BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast - Semi-Retired with a Small $6,000/Month Rental Portfolio

Episode Date: June 23, 2025

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

Just a few rental properties can change your entire life. Today's guest rolled his former primary home into three rentals, and five years later, he has 13 units, and he has cut his taxing work schedule in half. And this isn't some secret path that you need millions of dollars to follow. His first property was a condo for $240,000. And this just shows that anyone can do it, so let's find out how. Hey, everyone, I'm Dave Meyer. I've been investing in rental properties for 15 years, and on this podcast, I bring you the stories of fellow real estate investors who have also changed their

lives through real estate. Today's guest is Bill Price. He started with a two-bedroom condo in Milwaukee and actually went more than 10 years between buying properties. But eventually, he grew his portfolio to 13 units over the course of six years. Nearly all of his properties have cost under $300,000, but even that modest, manageable real estate investing has allowed him to take more time off from his very travel-intensive day job and would allow him to retire early in the future if he chooses to. This is a great conversation about the power of even basic real estate investing strategies. Bill isn't doing anything crazy or difficult or time-intensive. He's just taking advantage of compounding his wealth over time.

Let's bring on Bill. Bill, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for being here. Yeah, thanks for having me. Looking forward to this. Yeah, me too. So tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get involved in real estate in the first place?

Yeah, so I moved to Milwaukee in 2004 right after college, and I got involved in the entertainment production side of things, went to school for music and sound production, and got hooked up with a company doing all the big festivals, concerts in Milwaukee, Chicago, all that. That sounds fun. Yeah, yeah, that's great. And then with that, I bought my first condo. Buddy of mine said, hey, I need a place to live about four months after I was living there.

And I said, well, I got a second bedroom that I'm not really using. And I'm never here because I was always traveling with concerts and all that. So he moved in and didn't know anything about real estate. Just thought, hey, this way, this guy can pay all my utilities. I'll pay the mortgage and I'll move on. So, yeah. So that kind of started the career. And that was, like I said, 2006.

And then it just kind of springboarded. And then I got interested in real estate. And he moved out. But someone else moved in. I charged them more so they'd actually pay the mortgage versus paying the utilities. And it just kind of grew from there and really sparked my interest. Huh. That's very cool.

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

aggressive on paying off my condo kind of once the market came back about. And everyone's telling me, don't pay off your condo, you know, just take the mortgage, write it out. And I was actually on tour with Justin Bieber at the time. And it was the most money I'd ever made and we're traveling the world. And I was told, hey, you're not going to be home for a year and a half. And so I'm just like, I'm throwing money at this place. So in 2014, I actually paid off my condo. Wow. That's awesome. That was, you know, a huge accomplishment. So then in 2016, my wife and I, we decided to move in together. And at that point, I was like, I kind of want to, you know, keep renting this place out.

It's working. So I figured, let's give it a shot. Let's see what happens. It's paid off. You know, why not kind of thing. Yeah. So we wound up putting it up on, I think, Craigslist back then. Yes, that's what we were doing back then.

Right. And rented it out immediately and had a great couple that lived there for four years. And so that was kind of the springboard to, okay, this works. And at that point, it was so easy because the condo wasn't even 10 years old. There's nothing's going on with it. We had just gotten through a lawsuit. So we had a bunch of stuff replaced. It's a condo.

So there's no real maintenance. So it was just literally free money at that point. This is such a relatable story because I think a lot of people feel like becoming a landlord or becoming a real estate investor is this huge decision. But for some people, it just happens, right? You just like start doing it. And you notice. that there were all these incredible benefits to it, especially when you haven't paid off. That's a pretty cool story.

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

So fast forward us. So in 2016, you started leasing it out. But for what I understand, a couple years later, you know, right before the pandemic, you did start actually sort of have a turning point. Can you tell us about that? Yeah. So in 2018, my wife and I were talking about kind of what's next and all that. And we're in our condo, our new condo, not the original one. And then I'm thinking, okay, do I buy a duplex and live on one side and rent out the other? You know, what's the next step here? So we just started going to a few open houses, found a realtor that was a list. agent that we really liked. And so started working with him and then kind of realized maybe we just stay where we're at, but still buy a place. So 2019, we bought our first actual investment property, if you will, intentional investment property, I guess. Yeah. It was a duplex. And from there, I was hooked immediately. It was just like, okay, this is all working. You know, it's the way it

should. And I have no clue if I'm doing it right or not. You know, I was getting leases just, off of Googling leases. They weren't anything legit, I'm sure. But it was like, let's go with this. And since then, it's everything I've expected it to be. Before that purchase, had you done any self-education or thought much about it? Or was it just kind of like, I can afford this. Did you run the numbers and like figure out if it was going to cash flow? Nope. I didn't know what running numbers were. I just figured, okay, like, I think maybe this sounds like enough rent for the, this area. This is what the mortgage will be. If I didn't like it, we had some extra money. I'll just put more money down. There wasn't any thought of, do you put less or more down? There

wasn't any education to it. It was just, let's give it a shot and see what happens. Okay. Good for you. And you're in Wisconsin, right? Correct. Milwaukee. Yeah. Okay. And so what kind of price points are we looking at? So the first duplex that we bought was $185,000. It was a three-bed, one Bath, upper-lower duplex. It's in kind of the southern part of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, city of Milwaukee. It's actually three blocks of identical duplexes. Well, something must have worked about this because you're here talking to us today. What was the experience like? I mean, you'd already had some rental experience. Was it much different when you did this new duplex? Yeah, for sure. When I had my condo, we had the most amazing people. They stayed four years.

The only reason they left is actually they bought the unit above the one that they were renting because they didn't want to buy in the first floor. But they were retired couple, empty nesters, most amazing thing. Then when I buy this property, we actually founded on Craigslist as well. It was for sale by owner. And the landlord said, oh, yeah, the bottom unit is occupied. It's been a tenant. He's great. It's the upper unit.

The person's moving out shortly. their lease is ending, all that. And of course, I know nothing. So I buy it. And the person upstairs, she moved out, but she left me some parting gifts. She pretty much didn't trash the place. But for someone that bought the place in a month later, you're just like, what just happened? And then the lower level tenant, he, about three months after I bought it, decided he didn't want to pay rent anymore.

Oh, no. So here I am buying my first actual place, and I still had the other place with the great tenants, and now I've got these other tenants that are just total opposite experience. And so that was like kind of the wake up call of, oh, my God, should I be doing this? You know, that kind of thing. I do want to ask you and sort of understand why you kept going after that, given that hardship. But we do need to take a quick break, so we'll be right back. Thinking about wholesaling or flipping your first property, but not sure where to start.

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So you know you're making smart offers. Plus, you'll have access to PropStream Academy to guide you step by step. Start your seven-day free trial and get 50 free leads at Propstream.com slash BP. That's P-R-O-P-S-T-R-E-A-M. dot com slash BP. Don't just dream about real estate. Make it happen with PropStream. Most investors spend all their time talking about their high level returns. But that's not the number that actually matters. What actually matters is what you keep after taxes. And that's where multifamily real estate quietly stands out. With built-in advantages like depreciation,

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portfolio of real estate, starting with as little as $10. The portfolio features 4,700, a single-family rental homes spread across the booming sunbelt. They also have 3.3 million square feet of highly sought after industrial facilities thanks to the e-commerce wave. The flagship fund is one of the largest of its kind. It's well diversified, and it's managed by a team of professionals. And it's now available to you. Visit fundrise.com slash BP Market to explore the fund's full portfolio, check out historical returns, and start investing in just minutes. Carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses of the Fundrise Flagship Fund before investing. This and other information can be found in the funds prospectus

at fundrise.com slash flagship. This is a paid advertisement. There are two kinds of real estate investors, those who have reviewed their insurance, and those who think that they have. Most don't realize their coverage wasn't built for how they actually invest. Vacancy periods, rehabs, short-term rentals, or LLC-held properties. These gaps surface only when filing claims. That's why investors work with NREG. They specialize exclusively in real estate investors, understanding portfolios, risk at scale, and cash flow protection.

One claim can erase years of returns. If you own a rental property, don't assume you're covered. Have NREG review your insurance with someone who gets investing at NREG.com slash BP pod. That's N-R-E-I-G-com slash B-P pod. Welcome back to the Bigger Pockets podcast. I'm here with Bill Price, who's just telling us about a very challenging first full-time investment. You bought a duplex in Milwaukee, had a very difficult tenant situation.

A lot of people might walk away. These are kind of the things I think that as investors, when you're thinking about making your first investment, you sort of have nightmares about this. This is the stuff where you're like, I'm just going to keep investing in the stock market. I don't want to deal with this. So how did you, both mentally and financially, navigate that challenge and keep going. So fortunately, the upstairs person was paying all the time. Once he did get evicted, I did actually file the Milwaukee County had some relief funds and all that. So I actually did get most of the money in the end and just kind of figured to myself,

okay, like, I got the money. This was a terrible experience for almost a year. But in the end, it worked out. And so rather than the negative, and being scared. In the end, I was made whole. I was able to fix up what I needed to fix up, which wasn't much. And I went ahead and re-rented it again immediately. It was in a great area, you know, great clientele and all that. So I was just like, okay, that wasn't so bad. So then that brings us, you know, to 2021. And at that point, I figured I've got a place that's totally paid off and I could sell this and springboard it into other places. And I'm kind of at the cap of where that place can be. I can't really charge more rents. I can't do more value ads. It's where it is.

So I went ahead and sold it in 21. So did the 1031, didn't have anything in mind right away. We were actually also refinancing our primary home because we were on an arm when we bought it in 2016. So we're going through that. And that was a whole struggle because I was, I'm self-employed as a sound engineer. Yeah. And COVID, so I'm not working. And at that point, my wife and I weren't married yet. So everything was just me.

And so we're sitting there and I'm freaking out about this five-year arm that's come and do. And finally I get a bank that will deal with me. And when that happens, I was like, well, let's see what I can get for a mortgage, right? Yeah. And so she's like, well, how much? do you have to put down? And I'm like, well, I have this whole amount from the previous condo. And she was like, did you ever think of splitting that up? The mortgage lender was the one who

suggested to you. She brought it up again, the second time. Just because she wanted to? Like, just kindness of her hard advice. It was like four months of me trying to get a mortgage with her from all the self-employment stuff. So there was that. She knew that I bought a place. And she's like, you've got $300,000 sitting there. Don't just go buy one place. Like, split this up. That is some very good advice at a very good time in the housing market. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. And was she willing to lend to you on that? Just out of curiosity, like, or did you have to go through hoops to get multiple mortgages or how'd that work out? Well, once we got the primary figured out, that was the hoop. Like I said, that was like four months to get that going with my whole situation and COVID and my industry. And some of my jobs are 1099. some were W2.

And so she was like, we've gotten through this hurdle. Let's run with it while we can. Yeah, that's smart. Yeah. So then I'm talking to that agent that I've been working with for a few years now. You know, we're still going to open houses. We're seeing what we can. And then he said, hey, something came across my desk with two properties that are

poor houses apart, two duplexes, an amazing area of Milwaukee, Bayview. Okay. And do you want to go look at them? Two different duplexes. Two different duplexes. Okay. So four total units. Four doors, correct.

So we go look at them, and I'm like, funny, you said this because the bank just told me, let's go ahead and do that. So we went and looked at them. At that point, now, you know, I've done some research of how do you make numbers work? I've made a little spreadsheet of myself. Okay. I think Bigger Pockets was releasing spreadsheets at that point. I would hope so.

So now I'm like, okay, now I know if I'm to make money or not. Imagine that. Right. So everything cash flows, cool, let's move forward. At this point, I'm just buying two places. Put the offer in. We're 45 days out from closing. We do all the things.

Very traditional. It's my first time really going through the whole process because it was, it wasn't on an MLS, but it was still through an agent versus for sale by owner. So while we're doing all that, coincidentally, the landscaper of my condo complex knows that I'm buying properties now, just chatting with him. And he says, hey, my dad's got a four family less than a mile from you that he's looking to offload. Are you interested in?

Did your mortgage broker just go out and tell everyone that she was like, I'm going to orchestrate Bill's entire rental property portfolio. We're going to make this happen for him. We're going to get it all done in six months. That's amazing. Okay. So is that a good deal also? So I go look at that place.

And this guy hadn't raised the rents in nine years. All the tenants have lived there for 15 plus years. And he says, give me a price. So we looked on Zillow and probably should have offered him somewhere around 380, 390. And we offered him 320. And he was like, great. Yeah, this story, like, you started so, like, it was like a bad luck story.

But now it's good. This is turning it to. a very good luck story. Okay, keep going. So I call my banker and I say to her, hey, I know we're full steam ahead with these two mortgages. Anyway, we could pull some money out of both of those and we can move it into a third. So rather than doing 150 on each of them, we did 100 on all three of them. And that was still like more than 20% down on each of them. Still more than 20% down. We're still well within the numbers. Like, it's great. So she's like, this is amazing. She's just like, how did we go from four months of barely getting you one mortgage to now getting you four mortgages?

And I'm like, yeah, that's a great question. How did we do that? Right. I hope you bought her some sort of very nice gift after all. Yes, we have stayed connected and all that. So at that point, I buy this other property that on paper doesn't make a dime because the rents were so low. This is the third one, the four unit. Right.

Yeah. So the two, the two that were four doors apart from each other. Those, like I say, it's Bayview. It's an amazing area. Rents were great. They all had tenants. The tenants didn't want to leave. Perfect situation. Super easy, low key, all that. So then I buy this third one and I'm like, okay, well, now here's the struggle. You know, the question of how much do you raise rent before they walk out and this and that and everything? And at the time, all of their rents were $600 or less. And market values a thousand. Yeah, that's a dramatic change. So the first year I owned it in 2021, I only raised the rent $50 because I'm like, we'll test the water, right? Yeah. Well, then 2022, I raised it $200 because we're going to keep going here, right? Yeah. And rents were growing up like crazy at that point, too.

So it probably even more than $1,000 was market rent. Yeah. Market rent probably went up 10% that year alone. So, yeah. So that's 21 and 22. And at 22, I paid off that original. duplex that I bought just because I was on another tour and once again when I'm on tour I don't really spend any money so I'm just throwing money at it and it's it's great and so now now everything's

making money so now you know the dollar signs are there I'm definitely not retiring anytime soon from this but okay this is the plan and the plan's starting to work you know yeah kind of thing and I will say that those three mortgages that I got were all at 2.7% oh my god Yeah. So hold on to those for dear. Those I will not be paying off anytime soon. Yeah. No reason to do that for sure.

Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. And so this whole time you're working and I don't know how you get paid, but it sounds like you go through these spurts where you're just living super cheap because I assume they're paying for your hotel rooms and you get a per diem on your food or there's a, I imagine in my head there's an amazing catering truck at all of these different events. that you're going to. There's catering. Some are great. Some are not. But yes, there is, yeah, I mean, it's hard to spend money when you're on the road. We live in tour buses, so we have a bus list of whatever we want, when days off, we're in hotels that are paid for. So, yeah, so it's a great life for saving money. For sure. Certain jobs have these perks. And I think that's just a lesson for the audience. Not everyone's going to have Bill's job, obviously. But, you know,

some jobs are flexible. And that means you can self-manage. Some jobs mean, You can save money like bills and you can pay off your mortgage a little bit really. You don't have to go into real estate full time. You can find ways to leverage your existing job. And not everyone, but, you know, there are a lot of jobs that you wouldn't think, oh, that supports a great real estate portfolio. I don't think audio engineer would have been on the top of anyone's obvious list of things. But like, the way you tell it, it does have some perks that really enable you to be a real estate investor.

So even for people who aren't pursuing full-time investment or you want to be a full-time investor and just haven't gotten there yet, just look for these kinds of things that you can do that can really just sort of like help accelerate you. I think Bill's providing us a perfect example. I want to hear more about where you've gone here, Bill. Is it good luck, Bill or bad luck, Bill, coming for us next? But we've got to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Thinking about wholesaling or flipping your first property, but not sure where to start. The truth is, deals don't just fall into your lap anymore.

You need to go out and create opportunities. That's where PropStream comes in. With PropStream, you get instant access to over 160 million properties nationwide. Use 20 pre-built lead lists such as pre-foreclosures, tax delinquencies, and vacant homes to find motivated sellers fast. And now PropStream has integrated batch leads and batch dialer to provide you with a complete all-in-one solution. That means you can not only find motivated sellers, but you can also reach out right away. Skip trace phone numbers free on select plans, then send postcards, emails, or call sellers directly. Don't worry if you're new.

PropStream also gives you AI-powered insights and comps that are over 99% accurate, so you know you're making smart offers. Plus, you'll have access to PropStream Academy to guide you step by step. Start your seven-day free trial and get 50 free leads at Propstream.com slash BP. That's P-R-O-P-S-T-R-E-A-M. dot com slash BP. Don't just dream about real estate. Make it happen with PropStream. Here's the truth about passive investing. If the strategy isn't right on day one, the returns won't save it. Multi-family real estate offers structural advantages. Many investors are overlooking,

including depreciation that can help offset taxable income while cash flow continues. Bam Capital builds its investment with that reality in mind. They are focused on solid operators, tax efficiency, and long-term performance. For investors who want real estate experience, without being landlords and who care about consistency over hype, this is a smarter way to allocate capital. Learn more at biggerpockets.com slash bam. For decades, real estate has been a cornerstone of the world's largest portfolios, but it's also historically been sort of complex, time-consuming, and expensive. But imagine if real estate investing was suddenly easy, all the benefits of owning real, tangible assets without the complexity and expense. That's the power of the

Fundrise flagship fund. Now you can invest in a $1.1 billion portfolio of real estate, starting with as little as $10. The portfolio features 4,700 single-family rental homes spread across the booming sunbelt. They also have 3.3 million square feet of highly sought after industrial facilities thanks to the e-commerce wave. The flagship fund is one of the largest of its kind. It's well diversified, and it's managed by a team of professionals. And it's now available to you. Visit fundrise.com slash BP Market to explore the fund's full portfolio. check out historical returns and start investing in just minutes. Carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses of the

Fundrise Flagship Fund. This and other information can be found in the fund's prospectus at funrise.com slash flagship. This is a paid advertisement. There are two kinds of real estate investors, those who have reviewed their insurance, and those who think that they have. Most don't realize their coverage wasn't built for how they actually invest. Vacancy periods, rehabs, short-term rentals, or LLC-held properties. These gaps surface only when filing claims.

That's why investors work with NREG. They specialize exclusively in real estate investors, understanding portfolios, risk at scale, and cash flow protection. One claim can erase years of returns. If you own a rental property, don't assume you're covered. Have NREG review your insurance with someone who gets investing at NRE.com slash BP pod. That's nr eig.com slash BP pod. 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, sponsored job posts help you stand out and hire the right people quickly.

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Welcome back to the Bigger Pockets podcast here with Investor Bill Price. We learned about how Bill somehow magically just got 10 units in like seven months, which was super cool. That got us to 2022. But you made a shift in 2023 with your strategy, it sounds like. So what did you do? So 2023 comes out. At this point, I'm working for the band Weezer full time.

Oh, cool. I'm a millennial. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. So in 2023, I knew that. that I had four or five months off that I was going to be at home for. Okay.

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

So he tells me, he goes, we're going to go in. You literally can't say anything. Don't talk to the tenants. None of that. Let's just walk through. So we walk through it and it's in terrible shape. Okay. So he wanted $195 for it.

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

Okay. So my idea with that was it wasn't in great shape. So I figured this is the Burr method that everyone talks about. It's cheap enough that I can use my home equity on my current primary home. We're going to buy it. We're going to do the Burr method and it's going to be this huge success story. And now I'm going to pivot that way. And so now I'm going to start my first reno.

I've ever done all the other places I bought. I didn't have to do a thing, too. Was this when you were off tour? You were like willing to take this on because you're at home a little bit more? Right. I have four months to get this whole thing done. I had a handyman that I've worked with before, but he was like, I'm a handyman. This is too big of a project for me.

I'm calling contractors that I know nothing about. I get a few quotes and this one guy comes in and sounds great. and I think I gave him 500 bucks to lock him in or something. And the first day he comes and he brings three other guys and he leaves. The biggest project was we had to tear the bathroom all the way down to the Joyce because the subfloor was rotted out. And one guy almost fell through because he didn't know where the Joyce were and what he's ripping out. So fourth or fifth day, I fire the contractor. So now I've got about two, two and a half months before I'm supposed to go on,

tour. So I call and beg and plead to my handyman guy. I have another buddy. He's a carpenter for production work, so he knows how to build things. And so in about two and a half, three weeks, we did 80% of this work. I had a budget of about 20, 25K to do at that point, well past the 25k. And I'm just like, well, we're going to keep going because I don't know what I'm doing, right? I'm totally winging this thing. And I'm about a week and a half from. being done and getting ready to put it on the market. And my realtor comes to me and he's like, I have a buyer for you. And I was so stressed out at this point. So the buyers, they come through and they offered me 260. So I do all my numbers and I'm like, I can get this whole thing done for 40 grand.

So if I can flip this place for 200 all in and sell it for 260, I'm running. So that's what I did. So I call it my XNL flip. Did you like the process of renovating and did you like the sort of getting that big equity hit from flipping? Or did you prefer rental properties at that point? It was overwhelming. Obviously, the big equity at the end was great, but no, I didn't really enjoy it. Okay. I assume you didn't buy the rest of the portfolio from this guy after that period.

Right. Yeah. So, you know, these ups and downs, though, are really just kind of the story of being a real estate investor. And I think that, you know, it scares some people away, but not every deal is going to be like this. Some of them are going to be easy. It sounds, you know, we're focusing on some of the harder stories. But, you know, this is just sort of how you build a portfolio over time is just find yourself in some deals.

There's going to be some challenges. But look where you've come. I mean, yeah, you started in 2006. But just since you really sort of started doing this in 10 years, you've acquired a considerable portfolio. Have you done anything more since that flip? And sort of where does your portfolio? fully a stand today. So this March in 2025, we bought another duplex that was eight houses down from

the first duplex I ever bought. And what's the plan going forward? Are you going to just keep doing it? You know, you're still working full time. It sounds like is that sort of your your strategy going forward? So I don't think I'll ever give up working, but the idea is to throttle it back. I used to do 36 to 40 weeks a year out on the road. And this year, my goal is 16 weeks. And the fact that you're able to sort of scale that down, is that because of your real estate income? 100%.

I mean, that's just such a great example. Like, I think so many people get caught up in this idea of like quitting your job and that financial freedom is this destination that you have to get to that you're either financially free or not. But your story is a perfect example that, you know, it doesn't have to be so black and white. There's a lot in between. And you're able to use real estate. to continue doing what you love,

but just at a pace and a scale that is more appropriate for your stage in life and that you want to be at. I think that's such a cool goal and doesn't get talked about enough in this industry that these types of goals where you just get to do what you want, even if that includes continuing to work,

real estate can help get you there. Yeah, yeah, for sure, yeah. Well, thank you so much for sharing the story with us, Bill. This is a really fun episode. I really enjoyed hearing and learning from you. Thanks for joining us. Yeah, I'm glad to do it. It was a great experience.

And thank you all so much for watching and listening to this episode of the Bigger Pockets podcast. We'll see you next time. 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. I'm the host and executive producer of the show, Dave Meyer.

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