Hold It with PM Jen

You've probably never heard someone tell you what it's actually like when the EPA audits your rental business. Al Romero just went through one, and he's telling us everything.

Al is the broker at ARK Property Management in York, PA. In August he got an email, a seven page letter, and a request for three years of files. He walks us through what they asked for, how they picked which files to look at, the four hour sit down, and the one thing you should never do when that letter shows up.

Before we get there, we cover what every investor with a rental built before 1978 has to do, the lead paint myths I hear all the time, and why the rules got a lot bigger for property managers in 2022.

Resources mentioned

Al Romero and ARK Property Management https://www.arkmanagementpa.com/

Al on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/al-romero-proptech/

EPA: Real Estate Disclosures About Potential Lead Hazards https://www.epa.gov/lead/real-estate-disclosures-about-potential-lead-hazards

EPA pamphlet: Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2014-02/documents/lead_in_your_home_brochure_land_b_w_508_easy_print_0.pdf

EPA sample lead disclosure form for rentals https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/documents/lesr_eng.pdf

Hold It with PM Jen https://www.holditwithpmjen.com

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I am a property manager, not a CPA, an attorney, or a financial advisor. Nothing in this podcast is advice for your specific situation. Talk to your own team before making moves.

Hold It with PM Jen is the show for early and mid career buy and hold investors who already know how to buy. We focus on the hold.

#RealEstateInvesting #BuyAndHold #RentalProperty #LandlordLife #LeadPaint #EPA #RRP #PropertyManagement #LandlordTips #HoldItWithPMJen

Why listen to this one? Because I said so, and honestly that should be enough.

Need more? Fine.

My guest is attorney Monica Gilroy, and we talk about what it is actually like to have a Fair Housing complaint filed against you. How you find out. What to do first. What it does to the next stretch of your life.

Monica brings stories from thirty years of defending these cases. I bring two of my own, and I promise you they are colorful. One is about a tenant who uses a wheelchair and absolutely insisted on seeing a second floor walk up. The other is about a tenant being harassed by someone from her past, who we had accidentally hired to take care of a pest problem.

Yes. Really.

Stay until the very end, because that is where we get into the money. The legal fees for these cases are far less than you would think. The fines and the punitive damages are far more than you could ever imagine.

Resources mentioned HUD enforcement guidance on assistance animals (May 22, 2026), the one we call the leaked memo https://www.hud.gov/sites/default/files/hudclips/documents/AS-Trainor-Enforcement-Guidance-Assessing-Requests-for-the-use-of-an-animal-as-a-reasonable-accommodation-under-the-fair-housing-act.pdf

Fair Housing Act overview, from HUD https://www.hud.gov/helping-americans/fair-housing-act-overview

My guest, Attorney Monica Gilroy https://gilroyfirm.com/ [email protected]

Free from PM Jen Hold It with PM Jen https://www.holditwithpmjen.com

Get my newsletter https://subscribe-forms.beehiiv.com/09f5c28c-9468-44b5-8f66-c102b3459226

LendingOne https://lp.lendingone.com/one-focus-property-management

My Amazon storefront https://a.co/d/0bOG4yAS

Housing Rebel https://www.sellinglater.com/

Some of these are affiliate links and I may earn a commission if you use them.

You own the properties. Why not own the property management company? Back in June I was at InvestHER Con in Scottsdale with my good friend Stacey Salyer, and she opened my eyes to something I had never taken seriously. Stacey has spent 22 years in property management. She built her own company and sold it for seven figures in 2022, and along the way she has helped buy more than 50 management companies worth over $100 million, including a 350 door competitor she picked up using seller financing.

Now she runs a program called Built to Acquire, where she teaches investors how to grow by buying management companies instead of grinding for doors one at a time. When she first explained it to me, my reaction was pure confusion. Why would an investor want one of those? Then I sat with it, and it got obvious fast. You are already doing the work, so why not have a team doing it for you and for other owners too. The deal flow is incredible, because frustrated owners start calling you instead of you hunting for them. Volume drives your expenses down. And it is recurring revenue, a get rich slow business that grows right alongside your portfolio. In this episode Stacey and I get into who this is actually right for, and how you would take the first real step.

Learn more about Stacey and her program: https://www.staceysalyer.com

Get Stacey's newsetter: https://www.staceysalyer.com/opt-in-b1a57218-2548-4332-ac73-394b97709357

• Grab my free playbook: https://www.onefocuspm.com/playbook
• Sign up for my newsletter: https://subscribe-forms.beehiiv.com/09f5c28c-9468-44b5-8f66-c102b3459226

Resources from this episode:

• LendingOne (my lender for investment properties): https://lp.lendingone.com/one-focus-property-management
• Shop with me on Amazon: https://a.co/d/0eGYwYBm
• One Focus Property Management (my company, serving North Central PA): www.onefocuspm.com

These are affiliate links. If you use them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you

Last week you heard Justin's story. This week we get into the ideas behind it, and I will be honest with you, this one rearranged some furniture in my head.

Justin's whole argument is that most investors are flying blind because they only watch one thing. The market. Is it going to crash, is it a good time to buy, what are rates doing. Meanwhile there are three separate cycles running under every property you own, and the one everybody obsesses over is the least important of the three.

Then he gets into price versus value, and that is where it really opened up for me.

Here is what we cover: • The property life cycle • The neighborhood life cycle • The market cycle. • Price versus value

When he measures home prices against gold instead of dollars, he says the picture flips completely. His words: "There has never been a better time to buy real estate." And: "Real estate is straight up on sale. It has not been this cheap in 150 years."

About Justin Anderson: Author of Funny Money. Founder and CEO of RentSmart.com. Licensed real estate broker in Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina. Harvard MBA. 25 years in the business, with more than 2,000 units bought, sold, and managed.

Free stuff from me: • Grab my free playbook: https://www.onefocuspm.com/playbook • Sign up for my newsletter: https://subscribe-forms.beehiiv.com/09f5c28c-9468-44b5-8f66-c102b3459226 Resources from this episode: Funny Money: Building Wealth in a System Rigged to Keep You Broke, by Justin Anderson https://amzn.to/4hOLYjc RentSmart, Justin's company https://rentsmart.com/ LendingOne (my lender for investment properties): https://lp.lendingone.com/one-focus-property-management Shop with me on Amazon: https://a.co/d/0eGYwYBm One Focus Property Management (my company, serving North Central PA): www.onefocuspm.com

These are affiliate links. If you use them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Ten years. That is how long it took Justin Anderson to go from working as a laborer on somebody else's job site, owning nothing but his own home, to holding more than 800 doors.

After building and accumulating all of that property, he did not feel free. He felt trapped. He calls it a sophisticated cage, and that phrase is exactly why I asked him to come on the show.

This is part one of a two part series with Justin, author of Funny Money: Building Wealth in a System Rigged to Keep You Broke and founder of RentSmart.com. Today is his story, start to finish.

What we cover:

• The Cashflow board game nights that taught him things a book never could
• His first deal, the one that cash flowed $25 a month, and why his mentor called it a good deal\
• Why he went so big so fast, and what happened to his buy box along the way
• What a sophisticated cage actually is, and the moment the bars became obvious
• How he fine tuned his way out, what he sold, what he kept
• How he thinks that you should not follow his example

The one thing to take away: more doors is not the same thing as more freedom. That lesson lives in the hold, which is the whole reason this show exists.

About Justin Anderson: Author of Funny Money. Founder and CEO of RentSmart.com. Licensed real estate broker in Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina. Harvard MBA. 25 years in the business, with more than 2,000 units bought, sold, and managed.

Resources mentioned: Funny Money: Building Wealth in a System Rigged to Keep You Broke, by Justin Anderson https://amzn.to/4hOLYjc

RentSmart https://rentsmart.com/

Rich Dad Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki https://amzn.to/4gfczVq

CASHFLOW, the board game https://amzn.to/4fHtuji

Get my free playbook https://www.onefocuspm.com/playbook

Sign up for my newsletter https://subscribe-forms.beehiiv.com/09f5c28c-9468-44b5-8f66-c102b3459226

LendingOne (my lender for investment properties): https://lp.lendingone.com/one-focus-property-management

Shop with me on Amazon: https://a.co/d/0eGYwYBm

One Focus Property Management (my company, serving North Central PA): www.onefocuspm.com

These are affiliate links. If you use them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

You have probably heard the advice a hundred times, from me! BUY AND HOLD FOREVER AND EVER.

Walt heard it too. He just didn't want it.

He was tired of active landlording, he was retired and ready to act like it. The problem was that every option on the table felt like a bad trade:

- Sell everything and pay the tax man - Do a 1031 into another rental, which is the same job with a new address - White knuckle it for another 20 years so his kids get a better basis

So we brought in Sabrina Richards from 1031 CORP, our resident expert on all things 1031, to walk through the path Walt actually took. He did a 1031 exchange into a Delaware Statutory Trust, and later a 721 exchange into a REIT. He kept the deferral,is completely passive, and still gets a check.

In this episode we get into:

- What a DST actually is, and why the IRS lets it count as like kind property - How a 721 exchange, sometimes called an UPREIT, moves you out of a building and into operating partnership units - The part nobody puts on the sales page: once you go 721, you cannot 1031 again. It is a one way door. - Who this is really for, because most DSTs are only open to accredited investors

If you have ever thought "I love real estate, I just do not want to be doing this at 80," this one is for you.

**Resources from this episode:**

- What qualifies for a 1031 exchange (1031 CORP): https://www.1031corp.com/1031-exchange-basics/what-qualifies

- IRS Fact Sheet FS-2008-18, Like-Kind Exchanges Under IRC Section 1031: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-news/fs-08-18.pdf

- Free 1031 CORP webinars, live and on demand: https://www.1031corp.com/webinars

**Want to talk to Sabrina?** She is happy to hear from you. Email: [email protected]; Phone: 610-792-4880 ext. 227

Quick reminder, I am a property manager, not your CPA or your attorney. Nothing in this episode is tax or legal advice. Please loop in your own people before you move real money.

Hold It with PM Jen is the show for buy and hold investors who already know how to buy. We focus on the hold.

FREE FOR LISTENERS Want PM Jen's Pennsylvania Legislative Tracker? Email me at [email protected] and I will send it to you. No catch, you just have to ask.

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Buying a home to live in and buying a rental are two completely different games, but a lot of investors walk into an agent relationship expecting it to work the same way. Then the frustration starts. Investors feel like realtors don't want to work with them. Realtors feel like investors don't understand the business or the risk they're taking on. Both sides walk away annoyed. This week I sat down with Rob Lawrence, who runs the Rob Lawrence Team out of West Chester, PA. He does a big business with investors, he invests himself, and he was honest about what agents actually need from us. This one is about breaking down the wall so both sides can see more clearly. https://roblawrenceteam.com/

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LINKS AND RESOURCES

• Newsletter (this is where the good stuff lives): https://subscribe-forms.beehiiv.com/09f5c28c-9468-44b5-8f66-c102b3459226
• This week's guest: Rob Lawrence Team: https://roblawrenceteam.com/
• LendingOne (my lender for investment properties): https://lp.lendingone.com/one-focus-property-management
• Shop with me on Amazon: https://a.co/d/0eGYwYBm
• One Focus Property Management (my company, serving North Central PA): www.onefocuspm.com

These are affiliate links. If you use them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

I had a microphone problem during the main part of this episode, so the sound quality isn't what I'd like it to be. Lesson learned. Thanks for bearing with me.

In this one, I start with some Pennsylvania legislation I'm keeping my eye on right now. We're talking about bills that could let tenants break a lease without penalty when there's violence in the property, or put you on the hook for a tenant's relocation costs and temporary housing. Big stuff for buy and hold investors. My PA legislative tracker: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1u4InnDLSd45k8y-UBHWmUXcDPW0E5U2_/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=104916062827754291172&rtpof=true&sd=true

Then we get to the heart of it. I tell the story of an investor who did the hard part right. He built something real. But he missed a few crucial personal finance tasks along the way, and that one gap cost him his entire portfolio. Everything he built, gone, because the boring back-office stuff never got done.

If you're building a buy and hold portfolio, this is the episode that makes you go check on the things you've been putting off.

Don't want to miss stuff like this? Subscribe to my newsletter and I'll keep you in the loop: https://subscribe-forms.beehiiv.com/09f5c28c-9468-44b5-8f66-c102b3459226

Homework- Read Funny Money by Justin Anderson- it is super thought provoking and I am having him on the podcast later this summer. You want to be ready for this one and send me your questions ahead of time. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1u4InnDLSd45k8y-UBHWmUXcDPW0E5U2_/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=104916062827754291172&rtpof=true&sd=true

The headlines made it sound like HUD killed emotional support animal protections and landlords can finally charge pet fees and say no. The reality is more complicated, and acting on the headline could land you in a lawsuit. In this episode I break down what actually changed at the federal level and what didn't. (Educational only, not legal advice. Talk to your own attorney about your specific situation.)

Read HUD's May 22, 2026 enforcement memo (primary source): https://www.hud.gov/sites/default/files/hudclips/documents/AS-Trainor-Enforcement-Guidance-Assessing-Requests-for-the-use-of-an-animal-as-a-reasonable-accommodation-under-the-fair-housing-act.pdf

HUD's proposed disparate impact rule (Federal Register, Jan. 14, 2026): https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/01/14/2026-00590/huds-implementation-of-the-fair-housing-acts-disparate-impact-standard

--- ABOUT THE SHOW Hold It with PM Jen is the podcast for buy and hold real estate investors who want to grow a portfolio and hold it for the long haul. There is so much attention paid to the buying and selling of properties, but not to where the wealth is actually built. And that is in the hold. I am Jennifer Ruelens, aka PM Jen. I have spent 22 plus years managing rental properties, and I am here to talk about the part nobody else wants to talk about. The hold. The tenants. The repairs. The taxes. The unsexy, gritty stuff that is where the money is made, or lost. Every episode gives you something you can use. Real stories, real numbers, and real talk from someone who does this every day. ---

MORE FROM PM JEN

• Amazon Storefront: https://a.co/d/0fjGeoCY
• Website: https://holditwithpmjen.com/

PM JEN'S PARTNERS

• LendingOne (my DSCR lender for investment properties): https://lp.lendingone.com/one-focus-property-management

These are affiliate links. If you use them, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

On this episode of Hold It with PM Jen, I'm bringing you another real-life What Would PM Jen Do? conversation.

Jamie Anderson, a realtor and investor, came to me with a tenant situation that had gone from frustrating to unsustainable. What started as late rent payments evolved into suspected drug use, unauthorized occupants, and a difficult decision about whether it was time to take the property back.

Together, we talk through lease enforcement, landlord boundaries, risk management, and the challenge of balancing compassion with good business decisions. It's a real, unfiltered look at how investors and landlords navigate difficult situations when there are no easy answers.

--- ABOUT THE SHOW Hold It with PM Jen is the podcast for buy and hold real estate investors who want to grow a portfolio and hold it for the long haul. There is so much attention paid to the buying and selling of properties, but not to where the wealth is actually built. And that is in the hold. I am Jennifer Ruelens, aka PM Jen. I have spent 22 plus years managing rental properties, and I am here to talk about the part nobody else wants to talk about. The hold. The tenants. The repairs. The taxes. The unsexy, gritty stuff that is where the money is made, or lost. Every episode gives you something you can use. Real stories, real numbers, and real talk from someone who does this every day. --- MORE FROM PM JEN

• Newsletter (this is where the good stuff lives): https://subscribe-forms.beehiiv.com/09f5c28c-9468-44b5-8f66-c102b3459226
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HoldItwithPMJen
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferruelens/
• One Focus Property Management (my company, serving North Central PA): https://www.onefocuspm.com
• Amazon Storefront: https://a.co/d/0fjGeoCY

PM JEN'S PARTNERS

• LendingOne (my DSCR lender for investment properties): https://lp.lendingone.com/one-focus-property-management
• Inspire Wealth with Prof M (tax and wealth strategy): https://realestateinvesting101.mykajabi.com/offers/eDcQEHxu/checkout

These are affiliate links. If you use them, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.