has also poured about $450 million into a waterfront compound in the county. Meanwhile, Citadel, BlackRock, and Goldman Sachs all have expanded there, earning the area its “Wall Street South” nickname.
The wealth has piled up fast. Between 2014 and 2024, West Palm Beach and Palm Beach saw their millionaire population jump 112%, which is the fourth-fastest growth of any city in the world, according to Henley & Partners. The Business Development Board of Palm Beach County counts roughly 60 billionaires countywide.
Naples, long a popular retirement destination, also continues to attract vast amounts of wealth. It attracts what’s seen as passive wealth, or retirees and heirs who prioritize golf, privacy, and beaches. Forbes, which in June called Naples the place “where America’s new ‘old money’ hides,” notes it’s frequently cited as having one of the highest concentrations of millionaires per capita in the country.
Several billionaires also live in Naples and nearby Marco Island, including Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan, who is worth about $13.3 billion. Two of the six priciest neighborhoods in America by price per square foot—Port Royal and Aqualane Shores— also sit in Naples.
