$1 Rental Properties and "Infinite" Returns with a 100% On-Market Strategy

One dollar rental properties, infinite returns, free-down payments, the best part, it's all legit. I've used all the methods today's guest talks about and they work. Seven years ago, Joe Mean was a basketball coach making $30,000 a year, working 90 hours a week. That's right, 90 hours for $30,000. So we had to get creative.

Joe used widely overlooked strategies to scale his portfolio on a lower income, with not a lot in savings. And he did it all by an on-market properties. Now he's got 11 cash flowing rental units, works for himself, and has complete financial freedom. You probably thought that wasn't possible in 2026, but Joe's coming on to prove that works. Mr. Joe Mean, thank you for joining us on the show.

Yeah, thanks for having me happy to be here.

So, as we always get started, we want to hear about your background.

“So, what were you doing when you first decided to do this real estate thing?”

Yeah, I guess I'll start right out of college. I was actually going to go to medical school, and then I got a contract to play basketball overseas and switch it on. So it was quite the switch up on what I was about to do. Did a year of that and then got hurt and came back and was like, "All right, I'll try a college coaching." And maybe get back into it and rehab a bit and start playing again.

And I just ended up coaching for 90 years. But the first two years, I made $10,000 a year, works about 90 hours. No. You made 10 grand a year working 90 hours a week. Yes.

Wow. And that's not uncommon in the basketball world. Some people aren't working for even less than that. You know, it was definitely lower on the amount made and higher on the hours. But that's kind of, unfortunately, like what it takes to move up in that industry is to start like just really scratching your way to the top.

And then hopefully get to a stable spot.

“Like Bucknell was a much more stable spot where I ended up.”

So I was a coaching college basketball at Bucknell University in Louisburg, PA. And I'd been there for about four years and started to think about purchasing a house and had a friend who had some rentals. He had some success with them and started to talk to me conceptually about the house hack. We didn't call it a house hack. Didn't know that term at the time.

But from there, I was like, "Well, that makes a lot of sense." Instead of paying $900 per month to rent, can possibly live for free. Yeah. So then I found a duplex that was on the market for a long time and started doing some math in my apartment, which is hilarious. I still have the sheet of paper with just the most basic math that ever didn't know. Okay, we're spending hours vacancy, you know, maintenance, anything like that.

But I could tell like, it'll basically cover my mortgage.

And that's all I know. And so I kind of just jumped in and then three, four months in it. And I was like, "Oh, wow, this is pretty cool." This actually works. Yeah.

What year was this? This is 2019. So August of 2019 was my first purchase. Okay, and about what'd you pay for that duplex? It was right around 250, the thing was 2475.

“Okay, and what were you able to rent out the other unit for?”

So the other unit was already rented for a thousand per month. Okay. Which I deemed a little lower than market, and my, my realtor helped me with that at the time because I didn't really know what I was doing. And then I had a roommate as well. You paid 500.

And that was right around what the mortgage was. So you did a double house hack. You, you rented out the unit and then you rented out part of your, your side as well. Yeah, precisely. So I'm assuming you did this using some sort of conventional or FHA loan.

Yeah, so it was in 2019. I graduated from college in 2012. So you were making more by this point. I probably made 30,000 dollars. And then my fourth year I made 30.

And then you made a little bit more that fifth year, six year that helped me. At least have like 15, 20,000 dollars lined up. And then yeah, I leveraged it was, I was able to put 5% down. Okay. On a five year arm.

Oh, so it wasn't a conventional. You didn't adjustable rate. You didn't arm was that with a community bank? Yeah, it was with a community bank. And also the sellers assist.

I utilized on that. What's that mean?

So basically you can typically go up to 3% back from the seller for your closing cost.

So I've done this several times. We're even like, okay, say we come to the terms at 250 being the price. And then you can get 3% off of that. But 2,500, so say 7,500 max, you go to, I would say, hey, can we change the price to 257,500?

Okay.

“So you up to sell price and to include some of your costs.”

And then the seller basically provides that to you via closing.

So you don't have to bring it to the table. Yes. Anything that not put as much down at closing is what I did as much as I could. So you had to get creative. You used your 10 to 15,000 dollars.

You saved up for your down payment. You were able to house hack, kept it rented out to the tenant that was there. And then you brought in a roommate. So that brought you enough to cover your mortgage. So you went from paying whatever you're paying about 900 bucks a month and rent to now you're living for free.

Correct. And then that tenant actually ended up moving out. And I was able to rent it for 1500. No, boys, you bring it in too randomly. You were making money to live.

And then I actually brought in my now fiance to live on my side as well. And then all of a sudden I was making a little bit in living there. So you were making about 500 bucks a month. I mean, that's almost close to your 750 a month. You were making 10 years.

I was amazed. Like I said, I didn't really know anything going in. And all of a sudden I was like, oh, this is great. Oh, man, that's super cool. And so, you know, I wanted to kind of backtrack on that story and get more details because one of the things we often hear.

We often hear from people is, I don't have enough time or I don't have enough money. A lot of the times people make those claims without actually doing the research to figure how much time or money they need. If you were working 90 hours a week and you were able to still find the time to go through and buy this deal. And if you were making somewhere around 30 grand a year at this time, that's not a ton of money. But you're still able to get creative with your purchase, scrape up enough cash to do a deal.

So that in itself is an accomplishment.

And then you're making money in your first house hack.

You did a double house hack. This was 2019, you said. So where did you go from there? Already by the end of 2020. It was December 2020 about my next house.

Okay. So you had the bug. You were ready. Yeah. You were ready.

Yeah. I was saving money, making money. And then my salary went up a little bit of buck notes as well. So I was able to, you know, gather another like 15,000 or so. And then the next purchase is really kind of what set me up here to really move forward in the real estate business.

So it was a main house and a mother in law suite. They were selling them together. And it had been on the market for a year off the market and then back on. So I was talked to my realtor.

“We walked through and I was like, is anybody else looking at this?”

Like what's going on here? Because it was like 400,000 for a 32 hundred square foot house and a mother in law suite. And what city was this? This is Louisburg as well. Okay.

And if we're about a million versus yeah.

And so I ended up getting it for a 360, but they were on two separate tax parcels. So that mother in law suite was detached since around two parcels. Okay. Detached lofted apartment with a cardboard, separate tax parcels. Yep.

So I purchased one for 360. And then I purchased the other for a dollar. Nice. And so that's kind of like what really helped me move in for. Because then I fixed the mother in law suite up, rented it, and put a heloc on it.

Oh, so smart. That is an interesting strategy, man. That's super smart. So for those of you guys that are listening. He had a single family home.

It was being sold all together. But the tax records indicated that these were on two separate parcels. And so what you were able to do because when you go get a loan for a property that's on two parcels, sometimes it's challenging when you get that conventional FHA loan because they only want to do one loan per parcel. And so when you're trying to buy two parcels, it can be a problem.

So what you did to get creative was you did one loan for all of the purchase price on the main house. And so you were able to get traditional financing on that property. And then you basically paid cash of a dollar for the second parcel. So technically the mother in law suite you own free and clear. You're paying the mortgage on the single family home.

Yeah. But you supplement that mortgage with the income you get from the mother in law suite. That's a super cool strategy to be able to take that down. Amazing.

“And so what were you renting that mother in law suite out for?”

So originally, 1100. And I was doing long term. And then the main house was of living flip. Oh, okay. So you were working on fixing that out.

Yeah. I lived in that worked on a construction zone. And then the mother in law suite, I then turned into a medium term rental. And did, you know, the traveling nurses and stuff like that. The cool part about structuring this financing the way you did is you can sell the single family.

I don't know if you have or not. But you can still keep the completely paid off rental. Is that what you did?

As we progress here. Yeah.

So for the next house hack, I ended up moving into that one obviously.

But I rented out that main house for about a year. And then when I left college coaching, which is mid 2022, that's when I sold it. And that allowed me to leave coaching and do what I was going to do. Next, which were the multiple birds.

Okay. Again, fantastic strategy. Because now you have the option of selling that property and keeping the rental and the rental is paid off. So that's just pure cash flow. But let's talk about the numbers on the living flip.

“So how much did you end up having to spend fixing that place up?”

Not a ton. Probably about 25, 30,000. Maybe even less than 20, 25. Because like, most fit was just painting and dry wall stuff. And you know, it was a 3200 square foot house.

Yeah. And a lot of wood paneling. It was an old old house. So you got to use the certain type of paint and then paint over it like four or five times. Yeah.

Like I said, I was working a lot of hours. I would, you know, we'd have practiced that like seven o'clock. It done at 9.30 10. And then I would go home and paint for an hour and try to get it done. So yeah, it was not as much money into it as it was just sweat equity.

What did you end up being able to sell it for? For 20.

“You bought it for 360, put about 25 minutes so you're all in it for 385.”

And then you sold it for 420. Yeah, with about two and a half years of rent paid out. Yeah. So you made, you pocketed it a little bit of cash. And we were able to sell that property.

But the bonus is basically you house act your way into getting a free rental property. That is the way I'm, is the way I'm looking at that. You got paid to get a free rental property.

That is an amazing thing to be able to do to buy a property on two parcels.

Put the loan all on one parcel. Fix it up, sell that one. Put a little bit of cash in your pocket. Keep the rental. Plus keep all the rents you were making at the time you were living there.

So bam, free house. That's super cool. Yeah. We're going to learn more about Joe Meand and how he's investing in buying free houses right after the break. As a real estate investor, the last thing I want to do or have time for is to play

Accountant, banker, and debt collector. But that's what I end up doing. Every weekend, flipping between a bunch of bank apps, bank statements and receipts, trying to sort it all out by property and figure out who's laid on rent. But then I found baseline and it takes all that off my plate. It's bigger pockets official banking platform that automatically sorts all my transactions.

Matches receipts and collects rent for every property. My tax prep is done. My weekends are mine again. Plus, I'm saving a ton of money on banking fees and apps I don't need anymore. Get a hundred dollar bonus when you sign up today at baseline.com/bp.

Bigger pockets pro members also get a free upgrade to baseline smart. That's packed with advanced automations and features to save you even more time. If the new year means getting rentals back in order, listings are a good place to start. Avail. Part of realtor.com makes it simple to list a rental for free and get it in front of millions of renters.

One listing, one click, post it across 24 top rental sites. Avail even helps generate listing titles and descriptions to save time. More visibility means fewer days sitting vacant and getting your property rented quickly. It's a fast free way to find renters without the usual hassle. Get started at avail.co/biggerpockets.

That's AV-A-I-L.co/biggerpockets. Most investors spend more time chasing deals than reviewing their insurance. But a quick coverage check can be fast easy and one of the smartest ways to protect and even improve your property's cash flow. As the months get colder, frozen pipes, icy walkways and seasonal wear and tear can increase the likelihood of claims.

And traditional insurance companies aren't always built to handle these claims quickly or smoothly.

“That's why more real estate investors are turning to steadily.”

They focus exclusively on landlords, whether it's a single-family rental, a burr-builder's risk policy, or midterm holiday guests. You get fast quotes, flexible coverage and protection for property damage, liability, and even loss of rental income. Now is the perfect time to review your rates in coverage. Get a quote in minutes at biggerpockets.com/lanlordinsurance. Steadily, landlord insurance designed for the modern investor.

Real estate investors, the April 15th tax deadline is coming fast. If you own rental property and haven't done a cost segregation study yet, you could be handing thousands of dollars to the IRS that you don't have to. These studies let you write off as much as 25% of your building and generate huge tax deductions. Costsegregation.com is an online self-guided software that makes cost segregation fast and affordable. So it finally makes sense for smaller rental properties purchased for as low as $100,000.

With pricing under 500 bucks and an average savings of over 25,000, it's just a no-brainer.

Go to cost segregation.com and use code tax deadline to get 10% off your first report.

Don't overpay the IRS. Head to cost segregation.com before April 15th.

“What if I told you you could forget everything you know about investment property loans?”

Because host financial is rewriting the rulebook, tossing out those pesky DTI restrictions. They focus on your property's income potential. No tax returns or personal income statements needed. Simple, efficient, and tailored for investors like you. Imagine a lender that sees the gold mine in your property, not just the numbers on your paycheck.

That's the host financial difference. And they're approved in 47 different states, so your next big deal could be just around the corner. Ready to unlock your property's true potential? Visit hostfinancial.com. Don't let old school lending hold you back another day.

That's hostfinancial.com. All right, we're back with investor Joe. And he just got finished telling us about how he essentially used house acting to get a free rental property. But now we're going to dive into what came next. You've done a couple of house hacks now.

You've managed to super creative with how you did both of those deals. You've got the real estate bug. So what was the next move?

“Yeah, so that he luck I was able to purchase my next house hack.”

I call it a house hack, but I actually had to use 20% down normal financing on that one. So I purchased a fourplex right down the road with the heloc moved into that. The good thing about this one was that it had an extra lot. So the the fourplex was two separate addresses and then the separate lot had its own address as well. And it was a full lot that you can build on.

So what I did a couple months after I moved in was sell the lot next to it and paid back my heloc.

So basically got that one for very little.

That's cool. So you use the heloc that you had on your free rental property, essentially. And did you pay all cash for the quadplex? Did you just use that for your down payment? Just the down payment.

Okay, so you went and got a conventional on put 20% down. You use the heloc for your 20% down. But because the quadplex had an additional lot, you were able to sell the additional lot to essentially pay back the money to your heloc. And and tell us about that. What did what were you able to sell that for?

The additional lot was about 35 40.

“So it didn't cover 100% of the down payment, but a good portion of it.”

This is great. This is great. And I know people are listening thinking like, man, this guy got lucky and just found all this property with all this additional value. But that's not necessarily the case guys. This is actually something you can look for.

So for those of you who are listening, who are like, man, this seems cool. It's a great way to start of supplement your investing. You can actually do this. I do this when I'm buying off market, but you can also do it on market. You can have your realtor search for properties that are available that come with additional lots.

So sometimes in the description, they might say that, hey, this property has an additional lot. Or sometimes there's multiple parcel numbers that are tied to properties that are on the market. So just tell your agent what you're looking for. You want to buy a property that has additional lots. So that gives you options.

I do this all the time. I've purchased several deals that come with additional lots. And I structure them in all kinds of cool ways.

But I usually always structure it to where all of the money for the deal comes from the property with the house on it.

So that the additional parcel, I end up getting to keep when I sell the property. And now I have free and clear land. And it gives you the option to do things like just like what Joe did. You can either sell that land. So I bought it dueplex to had an additional lot.

I did the same thing. I had to put 20% down. And so I put the 20% down. And then I actually ended up calling a builder because I saw that right next to my lot. Or was a brand new construction home.

So I called the builder who built that house and said, I've got a lot right next to when you already built. What would you pay me for it? They told me 15 grand. I said great.

I bought the property. And I sold him a lot on closing day for 15 grand. And that covered my down payment. Right. And so I've also done it to where I didn't sell a lot.

And I'm building a house on one of the lots that I have the free lots that I have right now. So I'm doing my first new construction project. And so you can keep the lots. You can build on them. You can sell the lots or sometimes you can even increase your sale value on your property by offering

the lot to whoever buys your flip. And you can say, hey, I'll sell, you know, your buy in the house for, you know, 250 or whatever. If you throw in another 20 grand, I'll sell you the lot next door. And then all of a sudden you're getting more profit.

So these are things that you can look for. Just make sure you tell your agent in your search that you're looking for properties with additional parcels. Man, that's super cool, Joe. So you bought this quadplex.

What'd you pay for the quadplex and didn't need work if so how much? Yes, I purchased for 260. Like it was in good shape. It was in great shape.

“It was just some painting here and there.”

Nothing major. I guess the biggest part about it was they had tennis that were in there for a long time. And we're paying like $350 for rent. Like crazy. Wow numbers.

So that was like similar to the first two plex.

I just knew like, okay, I'm not going to kick them out or raise the rent. But like when the time comes when they want to leave, like it's going to be really good deal. So the rents right now are 900, 900, 900, 700. And then I do a one of them is a medium term. The one I used to live in, I changed into a medium term and that one's 1295.

And then it has a garage in the back for 400. That's $4,100 a month coming in on this property. What's your mortgage on it? About 1500. Yeah.

I don't know if you're doing the math folks, but I call that a deal. Awesome, man. Awesome. So this was one that was just listed on the market as well. Yeah.

And it would have been sitting there for a little bit just like the other one. So I guess if you see the, you know, the bright light at the end. Others aren't just have confidence in closing on the deal. I like this story, Joe, because it's like it's more of a story where it's like one deal at a time. And each deal has its own unique characteristics and you were able to capitalize on each deal individually.

People want to rinse and repeat formula. They want to be able to go find x, add y, you know, sell it for z.

But it doesn't always work like that.

Sometimes each deal is a little different.

“And the way you have to capitalize and monetize on those properties can be a little different.”

And I want people to hear a story like this because what people should really be focused on is Can you go out and get that first deal? Can you go out and get that next deal? And then look at the deal you have. Look at the financial situation that you're in.

And then monetize that deal in the way that makes the most sense for the property and for your financial situation. And then you can focus on what comes next. This is more of the story of an everyday investor. Like we don't all need to go out and build a portfolio of, you know, 50 to 100 dollars rinse and repeat, but you can do this one deal at a time when it sounds like each deal.

Kind of got increasingly better in terms of how you were able to financially capitalize on it. And so this is super cool. So you were living in one of the units. You midterm rented. So that's three house hacks.

Boom, boom, boom, love it. And then after the three house hacks, you then pivot it. It sounds like that's when you focused on birds. So what did what did that look like to you?

Yes, so this is kind of coincided with my departure from college basketball. So it's kind of hitting that that burnout of crazy hour is not sleeping in your bed. A whole lot of days throughout the week and it just started to get to me a little bit. And so it's funny how things that work start to get to you a little bit once you start making it a little bit of money in real estate. It didn't bother you working 90 hours a week, making $10,000 a year when you didn't have a backup plan.

But now we've got a little bit of real estate money. We're like, I don't know about all this work. Yeah, I've blamed it on bigger pockets. And now you're thinking about financial freedoms and that cash flow. And you're like, why am I working 90 hours a week?

Yeah. Yeah. That tuned change. Okay. Yeah.

But yeah, I just reached a point where like, because you literally get no days off. Maybe a couple out throughout the year. So it's pretty crazy. It was a great experience. But for me, just at that junk share, I was like, all right, it's time.

And so that's when I was like, I'll try to do real estate full time.

Got my license and then found my first burr in New Jersey.

Why New Jersey? Why change markets? So I'm from the Philly area. And if you're from the Philly area, typically for vacation. You go to the Jersey Shore, the South Jersey Shore.

Not the North Jersey, the South Jersey Shore. I just knew the area could see there weren't a lot of rentals. The properties were cheaper. But the rents were still pretty good. So good place for a burr.

Okay. So you leveraged your your kind of insider knowledge about visiting the Jersey Shore. And realizing that there wasn't a lot of opportunity for rentals. And with your newfound experience as a real estate investor. He said, I'm going to go capitalize on that.

“But it's great to have the idea, but what did the actual application look like?”

What did you find? What did you buy? What did it cost? Yes, I had a really good relationship with my with my realtor there. And it up finding a bank owned for about 110.

I think the purchase price was single family. And it was in shambles. It was in really bad shape. So you found an REO a bank owned property. But it was on the market.

Did your agent go to you? Okay. Got it. And so walked through it and was like, let's give it a go.

This is 2022 in September of 2022. Okay. About four years ago. Bank owned property. Got it for 100 grand.

That's pretty impressive. How much did it cost to fix it? About another 100. Oh, wow. Okay.

“I assume you weren't the worm putting in the work on this one.”

So I was partially. So like I was still technical. So technically living in Louisburg at that fourplex. But I had a friend who lived down there at the Jersey Shore. And so I would go back and forth like two, three weeks at a time and work on the house myself.

And then I had a contractor who would do the, you know, the more serious stuff. The electrical, the plumbing, the kitchen renovation. But three, four months of sweat equity on that house. Yeah. Again, like I had left my, my W2.

You had time. You had time. I had time. I'm like I might as well try to save some money here. Like my contractor doesn't need to do the, you know, break down the floors and all that.

I'll just do it for, for free. Well, not completely for free. How long of a drive is it? About four hours. Four hours each way.

Yeah. So you were driving eight hours stints. They're in back to do a little bit of work. Okay. So this, for the record folks, this definitely not free work.

That's guess money. That's time. That's effort. Yes.

It saves on the bottom line for the P&L.

But definitely will weigh on your emotional battery and your spiritual battery. And your financial battery. Because that, that still does cost some money. But awesome. Still, you were able to pull it off.

You spent about a hundred grand. And this, this is a short term rental. Was it a midterm rental? Was it a long term rental?

“Like, what's the, what's the, what's the, long term?”

So that was like one of the big things for this area too. Is that it's a lot of short term with it being a vacation area. And so the long term rental was the, the part that was missing in the area in, in, in my evaluation. So how did it go? Did the numbers work?

Yes. This one ended up appraising for $2.90. And so that's about a $203,000 loan. So you pull all your money out? Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, that's like the, the whole goal of the bar right. The, the infinity ROI. Yeah. So yeah.

The first one ended up, it was, you know, up down, up down, up down, but ended up working out pretty well.

Okay. So you're able to pull all your cash back out. Is the property covering itself in terms of what it runs for? Yeah. So this one, it has a pretty good rental on.

It says a 2600. Oh, wow. That's awesome. Yeah. And, and believe it or not, it's at a 9.25% interest rate.

What is that?

“Why haven't you re-financed that thing again?”

I've been waiting. We can get to that. If you're making money at 9.25%. What do you see the seven and a half? You're going to get when you re-financed that thing.

Yeah. Goodness, man. Yeah. So the margin is about 2000. Yeah.

Yeah. Good. So you're covering. You're covering. It's probably about a break even property when you consider me.

Yes. That's pretty cool. All right, Joe. I want to know if you were able to pull this off again. Great way to find a property in a market that needs some long-term rental, so

we'll dive into that right after the break. If you want a short-term rental, here's something worth knowing. Not all landlord policies are built for your type of property. And with holiday bookings, chili weather, and higher guest turnover, having the right coverage is more important than ever.

steadily offers insurance designs specifically for short-term rentals, covering property damage, liability, lost rental income, and even unexpected issues like bed bugs. steadily works exclusively with real estate investors. So they understand the details that make short-term rentals unique and they build coverage to match it.

A quick review of your rates and coverage every year can help you protect your property and your cash flow. Get a quote in minutes at biggerpocket.com/landlordinsurance. steadily rental property insurance for the modern investor. All right, rental property investors. Listen up, our friends at Dominion Financial already have some of the best

DSCR rates in the industry. Now, they're the fastest, too. They just launched 10 day DSCR closing. That's right, 10 days. And they're still the only lender with the DSCR pricebeat guarantee.

The fastest closing. The best terms. Zero guesswork. That's Dominion Financial. Check them out at biggerpocket.com/demonion.

Again, that's biggerpocket.com/demonion. You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday.

How can you find amazing candidates fast?

Easy. Just use indeed. When it comes to hiring, indeed is all you need. That means you can stop struggling to get your job notice on other job sites. Indeed sponsor job posts help you stand out and hire the right people quickly.

Your job post jumps straight to the top of the page where your ideal candidates are looking. And it works. Sponsor jobs on indeed get 45% more applications than non-sponsored post. The best part. No monthly subscriptions or long-term contracts.

You only pay for results. And speaking of results. In the minute, I've been talking to you 23 people just got hired through indeed worldwide.

Speed up your hiring right now with indeed. And listeners of the show will get a $75 sponsor job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com/rookie. Just go to indeed.com/rookie right now and support our show by saying you heard about indeed on this podcast. That's indeed.com/rookie. Terms and conditions apply hiring indeed is all you need.

Taxis and reminder for all the real estate investors listening. If you own rental properties, short-term rentals, commercial buildings. Basically, anything that's not your primary residence.

“You need to know about cost segregation.”

It's an IRS compliance strategy that lets you accelerate depreciation on your properties. Which means you're paying less in taxes this year and keeping more cash in your pocket for your next deal. Cost segregation guys is the go-to firm.

Having done over 12,000 of these studies with 500 million in total depreciation identified.

Had to cost segregation guys.com/bp to get a free proposal and see your potential tax savings. All right, we'll back with investor Joe who found another great niche of burying rental properties in a vacation rental market. So you did your first one, pulled all your cash out on the refinance, so you executed a full burr. Did you find more or was that the only one you were able to do? Yeah, so up until this date, I've done two more in New Jersey and then one in North Carolina because that's where I live now.

And how did you find these properties? All just on market. All on market deals. See evaluating on market, yep. Okay, so you did two more in Jersey were the numbers similar similar price points similar or these heavy renovations.

Yeah, again, heavy renovations. The second one purchased 190 put about 120 in praise for 425. So the loan value at 315.

What's the interest rate on that one?

Not good, 8.25. Okay. Okay, another one ready for another refinance. Yeah, the time is coming, I hope. Did you pull your money out with that one as well?

I took it out with that one again. All right. Two for two on the full burrs. All right. And the next one, tell me about it.

So the next one sequentially was actually the one in North Carolina. I live in on a Lake Norman area. One of the lesser expensive towns in Lake Norman and found a good deal.

And just did another burr there that worked out pretty well.

And it's rented right now. Okay. So did that one and then did one more up in in Jersey from afar. Another big renovation purchased for 285. Put about 90 in a praise for 455.

And that one still has I left some in that one. That was so cash in that one. Okay. What year was that? That was last year, 2025.

2025. Okay. I mean, even a partial burr in the year 2025. The year of real estate butt kick and because a lot of people got there. But 2025 if you still executed a burr and pulled some of your money out.

I'd say you're doing okay. Man, I love this story.

“I think it's just a good story of using the knowledge and expertise that you have.”

Taking meaningful action, taking every deal on its merit. And then leveraging some creative strategies to help you continue to finance your real estate investments. One thing that I wanted to ask you about is now that you are of full time real estate investor. And you've left the coaching world behind. What is it that you're focused on now?

What is real estate allowing you to be able to do? Yeah. And like we touched on earlier has allowed me to pursue. You know, what's really been my passion for a long time. And that's human health and helping people in general.

And so I started a company called Optima Vita. And it's a health consulting firm that both helps people. One on one client services and does partnerships with companies and specifically real estate companies to help provide educational workshops online to their employees and agents. And then, you know, can help work with them one on one as well. This is the stuff that I love about real estate investing real estate does not have to be your passion.

But it can absolutely provide income for you so that you can go focus on your passion.

“And do the thing that you're called to do and not the thing that you have to do for money.”

And I think a lot of us have passion projects or things that we want to be able to focus on. And sometimes we just can't. A because we have a job, we've got to go work 90 hours a week for, right? Or because starting a business is hard. And sometimes it takes a few years before you're profitable.

And you know, some people just can't afford to be taken a loss for a few years. If you have real estate as a foundation, where you know that's going to provide you the income you need to feed yourselves and feed your family, then you can start these passion project businesses and give them the appropriate time and effort that they need.

So it's super cool that you're able to leverage real estate to help you pursue something that you're passionate about.

And the thing that you're passionate about is helping people be healthier, which is amazing.

Amazing story. Thank you, Joe. Thank you. Before we get out of here, Joe, just kind of give us the story. Where are you now? How many units are you up to?

Are you still buying?

Or are you just kind of done with real estate?

You're going to focus on paying them off in your and work on Optima Vita. Yeah. So right now I'm sitting at 11 units and he said, probably about five properties with higher interest rates, but also equity.

“So the next step is kind of a re-fi across the portfolio, bring the interest rate down, cash flow up, and then take some money out and then evaluate where should I redeploy?”

Should I go back into my one to four units? Should I try a bird?

Should I try something else?

A eyes pretty important these days apparently, but they're like real estate wise. That's where I'm at. I love it, man. Thank you so much, Joe, for coming on the bigger pockets podcast and sharing this story. Hopefully you guys listening were inspired by this, where inspired by somebody who is in a position that maybe a lot of you are in, maybe not making the kind of money you want to be making, maybe spending a whole lot of time working in those hours.

But still was able to purchase real estate and use real estate to truly obtain enough freedom so that you can focus on the thing that you're passionate about. And I think that that's really what everybody wants to do is they want to be able to live life on their own terms. And Joe's story really is a testament to that. So thank you so much, Joe. Thank you so much to everybody listening.

“Also, if you want to hear another story like Joe's, then check out episode 1078 with Connor Anderson.”

He's another young investor who started with the series of House Hacks and totally transformed his financial future. That's a bigger pockets podcast episode 1078. We'll link it right here on YouTube too. Thank you, everybody, for watching. We'll see you on the next episode. Thank you all for listening to the bigger pockets real estate podcast. Make sure you get all our new episodes by subscribing on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or any other podcast platform.

Our new episodes come out Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On the host and executive producer of the show, Dave Meyer. The show is produced by ENK copywriting is by Calico content and editing is by Exodus media. If you'd like to learn more about real estate investing or to sign up for our free newsletter, please visit www.biggerpockets.com. The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only.

All host and participant opinions are their own investment in any asset real estate included involves risk. So use your best judgment and consult with qualified advisors before investing.

“You should only risk capital. You can afford to lose and remember,”

past performance is not indicative of future results. Biggerpockets LLC discounts all liability for direct indirect, consequential or other damages arising from a reliance on information presented in this podcast. "Amazon bietet allen frischgebackenen ältern in the Logistik Center in Extra Famous Union, Boney." "So we're Anton, the grey is a new borne to the Amhelt." "Your glückzen is for you the schönste Geräusch der Welt." "That's it. Vielleicht ist das Geräusch, das schönste von allen."