$1 Rental Properties and "Infinite" Returns with a 100% On-Market Strategy

This might be the smartest small real estate portfolio strategy we’ve ever heard. Today’s guest has done the seemingly impossible—gotten rental properties for one dollar, used dirt to cover his down payments, and achieved the (to many investors, extinct) “infinite BRRRR” strategy. He did it all out of necessity—starting with a $30,000-per-year salary and a 90-hour-per-week job. Joe Meehan didn’t have the resources to build a real estate portfolio—but he did it anyway. Seven years ago, Joe was coaching basketball on a grueling schedule, making a low income. He saved up all he could, bought his first house, and it all clicked—this is how he would get ahead. Just four years later, he quit his job. Seven years later, he has a cash-flowing rental portfolio of 11 units, and he works for himself. Joe shares the ingeniously simple strategies he’s used to turn very little money into a safe, scalable, profitable rental property portfolio. No off-market deals, no sketchy financing—he even did it with eight and nine-percent interest rates. The cards were stacked against him, but he came out (strongly) on top. The best part? You can use the same strategies in 2026. In This Episode We Cover The genius strategy Joe used to get a rental property for ONE dollar (yes, really—$1!) Using extra land to pay for your down payment (Henry loves this strategy) The “infinite BRRRR” and how to get a cash-flowing, renovated rental for (essentially) $0 down The single best rental property for beginners with limited funds Why you shouldn’t buy a vacation rental in a touristy market (what to buy instead) And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠h⁠ttps://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1246 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Henry Washington?

  This might be the smartest real estate portfolio strategy we've ever heard. $1 rental properties, infinite returns, free down payments. The best part, it's all legit. I've used all the methods today's guest talks about, and they work. Seven years ago, Joe Mian was a basketball coach making $30,000 a year, working 90 hours a week. That's right, 90 hours for $30,000. So we had to get creative. Joe used widely overlooked strategies to scale his portfolio on a lower income with not a lot in savings. And he did it all buying on-market properties. Now he's got 11 cash flowing rental units, works for himself,

• 0:45Henry Washington?

  and has complete financial freedom. You probably thought that wasn't possible in 2026, but Joe's coming on to prove that it works.

• 0:58Henry Washington?

  Mr. Joe Mian, thank you for joining us on the show.

• 1:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, thanks for having me. Happy to be here.

• 1:02Henry Washington?

  So as we always get started, we want to hear about your background. So what were you doing when you first decided to do this real estate thing?

• 1:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, I guess I'll start like right out of college. I was actually going to go to medical school and then I got a contract to play basketball overseas in Switzerland. So it was quite the switch up on what I was about to do. Did a year of that and then got hurt and came back and was like, all right, I'll, I'll try college coaching and maybe like get back into it and rehab a bit and start playing again. And I just ended up coaching for nine years. But the first two years I made $10,000 a year.

• 1:40Henry Washington?

  What?

• 1:41Speaker 01

  About 90 hours.

• 1:43Henry Washington?

  No, you made 10 grand a year, working 90 hours a week.

• 1:47Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:48Henry Washington?

  Wow.

• 1:49Speaker 01

  And like, that's not uncommon in the basketball world. Some people are working for even less than that. Or, you know, it is definitely lower on the amount made and higher on the hours. But that's kind of unfortunately like what it takes to move up in that industry. It's your start, like just. Really, you know, scratching your way to the top and then hopefully get to a stable spot like Bucknell was a much more stable spot where I ended up. So I was coaching college basketball at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA. And, you know, I'd been there for about four years and started to think about purchasing a house and had a friend who had some rentals, has some success with them and started to

• 2:31Speaker 01

  talk to me conceptually about the house hack. We didn't call it a house hack. Didn't know that term at the time, but from there I was like, well, that makes a lot of sense. Instead of paying $900 per month to rent, can possibly live for free.

• 2:45Henry Washington?

  Yeah.

• 2:45Speaker 01

  So then I found a duplex that was on the market for a long time and started doing some math in my apartment, which is hilarious. I still have, you know, the sheet of paper with just the most basic math I ever did. A no capital expenditures, vacancies, you know, maintenance, anything like that.

• 3:04Henry Washington?

  Yeah.

• 3:04Speaker 01

  But I could tell like it'll basically cover my mortgage and that's all I knew. And so I kind of just jumped in and then three, four months in and I was like, oh, wow, this is, this is pretty cool.

• 3:17Henry Washington?

  This actually works.

• 3:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:19Henry Washington?

  What, what year was this?

• 3:21Speaker 01

  This is 2019.

• 3:22Henry Washington?

  Okay.

• 3:23Speaker 01

  So August of 2019 was my first purchase.

• 3:25Henry Washington?

  Okay. And about what'd you pay for that duplex?

• 3:28Speaker 01

  It was right around 250. I think it was 247.5.

• 3:31Henry Washington?

  Okay. And what were you able to rent out the other unit for?

• 3:34Speaker 01

  So the other unit was already rented for a thousand per month.

• 3:38Henry Washington?

  Okay.

• 3:38Speaker 01

  Which I deemed a little lower than market and my, my realtor helped me with that at the time because I didn't really know what I was doing. And then I had a roommate as well, who paid 500 and that was right around what, what the mortgage was. So.

• 3:51Henry Washington?

  So you did a double house hack. You, you rented out the unit and then you rented out part of your, your side as well.

• 3:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, precisely.

• 3:59Henry Washington?

  So I'm assuming you did this using some sort of conventional or FHA loan?

• 4:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, so it was in 2019. I graduated from college in 2012. So.

• 4:08Henry Washington?

  So you were making more by this point?

• 4:09Speaker 01

  I probably made $30,000 and then my fourth year I made 30 and then I made a little bit more that fifth year, sixth year. That helped me at least have like 15, 20,000 dollars lined up. And then, yeah, I leveraged. It was, I was able to put 5% down.

• 4:25Henry Washington?

  Okay.

• 4:26Speaker 01

  On a five-year arm.

• 4:28Henry Washington?

  Oh, so it wasn't a conventional. You did an adjustable rate. You did an arm. Was that with a community bank?

• 4:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was with a, a community bank and also the seller's assist I utilized on that.

• 4:39Henry Washington?

  What's that mean?

• 4:40Speaker 01

  So basically you can typically go to 3% back from the seller for your closing costs. So I've, I've done this several times where even like, okay, we say we come to the terms at 250 being the price. And then you can get 3% off of that 2,500. So say 7,500 max. You go to them and say, hey, can we change the price to 257,500? And then add the seller's assist of 7,500 so that you can put less down.

• 5:11Henry Washington?

  Okay. So you up the sale price to include some of your costs. And then the seller basically provides that to you via closing. Uh, so you don't have to bring it to the table.

• 5:21Speaker 01

  Yes. Anything to not put as much down at closing is what I did as much as I could.

• 5:26Henry Washington?

  So you had to get creative. You used your 10 to 15,000 dollars you saved up for your down payment. You were able to house hack, kept it, rented out to the tenant that was there and then you brought in a roommate. So that brought you enough to cover your mortgage. So you went from paying whatever you're paying about 900 bucks a month in rent to now you're living for free.

• 5:45Speaker 01

  Correct. And then that tenant actually ended up moving out and I was able to rent it for 1,500.

• 5:50Henry Washington?

  Oh boy. So you're bringing in two grand of money. You were making money to live.

• 5:54Speaker 01

  And then I actually brought in my now fiance to live on my side as well. And then all of a sudden I was making a little bit and living there.

• 6:01Henry Washington?

  So you were making about 500 bucks a month. I mean, that's, that's almost close to your 750 a month you were making. You were making 10 grand.

• 6:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was, I was amazed. Like, like I said, I didn't really know anything going in and all of a sudden I was like, oh, this is great.

• 6:15Henry Washington?

  Oh, man, that's super cool. And so, you know, I wanted to kind of backtrack on that story and get more details because one of the things we often hear from people is I don't have enough time or I don't have enough money. A lot of the times people make those claims without actually doing the research to figure out how much time or money they need. If you were working 90 hours a week and you were able to still find the time to go through and buy this deal. And if you were making somewhere around 30 grand a year at this time, that's not a ton of money, but you were still able to get creative with your purchase, scrape up enough cash to do a deal. So that in itself is an accomplishment. And then you're making money in your in your first house hack.

• 6:57Henry Washington?

  You did a double house hack. This was 2019, you said. So where did you go from there?

• 7:01Speaker 01

  Already by the end of 2020, it was December 2020, I bought my next house.

• 7:06Henry Washington?

  Okay, so you had the bug. You were ready. You were ready.

• 7:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was saving money, making money, and then my salary went up a little bit of bucknell as well. So I was able to, you know, gather another like 15,000 or so. And then the next purchase is really kind of what set me up here to really move forward in the real estate business. So it was a main house and a mother in law suite. They were selling them together and it had been on the market for a year, off the market, and then back on. So I talked to my realtor. We walked through and I was like, is anybody else looking at this? Like, what's going on here? Because it was it was like 400,000 for a 3,200 square foot house and a mother in law suite.

• 7:51Henry Washington?

  And what city was this?

• 7:52Speaker 01

  This is Lewisburg as well.

• 7:53Henry Washington?

  Okay.

• 7:54Speaker 01

  For Bucknell University. Yeah. And so I ended up getting it for 360, but they were on two separate tax parcels.

• 8:01Henry Washington?

  So that mother in law suite was detached since it was on two parcels.

• 8:04Speaker 01

  Correct. Detached lofted apartment with a carport, separate tax parcels.

• 8:10Henry Washington?

  Yep.

• 8:10Speaker 01

  So I purchased one for 360 and then I purchased the other for a dollar.

• 8:15Henry Washington?

  Nice.

• 8:17Speaker 01

  And so that's kind of like what really helped me moving forward because then I fixed the mother in law suite up, rented it and put a HELOC on it.

• 8:24Henry Washington?

  Oh, so smart. That is an interesting strategy, man. That's super smart. So for those of you guys that are listening. He had a single family home. It was being sold altogether, but the tax records indicated that these were on two separate parcels. And so what you were able to do, because when you go get a loan for a property that's on two parcels, sometimes it's challenging when you get that conventional or FHA loan because they only want to do one loan per parcel. And so when you're trying to buy two parcels, it can be a problem. So what you did to get creative was you did one loan for all of the purchase price on the main house. And

• 9:06Henry Washington?

  so you were able to get traditional financing on that property and then you basically paid cash of a dollar for the second parcel. So technically, the mother-in-law suite you own free and clear, you're paying the mortgage on the single-family home.

• 9:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:21Henry Washington?

  But you supplement that mortgage with the income you get from the mother-in-law suite. That's a super cool strategy to be able to take that down. Amazing. And so what were you renting that mother-in-law suite out for?

• 9:33Speaker 01

  So originally 1,100.

• 9:35Henry Washington?

  Okay.

• 9:36Speaker 01

  And I was doing long-term. And then the main house was a live-in flip.

• 9:42Henry Washington?

  Oh, okay. So you were working on fixing that one up?

• 9:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I lived in that, worked on it, construction zone. And then the mother-in-law suite, I then turned into a medium-term rental and did, you know, the traveling nurses and stuff like that.

• 9:55Henry Washington?

  The cool part about structuring this financing the way you did is you can sell the single-family. I don't know if you have or not, but you can still keep the completely paid-off rental. Is that what you did?

• 10:07Speaker 01

  Yeah. So as we, as we progress here, that's.

• 10:09Henry Washington?

  Game changer. I love it. I love it.

• 10:12Speaker 01

  So for the, the next house hack, I ended up moving into that one, obviously, but I rented out that main house for about a year. And then when I left college coaching, which is, you know, mid 2022, that's when I sold it. And that allowed me to leave coaching and do what I was going to do next, which were the multiple burrs.

• 10:35Henry Washington?

  Okay. Again, fantastic strategy because now you have the option of selling that property and keeping the rental and the rental is paid off. So that's just pure cash flow. But let's talk about the numbers on the live-in flip. So how much did you end up having to spend fixing that place up?

• 10:49Speaker 01

  Not a ton, probably about 25, 30,000, maybe even less than 2025 because like.

• 10:56Speaker 01

  Most of it was just painting and drywall stuff. And you know, it was a 3200 square foot house. And a lot of wood paneling. It was an old, old house. So you gotta use the certain type of paint and then paint over it like four or five times. And like I said, I was working a lot of hours. I would, you know, we'd have practice at like seven o'clock, get done at nine 30, 10, and then I would go home and paint for an hour and try to get it done. So yeah, it was not as much money into it as it was just sweat equity.

• 11:26Henry Washington?

  What did you end up being able to sell it for?

• 11:28Speaker 01

  Four 20.

• 11:29Henry Washington?

  You bought it for 360, put about 25 in it. So you're all in it for 385 and then you sold it for 420?

• 11:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, with about two and a half years of rent pay down.

• 11:38Henry Washington?

  Yeah, so you made, you pocketed a little bit of cash and we were able to sell that property. But the bonus is basically you house hacked your way into getting a free rental property is the way I'm, is the way I'm looking at that. You got paid to get a free rental property. That is an amazing thing to be able to do, to buy a property on two parcels, put the loan all on one parcel, fix it up, sell that one, put a little bit of cash in your pocket, keep the rental, plus keep all the rents you were making at the time you were living there. So bam, free house. That's super cool. We're gonna learn more about Joe Mian and how he's investing in buying free houses right after the break.

• 12:18Henry Washington?

  As a real estate investor, the last thing I want to do or have time for is to play accountant, banker and debt collector. But that's what I end up doing every weekend, flipping between a bunch of bank apps, bank statements and receipts, trying to sort it all out by property and figure out who's late on rent. But then I found Baseline and it takes all that off my plate. It's BiggerPockets' official banking platform that automatically sorts all my transactions, matches receipts and collects rent for every property. My tax prep is done, my weekends are mine again. Plus, I'm saving a ton of money on banking fees and apps I don't need anymore. Get a hundred dollar bonus when you sign up today at baseline.com/bp. BiggerPockets Pro members also get a free upgrade to Baseline Smart.

• 13:01Henry Washington?

  That's packed with advanced automations and features to save you even more time.

• 13:06Dave Meyer?

  Most investors only think about insurance when something goes wrong. A tenant injury, storm damage, loss of rent. Then suddenly, the cheapest policy doesn't feel like the best one anymore. That's why a lot of BiggerPockets investors use steadily for landlord insurance, designed specifically for rental properties. Whether you own one property or a growing portfolio, they make it simple to get covered properly. And BiggerPockets Pro members get an extra 5% off their landlord insurance premiums. Visit biggerpockets.com/landlordinsurance to get a quote today.

• 13:39Henry Washington?

  Here's a strategy that most W2 employees have never heard of. Normally, if you want to write off a rental property against your regular income, you need real estate professional status. That means tracking hundreds of hours a year. Rent2Retirement just launched a program that skips all of that. It's called the STR loophole tenant placement program. Here's how it works. You buy one of Rent2Retirement's Class A new construction investment properties. You set up an Airbnb listing and self-manage it for the remainder of the year. Rent2Retirement then rents the home as a short-term rental to establish it as an STR for the year. No furnishing required, making this the easy button to save five or six figures in taxes this year.

• 14:22Henry Washington?

  And because you're the sole manager, there's no hourly minimum to meet. That lets you use a cost segregation study to accelerate the depreciation and potentially write off over $100,000 against your income, even on your first rental. Add in cash back up to 13% of the home price, which exceeds $60,000 on some properties. With this massive cash back incentive, investors are seeing total returns up to 126%. New construction, A-class properties, and inventory is limited. Learn more at biggerpockets.com/retirement or text REI to 33777. Again, text REI to 33777.

• 15:03Henry Washington?

  Quick word about a new pro perk you'll want to know about. Aven. If you're a homeowner, there's a good chance you're sitting on equity that you're not using. The problem is tapping into that usually means a cash out refi, a traditional second mortgage, or weeks of paperwork just to get approved. Aven built something different. It's a credit card, but it's backed by your home equity. So you get a lot of the rate benefits of a HELOC with the flexibility of a card you can use anywhere. Rates are typically well below a standard credit card. Approval is fast and mostly online, and you can use it for anything. A renovation, paying down high interest debt, or just have more breathing room in your budget. And if you're a BiggerPockets Pro member, there's an extra reason to check it out.

• 15:43Henry Washington?

  Get approved for the Aven card and you'll get a $400 statement credit after spending $400 on your Aven card. Enough to cover your entire annual Pro membership. Head over to aven.com/biggerpockets to see if you qualify. Aven Financial, MLS #2042345. Cards issued per 2020 license from Visa USA, Inc. by Coastal Community Bank. MLS #462289, FDIC, equal housing lender. Terms apply. Visit aven.com for details.

• 16:07Speaker 03

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• 16:40Henry Washington?

  All right, we're back with investor Joe, and he just got finished telling us about how he essentially used house hacking to get a free rental property. But now we're going to dive into what came next. You've done a couple of house hacks now. You've managed to be super creative with how you did both of those deals. You've got the real estate bug, so what was the next move?

• 16:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, so that HELOC I was able to purchase my next house hack. I call it a house hack, but I actually had to use 20% down normal financing on that one. So I purchased a fourplex right down the road with the HELOC, moved into that. The good thing about this one was that it had an extra lot. So the, the fourplex was two separate addresses and then the separate lot had its own address as well. And it was a full lot that you can build on. So what I did a couple of months after I moved in was sell the lot next to it and paid back my HELOC. So basically got that one for very little.

• 17:39Henry Washington?

  That's cool. So you used the HELOC that you had on your free rental property essentially. And did you pay all cash for the quadplex or did you just use that for your down payment?

• 17:48Speaker 01

  Just the down payment, yeah.

• 17:50Henry Washington?

  Okay, so you went and got a conventional loan, put 20% down. You used the HELOC for your 20% down. But because the quadplex had an additional lot, you were able to sell the additional lot to essentially pay back the money to your HELOC. And, and, and tell us about that. What, what were you able to sell that for?

• 18:07Speaker 01

  The additional lot was about 3540. So it didn't cover 100% of the down payment, but a good portion of it.

• 18:17Henry Washington?

  This is great. This is great. And I know people are listening, thinking like, man, this guy got lucky and just found all this property with all this additional value. But that's not necessarily the case, guys. This is actually something you can look for. So for those of you who are listening who are like, man, this seems cool. It's a great way to start a supplement your investing. You can actually do this. I do this when I'm buying off market, but you can also do it on market. You can have your Realtor search for properties that are available that come with additional lots. So sometimes in the description, they might say that, hey, this property has an additional lot. Or sometimes there's multiple parcel numbers that are tied to properties that are on the market. So just tell your agent what you're looking for.

• 19:00Henry Washington?

  You want to buy a property that has additional lots. So that gives you options. I do this all the time. I've purchased several deals that come with additional lots and I've structured them in all kinds of cool ways. But I usually always structure it to where. All of the money for the deal comes from the property with the house on it so that the additional parcel I end up getting to keep when I sell the property. And now I have free and clear land and it gives you the option to do things like, just like what Joe did. You can either sell that land. So I bought a duplex that had an additional lot. I did the same thing. I had to put 20% down. And so I put the 20% down and then I, I actually ended up calling a builder because I saw that right next to my lot.

• 19:43Henry Washington?

  Where was a brand new construction home. So I called the builder who built that house and said, I've got a lot right next to one you already built. What would you pay me for it? They told me 15 grand. I said, great. I bought the property and I sold him the lot on closing day for 15 grand and that covered my down payment. Right? And so I've also done it to where I didn't sell a lot and I'm building a house on one of the lots that I have, the free lots that I have right now. So I'm doing my first new construction project. And so you can keep the lots, you can build on them, you can sell the lots, or sometimes you can even increase your sale value on your property. By offering the lot to whoever buys your flip and you can say, hey, I'll sell you, you know, you're buying the house for, you know, 250 or whatever.

• 20:27Henry Washington?

  If you throw in another 20 grand, I'll sell you the lot next door and then all of a sudden you're getting more profit. So these are things that you can look for. Just make sure you tell your agent in your search. That you're looking for properties with additional parcels, man. That's super cool, Joe. So you bought this quadplex. Tell us the numbers. What did you pay for the quadplex and did it need work? If so, how much?

• 20:45Speaker 01

  Yeah. So I purchased for 260, like it was in good shape. It wasn't in great shape. It was just some painting here and there though, nothing major. I guess the, the biggest part about it was they had tenants that were in there for a long time and were paying like $350 for rent. Like crazy low numbers. So, so that was like similar to the, the first duplex. I just knew like, okay, I'm not going to kick them out or raise the rent, but like when the time comes when they want to leave, like it's going to be a really good deal. So the rents right now are 900, 900, 700. And then I do a, one of them is a medium term, the one I used to live in.

• 21:25Speaker 01

  I changed it into a medium term and that one's 1295 and then it has a garage in the back for 400.

• 21:32Henry Washington?

  That's $4,100 a month coming in on this property. What's your, what's your mortgage on it?

• 21:37Speaker 01

  Uh, about 1,500.

• 21:39Henry Washington?

  Hey, I don't know if you're doing the math folks, but I call that a deal. Awesome, man. Awesome. So this was one that was just listed on the market as well?

• 21:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, and it had been sitting there for a little bit, just like the other ones. So I guess if you, if you see the, you know, the bright light at the end, others aren't, just have confidence in closing on the deal.

• 22:01Henry Washington?

  I like this story, Joe, because it's like, it's more of a story where it's like one deal at a time. And each deal has its own unique characteristics and you were able to capitalize on each deal individually. People want a rinse and repeat formula. They want to be able to go find, find X, add Y, you know, sell it for Z. But it doesn't always work like that. Sometimes each deal is a little different and the way you have to capitalize or monetize on those properties can be a little different. And I want people to hear a story like this because what people should really be focused on is can you go out and get that first deal? Can you go out and get that next deal? And then look at the deal you have, look at the financial situation that you're in,

• 22:44Henry Washington?

  and then monetize that deal in the way that makes the most sense for the property and for your financial situation. And then you can focus on what comes next. This is more of the story of an everyday investor. Like we don't all need to go out and build a portfolio of, you know, 50 to 100 doors, rinse and repeat. But you can do this one deal at a time. And it sounds like each deal kind of got increasingly better in terms of how you were able to financially capitalize on it. And so this is super cool. So you were living in one of the units, you midterm rented. So that's three house hacks. Boom, boom, boom. Love it. And then after the three house hacks, you then pivoted. It sounds like that's when you focused on BRRRR. So what did that look like to you?

• 23:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, so this is kind of coincided with my departure from college basketball. So it's kind of hitting that that burnout of crazy hours, not sleeping in your bed a whole lot of days throughout the week. And it just started to get to me a little bit. And so.

• 23:42Henry Washington?

  It's funny how things that work start to get to you a little bit. Once you start making a little bit of money in real estate, stuff that it didn't bother you working 90 hours a week, making $10,000 a year when you didn't have a backup plan. But now that we got a little bit of real estate money, we're like, I don't know about all this work.

• 23:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, I blame it on bigger pockets. And now you're thinking about financial freedom, this and that cash flow. And you're like, what, why am I working 90 hours a week?

• 24:09Henry Washington?

  That tune changed. Okay.

• 24:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. But yeah, it just reached a point where like, because you literally get no, no days off. Maybe a couple throughout the year. So it's pretty crazy. It was a great experience, but you know, for me, just at that juncture, it was like, all right, it's time. And so that's when I was like, all right, I'll try to do real estate full time. Got my license and then found my first BRRRR in, in New Jersey.

• 24:34Henry Washington?

  Why New Jersey? Why change markets?

• 24:36Speaker 01

  So I'm from the Philly area and if you're from the Philly area, typically for vacation, you go to the Jersey Shore, the South Jersey Shore, not the North Jersey, the South Jersey Shore. Big difference. I just knew the area, could see there weren't a lot of rentals. The properties were cheaper, but the rents were still pretty good. So good, good place for a BRRRR.

• 24:56Henry Washington?

  Okay. So you leveraged your, your kind of insider knowledge about visiting the Jersey Shore and realizing that there wasn't a lot of opportunity for rentals. And with your newfound experience as a real estate investor, you said, I'm going to go capitalize on that. But, but it's great to have the idea, but what did the actual application look like? What did you find? What did you buy? What did it cost?

• 25:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I had a really good relationship with my with my realtor there. Ended up finding a bank owned for about one ten, I think the purchase price was. Single family and it was in shambles. It was in really bad shape.

• 25:33Henry Washington?

  So you found an REO, a bank owned property, but it was on the market? Is it, did your agent bring it to you? Okay, got it.

• 25:39Speaker 01

  Yeah. And so walked through it and was like, let's, let's give it a go.

• 25:43Henry Washington?

  What year was this?

• 25:44Speaker 01

  This is 2022 in September of 2022.

• 25:48Henry Washington?

  Okay, about four years ago, bank owned property, got it for a hundred grand. That's pretty, that's pretty impressive. So how much did it cost to fix it?

• 25:55Speaker 01

  About another hundred.

• 25:57Henry Washington?

  Oh, wow. Okay. I assume you weren't the one putting in the work on this one.

• 26:01Speaker 01

  So I, I was partially.

• 26:05Speaker 01

  So, um, so like I was still technically living in Lewisburg at that fourplex. But I had a friend who lived down there at, at the Jersey Shore. And so I would go back and forth like two, three weeks at a time and work on the house myself. And then I had a contractor who would do the, you know, the more serious stuff, the, the electrical, the plumbing, the kitchen renovation, but three, four months of sweat equity on that house. Just to, again, like I, I had left my, my W two.

• 26:37Henry Washington?

  You had time, you had time.

• 26:38Speaker 01

  I had time. I'm like, I might as well try to save some money here. Like my contractor doesn't need to do the, you know, break down the floors and all that. I'll just do it for, for free.

• 26:48Henry Washington?

  Well, not completely for free. How long of a drive is it?

• 26:51Speaker 01

  About four hours.

• 26:52Henry Washington?

  Four hours each way?

• 26:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:54Henry Washington?

  So you were driving eight hours stints there and back to do a little bit of work. Okay. So this, for, for the record, folks, this is definitely not free work. That's gas money. That's time. That's effort. Yes, saves on the bottom line for the P and L, but definitely will weigh on your emotional battery and your spiritual battery and your financial battery, because that, that still does cost some money, but awesome. Still, you were able to pull it off. You spent about a hundred grand. And was this a short term rental? Was it a midterm rental? Was it a long term rental? Like what's the, what's the scoop?

• 27:25Speaker 01

  Long term. So that was like one of the big things for this area too, is that it's a lot of short term with it being a vacation area. And so the long term rental was the. The part that was missing in the area in, in, in my evaluation.

• 27:40Henry Washington?

  So how did it go? Did the numbers work?

• 27:42Speaker 01

  Yeah. So this one ended up appraising for $290. And so that's about a $200, $3,000 loan.

• 27:48Henry Washington?

  So you pulled all your money out?

• 27:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's like the, the whole goal of the BRRRR, right? The, the infinity ROI.

• 27:55Henry Washington?

  Yeah.

• 27:56Speaker 01

  So yeah, the first one ended up, it, it was, you know, up, down, up, down, up, down, but ended up working out pretty well.

• 28:02Henry Washington?

  Okay. So you're able to pull all your cash back out. Is the property covering itself in terms of what it rents for?

• 28:08Speaker 01

  Yeah. So this one, it, it has a pretty good rental on it. So it's $2,600.

• 28:12Henry Washington?

  Oh, wow. That's awesome.

• 28:14Speaker 01

  Yeah. And, and believe it or not, it's at a, a 9.25% interest rate.

• 28:20Henry Washington?

  Why haven't you refinanced that thing again?

• 28:22Speaker 01

  I've been waiting. We can get to that, but I've been waiting.

• 28:25Henry Washington?

  If you're making money at 9.25%, where do you see the seven and a half you're going to get when you refinance that?

• 28:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:31Henry Washington?

  Goodness, man.

• 28:32Speaker 01

  Yeah. So the mortgage is about $2,000.

• 28:34Henry Washington?

  Yeah. Yeah. Good. So you're covering, you're covering. It's probably about a break even property when you consider maintenance. That's pretty cool. All right, Joe, I want to know if you were able to pull this off again. Great way to find a property in a market that needs some long-term rentals. So we'll dive into that right after the break.

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• 33:32Henry Washington?

  All right, well, back with investor Joe who found another great niche of burring rental properties in a vacation rental market. So you did your first one, pulled all your cash out on the refinance. So you executed a full burr. Did you find more? Or was that the only one you were able to do?

• 33:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, so up until this date, I've done two more in New Jersey and then one in North Carolina because that's where I live now.

• 33:57Henry Washington?

  And how did you find these properties?

• 33:59Speaker 01

  All just on market.

• 34:00Henry Washington?

  All on market deals?

• 34:02Speaker 01

  Evaluating on market. Yep.

• 34:04Henry Washington?

  Okay, so you did two more in Jersey. Were the numbers similar? Similar price points? Similar? Are these heavy renovations?

• 34:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, again, heavy renovations. The second one purchased 190, put about 120 in, appraised for 425. So the loan value at 315.

• 34:21Henry Washington?

  What's the interest rate on that one?

• 34:23Speaker 01

  Not good, 8.25.

• 34:24Henry Washington?

  Okay, okay. Okay, another one ready for another refinance?

• 34:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, the time's coming, I hope.

• 34:30Henry Washington?

  Did you pull your money out with that one as well, or did you leave some in?

• 34:33Speaker 01

  I took it out with that one again, so I could.

• 34:35Henry Washington?

  All right, two for two on the full burrs. All right, and the next one, tell me about it.

• 34:39Speaker 01

  So the next one sequentially was actually the one in North Carolina. I live in on a Lake Norman area, one of the lesser expensive towns in Lake Norman, and found a good deal and and just did another burr there that that worked out pretty well, and it's rented right now, ready to go. So did that one and then did one more up in in Jersey from afar. Another big renovation, purchased for 285, put about 90 in, appraised for 455. And that one still has, I left some in that one.

• 35:13Henry Washington?

  Some cash in that one. Okay, what year was that?

• 35:16Speaker 01

  That was last year, 2025.

• 35:18Henry Washington?

  2025, okay. I mean, even a partial burr in the year 2025, the year of real estate butt kickings, because a lot of people got their butt kicked in 2025. If you still executed a bird, pulled some of your money out, I'd say you're doing okay. Man, I love this story. I think it's just a good story of using the knowledge and expertise that you have, taking meaningful action, taking every deal on its merit, and then leveraging some creative strategies to help you continue to finance your real estate investments. One thing that I wanted to ask you about is now that you are a full-time real estate investor and you've left the coaching world behind, what is it that you're focused on now? What is real estate allowing you to be able to do?

• 36:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, and like we touched on earlier, has allowed me to pursue, you know, what's really been my passion for a long time, and that's human health and helping people in general. And so I started a company called Optima Vida, and it's a health consulting firm that both helps people, one-on-one client services, and does partnerships with companies and specifically real estate companies to help provide educational workshops online to their employees and agents, and then, you know, can help work with them one-on-one as well.

• 36:33Henry Washington?

  This is the stuff. That I love about real estate investing. Real estate does not have to be your passion, but it can absolutely provide income for you so that you can go focus on your passion and do the thing that you're called to do and not the thing that you have to do for money. And I think a lot of us have passion projects or things that we'd want to be able to focus on. And sometimes we just can't. A, because we have a job, we've got to go work 90 hours a week for, right? Or because starting a business is hard and sometimes it takes a few years before you're profitable. And, you know, some people just can't afford to be taking a loss for a few years. But if you have real estate as a foundation,

• 37:15Henry Washington?

  where you know that's going to provide you the income you need to feed yourselves and feed your family, then you can start these passion project businesses and give them the appropriate time and effort that they need, whether they're profitable or not on the front side, that you get to pursue your passion and do the thing you care about. So it's super cool that you're able to leverage real estate to help you pursue something that you're passionate about. And the thing that you're passionate about is helping people be healthier, which is amazing. Amazing story. Thank you, Joe.

• 37:44Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 37:45Henry Washington?

  Before we get out of here, Joe, just kind of give us the story. Where are you now? How many units are you up to? Are you still buying or are you just kind of done with real estate? You're going to focus on paying them off and you're in your and and work on OptimaVita?

• 37:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, so right now I'm sitting at 11 units. And like I said, I have probably about five properties with higher interest rates, but also equity. So the next step is kind of a refi across the portfolio. Bring the interest rate down, cash flow up, and then take some money out and then evaluate. Where should I redeploy? Should I go back into my one to four units? Should I try a BRRRR? Should I try something else? AI is pretty important these days, apparently, but.

• 38:31Speaker 01

  So like real estate wise, that's where I'm at.

• 38:33Henry Washington?

  I love it, man. Thank you so much, Joe, for coming on the BiggerPockets Podcast and sharing this story. Hopefully you guys listening, we're inspired by this. We're inspired by somebody who is in a position that maybe a lot of you are in, maybe not making the kind of money you want to be making, maybe spending a whole lot of time working in those hours, but still was able to purchase real estate and use real estate to truly obtain enough freedom so that you can focus on the thing that you're passionate about. And I think that that's really what everybody wants to do is they want to be able to live life on their own terms. And Joe's story really is a testament to that. So thank you so much, Joe.

• 39:15Henry Washington?

  Thank you so much to everybody listening. Also, if you want to hear another story like Joe's, then check out episode 1078 with Connor Anderson. He's another young investor who started with the series of house hacks and totally transformed his financial future. That's BiggerPockets Podcast, episode 1078. We'll link it right here on YouTube too. Thank you, everybody for watching. We'll see you on the next episode.

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