This Matters More Than Cash Flow (Most Rookies Ignore It) (Rookie Reply)

Real Estate Rookie

BiggerPockets

Entrepreneurship, Education, Investing, Business, How To

4.7 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2026

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We’ve got THE “secret” to getting more cash flow from your rental property. Ready? Put more money down! It’s an obvious solution, but is putting 30%, 40%, or more really the best use of your cash? In this episode, we’ll get into all of the different things you should consider before putting more money down on your next investment property! Welcome to another Rookie Reply! Ashley and Tony are back with three new questions from the BiggerPockets Forums. First, we’ll tackle a question many rookies have, especially when looking for off-market deals: Do you need a Realtor? Another investor claims the only way to find cash flow in their current market is by making a bigger down payment and self-managing the property. The problem? This gives them a much lower cash-on-cash return. Stay tuned as we share some other options they’re probably not thinking about! Next, what do you do when a borrower ghosts you? Whether you’re lending private money or seller financing, it’s crucial to handle this type of situation properly (and legally). We’ll show you how! Looking to invest? Need answers? Ask your question here! In This Episode We Cover Cash flow versus cash-on-cash return (and which one is more important) How to increase your cash flow without putting more money down Whether you need a real estate agent when buying an investment property When to self-manage your rental property (or hire a property manager!) What to do when a borrower stops paying you back (private money or seller financing) And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/rookie-667 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠advertise@biggerpockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you ever wondered if you really need a realtor to buy an investment property, or have you
0:06.0	ever thought about putting 40% down and self-managing, making it a smarter move? Well, today we're
0:13.2	going to break that down along with what do you do when a borrower goes to you? This episode
0:18.9	will help you avoid costly missteps and move forward with confidence.
0:28.2	This is the Real Estate Rookie Podcast. I'm Ashley Care. And I'm Tony J. Robinson. And before we jump
0:33.8	into the first question, let's just give Ashley a big shout out for being so hip that she knows what 6-7 is. And if you don't have a kid between the ages of probably, I don't know, 8 and 18, you might not know what that is, but look it up, give yourself a good laugh, of going down the wormhole with trying to figure out what it means, because we don't even know what it means. We just know that we should be saying it. We don't. But also, we, Tony brought Tony brought up too, because before I said, I want to say
0:56.3	the episode number for this, he said, you do realize this releases in January. And it's probably
1:00.5	an old trend now. So everybody is probably rolling their eyes. And every kid that's sitting in
1:06.7	the back of your car right now listening to this is like probably like that's so yesterday that is
1:11.8	so yesterday we're such millennials where my uh my so my son's almost 18 and uh he called me unk the other
1:19.7	day so i'm like officially my unk phase um well let's get into the first question for today uh today's first
1:27.1	question comes from macaulay in the Bigger Pockets forums.
1:29.9	And McCauley says, I'm looking for guidance on whether or not I am required to use a realtor to buy my second property or not.
1:38.5	I hear all of these success stories from so many people about buying rental properties,
1:42.2	but no one has ever mentioned if they use a realtor or not. I assume some state laws require you to have a real estate agent in order to close
1:49.1	on a house slash investment property. My question is, do I need a realtor to buy on slash off market
1:54.6	deals? And if so, what are some good questions to ask to make sure their expertise aligns
2:00.4	with my investment strategy.
2:01.8	It's a great question. And it's the perfect kind of beginner question that I think can be put
2:06.5	to rest some of the misconceptions that exist out there. As far as I'm aware, and obviously,
2:12.3	I haven't purchased in all 50 states. I don't know of any states that require you to use
2:17.2	an agent to transact on real estate.
	...

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