$12,000/Month Cash Flow by Cracking the Rental "Formula"

This investor is producing $12,000 per month in cash flow and is well on his way to early retirement before the age of fifty, and he did it all after taking a DECADE off of investing. By cracking the real estate “formula,” Andre Taylor was able to buy larger properties faster. He used his financial independence number to work backward by picking up properties that would truly help him retire early. He’s still buying deals in 2025, and you can retire early, too, if you use his “formula.” Andre started with just $3,000 in the bank. Not $30,000—$3,000. With a bit of sweat equity, he converted a foreclosure into a cash-flowing rental, generating a solid $300 in profit per month per unit. Then, everything clicked—what if he bought enough rentals to replace his income? After calculating his “freedom number,” he knew how many rentals he needed. But then Andre…took a break. A long break. A decade of not investing. When he got back, it was time to go all out. In today’s episode, you’ll hear about the buying spree Andre’s been on over the past eight years, how he closed on over thirty rental units (some filled with black mold), and why “buying up the block” is the fastest way to reach financial freedom. In This Episode We Cover How many rentals you’ll need to retire early by calculating your “freedom number” Buying foreclosures and the pros and cons of these cheaper deals The many ways to finance a rental (mortgages, credit cards, 401(k) loans, etc.) Why you should start contacting owners of properties next to your current rentals How to make the passive income jump faster by buying commercial properties (five units or more!) And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1141 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.

• 0:00Dave Meyer?

  This investor found a real estate formula that worked so well, he bought five nearly identical properties, all on the same block. Now, he's cash flowing $12,000 per month and plans to retire before age 50. On today's episode, he'll explain exactly how he did it.

• 0:24Dave Meyer?

  Hey, everyone. I'm Dave Meyer, head of real estate investing at BiggerPockets, where we teach you how to achieve financial freedom through rental properties. Today on the show, we're bringing you the story of investor Andre Taylor. Andre made his first investment in St. Louis back in 2007, and then took nearly a full decade off from acquiring new properties, because sometimes life just gets in the way. But eventually, he got back in the game. He moved to Chicago, where he developed a new investing formula that perfectly aligned with the goals he'd set many years earlier. Andre was so committed to this strategy that he now owns five very similar buildings, all on the same block. And this is a really cool story,

• 1:08Dave Meyer?

  because it's a story of an investor who set a goal at the start of his career for exactly how many units he needed to achieve financial freedom. And he stayed determined to achieve that goal, even as he worked a day job and saved his money, one property at a time. Now, he's reached it and is financially set for life. We can all learn a lot from this super fun and valuable lesson from Andre, so let's bring him on. Andre, welcome to the BiggerPockets podcast. Thanks for joining us.

• 1:39Speaker 01

  Oh, it's a pleasure. So honored to be here with you, Dave, and the whole BP community.

• 1:43Dave Meyer?

  Yeah, this is going to be a fun episode for you, because you have a really interesting story, and I'm excited to get into it. But let's just get the background. How did you first start investing in real estate?

• 1:56Speaker 01

  My mom actually put real estate in me at a young age. So she always would tell me, buy real estate. When you grow up, buy real estate. And to fast forward, when I undergraduate in 2005, I was moving to St. Louis. So she was like, Go to St. Louis, make your money, travel the world, buy real estate. I was a college student, so I had to pay off debt. So from 2005 to 2007, I was saving, paying off my debt, went to carpentry school as well too, and leading up to me purchasing my first property, which is a duplex in July of 2007.

• 2:28Dave Meyer?

  And were you working full-time at this time, or were you just doing real estate?

• 2:33Speaker 01

  So I have my degrees in electrical engineering. I got a job right out of school with an aerospace company in St. Louis. So I moved to St. Louis like two weeks after I graduated in May 2005. Still with the company 20 years later.

• 2:46Dave Meyer?

  Oh, very cool. Nice.

• 2:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 2:48Dave Meyer?

  So tell me about your deal. You bought a duplex.

• 2:53Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 2:53Dave Meyer?

  Uh, how'd that go?

• 2:55Speaker 01

  It was actually in foreclosure. It was purchased a year prior for a hundred and fifteen thousand. It was in foreclosure for eighty-nine thousand dollars. I used, at that time, it was like a first-time home buyer with three percent now. And so the day before we closed on it, my real estate agent called me up and said, "Hey, wasn't there water running when we did the inspection?" I said, "Yeah." She said, "I think the copper pipes are stolen." And so, yeah, somebody came in, took the copper pipe. So I went back to the bank, and we got the price down to seventy-five thousand. So I bought the duplex for, yeah, pretty much seventy-five thousand dollars. Yeah.

• 3:32Dave Meyer?

  Very different time.

• 3:35Speaker 01

  Yes, it was. Yes, it was. I had to bring twenty-eight hundred dollars to the closing table, and I only had three thousand in the bank. So, yeah, it was crazy.

• 3:43Dave Meyer?

  So what did you have to do to this property? I mean, obviously reinstall some pipes, but how much other work was it?

• 3:50Speaker 01

  It was a lot of cosmetic from July of 2007 until January 1st, 2008, when I got my first rent check, first tenant moving in. It was back and forth, sweat equity, that we were painting, installing cabinets, tile, those different things.

• 4:07Dave Meyer?

  And then was it just one deal that you bought in St. Louis?

• 4:10Speaker 01

  So I bought a second deal in December 2008. I bought another duplex, maybe three blocks away from the first one, and I bought it for eighty thousand.

• 4:19Dave Meyer?

  And at that Point, did you have a goal for real estate? Or was it just something you did on the side?

• 4:25Speaker 01

  So my real estate agent, her husband, who actually owned property as such. And they said, Andre, you need to figure out your freedom number. And I said, freedom number? And they said, yes, you need to figure out your freedom number because then you could work your way back and understand how many doors you need to get to get to that number. And I said, okay. And so at the time, you know, you read Rich Dad, Poor Dad and knowing that and Robert Kiyosaki, him and his wife, when they walked away, it was 10,000 a month residual income they had. So I said, 10,000 a month. I want, you know, 10,000 a month. Say, okay, we'll figure it out. And so I think I was averaging about 300, 325 dollars cash flow from each one of my units of both of my duplexes. And so I just took 10,000 divided by 325.

• 5:09Speaker 01

  And it was like, okay, you need about 32 doors to get to your freedom number. So that the goal set forth was like 32 doors. Got to get to 32 doors.

• 5:18Dave Meyer?

  That idea of coming up with a goal and working backwards to what you have to do is probably the single best thing any new investor can do. And so few people do it. I encourage everyone who is listening to that, do exactly this. Figure out what you actually need and work backwards. It will help every single decision that you make as a real estate investor going forward. It will get easier if you just go do this because you'll be figure out what price point to buy out, what markets to use, what strategies to use, how much leverage to use. All those decisions will get easier if you could just figure it out. So what brought you back? You took a what, an eight, 10 year break? What brought you back to the game?

• 6:02Speaker 01

  It was kind of like I had to recalibrate my mind. And, and real estate came back around because I wasn't finished with what I set out years ago to do, which was Andre, you want that financial and time freedom, 32 doors and such. So at that time in 2017, I was living in Vegas and my manager was saying, hey, we want you to stay out here permanent versus move back to St. Louis. And if you do, there's this DM stipend that you'll get uh extra $2,000 a month.

• 6:33Dave Meyer?

  For gambling? To take to the tables?

• 6:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, you know, exactly, exactly. And I was and I was really considering it because I had coworkers saying, hey, the 2,000, I take that and pay my house and my car note and you know, my salary, I do whatever. So I was getting, I was close to selling my two duplexes and I was going to reinvest the money and go on to purchasing a laundromat. And I sat at the pool. I remember I sat at the pool. I said, then finish what you started. Go back. And so I went in, I said, hey, I'm going back to St. Louis. Um, no. And then I had bought, I actually came out the gate buying uh in 2018, a four unit and a duplex on the same day I closed on.

• 7:15Dave Meyer?

  Oh, nice. That's awesome. Well, I want to hear about those deals, but I just want to mention that I think your story is very relatable. A lot of people who get into real estate, I think are just entrepreneurial by nature and by spirit. And I have this myself, like there's so many shiny objects, you know, you're like talking about a laundromat or an app or like all these things. If you have that entrepreneurial spirit, it can be very, very tempting to sort of like go out and try and do things. And sometimes you do have to go try out a bunch of things to see what you're good at and see what you like. But I do agree, like over time, you do have to sort of come back to what you're actually good at and settle down and not just be dabbling

• 7:58Dave Meyer?

  in all of these different things and just like focus on one good thing. So I want to hear how you started pursuing this freedom number again, but we do have to take a quick break, so we'll be right back. I just booked a backpacking trip through Olympic National Park. Two nights out on the trail, no cell service, nothing to do but eat trail mix and stare at mountains I'll never get tired of. That's the whole appeal. But while I'm off grid, my place doesn't need to sit empty. I can list my space on Airbnb and make a little extra income while I'm away. And with Airbnb's co-host network, I could partner with a vetted local co-host to help take care of the details from. Guest communications to onsite support.

• 8:43Dave Meyer?

  So I can fully unplug and enjoy my time out in the backcountry. If you've got upcoming travel plans, you can find a co-host at Airbnb.com/host. You know that thing where you discover a feature you wish your software had? And it turns out it already exists, just on a different platform. Like, oh, you want rent payments processed in two days? Rent Ready does it. Oh, you want to block tenants from making partial payments mid eviction? Rent Ready does that, too. Oh, you want full accounting and tax-ready reports without paying for a second tier? Rent Ready does it. And oh, you want tenant screening that doesn't overcharge your applicants? Rent Ready also does this.

• 9:25Dave Meyer?

  Basically, if you've ever complained out loud about your property management software, Rent Ready probably already built the fix. It's $12 a month, you're welcome. Sign up right now for $50 off your first year of Rent Ready with promo code BPcash. BiggerPockets Pro members get it completely free. Sign in through your Pro account at rentready.com/biggerpockets. That's rent, R-E-D-I, dot com slash biggerpockets. 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.

• 10:09Dave Meyer?

  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. Here's why savvy real estate investors are obsessed with bonus depreciation. It lets you take that rental property or commercial building you own and depreciate most of the cost against your income legally, 100% IRS compliant. That's instant cash flow improvement. Cost Segregation Guys is the number one firm nationwide, specializing in identifying these faster depreciating assets in your property. They've completed tens of thousands of studies across all 50 states,

• 10:54Dave Meyer?

  from remote cabins to apartment complexes. So if you own investment property, this is a no-brainer. So visit costsegregationguys.com/bp for your free proposal and find out how much you could save this tax season.

• 11:11Dave Meyer?

  Welcome back to the bigger pockets podcast. I'm here with investor Andre Taylor. We just heard about how he took nearly 10 years off of his investing career, but Andre, now I want to hear how you got started. You teased us a little bit. You had owned four units in St. Louis. You got back into the game. You closed on six units in one day? How'd that come about?

• 11:33Speaker 01

  So I got on, you know, Redfin and Realtor because still during that time you could find deals on Redfin and Realtor. And I found a four unit building. It was selling for 85,000. It was in really bad shape, bad tenants or whatever. Cause I did go and look at it. And then also I saw duplex and mind you, this four unit and this other duplex that I saw was a half a block walking distance from my first duplex. So I was trying to buy by closest. And so what I did with the, uh, the four unit, I said, I put down a contract to get conventional financing for that 20%. And then with the duplex, I did FHA. And so that's how I closed.

• 12:16Speaker 01

  So the, the four unit, it was pretty interesting because we, the day of the closing, we're sitting at the closing table and then they say, we can't fund this deal because the, the seller is on the terrorist watch list.

• 12:28Dave Meyer?

  What?

• 12:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 12:32Dave Meyer?

  That doesn't do what I'd be. Okay.

• 12:34Speaker 01

  So I was sitting there at the closing table saying,

• 12:38Dave Meyer?

  What?

• 12:39Speaker 01

  Or like, okay, what do we do? And I'm not going to lie. I kind of got, I said, so if they're on the terrorist watch list, can I get the property for free? Cause they want to get arrested or something like that. And it was like, so I don't know what happened in the background, but the next day I got keys and the deal closed.

• 12:57Dave Meyer?

  But you paid for it?

• 12:59Speaker 01

  Yes, I paid for it.

• 13:01Dave Meyer?

  Okay. And so now you're up to, I'm trying to keep track. You're at 10 now, right? After on your way to 32. And once you did those six, how aggressively did you try and build from there?

• 13:12Speaker 01

  Oh, it was very aggressive. After I did the, the four unit and I had to put the a hundred thousand into getting that up to par. Now we're into the summer of 2019. I moved back and it was like this duplex building across the alley was boarded up and I always would see it. So my neighbor, he was like, hey, Andre, you might as well buy this one across the alley. And I was like, eh, we'll see. And I kid you not, two days later, I'm at work and I get the pings from Zillow, Redfin and different things. That property popped up on my phone for sixty thousand dollars. Uh, foreclosure as such, and I called my agent, I said, hey, can you meet there? Uh, later on, when I get off around two, she said, yeah, we walked into the building. We both was like, okay, you just need to paint, change some fixtures.

• 13:57Speaker 01

  Like, cause I was thinking it was condemned inside, cause it was boarded up as such, not knowing. Until two weeks after I closed that the building had black mold in it.

• 14:06Dave Meyer?

  That's why. Okay. So how'd you deal with the black mold?

• 14:10Speaker 01

  So I said, I'm gonna have to rehab this myself. And this was gonna be my first fully rehab project. I, I've updated rental properties that I've owned, but this is gonna be the first rehab.

• 14:22Dave Meyer?

  Okay. And how'd it go?

• 14:24Speaker 01

  So I, I did get a more remediation company in there. I mean, when I say we gutted it out, gutted it to where. You got to, gutted it to where just the floor joists was only in there. Like literally, you could open the door and look to the basement and look all the way up to the ceiling. That's how it was just, all the thing wooden in there was the floor joists. So from December of twenty twenty into July of twenty twenty one, I constructed it and, and redid that building, made it into a single family. At that time, I had got my real estate license, cause I wanted to, I was gonna sell it. That was gonna be my first flip sale project.

• 15:00Dave Meyer?

  Okay. Well, good for you. I mean, that sounds like a huge project, but it sounds like it, again, it worked out well. The timing probably worked out well, cause property values just started going crazy during that time.

• 15:10Speaker 01

  So when I had it ready in July to sell, now this property I had was like in a C-class area as such. And so I had interest in people, but they were like, um, and again, people are buying crazy around that time. And I'm like, I can't get this sold. It was keeping me up at night because it was. Was like, I got a lot of debt on this. And at this point, I knew I was going to pretty much break even. And so I got the idea to furnish it and make it an Airbnb.

• 15:37Dave Meyer?

  Oh, okay. That work out?

• 15:39Speaker 01

  That went really good. I turned that into an Airbnb in September, September, October. I made about $11,000 with that property. And when I sold the property on Halloween of 2021, the buyer was inheriting $8,000 in future bookings from me when I sold it as an Airbnb.

• 15:57Dave Meyer?

  Oh, wow. Okay, that's a pretty good way to sell it. I'm sure that helps, helps a bit.

• 16:01Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 16:01Dave Meyer?

  So take me through this. We're now in 2021. Like, after the sale, where are you on your path to this freedom number?

• 16:08Speaker 01

  We were at 13 because I did buy a building, another duplex building in January of 2021. It was from a wholesaler off of Facebook Marketplace. I got them down from 80,000 to 35,000. It was going to be another gut rehab project. So I had another duplex that was just sitting waiting for me to get done. So you could kind of say I had 13 units, but two were not active.

• 16:33Dave Meyer?

  Okay.

• 16:34Speaker 01

  Just yet.

• 16:35Dave Meyer?

  All right. Well, I want to hear about the last couple of years because it sounds like you've made some really cool progress towards your journey. We do have to take one more quick break. We'll be right back.

• 16:45Dave Meyer?

  For my wife's birthday, I wanted to make her a new website for her landscape design business. So I researched a lot of different options. I tried out a couple. But honestly, it was really overwhelming. It was pretty time consuming. And still, the site wasn't coming out the way I wanted it to. Then I tried Hostinger and everything was super simple. I asked Hostinger's AI to build a clean site for her business and it had a working version up in minutes. No coding or designer needed. Plus, its AI agent helps with SEO, website copy and email marketing after launch. You get domain, website, email, all in one account. And right now, you can get Black Friday and Cyber Monday pricing through December 14th.

• 17:29Dave Meyer?

  So snag Hostinger's services at their lowest prices before the sale ends. Create your website today for just $1.99. Go to hostinger.com/real estate.

• 17:39Dave Meyer?

  And use code REALESTATE for an additional 10% off Black Friday and Cyber Monday pricing. I just booked a ski trip to Park City and I've already got the whole thing planned out. Five days, first tracks every morning before the crowds show up, my knees reminding me I'm not 25 anymore by the second run, and an embarrassing number of overpriced burritos at the lodge. I don't even care. This is the trip I look forward to all year. But here's the part I actually appreciate. The practical side of my brain kicking in is that my place doesn't have to just sit there empty the whole time I'm away. I can list my space on Airbnb and bring in a little extra income while I'm out getting humbled on a mountain.

• 18:23Dave Meyer?

  And with the co-host network, I'm not the one handling all of it. You can partner with a vetted local co-host who can create your listing, manage reservations, message guests, and even handle the styling. So I get to fully focus on my trip and my place is still working for me the whole time. Find a co-host at Airbnb.com/host. Investing in real estate has always been smart, but it hasn't always been simple. Now it's both, thanks to the Fundrise Flagship Fund. The Fundrise Flagship Fund launched more than five years ago with a mission of delivering low-fee access to blue-chip private market real estate. Today, the Fundrise Flagship Fund has grown to manage more than $1 billion of real estate

• 19:06Dave Meyer?

  on behalf of hundreds of thousands of investors, making it one of the largest funds of its kind. For those who believe real estate has an important role to play in their portfolio strategy, the Fundrise Flagship Fund has positioned itself as both a simple and a smart option. Whether you're starting with $10 or $10,000, the Fundrise Flagship Fund makes adding real estate's unique potential for both passive income and consistent growth. Just visit fundrise.com/pockets to make your first investment today. Carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses of the Fundrise Flagship Fund before investing. This and other information can be found in the fund's prospectus at fundrise.com/flagship. This is a paid advertisement.

• 19:52Henry Washington?

  BiggerPockets Real Estate is brought to you by MOD. MOD prescribes a once or twice daily modophonal drink that can keep you energized, focused, and alert throughout the day. Here's the mechanism. Energy drinks with caffeine temporarily block eudeneine, the chemical that makes you tired. It builds up, and when the caffeine wears off, it all crashes down on you at once. Modafinil works differently. It engages multiple pathways in your brain, dopamine, norepinephrine, histamine, and orexin to achieve steady energy and alertness for 10 to 12 hours. Modafinil was invented in the 1970s, and since it's been used in the highest performers on the planet, soldiers, pilots, and astronauts aboard the space station use modafinil in high-stakes situations where full concentration and alertness are paramount.

• 20:37Henry Washington?

  It's now available at mod.com to qualifying patients. Visit mod.com, that's M-O-D dot com, for free consultation and get 10% off your first order plus free shipping with promo code B P R E. That's promo code B P R E at mod.com. See their website for important safety information, and we thank MOD for sponsoring the pod.

• 21:00Speaker 03

  This episode is brought to you by Indeed. You're ready to level up your business, but the pressure to find the right person to make that happen is intense. Indeed sponsored jobs can help carry the load. It boosts your job post to help it reach quality talent fast. Cut through the chaos with Indeed sponsored jobs. Get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring now? Then this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs.

• 21:34Dave Meyer?

  Welcome back to the BiggerPockets Podcast. I'm here with investor Andre Taylor. Where we left off, you had 13 deals. Tell us where you are today, because that was still like 2021-ish. So like, what have you been up to the last couple of years?

• 21:46Speaker 01

  So from 2022 up to this point, it's been crazy because now we are officially pretty much at the 32-door mark.

• 21:53Dave Meyer?

  Wait, do you just, as of like when, most recently? This last deal?

• 21:57Speaker 01

  Last, last month, last month.

• 21:59Dave Meyer?

  Oh my God, man. Congratulations. That's so cool. And what's wait, so I want to ask how you got there, but did thirty two, is that is the cash flow actually what you wanted it to be?

• 22:09Speaker 01

  Now we're we're talking cash flow wise of twelve to fourteen thousand a month.

• 22:14Dave Meyer?

  You did it. Congratulations. That's so cool. I love that. You know, we talked to so many people on the show who are growing and have these numbers and usually people are on their way, but we rarely, very rarely get people who have actually hit their number. So congratulations. That's super cool. So tell us what happened. You went from thirteen to thirty two fast.

• 22:36Speaker 01

  So what happened was I was just bit by the commercial bug because I literally came home and and I put everything up for sale. Um, that was the whole house went up for sale, the four unit, the duplexes. Oh, I put all those up for sale. Yeah. At that time I had seven properties and so I put six of them up for sale because the the property I bought off of Facebook Marketplace, it was gutted out. So I didn't sell that one. And I put those six up for sale, which I got sold by November of twenty twenty one. So I had about after paying off a lot of expenses and stuff like that, I had about a quarter million dollars in profit.

• 23:08Dave Meyer?

  Wow. Congratulations. That's awesome. But you're going in the wrong direction, man. I thought I thought you were gonna say you started adding to your your portfolio. But okay, so you started selling. Did you know what you were gonna buy? Or were you just kind of like, I got to liquidate? I need this capital so that I can go buy something bigger?

• 23:28Speaker 01

  Yeah. So what happened was when I was getting ready to liquidate, my real estate agent, her and her husband at the time, who was my mentors, and they owned about close to a hundred doors in St. Louis. So they had a thirty two unit apartment complex that they were selling. They would say, hey, why don't you buy this from us? My finance guy, Jerome, said, hey, why don't you stay here in the St. Louis market? He got me in contact with US Bank and US Bank was like, since you're a local investor, we will only want you to put down fifteen percent to buy this thirty two unit. So you know, at this point, it's like, stay in St. Louis. But then Chicago, the numbers worked better with Chicago. And this is my opportunity because I did wanted to, you know, own back in my city. And so there was a lot of properties up for sale. So in Chicago, you have a lot of six unit buildings.

• 24:12Speaker 01

  And so I look at those as the red hotels for Monopoly. So I was like, I'm gonna own some six, I'm gonna own some six unit buildings. So I was under the gun. I had, I was uh 1031 a quarter million dollars. I had 45 days to uh find, and I did find two six unit buildings that I were gonna purchase, but they fell out of contract within like two weeks as such, whatever. So it was like, yo, you gotta hurry up.

• 24:34Dave Meyer?

  Yeah, that's scary.

• 24:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was very scary because I'm like, I cannot, I do not want to give the government about $50,000, you know, taxes. So I just went back to when I was studying for my real estate license in Missouri. And I remember reading something, they said Realtor.com has the most listings or whatever. So I literally, I went to Realtor.com, I found two six unit buildings selling. One was for 450,000, one was for 425,000. And again, underwriting commercial debt that I learned going to the summit with Grant Cardone, I was like, yo, these buildings are way under value. I come in and bring the rents to market value. I called my agent, I said, put full price offers in, let's get it done as such, whatever. And uh, that's how, yeah. And so I had to put down 25%.

• 25:18Dave Meyer?

  That's not bad for a six unit.

• 25:20Speaker 01

  Not bad at all.

• 25:21Dave Meyer?

  Yeah, that's pretty good.

• 25:22Speaker 01

  Really good because in Chicago, there's three unit buildings that are selling for $400,000.

• 25:27Dave Meyer?

  Yeah, right.

• 25:28Speaker 01

  So at the time, my, my finance guy in Chicago, he found me a lender up here and I closed on both of those buildings the same day. I got a five year fix for 3.6% on both, on both of those properties.

• 25:40Dave Meyer?

  Okay, so you sold them all. So you're, you're back to 12, right? Back to 12 units because you just said two.

• 25:46Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 25:46Dave Meyer?

  Okay, how, how of those two deals? Because you, it sounds like you sort of bought them under the gun, which was everything in 22, right? It was so competitive. Everyone was buying. How have they performed for you?

• 25:57Speaker 01

  We'll talk about the uh one building that I bought for 450. We, my cousin, we called it the Taj Mahal because it's really huge. And it's the building that we're doing the renovation in that you guys will see when you go here.

• 26:09Dave Meyer?

  Just so everyone knows, Henry and I are going on a, a road show and Chicago is one of the stops. July 15th, we're having a, a meetup in Chicago. It's free for everyone. So you guys should definitely come if you're in the Chicago area. Definitely come check it out. And one of the things we're gonna do, Andre and I were talking about before the the recording started. Henry and I are gonna come stop by and see what Andre is up to in Chicago. So if you're in the area, we're gonna have a lot of fun. It's gonna be great. So come check that out. But keep going. Tell me about the Taj Mahal.

• 26:39Speaker 01

  So there's a six unit building and so the the gross rents that were coming in were was about $5,400, close to $900 a month, average wise. And these are all two unit apartments, square footage on those about 1,200 plus square feet. It's really, really huge.

• 26:56Dave Meyer?

  Yeah.

• 26:57Speaker 01

  And so the market rate for two bedrooms in this area is 1,450.

• 27:01Dave Meyer?

  Okay.

• 27:02Speaker 01

  And when I did the numbers and stuff, this building is worth was like $750,000 where it should be, you know? So I was like, this is a no brainer and stuff. So because of the the renovation that we're doing on the building, the units are in this building, we rented for 1,650. So just off pure rent, it's gonna be bringing me in 9,900 gross a month, not including the garage spaces and the laundries that the tenants would be paying for in that building.

• 27:27Dave Meyer?

  Okay. And then fill us in for the gaps. Like, how'd you get back from there to now hitting your goal last month?

• 27:34Speaker 01

  So when I came and bought this building, there were other buildings next door to it. And I was like, I'm gonna buy this block up. I said, I'm gonna buy the rest of these buildings next to it as such, because another thing that I learned when early on investing is the best real estate to buy, and I say this all the time, is the real estate next door to you.

• 27:52Dave Meyer?

  Yeah.

• 27:53Speaker 01

  So one of the buildings next door to me, which brought me to the 18 door mark, I call it the Freedom Tower, because it hit that number for me, the 10,000 mark as such.

• 28:03Dave Meyer?

  Okay.

• 28:03Speaker 01

  And so like with that, I became real friends with the with the owner of the building, because I would see him come over. He was an older guy. Would come over, do his lawn and different things in that age. I say, hey, if you think about selling this building, here's my number, you know, just give me a call whenever the case. His wife called me the next day, say, you want this building? We're selling it. Cause I'm tired of him going over to that building every day to work. And this this building that I'm in right now is the Freedom Tower. We met in this basement because they had a little office set up down here and we worked out the deal to purchase it. So I purchased this building, uh, April of twenty twenty three.

• 28:41Dave Meyer?

  That's awesome.

• 28:42Speaker 01

  Yeah. So now I go to twenty one doors later on that year because my duplex building in St. Louis that I bought off Facebook Marketplace for thirty five thousand. I started renovating that property. We put a basement apartment in that duplex. So I had to get the zoning redone and different things of that nature. So I have the three unit building in St. Louis that took me to twenty one doors. So now it's like, okay, the other two buildings that's next door to the, on the other side of the Taj Mahal. Uh, one is a six unit and one is a five unit. What I did was I looked up and, and coincidence is a one owner who owns both the buildings, the six unit and the five unit. He lives out, he lives out your way. He lives in Seattle.

• 29:23Dave Meyer?

  Oh, really?

• 29:24Speaker 01

  And so, yeah, he lives in Seattle. So I wrote him a letter. I just wrote him a letter saying, hey, my name is Andre Taylor. I'm an engineer. Uh, I work for this aerospace company. I'm sure you would know because it's out there in Seattle really big.

• 29:37Dave Meyer?

  I think I know which one you're talking about.

• 29:39Speaker 01

  Yes, exactly, exactly. And so I said, listen, um, I own the building. I own these two buildings. I said, I'm not looking to force you, but I said, I do like the integrity of the block. If you ever decide to sell, please give me the first opportunity to purchase. Here's my information.

• 29:56Dave Meyer?

  Did they ever respond to you?

• 29:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. He actually called me.

• 29:59Dave Meyer?

  Right away?

• 30:00Speaker 01

  This was December of twenty twenty three. He called me in, in January of twenty twenty four after the holiday. He said, hey, you know, um, I'm actually thinking about retiring in about a year or two as such, whatever. And he was like, he said, yeah, you know, I have no problem selling it to you. You're going to own the block after this.

• 30:17Dave Meyer?

  You're like, yeah, that's what I'm trying to do.

• 30:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. And so he said, hey, I would love to meet you. I'll be in Chicago when it's warm. Um, and we'll meet. And so it went cold, Dave. He was supposed to reach out to me in May. I emailed him. I said, hey, how's it going? Nothing. So he reached out to me back in this past January. He said, hey, I'm ready to sell now.

• 30:40Dave Meyer?

  Wow.

• 30:40Speaker 01

  I'm like.

• 30:41Dave Meyer?

  That's just how it works. Works though, right? It's just like, you gotta put the iron in the fire and wait. And like, you can't rush that, cause especially if someone's retiring, that's gonna be on their own timeline.

• 30:51Speaker 01

  I use my credit, business credit line, which I had no PG guarantee. I use that to help me close on the new properties and stuff. I also pulled some equity out of the Taj Mahal, because the Taj Mahal was valued at $700,000 on the appraisal. Now, the five unit, we actually, we closing on that soon. So, we were supposed to buy both the buildings. And so, he was like, I'm waiting on to see what's gonna happen with the big, beautiful bill. Cause he liked capital gains, the 100 bowls depreciation. So, we went back to the table. We wrote up the contract where it's the two parts. So, this one is executed and we execute the second one after the big, beautiful bill comes out. So, right now, 27 with that five, that's gonna get added on later on, which will make it 32 doors.

• 31:37Dave Meyer?

  Wow, amazing. Well, we do have to get out of here, Andre. We're running long, but I love this story so much. I'm happy to do it. But I just had one last question for you. So, you've had this sort of interesting career. You started, you took 10 years off, then you came back to it. You never have quit your job, right? You've stayed with your career. Is that intentional and do you think you'll keep doing that?

• 32:02Speaker 01

  So, here's the thing. I know people always talk about this with the job. Like, literally, me being able to get these deals is because I still work. Don't get me wrong. I have a, I have a great job and pays very, very good and stuff. And because of that, that strategically is gonna allow me to walk away. I'm 43. I'll be, trust me, I will be done before 50. But at the same time, I don't have to rush. I'm in a stabilization mode right now. I'm not looking for no more properties. I'm stabilizing the property to get, to maximize everything, so I could reinvest my profits, my cash flow into the buildings to even bring them up even more and all this other stuff. So, and I can live off my W2 money.

• 32:41Dave Meyer?

  Yeah.

• 32:41Speaker 01

  So, yeah. So, it's like, it's no rush and stuff. I can prepare strategically on my exit.

• 32:47Dave Meyer?

  Yeah. And you'll be done by 50. That's amazing. I think that's, that's super cool. And just- A lesson to people, there's no right answer, but I do think in this industry, a lot of people oversell the idea of quitting when quitting has trade offs. And I just wanted to point out to people that Andre, you've had this super cool career.

• 33:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:08Dave Meyer?

  And a lot of it seems to be in part because one, you're doing this, you're good at it and you're diligent about it, but also you've sort of like gone with the slow, steady approach of trying to, you know, keeping your job, being lendable, getting conventional mortgages, that kind of stuff really seems like it's helped your career.

• 33:26Speaker 01

  It definitely has. There was no special hack that I did or anything of that nature with the finance. It was just I leveraged money off credit cards. I had a pool for 401k.

• 33:36Dave Meyer?

  Yep.

• 33:36Speaker 01

  Had money saved up, just that norm. And then of course, appreciation, real estate is long-term appreciation game. So it's definitely been a ride.

• 33:44Dave Meyer?

  Awesome. Well, congratulations on your success, Andre. Super cool story. Really appreciate you being here today.

• 33:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can't wait to have, can't wait to have you guys over at the Taj Mahal.

• 33:54Dave Meyer?

  Yes.

• 33:54Speaker 01

  Looking forward to it.

• 33:55Dave Meyer?

  It's gonna be great. And ever and again, if you want to hang out with me, Henry, Andre, we're going to be in Chicago the night of July 15th. We have a free meetup for BiggerPockets listeners. It's going to be a great time. We're doing the Cash Flow Roadshow. Stop in in Chicago. Make sure to check that out. Thanks again, Andre, and thank you all for listening. We'll see you next time.

• 34:18Speaker 04

  Now at Kroger, your points add up to more ways to save every trip. Use them your way to take dollars off groceries at checkout or save at the pump. You can even save up to $35 on your next fill-up. Same points, more choices. And with low prices on fresh, quality food, plus digital and personalized offers tailored to how you shop, your dollar goes further. Redeem your points online or in the app. Kroger, fresh for everyone. Restrictions apply. See site or store for details.

• 34:49Speaker 05

  Are you ever shopping online and suddenly a discount that helps you save pops up? It makes your day, sometimes even your week. Want that feeling month after month? Well, new customers who save by switching their home and auto insurance to Progressive save hundreds. Cue your happy dance. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers not available in all states.