Pod Insights Financial Freedom Podcast with Dr. Christopher H. Loo, MD-PhD 🔥 How to Win in Real Estate Investing in Uncertain Markets (700 Units Case Study) | Justin Spillers About this episode To book a PREMIUM spot on the Podcast: https://www.drchrisloomdphd.com/_paylink/AZpgR_7fBook a 1-on-1 coaching call: https://www.drchrisloomdphd.com/booking-calendar/introductory-session Subscribe to our email list: https://financial-freedom-podcast-with-dr-loo.kit.com/email [email protected] with "Podcast freebie" to book a coveted FREE guest spot on the show. Disclaimer: Not advice. Educational purposes only. Not an endorsement for or against. Results not vetted. Views of the guests do not represent those of the host or show. 🚨 Real estate investing in uncertain markets is one of the biggest challenges investors face today — rising interest rates, inflation, and unpredictable market conditions have left many people stuck on the sidelines. In this episode, Justin Spillers breaks down how he scaled to 700+ units and $65M in assets while others were waiting for the market to recover. If you’re searching for answers on how to invest in real estate 2026, how to generate passive income real estate, or how to navigate high interest rates, this episode gives you a real-world blueprint.💡 What You’ll LearnJustin shares how his value add real estate strategy allows him to:Create forced appreciation and increase rents rapidlyRecycle capital in as little as 18 monthsScale a multifamily real estate investing portfolio efficientlyBuild systems that work regardless of market conditionsUnlike most investors focused on predictions, Justin focuses on control, speed, and execution — the real drivers behind cash flow real estate investing.🧠 Why This MattersIf you’ve been asking:“Is now a good time to invest in real estate?”“How do I survive high interest rates in real estate?”“What’s the best apartment investing strategy today?”“What does the real estate market outlook 2026 look like?”This episode directly answers those questions with practical strategies, not theory. Justin explains how to remove risk, accelerate deal timelines, and build a portfolio designed to perform in both downturns and bull markets.⚡ Key TakeawaysWhy speed is the ultimate advantage in real estateHow vertical integration creates massive leverageThe truth about interest rates and why they matter less than you thinkHow to structure deals for long-term cash flow and scalability⏱️ TIMESTAMPS (17:23)0:00 Intro – The Problem With Today’s Market1:00 Justin’s Background (700 Units / $65M Portfolio)2:45 Surviving the 2022 Real Estate Downturn4:30 Value Add Strategy Explained6:00 Raising Capital & Preferred Equity Model7:30 Interest Rates & Risk Management9:00 Real Estate Market Outlook 202610:30 Trump, Tariffs & Market Risks12:00 How Beginners Should Start Investing14:00 What Makes His Strategy Different15:30 Investor Returns & Case Study16:30 Outro + Leverage Strategy InsightSearch: “Justin Spillers Real Estate Alpha”This episode is for:✔️ High-income professionals✔️ Investors looking for scalable income✔️ Anyone interested in multifamily real estate investing✔️ People seeking financial freedom through real estate🔥 Hashtags#RealEstateInvesting #MultifamilyRealEstate #PassiveIncome #FinancialFreedom #RealEstate2026 #InvestingStrategy #CashFlow #WealthBuildingFinancial Freedom for Physicians, Copyright 2026
Transcript 0:01 Speaker 00 This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required. Compatibility and availability varies 18 plus.
0:27 Speaker 01 This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Football has a play for just about everything. You can go deep, keep it on the ground, or draw up something nobody sees coming. And whether you want to run a flea flicker or the tush push, you need a plan to fit your unique situation. That's why State Farm takes the time to get to know you so they can help personalize coverage for your life and budget. Now that's a solid game plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
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2:07 Speaker 05 Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.
2:11 Speaker 06 Over the past few years, real estate investors have been navigating one of the most uncertain markets in decades. Interest rates surged, deal flows slowed, financing tightened, and a lot of investors simply hit pause, waiting for the market to stabilize. But while many investors were sitting on the sidelines, trying to predict what would happen next, today's guest took a very different approach. Justin Spillers, a former real estate attorney who left the legal world to become a full-time investor. He's built a portfolio of over 700 apartment units and more than 65 million in assets, primarily in multifamily properties across Ohio. And here's the interesting part.
2:53 Speaker 06 While many investors struggled through the post-2022 downturn, Justin wasn't trying to predict interest rates or time the market. Instead, he built a system designed to win regardless of what the market does. His strategy is centered around something most investors overlook: operational control and speed. By vertically integrating every part of his business, from acquisitions, property management, construction, and leasing, his team can renovate and re-lease apartment units in as little as seven days compared to the 60 to 90 days that many operators take. That speed allows him to force appreciation, refinance properties quickly, and recycle capital far faster than most investors.
3:38 Speaker 06 In this conversation, we talk about how he weathered the real estate downturn after 2022, why he's still bullish on multifamily in today's environment, the real risks facing investors with interest rates, tariffs, and geopolitics, and the exact investment philosophy that helped him scale to hundreds of units. If you've been wondering how to invest in uncertain markets or how professional operators actually build scalable real estate portfolios, this episode will give you a behind-the-scenes look at how it really works. So let's dive in. This is my conversation with Justin Spillers.
4:16 Speaker 06 Welcome to another episode of the Financial Freedom Podcast. Justin Spillers on the show today. He's a real estate investor, the former attorney turned investor. He's got 700 units managed and 65 million plus in assets. He's here to talk about real estate investing, more importantly, in the geopolitical landscape, interest rates, Trump tariffs. Justin, welcome.
4:41 Speaker 07 Appreciate that. Excited to be on.
4:43 Speaker 06 Introduce yourself and we will dive into the questions.
4:47 Speaker 07 Justin Spillers, a business partner, Brandon and I, we own Ohio multi-family value-add portfolio, 700 apartments, all in Western Ohio, fully vertically integrated, have a team of 50. Bought our first property in 2016, grown it to 700 units today. Self-funded to date, created a preferred equity fund last year to raise additional capital to supplement our own. I'm a former attorney by trade, went to law school, practiced real estate law for seven years, left the practice in 2016 to start my own companies.
5:15 Speaker 06 Real estate's been in a slump since about 2022. What was your strategy for surviving this downturn?
5:24 Speaker 07 We inadvertently exited 200 units in 2021. Good timing in hindsight, not that we tried to time the markets, just when our full value-add models were done. We're value-add investors, we buy, renovate all the units, increase top line revenue, NOI, and then sell. Now we're renovating, refinancing, and long-term holders. But 2022, we didn't find much good deal flow, so we didn't buy anything. In 2023, we found a really good off-market deal, we bought, and that started a purchasing spree. We bought 500 units from 2023 to end of 2024. All have been really good purchases for us. We've been buying ever since. It didn't hit us hard because that year we didn't find anything to buy. We were busy operating our existing portfolio.
6:07 Speaker 07 We got lucky, weathered the storm, and we didn't have to place capital. We were using all our own capital. We were doing everything in-house. We didn't have that big push to find that next deal or deploy capital. Conveniently missed that hit in the real estate market.
6:20 Speaker 06 When you say 65 million plus in assets and 700 units managed, delve more into your investment strategy.
6:28 Speaker 07 Completely value add. We only buy in Ohio, about 20,000 multifamily properties in Ohio, about 4,000 fit my buy box, which is 30 to 300 units, out of state owners, mom and pop owners, someone who hasn't improved the property in 10 years. We come and buy it, do heavy CapEx renovation project, increase rents $200 to $400 per door as fast as we can, do everything in-house, including the value add turns, refinance and get our capital back. We underwrite about 100 deals per month, 1,200 per year. I only buy a couple of properties for a year, hunting for those needle in a haystack home run deals. The biggest driver for us, we have a very elaborate underwriting model. We've underwritten thousands and thousands of deals. All I care about now is how quickly I can get my capital back on our CapEx spends. For example, if we put $3 million
7:13 Speaker 07 into a deal, I want to be able to refinance it out and get all that $3 million back as fast as possible. We underwrite to being able to do that about 18 months. Very unique metric. It's mostly driven by CapEx spend, being able to create forced depreciation as fast as we can in that model. We try to target for every dollar of CapEx spend, we want to get $3 to $4 of value.
7:32 Speaker 06 You're raising capital and fundraising on today's market. Who are the people that pull together to give you money?
7:41 Speaker 07 We don't syndicate. When I was a real estate attorney, I used to build syndications funds. I saw the good, bad, and the ugly. I hated the guesswork IRRs, third-party risk, very little skin in the game, the long-term lockups on the capital. We created a preferred equity fund to solve that. When you invest with us, it's liquid. After the first 12 months, you can get some of all your money back at any time with 90 days' notice. Second, we give a fixed 12% return. It's not a targeted IRR and aspiration number. It's a true fixed 12. We paid out every single year on December 31st. Our investors have two options. They can reinvest it, or they can take the 12% payout. If they take the 12%, it's not taxed until year nine. So it's like an after-tax 12%. It's pretty unique. The best part is they invest in that preferred equity spot. Banks get paid
8:25 Speaker 07 first, investors get paid second, then me and Brandon, we own all the common equity. So we get paid last. So they're there at a super safe spot. They invest into our entire portfolio as an open-ended evergreen fund. They get exposure to our entire existing 700 Plus all future purchases. It's a unique spot they come into. We target retail investors, particularly professionals, doctors, attorneys who have excess cash flow, looking for that good double-digit return without getting any taxable gain, with a lot of optionality to get the capital back if they needed to buy a new house or buy a business. That's our sweet spot of retail investors, mostly professionals, high-income earners.
9:02 Speaker 00 This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required. Compatibility and availability varies 18 plus.
9:28 Speaker 01 This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Football has a play for just about everything. You can go deep, keep it on the ground, or draw up something nobody sees coming. And whether you want to run a flea flicker or the tush push, you need a plan to fit your unique situation. That's why State Farm takes the time to get to know you, so they can help personalize coverage for your life and budget. Now that's a solid game plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
9:56 Speaker 02 This episode is brought to you by Indeed. You're ready to level up your business, but the pressure to find the right person to make that happen is intense. Indeed sponsored jobs can help carry the load. It boosts your job post to help it reach quality talent fast. Cut through the chaos with Indeed sponsored jobs. Get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring now? Then this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs.
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10:56 Speaker 04 Your sausage McMuffin with egg didn't change, your receipt did. The sausage McMuffin with egg extra value meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just $5, only at McDonald's for a limited time.
11:08 Speaker 05 Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.
11:11 Speaker 06 Before we talk about the success stories and lessons learned geopolitically, how are you positioning yourself with the exit of Powell and the oncoming of Kevin Worsch in May?
11:22 Speaker 07 The velocity of which we put capital to work and how fast we grow, one or two interest points doesn't impact our model whatsoever. Speed is our differentiator to glass through the interest rate risk. We are hyper focused on it. When we go in and buy a deal, we get five or seven year fixed adjustable rate mortgages on the front end from our purchase loans from our regional banks. Then we refinance out into long-term agency debt, 10-year fixed, 30-year amortization, typically sub 6% interest. My entire cap stack, I have about $38 million of lender debt. It's all fixed roughly at 6.5% for five, seven, or 10 years. I have very little interest rate risk. Then the preferred equity fund, we raised $4 million so far. That's fixed at 12.
12:05 Speaker 07 So my blended cost of capital is about 7%. It's fixed. I have very little risk to that. Obviously, I'm cheering for the interest rate drops like everybody else, but it doesn't impact our business model to the sense it would have for a lot of stabilized guys.
12:19 Speaker 06 You alluded to, hopefully, we're predicting the interest rates will go down. Moving forward, how are you looking at the real estate market in 2026? Is it going to still slump, bullish, or teetering along?
12:32 Speaker 07 I went to NMHC, largest multifamily conference in the country in Las Vegas, a couple of weeks ago. There was mixed. I saw a lot of optimism from one half and pessimism from the other half. It was a tough read, but in our market in Ohio, deal flow has been very strong. We have a very large acquisitions team. We do a lot of deals regardless. We have a lot of LOIs out. I have a lot of optimism. We're going to be closing on a lot of units here first Q1 and early Q2. What's been really good for us on the value add side, there's a lot of out of state owners looking to exit, a lot of older mom and pop owners that are starting to think about retirement. That are exiting. It's a volume game. If deal flow slows, you have to find off-market deals, being more aggressive on the acquisition side. I'm bullish on it, especially in Ohio.
13:15 Speaker 07 There's going to be a lot of transactions in my class that's E and C-class market. I don't have a great pulse for the luxury market, the A-class. I think there's a lot of interest rate risk there that will cause turnover and ownership, but I'm very optimistic on the real estate market for what we're doing.
13:32 Speaker 06 Quick pause here. If this episode is making you rethink how your income is structured, that's intentional. Information doesn't create freedom. Structure does. At the end of this episode, I'm going to show you how to diagnose whether you're building leverage or just scaling complexity. Let's get back into it. As you alluded to, insulating yourself from interest rates, how about risks you see for real estate with Trump, tariffs, equity markets, gold, silver, and Bitcoin?
14:01 Speaker 07 Yeah, Trump, obviously, he's a big real estate guy. He's passed and continued to reinforce all the great tax benefits for real estate investors. That's been great. There's no negative risk there from the big-picture business thesis of real estate investments. The 1031 exchange, we've bonus depreciation, cost segregation, a lot of really good levers to pull. That's been great. Tariffs, cost of goods on our terms, so we don't build new, we're not in new construction. That impacts them significantly more than us. Cost of returns have gone up 20, 30%. Not so much that the amount we've been able to increase leases can't keep up with it. We've been really good at increasing rents to keep up with cost of construction on our value-add side. That's not been too bad. Obviously, stability
14:44 Speaker 07 there would help, but the chaos has created market opportunities. It hasn't hurt it too bad. I'm the last bigger piece of the other hard assets. I view all of that speculative. It's a hedge against fiat currency. It's a hedge against the equity markets. I love real estate. I can touch it. I can feel it. I can control it. My properties are in my backyards. I can go and operate them. In a true doomsday scenario, I could let go of 90% of my staff, me, Brandon, my top team members. We could stabilize our properties, cash flow. We want to be doing the value-add, but I could Keep everyone paid and do very well. I love that aspect of it. Gold, silver, Bitcoin, it's the Wild West. You get one company that's completely taken over the market, whether that's Blackstone or whoever, they can create artificially dips and peaks.
15:29 Speaker 07 They're the ones that always make the money. The retail guys like us, we're always behind the eight ball. I don't like investing in assets I can't control for that reason. Heavily bullish on the real estate market because it is controllable and because of all the tax benefits.
15:42 Speaker 06 Moving on to your funds, if someone were positioning themselves to capitalize on real estate, either single family, multifamily, how should they be thinking and how can you help them?
15:53 Speaker 07 If you want to do it on your own, I highly recommend it. One great thing is that you get the depreciation, right? You get all the benefits of the losses offset your income. A lot of people, they'll get tripped up. If you're doing it part-time and you're not what's considered to be a real estate professional, which is a legally defined term, you gotta work 750 hours, it has to be the bulk of your income. You can't offset like being a doctor with your rental property. Everyone thinks you can do that, but you can't. Make sure you understand the benefits and if it actually works in your situation. Your spouse can though, that's a very common thing to do. It is great. It's a great place to put money. Real estate appreciates, cash flows extremely well. It's an asset class I think people should explore if they have any level of interest. It's a great investment vehicle, long-term.
16:37 Speaker 07 I'd say the first step, invest with somebody, whether it is a syndication, another group in a single asset, you invest with us in a large portfolio or fund. You get exposure by osmosis of seeing what we do, how we do it, what matters. You start to learn the terminology. You need to understand the foundation, the basic metrics of real estate investing. Get some books, start watching, start reading. The world seems very big in the real estate space. A lot of concepts are very complex. As you learn, it gets very small. Everything boiled down to simple concepts. Once you have the basics down, you could do it on your own. I always recommend doing your due diligence, finding a really good operator, place a little bit of investment, grow it and learn. I have 25 retail investors.
17:19 Speaker 07 I'll take any phone call, I'll answer any questions if they have their own flips they want to do, their own investments, I'm happy to look at it. I'm a great resource. I have 10 years of experience, I've seen it all. So rely upon other people in the space, reach out to them. If you're an investor with them, they can have obligations to you. Not that I wouldn't help someone regardless if they invested with me or not, but that's a great way to get into it.
17:41 Speaker 06 With all investments with firms, it's all about the fit. What differentiates real estate alpha, the defining characteristics that make people invest with you over others?
17:52 Speaker 07 Two big things. First, we do over owned acquisitions in-house. I have an acquisitions manager, three analysts. All we do is underwrite those 4,000 properties that fit my buy box. I am hyper focused on buying. You avoid a lot of mistakes by buying right. We create value by buying right, finding good off-market deals. Second, most importantly, we are fully vertically integrated. I don't outsource any part of my business. I don't leave anything to guesswork. I do all my own property management, all my own leasing, all my own maintenance, all my own construction in-house. With the sole focus of speed, we want to be able to turn the entire apartment complex in 18 months or less. Two to three times faster than most of our competition. We do it by being vigilant on our scheduling. When one of our tenants gives us a move out notice, my leasing manager is in there the next day. There's a full video inspection, gets it to my turn team.
18:37 Speaker 07 We figure out which turn type we're doing. We have 95% standardization. We do the exact same LBT, LVP floor, paint trim, cabinet countertop, bath fixtures, appliances in every turn. We do it in seven days or less. Using our three man crews, they work 10 hour shifts. My painters work at night. My leasing team has a pre-de sign and new tenants moving in on day eight. That fully vertically integrated stack, being able to turn full units in seven days or less. My competition's turning it in 60 to 90 days. Being able to do it for half the cost, that is the differentiator. We do that extremely well and that allows us to use our capital much quicker. We find the velocity of cash, we can put it to work much faster too. I don't need crazy outlandish returns over a four-year period because I'm realizing all the gain in an 18-month period.
19:19 Speaker 07 But it allows our underwriting to get even wider and the deals that look really good to us.
19:23 Speaker 06 What are success stories to conclude?
19:27 Speaker 07 With us, you know your success story in the front end. You get that great fixed 12%. You're going to take the distributions every year without paying any tax on it. If you invest 100,000, for example, I'd pay you 12,000 every year. You can spend it redeployed, there's no gain on it till year nine. If you need your capital back for some reason, you can get it all back by giving us 90 days notice. Then you're in that super safe spot in the capital stack right after the banks. I'd have to lose all my value. All of our investors have had the exact same returns and a really safe versus adjusted spot with the optionality of putting their money to work with us, adding to it, reinvesting it, taking the distributions, or getting it all back at their own options. They've all had a great experience so far. We've never lost anybody's capital. We've given that really good return. At 12%, you double your money every six years with no taxes.
20:10 Speaker 07 It's a really safe play. It's a really good upfront cash on cash return for them to use.
20:14 Speaker 06 How can people connect with you and learn more?
20:17 Speaker 07 RealEstateAlpha.io is our website. If you look me up, Justin Spiller is Real Estate Alpha. You'll find my LinkedIn profile, my email, phone number, everything's there. Reach out. I'm happy to help with any questions anytime.
20:28 Speaker 06 Excellent. Thanks so much for coming on and talking to us about Real Estate Alpha. We really appreciate it.
20:33 Speaker 07 Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
20:38 Speaker 06 Let's zoom out. If you're a physician, founder, or high-income professional, and you feel like you're working harder every year but not structurally fair, you're not alone. The mistake is an effort. It's architecture. This show exists to help you convert expertise into scalable leverage faster and with fewer expensive missteps. Here's the diagnostic I mentioned before. If your income requires your constant presence, if your capital isn't compounding outside your profession, if your highest value talent is doing low-value tasks, you don't have a growth problem. You have a leverage design problem. And if you want to fix it with clarity instead of guesswork, I offer a limited number of one-on-one leverage strategy sessions each month.
21:23 Speaker 06 We audit your income model, capital deployment, authority positioning, and structural bottlenecks and design your highest return move. If you're serious about compressing years into months, the link to apply is below.
21:45 Speaker 01 This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Football has a play for just about everything. You can go deep, keep it on the ground, or draw up something nobody sees coming. And whether you want to run a flea flicker or the tush push, you need a plan to fit your unique situation. That's why State Farm takes the time to get to know you so they can help personalize coverage for your life and budget. Now that's a solid game plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
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