Rentals Helped Me Quit My 14-Year Nursing Job (And Start My Own Business)

Have you ever thought, maybe real estate investing isn’t worth it anymore? Lindsay Barrientos didn’t start buying rentals after the 2008 crash or ride the low-interest-rate wave in 2021. She started in late 2022, after home prices and interest rates had already spiked. But she knew about the long-term potential of real estate and trusted the process—buying one house at a time and banking the rental income for the next down payment. Now, just four years later, Lindsay’s 12-property portfolio has given her the flexibility to go back to school, quit her grueling W-2 job, and start her own business. And she didn’t do anything the average investor can’t do today. She lives in a high-cost-of-living area, so she invests in a real estate market where her money goes further. Her properties are 2,000 miles away, so she leans into her investing team. No “perfect” timing. No big bank account. Just a plan and simple, consistent action. Whatever’s keeping you on the sidelines—prices, rates, the economy—Lindsay’s story may be the push you need to get started today. In This Episode We Cover How rentals helped Lindsay quit her 14-year hospital job (and start a business) Scaling from zero to 12 rental properties in just four years How to narrow down affordable real estate markets to invest in The two-offer strategy that can help you buy more off-market deals Key relationships that make investing out of state (much) easier And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠h⁠⁠t⁠t⁠ps://www⁠.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1348. 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?

  Have you ever thought that maybe real estate investing isn't worth it anymore? Well, Lindsay Barrientos didn't start buying rentals after the 2008 crash, or ride the low interest wave in 2021. She started in late 2022, after home prices and interest rates had already spiked. But she knew about the long-term potential of real estate and trusted the process, buying one house at a time and banking the rental income for the next down payment. Now, just four years later, Lindsay's 12 property portfolio has given her the flexibility to go back to school, quit her grueling W2 job, and start her own business. Also, she didn't do anything the average investor can't do today. She lives in a high cost of living area, so she invests in a market where her money goes further.

• 0:45Henry Washington?

  Her properties are 2,000 miles away, so she leans into her investing team. There's no perfect timing, no big bank account, just plain and simple, consistent action. Whatever's keeping you on the sidelines, prices, rates, the economy, Lindsay's story may be the push you need to get started today.

• 1:08Henry Washington?

  What's going on, everybody? I am Henry Washington, co-host of the BiggerPockets Podcast. Dave Meyer here too, and our guest today is Lindsay Barrientos from Los Angeles. Dave, let's get to it.

• 1:19Dave Meyer?

  Lindsay Barrientos, welcome to the BiggerPockets Podcast. Thank you for joining us today.

• 1:25Speaker 02

  Thank you for having me. This is an honor.

• 1:27Dave Meyer?

  Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you joining us from today? And what's your story with real estate so far?

• 1:34Speaker 02

  Yes, so I live in LA. I'm a nurse and I've been working as a nurse for, you know, 14, 16 years now. And I've been investing in real estate for the last four. And I also invest in a city that's not popular. I out-of-state investor in Gary, Indiana.

• 1:52Dave Meyer?

  As a nurse living in a very expensive market, what influenced you to not just invest, but to invest halfway across the country?

• 2:01Speaker 02

  So I actually was a pretty happy nurse in the beginning. It wasn't until 2020 during COVID times that I became a front worker. So I had to deal with a lot of COVID cases, a lot of deaths, a lot of tragedy, and a lot of depression, actually. A lot of nurses left the workforce during those times. And I came with the realization that, you know, maybe nursing is not for me. Maybe nursing is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. And I was just 30, right? I'm like, okay, I've been doing nursing for the last 10 years. What else is there? Like, how am I going to be supporting myself and making this income? At the time, I already purchased a single-family home in Los Angeles for myself.

• 2:44Speaker 02

  I had multiple nursing friends and I was renting out rooms to traveling nurses because I was single and I had like for, I felt for a bedroom house and I could just like live with my friends, right? Like the single girl life. But when I became extremely distressed and like depressed and reached for therapy and medication and got out of that hump, I decided like I have to find something else that's going to be income-producing, that's gonna either take me away from nursing part-time or take, take over completely, right? So I went to Google and I was just like, okay, what do, what do rich people do? Like, how do they make money?

• 3:23Henry Washington?

  I also Googled that when I was looking for extra ways to make money.

• 3:26Dave Meyer?

  That's Henry's story too, yeah.

• 3:28Henry Washington?

  Absolutely.

• 3:29Speaker 02

  And Google said, well, you can start a business. And I'm like, well, I don't know how to start a business. Or you can invest in real estate. And at the time, I was already renting out rooms in my house. So I was just like, can I not do in real estate? Like, I'm offsetting my mortgage here in LA by renting out rooms. So like, let me see what else, like, can I buy an additional house in LA? And they were like, okay, well, if you're gonna buy an additional house and do a conventional loan, you gotta have to put 20% down. And I'm like, 20% down out of a million dollars? That's $200,000. I don't have the kind of money, right? I'm a nurse. So I'm just going to see where else can I invest? Maybe out-of-state, maybe whatever.

• 4:11Speaker 02

  And then that came with also another realization that like the rest of the country is less expensive than Los Angeles, California.

• 4:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I started doing my market research. And then obviously, Google told me like, listen to BiggerPockets, listen to podcasts, read these books. So I like ended up reading a lot of Brandon Turner's books initially. And then I turned into BiggerPockets and learned about market indicators and what do you want to look at? Cash flow, cash on cash return, reserves, repairs. So for my situation at the time, I decided I need to be in a state that is landlord-friendly and a market or lease that has a high cash on cash return. So the first market that ended up investing is, is in northwestern Indiana, Hammond. And that's when I found a network of investors already, investor in northwestern Indiana.

• 5:04Speaker 02

  And I was introduced to many property managers and realtors and actually a network of investors there.

• 5:10Dave Meyer?

  I want to call out that you're selling yourself a little bit short, Lindsay, because like you were an investor and you did start a business. Even buying a single-family home and renting it out to your friend is a successful business in itself. I guess you just never even saw yourself as an investor when you were doing that?

• 5:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, I didn't. And even after I got A Properties, I was going to real estate meetups around my area. And I was like, I guess I'm an investor? I'm not sure.

• 5:39Dave Meyer?

  It's very humble of you, the opposite of what you hear on social media all the time. But investing in Indiana, it can be scary to do that. We've never been to the area. But you at least look back on your time renting out rooms in your home and see the potential for it. Did that give you some confidence at least?

• 6:00Speaker 02

  It gave me confidence in terms of like, okay, I have this much income and I have this much expenses. By house hacking at the time, but you know, I was doing that. I was decreasing the expenses that I had. So I had like the extra amount of income to deploy it in an investment, right? So I was like, I'm saving this much money and I can just funnel it into this investment that's also going to bring me more money. So I was just like, okay, I can see how that can compound over time, even though, you know, at the time, I wasn't looking like, oh, I'm gonna get like 10 houses or 12 houses. I'm just like two or three houses.

• 6:34Dave Meyer?

  Right.

• 6:35Henry Washington?

  So many new investors, or even seasoned investors, struggle with the idea of like, where should I invest? Can you give just a little more context as to like, how you got comfortable with the decision you made?

• 6:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, initially, I was ready to take a traveling nursing job. And I was like, okay, I have to go to a city that it's going to be competitive for me to get like a contract, right? So I could possibly house hack. And I'm like, okay, I could go to New York. And I'm like, what am I gonna invest in New York? I could go to Chicago. I can maybe house hack a condo there and I can start renting out rooms like I'm doing in Los Angeles. And I was like, but if I'm gonna be in Chicago, let me see what's near there, driving distance. And northwestern Indiana is 30 minutes down south from Chicago. So that's when I started looking at that. And then I was just like, well, who else is investing there? Let me find out. So BiggerPockets, blogs, podcasts, all of those, reaching out to people online

• 7:33Speaker 02

  that had a small YouTube channels and small followings that were investing, that were putting their numbers, all social media, and they're being very transparent about their journey. That's who I connected with, especially two people, Millennial Mike and Maskey Finance. And because they were smaller creators, they were willing to like talk to me or like interact with me via comments or emails or even phone calls at times, like boys' audio chats on Instagram that were like going on for three minutes at a time, right? I'm just like, I'm just so happy that I was able to like tag into this type of small community, like starting. And then so when I looked at Hammond, Indiana, northwest Indiana,

• 8:14Speaker 02

  there was already a WhatsApp group chat of investors that had like 40 investors at the time. They were sharing tips about like realtors, property managers, contractors and stuff like that. So I felt comfortable because they were vetted people, right? Not just by me, not just like out-of-state. Some people were local. So that's where I felt, okay, if these people are doing it, then like maybe I'm okay to start like dipping my toes in it.

• 8:41Henry Washington?

  These were gems. I hope people were listening to this and taking notes. I love that you said, look, I knew I'm gonna be in Chicago. So what's in driving distance? Because if it's not easy to get to your out-of-state market when you need to get there, because it's something's gonna happen, you're gonna need to get there and it's gonna interrupt your life. And the harder it is to get there, the less likely you are to do it, right? So. Including some of these like real world scenarios in your market selection is a big deal. Like the second tier of choices you have to make is very personal. The first tier of choices is about the numbers. You want a market that has a good cash on cash return, that has good jobs, that has enough demand, right? All the numbers make sense. But once you get past that, the rest is like vibes and feelings and are you actually gonna go?

• 9:27Dave Meyer?

  Also, the people you surround yourself with in that market, like that is just so incredibly important. I always tell people like, get it down to three to five cities that you like, the vibes are good, the numbers are good. And then where do you have the best people? Because that is going to make a much bigger impact on the performance of your investments than macroeconomics. It really is. Like macro, you have to just kind of not screw up, is kind of the way I see it. It's like, just find something that's pretty good. But as anyone will tell you, like, two investors can invest in the same market, one can be incredibly successful, and one can completely fail because they're not good at it. And so, investing out of state is so much about finding people who are good at it.

• 10:09Henry Washington?

  I thought that was such a brilliant thing. You said you specifically picked smaller creators. That's a great niche, like a great thing to target. Smaller creators, investing in a market that you like, you know they have a track record, or you at least think they do, and you can do enough research, they can probably have the time to answer you. Like, that's super smart. Great thing to do.

• 10:28Speaker 02

  Nishingin is definitely like, whatever market you're looking at, like, if it's like Columbus, Ohio, Facebook groups, meetups, whatever you can do to like, reach out to them and then start talking to, maybe not the person that's the host, but everybody that's like submitting comments, or like liking, or doing anything like, oh, have you actually checked out the area? Do you live around it? Like, just making conversation. And people, especially in Facebook, have people, you know, going through like, deep, deep conversations in the comments.

• 10:58Dave Meyer?

  That's great. And I think what you're showing here, Lindsay, is that this common perception that real estate is really competitive is false. People generally want to help each other. People want to tell you about what they're doing and want to bring you along. I really love that about real estate, that it's not this zero sum mentality, that if you win, I can't win. It's kind of this collective approach. So Lindsay, I want to hear about how specifically you leveraged this community to get your first deal. But we got to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

• 11:35Henry 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. Rent to Retirement 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 Rent to Retirement's Class A new construction investment properties, you set up an Airbnb listing and self-manage it for the remainder of the year. Rent to Retirement 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

• 12:15Henry Washington?

  or six figures in taxes this year. 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 incentives, 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.

• 12:59Dave Meyer?

  Most deals don't fall apart because of the numbers. They fall apart because of the financing. You find a property that cash flows, the deal makes sense. But then, the lender looks at your personal income, your tax returns, your debt to income ratio, and suddenly, the deal doesn't qualify. That's the disconnect. Because as investors, we're not buying based on our W2, we're buying based on the asset. That's why Host Financial offers DSCR loans designed for real estate investors, where qualification is based primarily on the property's income, not your personal finances. So no W2s, no tax returns, and

• 13:39Dave Meyer?

  no DTI requirements. And with loan to value options up to 80 or even 85% on eligible deals, you can keep more capital available as you grow. If you're buying rentals, refinancing, or scaling your portfolio, go to hostfinancial.com, that's H-O-S-T financial.com, and see what you qualify for. A lot of insurance companies compete on one thing, speed. But if you're protecting an investment property worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, should speed really be the priority? NREG believes strong coverage starts with understanding the property, the risks, and the realities of ownership. That's why they don't rush the process. Their policies

• 14:20Dave Meyer?

  are designed for real-world claims, not just quick quotes. If you want insurance built to protect your investment when it matters most, visit nreg.com/bpllc and learn more today.

• 14:35Speaker 03

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• 15:06Dave Meyer?

  Welcome back to the BiggerPockets Podcast. I'm here with Henry and investor Lindsay Barrientos, talking about how she found a community across the country that helped her buy her first conventional rental out of state. So Lindsay, how did you use the community that you found to identify and ultimately buy your first deal? And what did it look like?

• 15:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, and the first step was like, vetting the people, right? Like, there's 40 investors, 40 investors are you seeing about three or four property managers, three or four realtors, different realtors. So you started talking to them, right? And trying to see what they know about the market. And every time, because you don't know much about the market, right? Like, other than what you find on Google. But the more you talk to somebody, the more like, the property manager is going to be like, I'm not going to go into that pocket. And the realtor is going to be like, well, most of, because they can't really say it, like, this zip code doesn't work for you. Most of my transactions happen in this zip code, right?

• 16:05Speaker 02

  So you get information from different people, not just, like, quote-unquote, experts, like property managed realtors, or whatever, but the other investors, like, oh, this is where a new gymnasium was built, this is where the casino is coming to be built. Like, the more data that you have, the better it's going to be for you.

• 16:26Dave Meyer?

  And let me just ask, in this group, were there multiple realtors and property managers? Or did you, or was there just like, one you knew?

• 16:34Speaker 02

  There was multiple.

• 16:35Dave Meyer?

  And how did you decide? Because it sounds like a great group of people. How did you pick which person to work with?

• 16:41Speaker 02

  I think that you have an affinity for certain people, like, when you start talking to them. And then, I don't know about you, Dave, but I feel like I like to see more action than talking. Like, if you can talk to me on the phone.

• 16:53Dave Meyer?

  That's a good way to put it, yeah.

• 16:56Speaker 02

  You can talk to me on the phone for two hours, but let me, like, let me see how many transactions you closed in the last month, right? Like, what actually are you willing to negotiate for myself? Like, really? Like, test your boundaries a little bit.

• 17:09Henry Washington?

  So Lindsay, what I hear you saying is that you've got a good bullshater. And as you started to talk to people, you could tell who was full of crap and who was actually about their business.

• 17:20Speaker 02

  I would like to think so.

• 17:22Dave Meyer?

  I like that. All right. So tell us about this deal. What did you buy?

• 17:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, I did buy a three-bedroom, two-bat, single-family home, 25% down conventional loan. And like I mentioned, I rented the next week that I closed the home, and it was rented for $1,400 a month.

• 17:40Dave Meyer?

  Wow.

• 17:41Henry Washington?

  $135, 25% down. So yeah, 25% of $135 is substantially less than 25% of $1 million in California. So you did, you did the right math there. No renovation, sounds like it was turnkey, and you got a decent amount of rent for it. That's pretty awesome. So just a conventional loan, nothing fancy.

• 18:02Speaker 02

  Nothing fancy. And I think that debt service was 880 at that time.

• 18:06Henry Washington?

  Yep.

• 18:06Speaker 02

  Okay. Because the interest rate had gone up. My interest rate on that first property was 6.1.

• 18:13Dave Meyer?

  What was like, the cash flow at the end of the month?

• 18:15Speaker 02

  1,400 minus 880 plus, the property manager is like $400 a month.

• 18:19Dave Meyer?

  Wow. Okay. Great. And did you have any issues? Or was it as turnkey as you were expecting?

• 18:25Speaker 02

  It was turnkey. I think I talked to the property manager once in six months about something else. Then after one year, I was trying to make that my proof of concept. So I didn't want to look at even real estate after that. I bought it. I wanted to be like, is this going to work out for me? This is a new venture for me. I've never done this. So let it run for one year. I took it like, it was an additional bill, so I just pocketed whatever income I had from the property. And after one year, I had like, $16,000 saved. And I was like, okay, maybe I can look at this Gary, Indiana market that my investor friends keep telling me about. They keep buying things over there. So I'm like, okay, maybe I can do that now, since I am seasoned, right? Like, I have one year under

• 19:09Speaker 02

  my belt of having one real estate property. So I took a look at Gary, Indiana, and the house's prices in 2023, when I was looking at it, were like 50, 70, 80,000 for a single-family home. So I was just like, okay, that's a significantly less down payment that I have. But I was like, let me try this, like, add value things that BiggerPockets keeps talking about. Like, buy something that needs a little bit of work, right? So I bought a second home for $55,000 that needed a new roof and new floors. Small house, 800 square feet, two-bedroom, one-bat. And I bought it for 55. I think I put maybe 16 into the house. And I rented out for $1,100 to a Section Eight voucher holder.

• 19:54Speaker 02

  So I was just like, oh, wow. Like, that's like the 2% rule.

• 19:58Henry Washington?

  Yeah, you got way better numbers on that deal.

• 20:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, and obviously I'm learning this new market because I did move from Hammond to Gary, which is like 15 minutes apart probably by driving. But it is a rougher market. And it's actually, according to Business Insider, in 2019, one of the most miserable cities in the United States.

• 20:18Dave Meyer?

  And you're like, I want that.

• 20:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, I want that. Like, there is so much upside.

• 20:23Dave Meyer?

  Well, I'm curious. That would scare me.

• 20:26Speaker 02

  So I know that coming into this new market was like risky, but the potential for cash flow was higher. And a lot of people think like when they look at the tenant pool also there, they think like that's gonna be a lot of work. But from my investment strategy, I have a property manager. So majority of the things that I do are through property management because I work a full time. At the time, I was also going to school full time. So I really needed to see what my set of skill was going to be and my risk tolerance, right? Like, am I able to do the, to risk more, I guess, headaches for the cash flow? But when I closed on that second property and I rented it right away and I was like, okay, well,

• 21:08Speaker 02

  then, you know, my debt service is $388 a month and this is rented for $1,100. Even if the house is empty for a couple of months, I'm still pretty much very good about this. So, and then the potential for like add value was there, right? So I'm like, okay, let's do what happens with these two properties. Then the next property, I attempted to do the BRRRR and

• 21:36Speaker 02

  I didn't do the BRRRR and this is like a story that's probably gonna, people are gonna think I'm crazy. But I bought this house for like $33,000.

• 21:43Henry Washington?

  $33,000?

• 21:44Speaker 02

  Yes. And I needed to be a whole BRRRR, so I had to put like another $30,000 into the house. And, but my ARB was like at 85. So I was like, well, I can get most of the money out of this. And then one of the beauty things about scaling, right? Like when you're doing BRRRR, so you can recycle that money. So I was like, okay, I don't have to penny pinch every single paycheck that I have if I'm able to do this successfully or even semi-successfully. So when I did that BRRRR, I, I finished, I was getting my refinance done. And my property, like I think I had my appraisal scheduled like on a Tuesday and my property manager calls me on a Monday and then tells me there's been a fire on the house.

• 22:27Henry Washington?

  Oh, no.

• 22:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I got on the phone with her. She was like, I don't have many details. Let me call you back in two hours. I'm dealing with it right now. The fire department is there. The house was not occupied at the moment, so that was, that was great. So that already was like kind of like a relief. Okay, there's nobody inside the house. But I just finished rehabbing this house, right? Like last week and I'm waiting for that refinance. So by the time she comes back, she's like, there's been a faulty lighting on the kitchen that basically burned. And because it burned, the most of the damage that came was from the fire department in bolting, bolting their way into the door and putting the high pressure hose, right?

• 23:07Henry Washington?

  That's it. That's

• 23:08Dave Meyer?

  I know that game.

• 23:10Speaker 02

  Very nice, new drywall painted and everything blown off by the pressure of the hose, right? So that came with the second rehab. At the time, I was like, oh, maybe I shouldn't invest in real estate anymore. I don't know what this is like.

• 23:26Henry Washington?

  I have that moment every week, but go ahead.

• 23:29Speaker 02

  I was talking to Jesus and saying like, oh, let me just get through this. You know, maybe I tried to do more than I can handle. Anyways, I talked to my lender and my lender said like, oh, no worries. Let me just, let me know when the house is ready, right? Like, it ended up being a very small fire. So I was just like, okay, I guess I'm gonna rehab it again and leave the money that I rehab for the second time into the deal. So I put an additional, I want to say $11,000 into the house to rehab it a second time. Obviously going over my ARB and I was just like, oh, I'm just gonna leave money behind in the deal. Refinance, the appraisal came back at $160,000 for the house that I bought.

• 24:11Speaker 02

  So I told myself, you're just very bad at comping, comping houses.

• 24:16Henry Washington?

  Way too low.

• 24:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, I did comp it way too low. So I was able to get all my money back from the first rehab, from the second rehab. And then so I did a successful BRRRR and I got the money back, right? At the time, the money came from a HELOC I leveraged on my single primary residence. So I wasn't even money I had saved. It was leveraged money from the HELOC. So I was like, I can do this again. So I did many more times. I ended up racking up 12 properties over the last four years.

• 24:45Dave Meyer?

  Wow.

• 24:46Speaker 02

  And the last five had been creative seller financing and the last one was a 0% down deal.

• 24:54Dave Meyer?

  That's unbelievable. Wow.

• 24:56Henry Washington?

  Yeah, I like those.

• 24:57Dave Meyer?

  So I want to hear what you bought. You just casually were like, oh, I just bought 12 units, uh, which is a story in itself that we want to hear about. We do have to take one more quick break, though. Stick with us. We'll be right back. 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.

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• 27:09Dave Meyer?

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• 29:49Dave Meyer?

  Welcome back to the BiggerPockets Podcast. Me and Henry are here with investor Lindsay Beriantos, talking about how she has been scaling up long distance in Indiana. You've had some good ones, you had a tough one, but you kept going. What have you been buying?

• 30:06Speaker 02

  Yes, so 12 total now. All of them are single family. I only have one duplex. And then so the more that I learn about real estate, the more that I talk into wholesalers, but direct from seller, right? Learning about creative financing. When I learned about creative financing at the BiggerPockets, I was just like, I need to get a house that is creative, basically. I got the bug. So I started telling my Realtor to put cash offers and creative offers. And obviously make the creative offer more appealing than the cash offer. So everybody will be determined. But anyways, and that same network that I had, for example, Facebook people that I would talk to online and the WhatsApp group that I would also talk to different investors.

• 30:49Speaker 02

  There were other investors there that were offloading some of the properties. So that's where we got connected. That's how I started getting creative. I also started a personal brand on YouTube. I opened up a YouTube channel after I think the bird that I did, I felt like maybe this information would be better to be put on on videos. So people can connect with me, or even see what I'm doing, or see how the cash flow is possible, even though like this was 2024, 2025, with the rates being at seven, eight, like you have, you guys have seen it. So I started putting out a lot of content out there. And then people were offering me deals from Gary, Indiana after a while. And that's how I was able to get creative.

• 31:33Henry Washington?

  You said you had your agent, you know, mention that you were willing to do a creative offer. So like, how did you pitch seller financing? Or how did you get your agent to pitch it to to people as an option for you?

• 31:46Speaker 02

  Yeah. So like, when you're a Realtor, you can just send a regular offer, or you can set an add the dendon offer, right? Like a regular cash offer, or conventional offer, or add dendon offers, which, which if the seller is open to seller financing, they will be able to reply or negotiate the price back. But my experience has been the majority of people that do seller finances, because they've been investors themselves at one point. And then so they bought the house a few years ago. So they already had some kind of knowledge. I've never been able to convince somebody that's never heard about seller finance to do seller finance, a seller finance deal.

• 32:23Dave Meyer?

  So you were going out looking for these seller finance deals, and you said you were making cash offers at the same time?

• 32:30Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 32:30Dave Meyer?

  You had enough cash to go out and buy these deals, whatever your offer was, if you wanted to, but you gave them two offers at the same time. Can you tell us a little bit more about why you did that?

• 32:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, I heard from Michael Subert, this is something that he used as a technique in the past of when he was buying houses in Fresno, he would present two offers to the seller, especially during these last years where transactions have been low, right? If you find a motivated seller, you present those two offers. Let's say it's a house that I'm buying cash as $60,000. My cash value would be, I'm gonna offer you $50,000 for the house, but my seller finance deal is gonna say, I will pay you $60,000 for this house, but with my terms, right? So that could be like lowering the interest rate, that could be a lower down payment, whatever is more preferable to me that also works for the seller. So I would submit those two offers to everybody, basically.

• 33:26Dave Meyer?

  Wow, I love that. It's so brilliant. And I think this goes to the exact environment we're in right now in real estate, where sellers, you don't really know what's motivating them right now. There are more and more things coming on the market, and there's better opportunities to negotiate, but you don't necessarily know what they want. Some people want cash and to get out as quickly as possible. Other people, as Lindsay, you stated, like, if they've been an investor before, they might say, hey, I'll take a six or 7% payment well into the future. That's passive income for me. And by offering two offers, one, you're showing the seller that you are willing to understand what they're looking for and

• 34:09Dave Meyer?

  to work with them. And two, it sounds like you can kind of steer them in the direction that you want, because you say, hey, I could pay cash. That's probably tempting, but I could pay you less. And you can sort of orchestrate it so that sellers see the mutual benefit in the seller financing offer. Curious, how effective is it? Like, how often does that work?

• 34:29Speaker 02

  It works when the market is like this, and the sellers are motivated. I was able to get out of the 12, five of them are these seller finance.

• 34:39Dave Meyer?

  Yeah, I love that. I mean, that's better than like, regular offers, right? That offer is so much better. And how are you identifying people? Because if you're going to 50%, you must have like, really targeted list of people that you're approaching for seller financing.

• 34:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, my subcodes are very narrow. So I only invest on like, three subcodes. And then, single family. I know a lot of people like to do multifamily, but in my area, because there's more supply than renters, I feel that people do want to rent a single family more so than a small multi-unit. So that is where basically I'm concentrated. And then it might be a small market, but in Gary, there is a turnkey company that sells houses, that flips houses. They also have a podcast. They also are currently posting a lot of content about Gary, Indiana. And possibly even coming, you know, we have the Bears coming to Hammond, Indiana. So just like, having more information about that. Yeah, having more information

• 35:37Speaker 02

  about that, just tells you to exactly reinforces what you're investing already, or where you want to be investing.

• 35:44Dave Meyer?

  So what's next for you, Lindsay? I mean, you've been scaling up, you've been doing a lot. You're getting the Chicago Bears in Indiana, which is hilarious. What, what comes next for you?

• 35:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, I also built an ADU in my single family residence.

• 35:59Dave Meyer?

  Nice. Are you still in LA?

• 36:01Speaker 02

  Yes. So I did that. I put it as a midterm, and that's now rented for $2,000 a month. And I have enough space to put an additional ADU. That is in the process of permitting three bedroom, two bath. That will be a small house, basically. So hopefully to do a midterm or Airbnb, we'll see what I can do with that.

• 36:22Henry Washington?

  That strategy in California is just called how to live in California. How to be able to afford to live in California.

• 36:29Dave Meyer?

  The good thing is that they are allowing these kinds of developments, right? Because obviously, not everyone can do it. But like, if you can, you are providing housing in a community that really needs it. And you are able to make your own cost of living go down. It's, it really is a win-win if you can pull it off. So Lindsay, now that you've done this, you've done a lot of cool stuff, but your original goal was to get out of nursing. Have you done that yet?

• 36:56Speaker 02

  Not fully, but I'm on my way. So I had two plans. One was to invest in real estate, and the other one was to go back to school and get my nurse practitioner license and work outside of the hospital setting. So I achieved that. I worked for the last three years as a nurse practitioner. And since I have the income coming from real estate, and I'm house hacking, I decided this is the perfect time to leave my W2 and start my own business, be a nurse practitioner. So now I'm a psychiatric nurse practitioner.

• 37:26Dave Meyer?

  Oh, that's amazing.

• 37:28Henry Washington?

  That's so cool.

• 37:29Dave Meyer?

  Yes, I like it. That is unreal. That is so cool. I'm very happy for you. Wow.

• 37:35Speaker 02

  Full circle, right? Like that Google search in the beginning, invest in real estate, open your own business. That's basically what I ended up.

• 37:42Henry Washington?

  That's exactly what you did. That's exactly what you did.

• 37:45Dave Meyer?

  I love it. Because I mean, you must have been working your butt off the last couple of years. Going to school to become a nurse practitioner is no joke. And investing long distance is no joke, but you did it all. And like, I imagine you're feeling that this investment in time and effort has been worth it.

• 38:00Speaker 02

  Yes. And this year, I, you know, I was a whole year planned to quit my W2. So I had to set myself up for being able to have no paycheck technically. And then it's still 12 houses, and I still have a house in LA. And I just built an ADU, and I'm building another ADU. So I had to like, set myself up financially to be able to take this like big step. And finally, the time that I put on my mind has reached. So now I'm like, fully off, like, W2, being my own boss.

• 38:30Dave Meyer?

  So you're just crushing it, is what you're doing. You're just absolutely crushing every part of your life.

• 38:36Speaker 02

  Maybe it looks like that from the outside, but in the inside, it's a lot of like, lack of sleep, I feel.

• 38:42Dave Meyer?

  That does come with it. But you know, it feels, you know, there are times to grind, there's times to enjoy the fruits of your labor. And it seems like you've grinded really hard for a couple of years. And now you are reaching your goals. It's incredible. And you've done it in a really fast timeline. I should say that, you know, doing it in a couple of years is amazing. And hopefully, between having your existing homes, having your own practice, having these ADUs, you can continue to grow in multiple ways. You can be a nurse practitioner, you can grow your practice, and you can grow at real estate at the same time. It's super cool.

• 39:16Speaker 02

  Thank you, thank you. And I also, I built a podcast called Real Estate Chisme. And then this is where we have a free school community online. Anybody can come and check it out. Our goal, I have a co-host, Violeta Sandoval, and we're trying to encourage women, people of color, to come and check us out and talk about real estate, if that's something that you want to look at, invest in, and or even learn about.

• 39:44Dave Meyer?

  Awesome. Thank you so much, Lindsay, for sharing your story and these resources with us. We really appreciate it. And we'd love to have you back soon. We would really like to hear how your story progresses from here.

• 39:55Speaker 02

  Thank you so much.

• 39:56Dave Meyer?

  And thank you all for listening and watching this episode of the BiggerPockets Podcast. I'm Dave Meyer, he's Henry Washington, and we'll see y'all next time.

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