BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast - 6 Years Ago, He Bought His First Rental: Now He’s Doing 24 Deals a Year

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

Brett Hundley doesn’t want an employer or a nine-to-five job. Ever. At just 32 years old, he has already retired from one career and is now chasing the freedom and flexibility that real estate investing can provide. During his eight years as an NFL quarterback, Brett spent evenings after practice learning the ins and outs of real estate from teammates who had already discovered its wealth-building potential. Early on, he tried a little of everything—short-term rentals, new construction, and other investing strategies—before zeroing in on house flipping, which has since become his bread and butter. Brett says the skills he developed running an NFL offense directly translate to the real estate investing world, where he now manages contractors, deadlines, and budgets instead of playbooks. His goal for 2026? Complete 24 real estate projects. But he’s not staying busy just to pass the time post-football. Like most investors, he’s after true financial freedom—not just the income but the flexibility to spend more time with family, travel the world, and retire on his terms. In This Episode We Cover Brett’s journey from NFL quarterback to veteran house flipper How to find “great” deals in competitive markets with strong deal analysis Quitting the nine-to-five grind and “retiring” with real estate investments How to build out your own real estate investing team in any market Completing 24 real estate “projects” per year (without working long hours!) And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠h⁠t⁠t⁠ps://www⁠.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1273. Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[e-mail]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Don't want a boss or a day job deciding your future? What if you could ditch the 9 to 5 for good and replace it with a business that gives you serious income and total control over your time? Today, you'll hear from someone who's actually doing it. At just 32 years old, Brett Hunley has already retired from one career and built a thriving real estate business designed around one goal. Freedom. Not just money, but the ability to live. live life on his terms. Take that dream vacation and say yes to opportunities that most people can't. Brett's secret weapon is using the leadership skills he honed during his eight-year NFL career

to build and manage teams, to run renovation projects day to day, and hit lofty goals like completing 24 deals per year. If you're ready to build a real estate business, that doesn't just cover the bills, but actually funds the lifestyle you want, Brett will show you how to find your lane, scale from zero, and take control of your future. Hey, everyone, I'm Dave Meyer, Chief Investment Officer at Bigger Pockets. We've got a great show for you today. It's an investor story with Brett Hunley. He's a former NFL quarterback turned Arizona real estate investor who's doing the exact type of deals that everyone in our community could also be doing.

So let's jump in with Brett and hear what he's up to. Brett, welcome to the Bigger Pockets podcast. Thanks for joining us. Man, thank you for having me. This is a fun one. Yeah, this is going to be a lot of fun. So tell us a little bit about yourself. What's your professional background?

How did you get into real estate? Man, I like to say I fell into real estate. But background, I played football from Channel Arizona, and then I went to UCLA, played in the league for eight years as a quarterback. And then during my time, actually, while playing football, I had sort of got into real estate. When I was in Green Bay, that's where I bought my first house. And that is essentially what got me.

into it. And then it wasn't until I got to Arizona, who I started sitting down with teammates of mine, Larry Fitzgerald, Devin Conard is another big one, and I grew up with Devin. And then Prince Mukumero, who is another Arizona native. I used to sit down with them every day after practice. Prince was doing short-term rentals. Devon was doing long-term rentals and Larry was doing a whole bunch of stuff. Oh, wow. Yeah. And picking their brain. And then that's how I started buying my first short-term rental, then the first new bill. I see it had like a little real estate club? No, 100%. That's like a hundred percent. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, 100%. That's how I fell into real estate.

You know, I have a Prince of Mukumar, Jersey. Do you really? Yes, I'm a Giants fan. He was our first-round draft pick. Yes, no way. I went to the opening game and bought it, still got it. And this dude, so Prince, too. So he's from Arizona.

Oh, really? I didn't realize that. From Arizona. So it was me, him and Devin Kinnard on the same team playing for the Cardinals. And Prince was doing short-term rentals. And he had one day, I was like, dude, like, I'm just sort of saving my money. Yeah. Like, what are you doing? Because I was like, okay, maybe buying some rentals and stuff.

and he was like, dude, like, check out the short-term rental. And he showed me all his numbers. He was like, and it was crushing it. I was like, all right, so I bought my first property like five minutes away from his. Really? Okay. And then it started crushing it. And then Devin Kouinard as well was doing a lot of long-term holds. So I was running a lot from him.

So, man, just picking those guys' brain sort of got me into it. And then I sort of just took off running. You know, Devon's been on the show before he's written a book for Bigger Pockets. What do you think it is? There seems to just be this overlap between professional sports and real estate. Why do you think that is? Let me dispel this thing right now because people look at us and they're like, man, you guys have the access, can dump all this money into real estate.

And honestly, like when you really look at the statistics of making it to the league, one, I mean, you're talking 0.000, 2% of all athletes you try. But then once you make it, most NFL rosters are made up primarily of undrafted guys. And then when you hear all these $100 million, $200 million price points, it's not, it might be one or two guys on the roster. Right, yeah. And the rest are usually like at league minimum. And then if you do get a contract,

most average are 2.3 years, 2.8 years. Wow. That is a career. That's your average career. Most guys. And so that doesn't even get you to your pension, which is 3.3. And luckily I was blessed to play eight years.

So I had a great career. But a lot, most of us, if they make it, are going to play for 2.8 years and then have to figure out what's next. So is that kind of the mentality? Like when you talk about meeting with Prince and Larry and Devon, is that what you guys are thinking of? about and why you're starting to plan real estate?

I sort of, like I said, I found a passion for it when I did the thing, did the property in Green Bay. And then I actually started outside of that in new builds. So I was right, yeah, it was right in the Arcadia area. And I had a friend of mine out here who had built the house I had bought and was living in out here. I found a house and I said, hey, dude, would you be cool to partner up? I found a good house.

I would love to tackle. Yeah. And so we toured to the studs and built up new and sold it. And that was when COVID happened too. So I mean, the city shut down everything. It ended up making money, but like it was a two-year, three-year process. But I think a lot of the times when we get into the real estate space,

I think for us it's just the process. Like if you do it right, it is a process. If you're flipping, and that's sort of what we're used to. So I think that's some of the things we look for in other investments. Yeah, it's just kind of a math problem. I mean, there's process and you have to do the execution, but you can build a system to make it somewhat repeatable at least. Yeah.

Absolutely. And it's almost like systems, like especially for me being a quarterback. My whole thought was like I'm used to leading a team of receivers, knowing the offense, knowing sort of the whole play calls. I view real estate the same. It's putting a team together and then knowing what, you know, the triggers of each person is. And then also making sure we get to the end goal,

which is creating this product and building this thing. And it's a system. So like, you know, once you do it once, I think a lot of us say, oh, okay, like, you know, there's some challenges, but it's not the end of the world. Now let me repeat this, refine it, make it more efficient, and keep it going. Awesome. Well, I want to talk to you a little bit more about the leadership part because I think that's super important for our audience here today. And let's talk more about your portfolio, but we've got to take a quick break.

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so you can feel confident in your decisions. Even if you have a no pet policy, you are still required to accommodate service animals. And having the right process in place matters. No more blanket policies, just better information and fewer surprises. Ready to make smarter pet decisions, head to biggerpockets.com slash pet screening and sign up for a demo. Welcome back to the Bigger Pockets podcast. I'm here with Brett Hunley talking about his transition from being an NFL quarterback to real estate investing. So it sounds like you got a little bit of influence.

You said Prince Mukumara is doing short-term rentals. You did a little new build. You did a renovation. How do you think about your portfolio strategy when you really started to get into it? When I first started, did the property in Green Bay, but then I sat down and was sitting with Devin Conard, Prince and Mukamara, and Prince was doing short-term rentals out here. Devin was doing long-term holds in the Midwest. Larry, again, was sort of overarching, like making big investments and projects and stuff.

And I had started with short-term rentals as a rental portfolio. And this at the time, I do say I got lucky. This was when interest rates were like 2 or 3 percent. So I could probably shoot and not miss. Yeah. I was like, I could shoot him not miss, honestly. And so I bought my first property right around the corner from Prince's short-term rental. And we would sit down every day after practice.

He would sort of show me everything. He would show me the numbers. And I just learned. And I just tried to soak it in. And same with Devon Cardi. He showed me a lot. Yeah. And then from there, I bought one property, started a management company as well.

Oh, really? Yeah, keep it rolling. And then I bought another property, which I ended up living in. and then I bought another property. Short-term rental or long-term rental? All short-term rentals at first. And then from there, once I bought three, then I started my new build.

And so I was sort of just jumping into things. I was like, okay, I like the cash flow that's coming from this. And then from there, once we did the new build and finish that, then that's when I sort of analyzed doing a new build, the money I made, the ROI, and how long it took. And then I dumped into probably a flip-style property, but it was about a $1.5 million resell. I bought probably like 900, sold it for like one four, one five.

So it was a bigger investment. Yeah, a big swing. And but then I started working my way down and seeing the price points of all these homes. So I did that. And then the next one I jumped into like buying at 350 selling for like I just started seeing what worked and what was the best return on time on capital. And so I got to find like from the top to the bottom and the spread of each. And then I sort of found my niche and then just started rolling with that, honestly. And the niche is flipping.

Yeah. To be honest, I love new bills. No discredit to anybody who does all the new builds. But for me, like time-wise, as far as return in and out on projects, like in capital coming back, I found a true passion for flipping. That's really cool. Yeah. I love what you were saying, too, about just thinking about efficiency.

Because I think a lot of people hear, oh, you could go out and flip a million-dollar home, make a big profit, but you're also buying $350. Yes. So why would you spend your time doing the lower price home? Yeah, you know, a good, a great friend who became a mentor of mine, but now is one of my best friends. Zachary keeps out here, his slogan, Trash the cash, Zach. Love you, man. But he has been, he's probably one of the largest single family home owners in Arizona.

He's been doing flipping for 20 years. And I sought him out and actually just wanted to learn from him as well. And, you know, I was telling him what I was doing. And he was like, you know, the money I was making. And he was like, dude, just try one of these. And I was like, I could have tried it. And I dang near made as much money as I did. Right, yeah.

Get on the big projects. And I was like... And less risk, right? Yeah. And that's exactly what he was getting at. He was like, dude, your capital is being used. There's so much more risk. You do one of these.

And I, like, I think actually one of the properties I did bought it, I made like a hundred some about. It was just a quick flip. Yeah. But I realized like, man, I don't have to take these big swings. Yeah. And risk all this when I can still do in this range and still make some decent money in it. So did that because?

become your buy box after that? Are you still kind of open to anything that makes sense? Yeah, I'm honestly open to anything that makes sense. I think for myself, what I've tried to focus more of is just analyzing deals, you know, as sharply as I can, man, because especially in this Arizona market, like there's a lot of people doing it. And, you know, I've been just, it's not like I'm jumping at everything. So a lot of this stuff, most of the stuff, I just pass on. But like, if the deals anywhere it's coming from, small, big, like if the opportunity is there and the risk is worth it as well, I'm sort of open for it. Yeah, that's good advice. You know, we have a mutual friend, James Dainard, some often hosts on Bigger Pockets, who does the same thing. Like, he takes these huge

swings. He's flipping like a $6 million house and went to the house. Is it cool? It looks to say, yeah. He takes these massive swings, right? But he'll also buy stuff that's like 300,000, and it doesn't really make sense until you think about efficiency, return on time, and return on capital and just being open to anything that meets your underwriting numbers and not being too strict on your buy box. Is that one of the ways you are competitive in Phoenix? Because Phoenix, I mean, it's as hot of flipping market as I would imagine in the country, right?

Yeah, saturated for sure. So how do you stand out? I think the biggest thing is just having that wider range buy box. And a lot of guys now that I'm trying to get my name out there a little bit more and people know I'm buying cash buyer and stuff like that. and I would throw that out there cash buyer for anybody. Hit him up. But, you know, I think it is having that wide range.

Like, I, just like James, and I, you know, I've been around him and been able to pick his brain and study him and watch what he does. But I think it is just a lot of guys I've noticed sort of, and there's none wrong with it. They find their sort of sweet spot and they run with it. Yeah. Me, I'm like, dude, if the deal is worth it, even if we're talking a million, two million, six million in James' case,

as long as the returns are there to outweigh, weigh the risk, just like if I'm buying a $300,000, $400,000 house and doing that, like, I'm completely open to it. And honestly, I've, I like the less riskier ones. Yeah. Right. I mean, if you can make as much money and less risk, why wouldn't you do that? That's a better deal. By the numbers, that is a better deal. One of the things, too, that I think sticks out, especially as athletes and just general society, everybody wants this big shiny, like, prod home run, swing the beautiful things. And I'm like, dude, like, you have a nice, like, three, four hundred thousand dollar house. Like it might not be the big multi-million

dollar mansion, but like it still is a cash flowing entity. You can make money off of it and it's less risk. For sure. I mean, I would rather risk 50 and make 100 than risk 200 to make 250. You know, like that's just the math how it should work out. But I got to ask you, man, you said you liked flipping and you're passionate about it. I just I've done two now because James forced me to do it. Yeah. I am on the offensive if I want to I got to be honest. What do you like about it? I have enjoyed the process of like seeing something completely run down. Yeah. And in the matter of a couple months, like turning it into something beautiful, honestly. And I mean, it does come with the inherent risk of like getting into the property

and finding things that you might not be ready for. But at the same time, like, again, everything falls back to underwriting. If you underwrite it right, you sort of walk it and you know what you're looking at and you do the homework. Like, I feel like you, you, get a good understanding of some things, to be able to now say I'm taking a bad property in my own stopping grounds where I grew up at. Yeah. It's cool. Right. I think it's an awesome thing. I think it's like one of the most underrated part of real estate investing. It's like you do provide value to your community. If you do it in the right way, there are some shady operators in real estate. Absolutely. I don't think you are. No, absolutely. I don't think you, but I get good vibes.

I want to make sure people get a good home. Yeah, exactly, right? And like you are restoring something and providing that, especially at those lower price points. Like some affordable housing is super cool. To me, in my very limited experience as a flipper, so much of it is about leading a team. So you talked to a little bit about that recently, but how has your experience as an athlete, literally a team player and as a quarterback in particular, sort of translated into your flipping career? Yeah.

That has been the one thing that I think is the biggest, like I found the most joy in, honestly. like I went from leading offense going out to the field getting hit and trying to score some touchdowns to now doing the same but like trying to build a property. And in all transparency, you know, nothing's perfect. You know, you find people, you meet people, you meet contractors that you work with one time and you probably, you know, I've had experience or I don't work with them again, you know. And I've went through multiple contractors. But I think finding like the right people to fit what I'm looking for. And my biggest thing too is like the culture behind it. Like I also do want people to enjoy what they're doing.

You know, like everybody's out here to make money, get paid and stuff. But at the end of the day, like, you don't want people walking into a job, sloppy, not caring about what they're doing. Like, you want people who actually enjoy what they're doing. And I think finding that team for me has been like the greatest thing. Because now, like, when I get a new project, I'm excited to send out a text. Like, all right, boys, we've got another one that's rock, you know? And stuff like that. I think it's been fun for me to like just sort of swing by the project, see how things are going.

put up the pictures, making sure they know whatever. And, like, that's the, like, small joys that I get. Yeah. And then to see it come together, you know, and it's not something I got to be there every single day. But, like, when you find the right guys, like, it makes the world's difference.

I think this is such valuable advice or insights for our audience. Because, you know, I haven't done a lot of flips. I've done a lot of burs and renovations and that kind of stuff. And, you know, you don't think about culture because they don't always work with each other. They work different businesses. But there is a culture of, the job site, almost, where it's like, if you're the flooring guy and you show up and the

electrician's sloppy and not, or grumpy, or not doing a good job. And you as the operator let that slide, they might not put in their best effort. And so it's sort of on you to sort of create the standard and the work environment where people want to be there and they want to contribute a lot of success, whether you're renovating a bathroom or doing a whole flip. That little difference in the culture you create will cascade probably throughout the whole project. Yes. And that's that, like, I always envisioned it, like, Seattle, Pete Carroll is a great example.

Like, he had the best, one of the best culture of programs. And, like, that's also what I get to learn from and take what I'm trying to put together in building. But, like, Pete Carroll, you know, John Harbaugh, like, these guys at practice, like, it was fun. Like, you enjoyed what you're doing while you're doing it. And, you know, there's been some times of programs when you're losing and stuff, you come in and it might be dreary or whatever.

But, like, at the end of the day, like, as long as the culture, you got music blasting and practice. Like I like walking into a job site and I hear the music. I'm running around. So demo team is in there. I'm like, I love. You know, like, yes, I enjoy it. But that's like, it's, you should come in and like, we're all in this to make money and enjoy what we're doing. But like there has to be like a standard of set. And it's a, it's a performance standard. So it's something where everybody knows like, hey, the music's going. We're all in here working. But like, we're all trying to get done what we need to in time, you know. Totally. Yeah. And if you don't have that and everyone's grumpy, it makes it hard.

to give feedback, too. I think it's like if you as the, you know, the ultimate, you're ultimately accountable for the job, right? Everyone's pissed. It's hard. They're not going to be receptive. If they're having fun, if they feel respected, if they feel like you've got their back and have their best interest at heart, when you put in a change order, they might not look at you like they want to kill you. You know, it'll actually be a little bit better. It's so true, though, man.

Like, I think the craziest and the beautiful thing about it is. Like, it's everybody, I want everybody to feel like it's a team. Like, that's literally what it is. So, you know, if designer does put in a change order, I unfortunately have to deliver the message. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, but I don't want people looking at me like, you know, I want to bring the energy. I want people to have fun when they do. Yeah, I love that.

That's great advice. What role do you like playing on the team? I like being the manager. Yeah. And what's cool about what I have built is it's almost like a family affair. So, like, I, my mom by trade is an interior. designer. Oh, cool. And my wife is an agent. Oh. So like it worked. Did you plan that? I didn't. That's just happened that way. It did, man. When I first started buying my properties, my mom,

she's a flight attendant as well and does interior designing, went to school for it. And I was like, hey, like, can you just start doing my short-term rentals? She did kill those. And then when I got into the building and the flipping, she didn't started doing those. And it sort of became this cool, like, family team. That's awesome. And, and yeah, didn't plan it. But then in my position. I'm like, okay, well, like, I want, like, I'm not the guy who's going to be at the job side every day on people's butt. Like, I let people breathe and enjoy and do what they need to, but at the same time, it's like, hey, we need to get this done by then. And I want to make sure if I can get them as efficient as possible, I give them the schedule. I'd put up the photos.

I say, hey, I got cabinets being delivered on Monday. When do you need this? Like, I'm, I'm the middleman between all the contractors. So they're like project management. A lot of that stuff. That's, that's why I found my sort of niche and like what I, what I like doing. Yeah, okay. hey, we got floor income and cabinet is delivered. When do you need this? I'll make it happen. Yeah. All right, Brad, we've got to take one quick break, but we'll be right back.

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It's all in one dashboard, making it easier to compare opportunities and move when the right deal shows up. Go to biggerpockets.com slash lanar to create a free account and take a little. look. That's biggerpockets.com slash L-E-N-N-A-R. Sign up for free and start exploring this smart investing opportunity today. Please consult your own legal and tax advisors to help evaluate the risks of any real estate transaction. Lanar is an equal housing opportunity builder. Welcome back to the Bigger Pockets podcast. We're here with investor, former NFL player, Brett Hundley. Let's jump back in. Well, it's not all rainbows and butterflies. So what part do you dislike the most about the process. The thing I dislike most is when you get a call about some unexpected,

something unexpected. Sit down to dinner. Like I, I've, I just recently, man, I was laughing with our contractor. We had, for the demo team, we told them to cap the, when they're demo and cap the sort of plumbing fixtures. Sure enough, man, like the one of them had to miss it because like I walked in and like there was water everywhere. Oh God. And like, like stuff like that. But, you know, you take, you take it with what you get. And, but I would say probably the unexpected calls and the, then having to figure out their budgets and stuff. Like, that's, that's least favorite. It's a grind. Yeah. It is. But that, that's every real estate business. You know, you have to take the good with the bad. But it sounds like you've found a way to minimize the stuff you don't like

and to maximize the stuff you're enjoying. Yeah. Absolutely. Sounds like you have a great business going. What are your goals going forward? My big, hairy audacious goals. So I wanted, I want to do 24 flips this year. Well, okay. It's a big hairy one. Yeah. And, and so when I say 24, I would say 24 projects. So when I say that too, that does include like me wholesaling deals now. Okay. So I got into that on the side.

And honestly, it was just a way for me to cut out the middleman and start like finding my own deals and hopefully find some better spreads. Cash buyer. There we go. Cash buyer. But I would love to do 24 this year.

And I'm on track. That's awesome. So I'm rolling right now. That's intense. It is. But it's almost like you, like I want the challenge. Like it's, it's, I forgot what coach said this.

But it's like you change the mind. instead of like I get to like do this stuff rather than you know and like that to me is what drives yeah that's a good way to frame it and so if I you get to do 24 profitable projects yeah it's amazing and so if if that is my goal and hopefully I can keep this up through the rest of the year and find more deals that better fit but like if I can just maintain that at the end of the year I'll look back and I'll say like I did that and then you know I'm sure from there we're going to increase the goal but that's that's that's what I was going to ask is that like did you come up with 24 because you feel like that's your max capacity.

No, I wanted to just try to shoot for something. I wanted to think bigger than maybe doing two or three a year where I was probably at, especially while I was traveling and stuff. And now that I'm here, I was okay, what, like, what is going to keep me every day waking up saying, I got to do this, I got to do this, and like push me to be uncomfortable. You know, I think that's the biggest thing. That would make me very uncomfortable. 100%.

Like, oh, I'm, I, there's been moments where I'm like, man, we got another, we're doing this. Why did I do this? Yes, but it's been fun too, man. Like I, my biggest, the big goal that I really want to do is I want to be doing these projects, whether it be 24 or whatever a year, but I also do want to do one big bill, like a luxury brand new bill type thing. Or like a bigger, like a James $6 million or $4 million. Yeah. And the reason being, I would love to do one of those and live in the house for two years. Oh, do a living flat.

Yes. Oh, dude. And then sell it, take a marriage, so I get to the capital games, you know. So that's, I want to do one big project a year and like do that and then just have these rolling. Yeah, that would be very fun. And it gets to live in tons of cool houses as well. Yeah. But, you know, I'm curious like how you evaluate these goals, super ambitious and very impressive, by the way.

What are your lifestyle goals? Yeah. What do you want your day to day to look like? Because I'm, you know, it's tempting as a real estate investor to keep taking on more and more projects. Yeah. Some people want the more passive side of things. How do you find that balance?

So my biggest thing was freedom and like. being able to go and me and my wife are huge travelers, huge travelers. So like, we got no kids. We got one dog, 13 years old. So like, old man at this point. So for us, freedom is a big thing. We're heading out to Bali for three or four weeks. Like, we want to be able to do that and we don't want to stop.

So I think having that flexibility of saying like, hey, we, I don't want to get into something where like, it's a nine to five. I think that's the one thing I've always wanted to stay away from. I've always wanted something that also like I wake up and join. Like I wake up excited. Yeah. And I have loved real estate for that reason. But then I think the biggest thing is really just finding passive income. So the end goal for me is really once I get these, these are all operating businesses, operating cash.

I want to then start deploying into passive multifamilies or whatever it is that I can now hold and then start offsetting the mix. So that's our future goals. Yeah. But you're trying to build up the equity. And then by either own a multifamily or do passive or. So if I can own and start acquiring multifamily and my thought is using this strange strategy, if I have the crews who are building stuff like this

and the flips, I can then say, okay, I want to buy a rundown eight unit that might not be managed as well or 16 or 32, you know, do this and do the same thing at a bigger scale. That's where I want to... It's a good place to be right now. Yeah, it makes sense.

You have the skills to do it, for sure. And that's what, so me and my wife, our thought is like once we can analyze and find like a 32 unit, like we're jumping. So you're telling me you get to, you get to, do 24 flips a year and go to Bali for like four weeks at a time. Absolutely. You've killed it. Like that's the dream. I mean, I know depending on your family situation, but it's not like you're getting to do something you're passionate about with work

and it's supporting passions that you have outside of work. I mean, that's what we talk about on the show all the time. Trying to achieve that is really what everyone's after. Yeah. It's been fun and like I embrace the challenge of all this stuff, you know. And, what's crazy too is it's not like you know I'm seeing guys we've been doing this for 20 years 15 years and like I feel like I'm just getting started and like that's where I'm like the most excited like I'm still learning

like I man learning from you all these guys Devon Conard like I feel like I'm still getting going in this race so like it's just it's more fuel to the fire for me that I get to continue learning from guys like yourself and you know I think it's the best way to succeed right like a lot you know a lot of people get into this myself included for financial

freedom you know but it almost is tempting if you get into it that mindset to like have one foot out the door. You're like, how quickly can I stop doing this? Yeah. And I really feel like it's almost this like weird reverse psychology thing. If you commit yourself to being in it for longer, you almost achieve the financial freedom part faster. If you commit like, I enjoy doing this. I'm going to stay with it. Yeah. And just see where this goes. You'll probably get to quit sooner. Yes. Most people don't wind up doing it. But like you'll get that faster than just thinking like, how fast can I get in and out of this?

get rich quick kind of thing. And very true. And honestly, too, even when we were talking off set a little bit, I am curious, like, because I, again, I always love learning, but like, have you built enough to where you like, that is like a true passive type of thing? Well, what I've done is I've actually sold a lot of my, not all of them. I still own a bunch of active real estate, but we were talking before the show, I moved to Europe.

I sold a decent amount and I put a lot of it into passive real estate. So I do a lot of multifamily syndications. Got you. I actually think that industry has gotten a bad rap, but it's starting to, get good again. Got you. And do some private lending as well. So between those things, I probably could retire, but I haven't because I like working. And I like, I like dabbling. I still selling and buying stuff. Like I like doing it. But I am trying to, I've told our audience, like my goal for the next two, three years is to get to what I would call like our, my like end game portfolio.

Yeah. Which is kind of what you're talking about getting to eventually. It's like, how do I buy a couple small multifam, midsize multifamily? Solid. Yeah. Recently. built, great neighborhoods, load LTV, you know, 50% down on something like this. And that's my life. And I'll still do stuff, but like I know that I can fall back on that forever. So I'm trying to just reposition my assets into that. It's kind of where I'm at. See, that's cool, man. I think that's the cool thing about real estate, especially coming from a football background. We know we can't play football for the rest of my life. But like real estate, sort of like golf. You can play for the rest of your life and just have fun doing it, man. Like that's what's cool.

And then it only gets better over time. You know, that's what's good. is really the nice thing. Yeah. Well, Brett, it's been so much fun. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Bigger Pockets podcast. We appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me, man.

I appreciate this. And thank you all so much for listening to this episode of the Bigger Pockets Podcast. I'm Dave Meyer. We'll see you guys next time. Thank you all for listening to the Bigger Pockets Real Estate podcast. Make sure you get all our new episodes

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