Pod Insights BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast Financial Freedom with Just 4 Rentals? Why Small Portfolios Win About this episode This investor quit her job for good, with just four rental properties. Not 40, not 400—four rentals. And she’s not looking to grow much beyond that. You’ve heard other investors talk about owning dozens, even hundreds of rental units, but you DON’T need to get to that scale to reach financial freedom. Antoinette Munroe is proof of that. After countless “I hate my job” Google searches, Antoinette found the FIRE movement (financial independence, retire early). This prompted her to start saving and investing at a far greater speed than before, hopefully giving her enough runway to quit. She had saved enough to buy her first house—but realized it could actually make her money. The accidental real estate investor was born! Fast forward around a decade later, Antoinette owns four rental properties with very high cash flow. She’s done flips, learned to renovate and rehab homes, added additions to increase value, split properties in two, and done whatever it takes to make more from one house. But does Antoinette want more rental units? Not really. She’s happy with her small and mighty real estate portfolio—unless an investment in one of her vacation destinations comes up for sale! In This Episode We Cover: Why you DON’T need a large rental property portfolio to quit your job The unique, high-cash flow rental properties Antoinette focuses on today Doubling your cash flow by “splitting” rentals with the right amount of space How to fight city code enforcement fines and reduce them by 90% Using a HELOC to buy rental properties (and get ALL your money back via BRRRR!) And So Much More! Links from the Show Join BiggerPockets for FREE Let Us Know What You Thought of the Show! Ask Your Question on the BiggerPockets Forums BiggerPockets YouTube Apply to Be a BiggerPockets Real Estate Guest BiggerPockets Forums BiggerPockets Real Estate 710 - How to TRIPLE Your Rental Property Income with Group Home Investing w/Antoinette Munroe Baselane: Automate your real estate finances with banking and AI-powered bookkeeping. Claim your $100 bonus! Grab the Book, “The Small and Mighty Real Estate Investor” Sign Up for the BiggerPockets Real Estate Newsletter Find Investor-Friendly Lenders BiggerPockets Real Estate 710 - How to TRIPLE Your Rental Property Income with Group Home Investing w/Antoinette Munroe Connect with Antoinette Connect with Dave Check out more resources from this show on BiggerPockets.com and https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1120 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
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Dave Meyer? It only took four investment properties to change this investor's entire life. She was sick of the corporate grind and looking for a more fulfilling lifestyle when she accidentally discovered real estate investing. Now she's implemented strategies to maximize her monthly cash flow. She's created systems to automate the parts of investing she just doesn't enjoy and is passionate about providing badly needed services for people in her community.
0:30 Dave Meyer? Hey, everyone. I'm Dave Meyer, head of real estate investing at BiggerPockets, where we teach you how to achieve financial freedom through real estate investing. Today's guest on the show is Antoinette Munroe, an investor operating in Florida and Georgia. You may have heard her on the pod a couple of years ago, back on episode 710. And we're bringing Antoinette back because she's a great example of how you don't need some massive portfolio to change your entire life. Like I said at the beginning, she only owns four properties and she aspires to stay small and mighty instead of growing to dozens or even hundreds of units. Antoinette and I are going to talk about how she first dove into real estate after learning that there is another path besides working that traditional career for 40 years,
1:15 Dave Meyer? the strategies she's using today to create multiple cash flow streams from each new property she buys, and why her next investing strategy is based all around the places she likes to vacation. Let's bring on Antoinette. Antoinette, welcome back to the BiggerPockets podcast. Thanks for joining us again.
1:33 Speaker 01 Thank you very much for inviting me back, Dave. Happy to be here.
1:36 Dave Meyer? I want to start at the beginning here. Tell me a little bit about where you were in your life when you started thinking about investing in real estate for the first time.
1:44 Speaker 01 Well, I wasn't thinking about it. This happened unintentionally. I was at a wedding, being introduced to the wedding guests by one of my neighbors as a budding real estate investor. And then I remember looking over to my boyfriend being like, I think I gotta become a real estate investor. Let's figure out what that is.
2:01 Dave Meyer? Why would they introduce you that way?
2:03 Speaker 01 Well, I had bought a house in the neighborhood. Um, and I, I walked around and knocked on my neighbor's doors to get to know them. And I, I used some contractors that was referred to me by one particular neighbor. He was a real estate investor. And when I finished the house and then put it on Airbnb and was just kinda checking in with him and telling him the things that I was doing. He was like, oh, boy, your real estate portfolio is starting. Uh, I think you're gonna be a great investor. And I was like, okay.
2:30 Dave Meyer? I guess if the shoe fits, right? Yeah, it's like, you're already doing the work of an investor. You just didn't call yourself that at that point.
2:37 Speaker 01 I had no idea. So I had to reverse engineer that project to understand what being a real estate investor meant and what I had done. Uh, so yeah, it was definitely unintentional.
2:47 Dave Meyer? But you bought this house to put it on Airbnb. That was the original point of it?
2:52 Speaker 01 Well, I bought it, I was pursuing like five, financial independence, retire early. I bought this house so that I could pay it down quickly and not have a mortgage. And then I could leave my job and find something else to do. Um, so I was working a retirement plan, but it just so happened that after completing the project, I'd found out about Airbnb and decided to use two of the bedrooms for that.
3:14 Dave Meyer? Okay, got it. Very cool. And where in the world was this?
3:18 Speaker 01 In Orlando, Florida.
3:19 Dave Meyer? And were you working full time or like what else were you doing at this time?
3:23 Speaker 01 Yeah, I was in the, the good old corporate grind, working my way up, managing the southeast region for a large beverage company. So you may have seen me in, you know, many CVSs and Walgreens, selling my wares, trying to get extra shelf space.
3:37 Dave Meyer? Nice. And so was that just not fulfilling to you or were you not enjoying it?
3:43 Speaker 01 It wasn't. It, it never was the plan. Like coming out of college, I just wanted to make sure I had a job and I graduated in 2008. So that was like at the height of the market crash. People's offers were getting rescinded. So I just, I wanted a job. So I took the highest offer I could get, um, with the plan to like, I'm gonna work, save up, pay off my student loans and be out of here within two years. Because this is not what I want. And then I look up eight years later and I was still there having successfully forgotten about all my dreams, wearing the golden handcuffs proudly.
4:15 Dave Meyer? Yeah.
4:16 Speaker 01 So I was, this project was the like rebirth of who I knew I was, but had forgotten going to work every day.
4:24 Dave Meyer? That's awesome. Wow. Good for you. And this is a pretty common story, right? Where people just think that they're going to go into a job for a couple of years and then fast forward, you're just in a totally different part of your life. What sort of snapped you out of that and got you started thinking about a different alternative path or trying to do the financial independence retire early?
4:45 Speaker 01 If you Google, I hate my job enough, lots of interesting things come up. And that's really what it was. So, you know, lots of late nights where I'm like, I hate my job or what to do if you don't think, how to find your purpose.
4:59 Speaker 01 So those late night searches eventually led me to fire and started down that path. So really, the very first few years of that job was just fire, saving, making smart money management investments. So I could have the freedom to choose a job that I enjoyed and not have to choose employment for money.
5:18 Dave Meyer? So how did, how did that first deal that you inadvertently became a real estate investor on, how did that one work out?
5:25 Speaker 01 It was great, actually, and it changed my entire life. It was a long, crazy process. So it took nine months to find that first property. We got it under contract and the day before the first closing, the seller died.
5:36 Dave Meyer? Oh, my gosh.
5:36 Speaker 01 So then we spent about five months going through probate. It took that long because the first probate was filed in the wrong county. So then they had to refile it in the proper county. So finally, from a contract in April, we closed in November.
5:52 Dave Meyer? Wow.
5:52 Speaker 01 Yeah.
5:53 Dave Meyer? Oh, my gosh.
5:54 Speaker 01 Yeah.
5:54 Dave Meyer? I've never heard anything like that before. I have several questions. So first of all, you said it took you nine months to find. I think that's, you know, this is a common challenge that people have, especially when they're trying to find their first deal and especially in today's day and age when it is hard to find deals. So, you know, what was the process you were going through and how did you stay disciplined and focused through a long search for your first deal?
6:20 Speaker 01 It was the standard process. And at the time, I'm just a regular person, right? I'm looking for a home to live in, in an area that I want to be in. So I was being picky. But I also needed it to be like rehabable because I knew I didn't want to spend too much. And I wanted to make it my own. So it took that long because I needed the right thing in the right area. I didn't know that I was doing, you know, real estate investor type situations. So it just took that long to find something. I didn't want to pay over 200,000, right? And I needed to be able to fix it up and it needed to be in a one mile radius of like the best neighborhood in Orlando. So that's what took the longest.
6:58 Dave Meyer? And then I need to ask about this probate process. And if anyone doesn't know, not a lawyer, but probate is basically when someone dies, their will goes through a legal process called probate where all of their assets are accounted for and divvied up appropriately. But it sounds like you had a contract with someone who passed away. And so because they passed away, you had to wait for this entire probate process to go through. It sounds like twice through two different counties.
7:28 Speaker 01 And in the midst of that, you know, there, there were rate locks. So every time the rate was extending, I was getting charged additional for the rate lock. So the cost was going up. And then I lost insurance twice, right? Because it kept not closing. And so my insurance guy was like, well, I'm out on this deal. So I had to, in the end, change lenders by the time we actually closed so that I could get rid of all those fees from the initial rate locks and find new insurance.
7:54 Dave Meyer? And did they hold your earnest money that whole time as well?
7:57 Speaker 01 They did. They did. But it wasn't much. I think it was just like a thousand dollars. But I had canceled my lease because I thought I was moving in in June. So now I'm slightly homeless and, you know, sharing a twin bunk bed with my boyfriend at his mom's house because. So it's one of those deals where it tested you in every way, in terms of cost, in terms of flexibility, ability to stick it out, even when everyone's telling me, hey, walk away from this one. It's not a good one. But it made all the right sense for like my purposes and my needs. So. I also think that going through that, you gain a level of patience that you're gonna
8:39 Speaker 01 need as you continue to do deals and as everything goes wrong and surprises you each day. So after that experience, there was nothing else that was gonna come up in a project that was gonna take me out. Like if I stuck through that, I'd be able to weather the ups and downs of just typical things that happen in real estate investing.
8:56 Dave Meyer? That's such a good attitude because that's just how it works, right? Every deal has some challenges. I, I don't know about you, I've rarely maybe one deal that's ever gone like exactly how I was expecting. And getting that over with your first time like is honestly really helpful. And that's sort of what you gotta do because most people when they buy their first deal, they're not coming from a place where they have a ton of money or a ton of experience. And so you gotta substitute that money and experience with a little bit of hustle and a little bit of patience and a little bit of just willing to do whatever it takes, like share a bunk bed with your boyfriend at his mom's house. Like that's just, I mean, my first deal, I lived in my friend's grandma's basement
9:37 Dave Meyer? for a few years when I was, instead of paying rent. And you know, that's just sort of how, how it goes when you're trying to get started unless you've made a little more progress in your life and maybe you have some financial means to, to buy a really good quality deal right off the bat.
9:52 Speaker 01 Yeah, you have to work with what you got. Like even for that project, we did all the work ourselves. So I hung drywall, I pulled up floorboards, I knocked down walls because there was no budget to hire someone to do those things. But in doing it, you learn why you pay someone to do it. And now I have no problem paying somebody to do that because it's tough.
10:15 Dave Meyer? Yeah, those are, those are like a want it done kind of experience. You do it because you have to and then realize this is probably not for everyone. Let the experts do it. Well, it sounds like the first deal worked out really well. I want to hear more about how you scaled your portfolio from there. But we do have to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Hey, so they say that real estate investing is passive, but let's get real, chasing rents, drowning in receipts, and getting buried in spreadsheets feels anything but passive. If you're tired of losing valuable hours on financial busywork, I've found a solution that will transform your business. It's Baseline, a trusted BiggerPockets Pro partner. Baseline is an all-in-one platform that can help you automate the day-to-day.
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14:13 Dave Meyer? Take 10 minutes to get covered today with life insurance through Ethos. Get your free quote at ethos.com/realestate. That's E-T-H-O-S dot com slash real estate. Application times may vary, rates may vary. Welcome back to the BiggerPockets Podcast. I'm here with Antoinette Monroe, talking about how she hustled her way into her first deal in Orlando. Antoinette, tell us what happened from there. Did you catch the bug immediately? Did you really like how that first deal played out for you?
14:49 Speaker 01 Yes, I did. One, the rehab was gorgeous because I did it. But also Airbnb was like lighter fluid on a fire. I had no idea. At first, I was like, maybe I'll get roommates, but... Using Airbnb instantly in the first month, my mortgage was completely covered and now I was living for free. So I spent that entire first year kind of digging through all of the BiggerPockets forums, listening to all the podcasts to understand, okay, what do you do next when you've done this? I learned about house hacking, I realized that that's what I was doing, but then also the BRRRR strategy. And that is how I got my second deal.
15:28 Speaker 01 So in 2019, I purchased an off-market deal from my neighbor in the neighborhood I grew up in, so I had a direct connect to the seller. And that deal, I was able to get under contract for under 200,000. It only needed about 30 or 40 worth of work. And through some tips that I got off the BiggerPockets forum, I was able to refinance that house and get all of my cash back within 45 days of closing.
15:54 Dave Meyer? Wow, amazing. I'd love to dig into that because I think this is one of these deals that people listening are going to be like, I want one of those. Give me that. So tell me a little bit how the off-market deal comes up because we always hear about off-market deals, they're great, and they're kind of just this magical thing. And I think, how did this one come about? Did your neighbor know you were buying houses? Or tell us about it.
16:19 Speaker 01 Well, no, because at the time I wasn't. I just had the one house. But my mom knew that I was learning to be a real estate investor and I wanted to do that. So talking to her one day, she mentioned, hey, the neighbor across the street, she's planning to move to Georgia to be with her kids because she's getting older. And I was like, ah, I know what this is. I heard that podcast. This is a wholesale deal. So I was like, give me her number. I'm going to call her. And so I called her, found out what she was interested in doing. I went through all of the steps of the things that I learned about from a wholesale deal. I was not a good negotiator, so I was just like, you know, what is it that you want for it? I'll agree to that because the numbers worked out.
16:57 Dave Meyer? Yeah, which is kind of a win-win situation, right?
17:00 Speaker 01 Yeah, and so she still talked to a couple of different wholesalers. And I explained to her, it was like, you know, they're going to give you offers, then they're going to come and look at it, and then they're going to whittle that offer down based on the expenses that they have. So they'll, they'll do whatever to get you under contract. But ultimately, I think I was able to get that deal because of the personal relationship. And she was getting the price that she wanted, and that was enough for her. So it's one of those, you know, sometimes right place, right time. You know, you never know when that deal will come. But if you're putting out what you're interested in or what you're looking for, then people usually try to help. So I told my mom, I want to be a real estate investor. I want to buy more properties.
17:34 Dave Meyer? Yep.
17:34 Speaker 01 So anytime, now her ears are open when she hears about opportunities. She's going to think of me and give me a call.
17:39 Dave Meyer? Well, I love that. Good for you. That's an amazing story about sort of this combination of like serendipity and circumstance, but also being prepared for it.
17:49 Speaker 01 Being prepared, yes. If I hadn't been listening to the podcast, if I hadn't been doing the research and understanding, that opportunity would have came and I wouldn't have known what to do with it or how to like actually make it work.
18:01 Dave Meyer? Yeah, your mom would have said, hey, our neighbor's moving. You'd been like, oh, cool. I hope they enjoy Georgia. You know, like you wouldn't have been thinking about how could you potentially create a mutually beneficial situation for yourself and for this person. So you, it was a single family home, I assume? And you were just, your plan was to turn it into a rental?
18:19 Speaker 01 Yeah, so it was a single family. I put it under contract before I saw it. I just had like the memories. I'd been in here before as a kid, you know, it's similar to my house.
18:28 Dave Meyer? That's kind of fun.
18:29 Speaker 01 But once I closed on it, I came down and saw that they had done in addition to it that made it a much larger single family than I knew. And the layout made it, you know, conducive for a split, which is what I did with the first house. I bought a single family, split it in half and kind of made two units out of it, right up to the line of being in trouble with code, like just.
18:49 Dave Meyer? Just toeing that line, yeah.
18:50 Speaker 01 Yeah, so I saw this opportunity in that house as well, and I did the same thing. I just dropped a wall through the middle of it, made a one bed, one bath studio in the back with a kitchenette, because kitchens mean code issues, and then kept the three one in the front. And I was able to rent both sides out. Um, one to a family member, because anytime you're doing something, there's always somebody watching. So immediately, one half went to a family member and the other half, I used a Realtor to get rented out.
19:20 Dave Meyer? Okay, great. You said you bought it for under 200 grand. You had to put like 30 or 40 grand in. How did you finance all of that?
19:26 Speaker 01 So with the first project, I had. Improved it and then add it 700 square feet. So there was a good bit of equity in that home.
19:34 Dave Meyer? Nice.
19:34 Speaker 01 Um, I learned on the forums that I should pull home equity lines of credit. So I had one existing and ready to go on that first home. So I was able to buy this outright in cash using the equity from the home equity loan. And then I borrowed private money from my brother-in-law to complete the renovation on that second home. So it was a combination of all the things you learn. There was that home equity line of credit. There was borrowing money from my brother-in-law. And then the hack that I use is my strategy to make single families have twice as much cash flow.
20:06 Dave Meyer? That's great.
20:07 Speaker 01 Which is splitting them in half.
20:08 Dave Meyer? Well, good for you. I mean, this, again, it's just kind of a story of just like piecing it together. It's not the easiest way to do it if when you're, you know, taking money from here and there, but it's not that hard, right? I mean, it's just like using your network, using your connections and shout out to the BiggerPockets forums. It feels like they're giving you some good advice and everyone, you know, if you need advice about your own deals, you can go to BiggerPockets forums for free and ask these types of questions or just see what other people are asking. Great resource out there. So after these first two deals, Antoinette, how did you scale up? At this point, did you figure out that you wanted to sort of have a more full-time career in real estate?
20:46 Speaker 01 At this point, yes. Um, the, the first project, it was if I did this well, I'd move in this direction until I could leave my job. So by the second deal, I'm feeling confident. I've done some heavy things, right? I, I've done a burr and a cash out refinance in 45 days. I've done private money, home equity loan. Okay, cool. Then I went to work for a contractor. 2020 touched us all. I lost my job in 2020 and I was like, okay, I'm interested in real estate. Let me see, maybe I want to be a contractor. So I, I took a job with a contractor and he invited me to my first flip. So I hadn't done one of those before. We partnered 50/50, kept it very simple. I did one flip with him and then later in that year, another neighbor, same neighborhood,
21:30 Speaker 01 actually the house next door called and said, hey, I saw what you did with Ms. Gladys's house. I have a property that I want to sell. Are you interested? So then there was property number two that's going to remain in my portfolio down in Miami that I was able to purchase. And I reached out to that contractor and said, hey, I have no money, so I can't pay a hard money loan. But if we partnered, I'll bring the deal, you bring the money in the construction and we'll go from there. And so that's how we did that one.
22:00 Dave Meyer? I have to ask because I'm trying to follow the timeline, but you had lost your job. So were you still able to get loans?
22:06 Speaker 01 No, that's why I had to partner with that contractor for that last flip we just talked about. I couldn't go to a lender and get anything. I couldn't carry it month to month even. So that's why that deal ended up being a partnership for that last flip.
22:19 Dave Meyer? Got it. We have to pause for one more ad break, but on the other side, we'll hear what Antoinette is up to now.
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27:47 Dave Meyer? Welcome back to the BiggerPockets Podcast. I'm here with investor Antoinette Monroe, talking about how she's scaled up her small but mighty portfolio. You've done so much in four deals. That's more than I think most people do, or at least more variety that you get in your, in your sort of types of deals in the first four. So how were you thinking about it at that point? What was your plan of attack after that?
28:11 Speaker 01 At that point, I still was like trying to be a real estate investor, thinking that I wasn't one yet because I hadn't done enough deals and I'm still listening and learning. And every guest that came on with this huge portfolio, I'm like, man, I just, I've done three or four. I'm not working hard enough. And so first I had to like get out of my own head and stop comparing myself to other people's journeys because even though I had done less, there was just such a wide breadth of the different types of things I had to encounter that I still was knowledgeable, even though I was small and mighty. So I worked with him, with the contractor for about five months in total.
28:51 Speaker 01 And through that time, he had introduced me to assisted living or group homes because he was rehabbing them and he and his wife were considering opening one on their own. So I looked at the numbers with that and was like, hey, yeah, this does way better than Airbnb. I think I'm going to make this switch and pursue that. So at the end of five months, I let him know that I would be leaving. Two months later, I purchased a home that I was going to use as Airbnb in the meantime, while I went through the licensing process to convert it over to assisted living. So that was the next thing. And again, it's like turbo speed. My fourth deal is now an assisted living facility. So in just four deals, I think I've touched a good percentage of the different types of real estate models or styles that you could go after.
29:36 Dave Meyer? You keep going. Yeah. Assisted living comes up a lot on the show recently because I think the demographics of it just make a lot of sense, right? Like there's just a need for it and there's not enough supply, but it seems hard. What was that licensing process like?
29:52 Speaker 01 The licensing process. For the end result is almost too easy, right? Like, I just filled out paperwork. And let me clarify, within the states, there may be a couple of different agencies. So, people use, like, assisted living as a overarching moniker. Um, but there are different agencies involved with licensing, and they, these agencies serve different populations. So, specifically for me, I serve adults that were born with a developmental disability.
30:17 Dave Meyer? Okay.
30:17 Speaker 01 And so, that's the Agency for Persons with Disabilities in Florida. Their licensing process, it's free to apply. It's a lot of paperwork, but that's all it is. And you don't have to have, like, a college degree. You could have a GED or a diploma and still be able to apply. So, once you complete the application, the hardest part is finding the application on their website and understanding the additional documents that you have to go through. So, for that, I reached out to a consultant and had them help me prepare that application.
30:47 Dave Meyer? Wow. That sounds not that hard. And then, what is the operations like, though?
30:51 Speaker 01 That's a different beast. Now, we're beyond real estate investing at this point. It, it touches it, but the moment you reach that threshold, you have now crossed over, and you're now owning and operating, in our case, a medical facility, because we provide 24-hour nursing care.
31:07 Dave Meyer? Yeah.
31:07 Speaker 01 So, you learn medical terminology. You learn the tenets of HR, because now you have to hire and staff and schedule. Um, you're doing inventory, you're maintaining medical supplies, you're going to doctor's appointments. So, it's a whole nother world now.
31:22 Dave Meyer? Yeah.
31:22 Speaker 01 It just, the path that led me here was real estate.
31:25 Dave Meyer? Is it worth it?
31:26 Speaker 01 Oh, 100%.
31:28 Dave Meyer? Yeah.
31:28 Speaker 01 On, on all fronts, right? Just from the numbers perspective, there is nothing else I was going to do with that property to generate this level of revenue, at all, hands down. It doesn't matter how sexy your Airbnb is, you're not beating this. But, two, what I'm doing is necessary and purposeful, right? Like, I know that every effort I make is improving the life of an individual that, one, can't make those efforts for themselves, and, two, based on what you see in the industry, there is not a lot of effort placed for these individuals in terms of the quality of their home or the quality of care. So, everything that I do has, like, this massive impact for the individual, for the
32:13 Speaker 01 families, for the staff involved. So, it goes far and beyond, like... Any, oh, okay, I make six figures or I make this much at this job and this is my title. This is now like path aligning with purpose or purpose to path or however you say it. It's probably the greatest thing I could have ever done that I never knew that I was going to do.
32:34 Dave Meyer? Yeah.
32:34 Speaker 01 Or ever thought I wanted to do, but I'm here.
32:37 Dave Meyer? Oh, good for you. I could just see it on your face. Like you seem so genuinely passionate about this. And it's just another example. I think this story is so inspiring because even before that, throughout your career, you've just found win-win situations. And you know, I think real estate investors sometimes get a bad knock for being greedy or just, you know, you know, people don't like landlords a lot of the time, but like you've just demonstrated at each step in your career, ways that you are helping other people while also creating a profitable and meaningful business for yourself. So to me, that's like the ultimate, no matter how, what size of portfolio you have, whether it's two properties or 200, like if you can accomplish that, man, you're doing pretty well for yourself. So congratulations.
33:22 Speaker 01 And you have to make peace with that because like you'll want to do what everybody else is doing. You'll want to play like the big boys. You'll want to be able to say I have a hundred plus doors. But ultimately, if what you're doing is not what truly resonates with you, it's not what's coming organically, it's not going to be sustainable, it's not going to be fulfilling. So I'm happy with my little portfolio of just four properties. Right? But each of those properties, they come, it comes with so much more than the earnings there. And the earnings are great, but there's the, and then that also comes with it that you can't like put a price on.
33:57 Dave Meyer? I love that. And I think, you know, I, I wrote about this in my book, but I actually think there's like almost an inverse relationship for how many properties you own and how happy you are about your own portfolio. Like the people I know who have huge portfolios, they're all like, oh, they're just grinding all the time and they're miserable about it. Not all of them, but a lot of them. Whereas like, I don't have a massive portfolio. I'd say I have a medium sized portfolio and like, I'm, I'm chilling. I'm like, I'm, I'm fine. I'm pretty happy. I have great relationships with all my tenants. Like I feel good about all of the, of the properties I own. Sounds like you're in a pretty similar place. And like, that's so great. I, I just think. In this real estate investing world, we've sort of created this narrative where like
34:41 Dave Meyer? financial freedom is like this destination. And I really hope, and it sounds like you agree, like people just enjoy the journey of it as well. And one deal is great. Like one deal will get you, is a better financial situation than you were the day before. A second deal will move you a little bit further. The third deal will move you a little bit further. And like each one of those steps is an accomplishment and is something that you should be proud of and that you should be celebrating. And I, I just think these are, you're such a perfect example of at least the philosophy that I, I believe in as a real estate investor.
35:17 Speaker 01 Yeah. And that philosophy has to come from you, right? Like you can't borrow every gurus you listen to and try to follow their path exactly. You really do have to create your own and be clear in like what it is that you want for you. And it's very much like freedom first for me. And a hundred plus unit portfolio, I don't know how free I would be if I had that much responsibility. So yeah, definitely listen to yourself. Don't knock yourself about what you've done or haven't done yet. Just keep making the next best step.
35:46 Dave Meyer? Absolutely. It's great advice. Great advice. So what's next for you? I mean, you know, we're talking about scaling. Are you, are you done? Or what are you thinking about next?
35:55 Speaker 01 I think now I'm trying to employ more of a, a strategy, one that's I have the cash cow, right? So I'm converting each of the properties I have to these group home or assisted living models. So it takes that one property and makes it perform as if that one property were a portfolio of 50 to 100 units based on the income that we earn from it. So from there, I want to reinvest in like stocks, other things. I may attempt to get some commercial, but my real estate investment moving forward would involve things that could be truly passive, right? Things I can put the money into or buy and have under a management team so that I'm not doing the day to day. Of course, I'm
36:37 Speaker 01 going to stick to my roots. So I want to get at least five Airbnbs in places I like to visit. So basically I'm just, you know, I'm doing some lifestyle enhancement. Okay, I want to visit here. Let me get this. But also I'm smart enough to know that it should pay for itself and not me pay for it. So that's it. I'm, I'm just continuing to like build the life that I want, but using real estate as the tool to do the building.
37:00 Dave Meyer? What you were saying before about sort of finding passive places to reinvest, I think is so important. And it's a, it's a topic we do talk about sometimes on the show, but I think is really important for people to think about. It's just like the structure of your portfolio and not every deal has to be the same. Like it sounds like, you know, doing these group homes is very labor intensive. That sounds like a full-time job. And so you can scale, even if it's a little bit less profitable, finding the type of deals that work for not just your financial goals, but your lifestyle goals. Because it sounds like scaling up group homes to 30 or 40 units, that's, you know, you're running a medium big business at that point. And maybe that's not what you want, but having
37:44 Dave Meyer? five or 10 of these and then passive real estate can create perhaps the, the right combination of investments for you. Like I, I own a bunch of small duplexes, single family homes. And then I invest in syndications because it's completely passive and I don't want to do major rehabs, but I know people who are good at that. And so I'll invest with them. And it's about sort of creating the right balance for yourself. And as Antoinette said, not chasing what other people are doing, but just figuring out what are you capable of time wise? What do you want financially? And then sort of reverse engineering, what types of properties, what types of deals you need to ultimately get there?
38:21 Speaker 01 Yeah. And I want people to know, like the assistant, it sounds like a lot, but it isn't. I have more freedom in this model than I do when I'm doing a flip and driving out to that product every day, or than I did when I was doing Airbnb and, you know, responding constantly to, to guest requests or, or complaints. Um, because this requires staffing. So I just had to be good enough to set up the systems to hire properly. And then once those things are in place, it does a lot of running itself. So that my level of involvement within the assistant, uh, living is purely like choice, the things I enjoy to do.
38:59 Dave Meyer? Yeah.
38:59 Speaker 01 I want to go to their doctor's appointments because I want to keep up with what's going on with them. I want to throw the birthday parties for them when that that's happening there. So it's still choice, but the actual operations of it, I don't want anybody to shy away from from attempting it. If you staff it properly and put management in place, that can still allow you to be have that freedom that you want from real estate investing. It just adds a little bit of purpose for you.
39:23 Dave Meyer? Perfect. I love it. That's great. And and good advice. It sounds like it's kind of true of every business, right? Like you can choose how much you want to outsource, how much you want to do yourself, what are you good at, what you know, gives you energy, what fulfills you? Sounds like you found a great balance there. My last question for you, Antoinette, is you you gave me a lead here that I need to follow up on. Where where do you want your Airbnbs? What are the places? Give me the top three spots you want to go hang out and have an Airbnb?
39:50 Speaker 01 Well, one in LA. That's not my top choice. That's my boyfriend's choice. But if I didn't say it, I'd be in trouble.
39:57 Speaker 01 I like Chicago because food is really good there.
40:00 Dave Meyer? Honestly, our producer, Ian and I, were planning like a road show. And we picked Chicago because we want to just go eat there. Because the food is so good.
40:09 Speaker 01 So that's probably in Atlanta, because also food is there. It's a little bit closer. And I just love the whole vibe and culture of Atlanta. I think the others would need to be in other countries. So I would go as far as I can and put one in Bali, because also food, there's a theme here.
40:28 Dave Meyer? If you put them there, I'll stay there. Food is my thing. So I'll be your first guest.
40:33 Speaker 01 And then outside of Bali, another international one, probably Italy, because food.
40:38 Dave Meyer? Because food. Yeah, yeah. Just somewhere in central Italy, you'll be eaten eaten great. That's super fun. I love I love the dream. I love how you're approaching this and just really thoughtfully pursuing a life that you want through real estate. That's what this is all about. So thank you so much for joining us here today, Antoinette. We really appreciate you coming on and sharing your story.
41:00 Speaker 01 Thank you for having me. I was worried that I was like, I only have four deals. I don't have that much to update. But thank you for helping me show that, you know, enough is still good enough.
41:10 Dave Meyer? Absolutely.
41:10 Speaker 01 Small and mighty.
41:12 Dave Meyer? Exactly. Well, thanks again, Antoinette. And thank you all so much for listening to this episode of the BiggerPockets Podcast. We'll see you next time.
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