Christian Osgood breaks down the "debt mule" tactic: landlords max out a high-equity property's borrowing, use the cash to buy out partners and pay down other debts, then dump that debt back onto the property before selling it. He argues the practice should be illegal.
Chapters
This should be illegal. Landlords should not be allowed to do this. If you have not heard of this strategy, this is a little, little trick that we call the debt mule. If you haven't heard of this, this is hilarious and it works. If you have multiple properties or you want to buy multiple properties, you'll load up one property that has a high equity position. You'll load it with debt. And I mean max this thing. I am not a fan of overleveraging properties, but just wait. I'm also not a fan of selling this one deal, the one that you had a lot of equity in. You loaded it up with debt. We take that debt, you buy out partners, you pay off debt in your portfolio, you take the debt from other properties, stick it on that one, slap that bad boy on the ass, send them down the road. You sell the property with all the debt attached, you pay off the debt. Now you don't owe the money and you still have all the other properties. It is a fantastic way to get rid of debt. You saddle up one property, send it on down the road.