Competition Won’t Hurt You

Why More Investors Won’t Steal Your Opportunity — They Expand It

One of the questions I get more than most is simply this:

My answer has always been — and remains — no. Competition doesn’t hurt you. It means you’re pointing toward opportunity.

Let’s start with the simple truth:

There are far more opportunities than there are capable investors to seize them — and that imbalance isn’t changing anytime soon. In fact, if anything, the demand for investment activity rises faster than the supply of people willing to do the work.

Opportunity Isn’t a Pie with a Fixed Size

I’m a believer in free enterprise, capitalism, property rights, and the rule of law. I also believe in cooperative capitalism — the idea that wealth can be created, not just redistributed. Opportunity isn’t zero-sum.

Some people think that for someone to win, someone else must lose. They see competition like a game with one winner and a bunch of losers. That might be true when gambling or in the stock market, but for real estate, that’s a limited view.

In the real world, multiple people can succeed at the same time in the same markets. You don’t have to make the most money to be a winner at life. If you make enough to support your goals, take care of your family, and create a life you enjoy — that’s success. There are multiple winners, not just one.

You Can Be Successful Here — And I Won’t Lose Anything

I can teach you how to invest effectively. You may even become better than me at parts of it. That doesn’t take anything away from me. It adds to the world’s capacity to produce good deals and good investors.

One of my goals — every year — is to help people succeed. When you achieve your goals because of something you learned from me, that goal is met with no cost to anyone else. That’s wealth creation, not redistribution.

Let’s Look at the Numbers — Not Fear

Numbers don’t lie, and they don’t have to be scary.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 10.3% of housing units in America were vacant in the third quarter of 2025, or roughly 15 million units nationwide. That’s homes that could, in theory, be put to use — whether for rent, rehab, resale, or redevelopment.

Keep in mind, not all of them are flippable or in great condition. Some are vacation homes, some are between tenants, some are simply vacant for normal market reasons. But even a fraction of that inventory available to investors dwarfs the number of active investor transactions today.

For context: in the second quarter of 2025, about 78,621 homes were flipped, representing roughly 7.4% of all single-family and condo sales. That’s tens of thousands of deals — but it’s a small fraction of the total market.

Even if flipping continues at that rate or slows a bit as BRRRR and rentals grow in share, the rooms for new investors remain enormous because the underlying vacant inventory and turnover cycles are so large.

It Would Take Hundreds of Thousands of New Investors — and There’s Room for Them

If you imagine a scenario where investor activity accelerated dramatically and every vacant or distressed property were addressed over time, you still come out with a massive need for capable, patient investors. That’s because:

• Not every property is market-ready

• Many require rehab, financing, or repositioning

• Most communities don’t have enough skilled buyers to absorb even a fraction of the total vacancy and turnover potential

And that’s without factoring in new properties that will become vacant or distressed tomorrow. Economic cycles, life transitions, job changes — they all create opportunity.

What Really Matters Isn’t Competition — It’s Competence

So don’t worry about other investors. Worry about being better prepared than yesterday.

Focus on:

• Sharpening your skills

• Expanding your knowledge

• Being flexible with strategies

• Responding to opportunities the moment they appear

Competition isn’t a threat. It’s a signal — a hint that real opportunity exists and that others have noticed too.

There’s room for those who work hard, stay consistent, and keep learning.

Keep your eyes open. Opportunities are everywhere.

There’s room for you — and some more besides.