Semi-Retired with a Small $6,000/Month Rental Portfolio

This investor used his primary residence to build a $6,000/month rental property portfolio—helping him semi-retire, cut his workload in half, and generate a sizable income stream outside his job. And he did it with affordable, small multifamily rental properties that he still buys in today’s market, all while working a demanding schedule that required his attention 24/7, 40 weeks per year. Bill Price has worked as a sound engineer for some of the music industry’s biggest names. He’s toured with Justin Bieber, Weezer, and Third Eye Blind (among many more), working intensive hours on global tours. But, in the background, when he was off the road, Bill was building an intentional real estate portfolio to replace his income. Today, less than a decade after buying his first true rental, he’s working just 16 weeks per year instead of 40. Bill made some mistakes and some BIG bets that paid off. We’re talking terrible tenants, eviction notices, bird cages, dog droppings, and flooded basements. But, through it all, Bill says it was well worth it, as 90% of his rental property investing career has been buying deals and collecting checks. If Bill can manage a rental portfolio while touring in Japan and setting up an impromptu skate park for Justin Bieber, why can’t you? In This Episode We Cover How to cut your workload in HALF with a small, cash-flowing rental property portfolio Turning your primary residence into multiple rental properties so you can scale faster A big eviction mistake that cost Bill months of time with a bad tenant Doing a BRRRR (Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat)? Why you should run your numbers as a flip, too Why you should tell EVERYONE within your circle that you buy rental properties! And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1138 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?

  Just a few rental properties can change your entire life. Today's guest rolled his former primary home into three rentals and five years later, he has 13 units and he has cut his taxing work schedule in half. And this isn't some secret path that you need millions of dollars to follow. His first property was a condo for $240,000. And this just shows that anyone can do it. So let's find out how.

• 0:32Dave Meyer?

  Hey, everyone. I'm Dave Meyer. I've been investing in rental properties for 15 years. And on this podcast, I bring you the stories of fellow real estate investors who have also changed their lives through real estate. Today's guest is Bill Price. He started with a two-bedroom condo in Milwaukee and actually went more than 10 years between buying properties. But eventually he grew his portfolio to 13 units over the course of six years. Nearly all of his properties have cost under $300,000. But even that modest, manageable real estate investing has allowed him to take more time off from his very travel-intensive day job and would allow him to retire early in the future if he chooses to.

• 1:15Dave Meyer?

  This is a great conversation about the power of even basic real estate investing strategies. Bill isn't doing anything crazy or difficult or time-intensive. He's just taking advantage of compounding his wealth over time. Let's bring on Bill. Bill, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for being here.

• 1:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, thanks for having me. Looking forward to this.

• 1:36Dave Meyer?

  Yeah, me too. So tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get involved in real estate in the first place?

• 1:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I moved to Milwaukee in 2004, right after college. And I got involved in the entertainment production side of things. Went to school for music and sound production and got hooked up with a company doing all the big festivals, concerts in Milwaukee, Chicago, all that.

• 2:00Dave Meyer?

  That sounds fun.

• 2:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, it's great. And then with that, I bought my first condo. Buddy of mine said, hey, I need a place to live about four months after I was living there. And I said, well, I got a second. Bedroom that I'm not really using and I'm never here. So I was always traveling with concerts and all that. So he, he moved in and uh, didn't know anything about real estate. Just thought, hey, this way this guy can pay all my utilities. I'll pay the mortgage and, and I'll move on. So yeah, so that that kind of started the career and that was like I said, 2006 and then it just kind of springboarded and then I got interested in real estate and he moved out, but someone else moved in. I charged them more to so they'd actually pay the mortgage versus paying the utilities and it just kind of grew from there and really sparked my interest.

• 2:42Dave Meyer?

  Huh. That's very cool. I think it's a pretty relatable story. You're kind of like an accidental house hacker. I think 2006, you might have predated the term house hacking. I think Brandon Turner came up with that in like the early 2010. So fast forward us a little bit because it sounds like you did this for a while, but then something changed for you more than a decade later. So how did you shift from just being this accidental house hacker into, you know, a real or more intentional, I guess you would say rental property investor.

• 3:15Speaker 01

  So I guess first off, leading up to getting to all that, I was really aggressive on paying off my condo kind of once the market came back about. And everyone's telling me, don't pay off your condo, you know, just take the mortgage, write it out. And I was actually uh, on tour with Justin Bieber at the time and it was the most money I'd ever made and we're traveling the world and I was told, hey, you're not going to be home for a year and a half. And so I'm just like, I'm throwing money at this place. So in 2014, I actually paid off my condo.

• 3:47Dave Meyer?

  Wow. That's awesome.

• 3:48Speaker 01

  That was, you know, a huge accomplishment. So then in 2016, my wife and I, we decided to move in together. And at that point I was like, I, I kind of want to, you know, keep renting this place out. It, it's working. So I figured, let's give it a shot. Let's see what happens. It's paid off, you know, why not? Kind of thing.

• 4:06Dave Meyer?

  Yeah.

• 4:07Speaker 01

  So we wound up putting it up on, I think Craigslist back then.

• 4:11Dave Meyer?

  That's what we were doing back then.

• 4:12Speaker 01

  Right. And rented it out immediately and had a great couple that lived there for four years. And so that was kind Kind of the the springboard to, okay, this works. And at that point, it was so easy because the condo wasn't even 10 years old. Nothing's going on with it. We had just gotten through a lawsuit, so we had a bunch of stuff replaced. It's a condo, so there's no real maintenance. So it was just literally free money at that point.

• 4:37Dave Meyer?

  This is such a relatable story because I think a lot of people feel like becoming a landlord or becoming a real estate investor is this huge decision. But for some people, it just happens, right? You just like start doing it and you notice that there are all these incredible benefits to it, especially when you have it paid off. That's a pretty cool story.

• 4:58Speaker 01

  Right.

• 4:58Dave Meyer?

  And maybe unique to your personal situation, but it just goes to show how everyone's come into real estate from all these different angles. It doesn't necessarily mean you have to be full time or spending all this time on it. As Bill's telling us, you can kind of just fall into it at one point.

• 5:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:15Dave Meyer?

  Cool. So fast forward us. So you in 2016, you started leasing it out. But from what I understand, a couple of years later, you know, right before the pandemic, you did start actually sort of have a turning point. Can you tell us about that?

• 5:28Speaker 01

  Yeah. So in 2018, my wife and I were talking about kind of what's next and all that. And we were in our condo, our new condo, not the original one. And then I'm thinking, okay, do I buy a duplex and live on one side and rent out the other? You know, what's, what's the next step here? So we just started going to a few open houses, found a realtor that was a listing agent that we really liked. And so started working with him and then kind of realized, maybe we just stay where we're at, but still buy a place. So 2019, we bought our first actual investment property, if you will, intentional investment property, I guess.

• 6:05Dave Meyer?

  Yeah.

• 6:05Speaker 01

  It was a duplex. And from there, I was hooked immediately. It was just like, okay, these, this is all working, you know, it's the way it should. And I have no clue if I'm doing it right or not, you know, I was getting leases just off of Googling leases. They weren't anything legit, I'm sure. But it was like, let's, let's go with this. And since then, it's everything I've expected it to be.

• 6:28Dave Meyer?

  Before that. Purchase, had you done any self-education or thought much about it? Or is it just kind of like, I can afford this? Did you run the numbers and like, figure out if it was going to cash flow?

• 6:42Speaker 01

  Nope, I didn't know what running numbers were. I just figured, okay, like, I think, uh, maybe, uh, this sounds like enough rent for this area. Like, this is what the mortgage will be. If I didn't like it, we had some extra money, I'll just put more money down. There wasn't any thought of, do you put less or more down? There wasn't any education to it. It was just, let's give it a shot and see what happens.

• 7:03Dave Meyer?

  Okay, good for you. And you're in Wisconsin, right?

• 7:07Speaker 01

  Correct, Milwaukee, yeah.

• 7:08Dave Meyer?

  Okay, and so what kind of price points are we looking at?

• 7:11Speaker 01

  So the, the first duplex that we bought was, uh, a hundred and eighty-five thousand. It was a three-bed, one-bath, uh, upper, lower duplex. It's in, uh, kind of the southern part of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, city of Milwaukee. It's actually three blocks of identical duplexes.

• 7:30Dave Meyer?

  Well, something must have worked about this because you're here talking to us today. So what, what was the experience like? I mean, you'd already had some rental experience. Was it much different when you did this new duplex?

• 7:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, for sure. When I had my condo, we had the most amazing people. They stayed four years. The only reason they left is actually they bought the unit above the one that they were renting. Cause they didn't want to buy on the first floor. But they were retired couple, empty nesters, most amazing thing. Then when I buy this property, we actually found it on Craigslist as well. It was for sale by owner. And the landlord said, oh yeah, the, the bottom unit is occupied. It's been a tenant, he's great. The upper unit, the person's moving out shortly. Uh, their lease is ending, all that. And of course I know nothing. So I buy it and.

• 8:24Speaker 01

  The person upstairs, she moved out, but she left me some parting gifts. Uh, she pretty much didn't trash the place, but for, for someone that bought the place and a month later, you're just like, what just happened? And then the, uh, lower level tenant, he about three months after I bought it decided he didn't want to pay rent anymore.

• 8:45Dave Meyer?

  Oh, no.

• 8:45Speaker 01

  So here I am buying my first actual place and I still had the other place with the great tenants. And now I've got these other tenants that are just total opposite experience. And so that was like, kind of the wake up call of, oh my God, should I be doing this? You know, that kind of thing.

• 9:04Dave Meyer?

  I do want to ask you and sort of understand why you kept going after that, given that hardship. But we do need to take a quick break, so we'll be right back.

• 9:16Dave Meyer?

  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. 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.

• 9:57Dave Meyer?

  Do you ever notice how every passive investment somehow turns into a very active lifestyle? Active spreadsheets, active phone calls, active stress. Here's a better question. What if you could buy brand new construction homes 10% below market value in the best markets across the country, without making real estate your second job? That's exactly what rent to retirement does. They're a full-service turnkey investment company handling everything for you. In some cases, investors get 50 to 75% of their down payment back at closing, plus interest rates as low as 3.75%. They've partnered with BiggerPockets for over a decade, helping thousands invest smarter. If you want to do the same, visit biggerpockets.com/retirement to learn more.

• 10:39Dave Meyer?

  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? Enreg 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 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. Trying to get started in real estate investing or wholesaling? The hardest part is finding and talking to motivated sellers before everyone else does.

• 11:22Dave Meyer?

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• 12:07Dave Meyer?

  and step-by-step training through PropStream Academy, so you know exactly what to do next. Start your free seven-day trial and get 50 free leads at www.propstream.com/bp. That's www.propstream.com/bp.

• 12:31Dave Meyer?

  Welcome back to the BiggerPockets Podcast. I'm here with Bill Price. He was just telling us about a very challenging first full-time investment. You bought a duplex in Milwaukee, had a very difficult tenant situation. A lot of people might walk away. You know, these are kind of the things I think that as investors, when you're Thinking about making your first investment, you sort of have nightmares about this is the stuff where you're like, I'm just gonna keep investing in the stock market. I don't want to deal with this. So how did you both mentally and financially navigate that challenge and keep going?

• 13:03Speaker 01

  So fortunately, the upstairs person was paying all the time. Once he did get evicted, I did actually file the Milwaukee County had some relief funds and all that. So I actually did get most of the money in the end and just kind of figured to myself, okay, like I got the money. This was a terrible experience for almost a year, but in the end it worked out. And so rather than the negative and being scared, in the end I was made whole. I was able to fix up what I needed to fix up, which wasn't much. And I went ahead and re rented it again immediately. It was in a great area, you know, the great clientele and all that.

• 13:46Speaker 01

  So I was just like, okay, that that wasn't so bad. So then that brings us, you know, to to 2021. And at that point, I figured I've got a place that's totally paid off. And I could sell this and springboard it into other places. And I'm kind of at the cap of where that place can be. I can't really charge more rents. Yeah, I can't do more value ads. It's it's where it is. So I went ahead and sold it in 21. So did the 1031, didn't have anything in mind right away. We were actually also refinancing our primary home because we were on an arm when we bought it in 2016.

• 14:27Speaker 01

  So we're going through that and that was a whole struggle because I was I'm self-employed as a sound engineer.

• 14:34Dave Meyer?

  Yeah.

• 14:35Speaker 01

  And COVID, so I'm not working. And at that point, we my wife and I weren't married yet, so everything was just me. And so we're we're sitting there and I'm freaking out about this five year arm that's coming due. And finally I get a bank that will deal with me. And when that happens, I was like, well, let's see what I can get for a mortgage, right?

• 14:54Dave Meyer?

  Yeah.

• 14:55Speaker 01

  And so she's like, well, how much do you have to put down? And I'm like, well, I have this whole amount from the previous condo. And she was like, did you ever think of splitting that up?

• 15:03Dave Meyer?

  The mortgage lender was the one who suggested to you.

• 15:06Speaker 01

  She brought it up again, a second time.

• 15:08Dave Meyer?

  Just because she wanted to, like, just kindness of her heart advice?

• 15:12Speaker 01

  It was like four months of me trying to get a mortgage with her from all the self employment stuff. So there was that. She knew that I'd bought a place and, and she's like, you've got $300,000 sitting there. Don't just go buy one place, like, split this up.

• 15:28Dave Meyer?

  That is some very good advice at a very good time in the housing market.

• 15:32Speaker 01

  Right?

• 15:33Dave Meyer?

  Yeah.

• 15:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:34Dave Meyer?

  And was she willing to lend to you on that? Just out of curiosity, like, or did you have to go through hoops to get multiple mortgages? Or how'd that work out?

• 15:42Speaker 01

  Well, once we got the primary figured out.

• 15:45Dave Meyer?

  Yeah.

• 15:45Speaker 01

  That was the hoop. Like I said, that was like four months to get that going with my whole situation and COVID and my industry. And some of my jobs are 1099, some were W2. And so she was like, we've gotten through this hurdle. Let's run with it while we can.

• 16:02Dave Meyer?

  Yeah, that's smart.

• 16:03Speaker 01

  Yeah. So then I'm talking to that agent that I've been working with for a few years now, you know, we're still going to open houses. We're seeing what we can. And then he said, hey, something came across my desk with two properties that are four houses apart, two duplexes in an amazing area of Milwaukee, Bayview.

• 16:21Dave Meyer?

  Okay.

• 16:21Speaker 01

  And do you want to go look at them?

• 16:23Dave Meyer?

  Two different duplexes?

• 16:24Speaker 01

  Two different duplexes.

• 16:25Dave Meyer?

  Okay. So four total units?

• 16:27Speaker 01

  Four doors, correct. So we go look at them and I'm like, funny, you said this because the bank just told me, let's go ahead and do that. So we went and looked at them. At that point, now, you know, I've done some research of how do you make numbers work? I've made a little spreadsheet of myself.

• 16:43Dave Meyer?

  Okay.

• 16:44Speaker 01

  I think BiggerPockets was releasing spreadsheets at that point.

• 16:47Dave Meyer?

  I would hope so.

• 16:48Speaker 01

  So, so now I'm like, okay, now I know if I'm going to make money or not.

• 16:52Dave Meyer?

  Imagine that.

• 16:54Speaker 01

  Right? So everything cash flows, cool. Let's move forward. At this point, I'm just buying two places. Put the offer in, we're 45 days out from closing. We do all the things, very traditional. It's my first time really, you know, Going through the whole process because it was, it wasn't NMLS, but it was still through an agent versus for sale by owner. So while we're doing all that, coincidentally, the landscaper of my condo complex knows that I'm buying properties now, just chatting with him. And he says, hey, my dad's got a four family less than a mile from you that he's looking to offload. Are you interested in?

• 17:34Dave Meyer?

  Did like your mortgage broker just like go out and tell everyone that she was like, I'm going to orchestrate Phil's entire rental property portfolio. We're going to make this happen for him.

• 17:43Speaker 01

  We're going to get it all done in six months.

• 17:47Dave Meyer?

  That's amazing. Okay. So was that a good deal also?

• 17:50Speaker 01

  So I go look at that place and this guy hadn't raised the rents in nine years. All the tenants have lived there for 15 plus years. And he says, give me a price. So we looked on Zillow and probably should have offered him somewhere around 380, 390. And we offered him 320. And he was like, great.

• 18:14Dave Meyer?

  Man, this story like you started so like, it was like a bad luck story, but now it's good. This is turning into a very good luck story. Okay. Keep going.

• 18:24Speaker 01

  So I call my banker and I say to her, hey, I know we're, we're full steam ahead with these two mortgages. Any way we could pull some money out of both of those and we can move it into a third. So rather than doing 150 on each of them, we did a hundred on all three of them.

• 18:41Dave Meyer?

  And that was still like more than 20% down on each of them.

• 18:44Speaker 01

  Still more than 20% down. We're still well within the numbers. Like it's, it's great. So she's like, this is amazing. She's just like, how did we go from four months of barely getting you one mortgage to now getting you four mortgages? And I'm like, yeah, it's a great question. How did we do that? Right?

• 19:02Dave Meyer?

  I hope you bought her some sort of very nice gift after all.

• 19:06Speaker 01

  Yes, we have stayed connected and all that. So at that point, I buy this other property that on paper doesn't make a dime because the rents were so low.

• 19:15Dave Meyer?

  This is the third one, the four unit. Yeah.

• 19:17Speaker 01

  So the Two, the two that were four doors apart from each other, those, like I say, it's Bayview. It's an amazing area. Rents were great. They were, they all had tenants. The tenants didn't want to leave. Perfect situation. Super easy, low key, all that. So then I buy this third one and I'm like, okay, well now here's the struggle, you know? The question of how much do you raise rent before they walk out and this and that and everything? And at the time, all of their rents were $600 or less.

• 19:47Dave Meyer?

  Okay.

• 19:47Speaker 01

  And market value is a thousand.

• 19:49Dave Meyer?

  Yeah, that's a dramatic change.

• 19:51Speaker 01

  So the first year I owned it in 2021, I only raised the rent $50. Cause I'm like, we'll test the water, right?

• 19:59Dave Meyer?

  Yeah.

• 19:59Speaker 01

  Well, then 2022, I raised it $200.

• 20:02Dave Meyer?

  Yeah.

• 20:03Speaker 01

  Cause we're going to keep going here, right?

• 20:05Dave Meyer?

  Yeah. And rents were going up like crazy at that point.

• 20:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:09Dave Meyer?

  So it was probably even more than a thousand was market rent.

• 20:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:12Dave Meyer?

  Market rent probably went up 10% that year alone.

• 20:15Speaker 01

  So yeah, so that's 21 and 22 and 22, I paid off that original duplex that I bought just because I was on another tour. And once again, when, when I'm on tour, I don't really spend any money. So I'm just throwing money at it and it's, it's great. And so now, now everything's making money. So now, you know, the dollar signs are there. I'm definitely not retiring anytime soon from this. But okay, this is the plan and the plan's starting to work, you know?

• 20:43Dave Meyer?

  Yeah.

• 20:43Speaker 01

  Kind of thing. Uh, and I will say that those three mortgages that I got were all at 2.7%.

• 20:51Dave Meyer?

  Yeah.

• 20:52Speaker 01

  So.

• 20:53Dave Meyer?

  Hold on to those for dear.

• 20:54Speaker 01

  Those I will not be paying off anytime soon.

• 20:56Dave Meyer?

  Yeah, no reason to do that for sure.

• 20:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:00Dave Meyer?

  Oh, that's awesome. And so, so this whole time you're working and I don't know how you get paid, but it sounds like you go through these spurts where you're just living super cheap because I assume they're paying for your hotel rooms and you get a per diem on your food. Or there's a, I imagine in my head, there's an amazing catering truck at all of these different events that you're going to.

• 21:22Speaker 01

  There, there's catering. Some are great, some are not, but yes, there is catering. Yeah. I mean. It's hard to spend money when you're on the road. We live in tour buses, so we have a bus list of whatever we want. When days off, we're in hotels that are paid for. So yeah, so it's a great life for saving money.

• 21:39Dave Meyer?

  For sure. Certain jobs have these perks and I think that's a just a lesson for the audience. Not everyone's gonna have Bill's job, obviously, but you know, some jobs are flexible and that means you can self-manage. Some jobs mean you can self, you know, you can save money like bills and you can pay off your mortgage a little bit really. You don't have to go into real estate full-time. You can find ways to leverage your existing job and not everyone, but you know, there are a lot of jobs that you wouldn't think, oh, that supports a great real estate portfolio. I don't think audio engineer would have been on the top of anyone's obvious list of things, but like the way you tell it, it does have some perks that really enable you to be a real estate investor. So even for people who aren't pursuing full-time

• 22:23Dave Meyer?

  investment, or you want to be a full-time investor and just haven't gotten there yet, just look for these kinds of things that you can do that can really just sort of like help accelerate you. I think Bill's providing us a perfect example. I want to hear more about where you've gone here, Bill. Is it good luck, Bill, or bad luck, Bill, coming for us next? But we gotta take a quick break. 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

• 23:06Dave Meyer?

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• 23:51Dave Meyer?

  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. 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.

• 24:36Dave Meyer?

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• 25:18Dave Meyer?

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• 25:53Henry Washington?

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• 27:35Dave Meyer?

  Welcome back to the BiggerPockets Podcast here with investor Bill Price. We learned about how Bill somehow magically just got 10 units in like seven months, which was super cool. That got us to 2022, but you made a shift in 2023 with your strategy. It sounds like so. So what did you do?

• 27:54Speaker 01

  So 2023 comes out. At this point, I'm working for the band Weezer full-time.

• 28:00Dave Meyer?

  Oh, cool. I'm a millennial. I love it.

• 28:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. In 2023, I knew that I had four or five months off that I was going to be at home for.

• 28:08Dave Meyer?

  Okay.

• 28:08Speaker 01

  So someone approached me in the Milwaukee area and he said, hey, I'm looking to offload my portfolio. I'm looking to go more commercial or any of these units, any interest to you? I look at his portfolio and there's one that's great. And so I say to him, hey, uh, this one I'm interested in, can we go look at it? And he's like, well, you know, I'd really like to just sell it to you. And I was like, well, I need to look at it here.

• 28:31Dave Meyer?

  Kind of want to look at it.

• 28:32Speaker 01

  Yeah. So he tells me, he goes, we're going to go in, you, you literally can't say anything. Don't talk to the tenants, none of that. Let's just walk through. So we walked through it and it's in terrible shape.

• 28:44Dave Meyer?

  Okay.

• 28:45Speaker 01

  So he wanted 195 for it.

• 28:47Dave Meyer?

  Okay.

• 28:48Speaker 01

  And at this point, you know, I've never negotiated a deal because all the other ones have come to me as we talked about earlier. And so I negotiate with him and I said, well, I'd go probably 140, 145. And he says, well, thanks. Uh, I'll, I'll let you know. So a few weeks go by and then he calls me back and he's like, all right, let's chat about it and everything. And so we, we get to meet in the middle and we bought it for 160.

• 29:13Dave Meyer?

  Okay.

• 29:14Speaker 01

  So my idea with that was it wasn't in great shape. So I figured this is the BRRRR method that everyone talks about. It's cheap enough that I can use my home equity on my current primary home. We're going to buy it. We're going to do the BRRRR method and it's going to be this huge success story. And now I've, you know, going to pivot that way. And so now I'm going to start my first reno I've ever done. All the other places I bought, I didn't have to do a thing too.

• 29:42Dave Meyer?

  Was this when you were off tour, you were like willing to take this on because you're at home a little bit more?

• 29:47Speaker 01

  Right. I have four months to get this whole thing done. I had a handyman that I've worked with before, but he was like, I'm a handyman. This is too big of a project for me. I'm calling contractors that I know nothing about. I get a few quotes and this one guy comes in and it sounds great. And I think I gave him 500 bucks to lock him in or something. And the first day he comes and he brings three other guys and he leaves. The biggest project was we had to tear the bathroom all the way down to the joists because the subfloor was rotted out. And one guy almost fell through because he didn't know where the joists were and what he's ripping out. So, fourth or fifth day, I fire the contractor.

• 30:28Speaker 01

  So now I've got about two, two and a half months before I'm supposed to go on tour. So I call and beg and plead to my handyman guys. I have another buddy, he's a carpenter for production work, so he knows how to build things. And so, in about two and a half, three weeks, we did 80% of this work. I had a budget of about 20, 25K to do, at that point, well past the 25K. And I'm just like, well, we're gonna keep going because I don't know what I'm doing, right? I'm totally winging this thing. And I'm about a week and a half from being done and getting ready to put it on the market. And my realtor comes to me and he's like, I have a buyer for you. And I was so stressed out at this point.

• 31:11Speaker 01

  So the buyers, they come through and they offered me 260. So I do all my numbers and I'm like, I can get this whole thing done for 40 grand. So if I can flip this place for 200 all in and sell it for 260, I'm running. So that's what I did. So I call it my XNL flip.

• 31:31Dave Meyer?

  Did you like the process of renovating? And did you like the sort of getting that big equity hit from flipping? Or did you prefer rental properties at that point?

• 31:41Speaker 01

  It was overwhelming. Obviously, the big equity at the end was great, but no, I didn't really enjoy it.

• 31:47Dave Meyer?

  Okay. I assume you didn't buy the rest of the portfolio from this guy after that experience?

• 31:53Speaker 01

  Right, yeah.

• 31:54Dave Meyer?

  So, you know, these ups and downs, though, really just kind of the story of being a real estate investor. And I think that, you know, it scares some people away, but not every deal is going to be like this. Some of them are going to be easy. It sounds, you know, we're focusing Some of the harder stories, but you know, this is just sort of how you build a portfolio over time is just find yourself in some deals. There's going to be some challenges, but look where you've come. I mean, yeah, you started in 2006, but just since you really sort of started doing this in 10 years, you've, you've acquired a considerable portfolio. Have you done anything more since that flip and sort of where does your portfolio stand today?

• 32:30Speaker 01

  So this March in 2025, we bought another duplex that was eight houses down from the first duplex I ever bought.

• 32:39Dave Meyer?

  And what's the plan going forward? Are you going to just keep doing it? You know, you're, you're still working full time. It sounds like, is that sort of your, your strategy going forward?

• 32:47Speaker 01

  So I don't think I'll ever give up working, but the idea is to throttle it back. I used to do 36 to 40 weeks a year out on the road. And this year, my goal is 16 weeks.

• 33:01Dave Meyer?

  And the fact that you're able to sort of scale that down, is that because of your real estate income?

• 33:06Speaker 01

  100%.

• 33:07Dave Meyer?

  I mean, that's just such a great example. Like I think so many people get caught up in this idea of like quitting your job and that financial freedom is this destination that you have to get to that you're either financially free or not. But your story is a perfect example that, you know, it doesn't have to be so black and white. There's a lot in between and you're able to use real estate to continue doing what you love, but just at a pace and a scale that is more appropriate for your stage in life and that you want to be at. And I think that's such a cool goal and doesn't get talked about enough in this industry that like these types of goals where you just get to do what you want, even if that includes continuing to work, real estate can help get you there.

• 33:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah.

• 33:51Dave Meyer?

  Well, thank you so much for sharing the story with us, Bill. This was a really fun episode. I really enjoyed hearing and learning from you. Thanks for joining us.

• 34:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm glad to do it. It was a great experience.

• 34:03Dave Meyer?

  And thank you all so much for watching and listening to this episode of the BiggerPockets podcast. We'll see you next time.

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