BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast - Stop Buying Rentals and Start Buying Rental Portfolios (Scale Much Faster)

Episode Date: February 16, 2026

If you want financial freedom faster, you need to stop buying rentals and start buying rental portfolios. Most people have never thought about it. Instead, they slowly build their rental portfolio to 10 or (at the most) 20 units. And while we love the slow-and-steady approach, Jose Martinez is doing something much more—buying 10+ unit portfolios in a single transaction. He only needed a few “deals” to reach financial freedom.  No risky creative financing or buying a bunch of $50K houses in the middle of nowhere. Jose’s portfolio rakes in steady rent, and now he’s a full-time real estate investor. And he did it all in just four years—starting in 2022.  Two secrets helped him do this so quickly: the right mentor and the right financing. A lucky run-in at the gym changed Jose’s entire life forever, but you don’t need luck to use his financing strategy. This often-overlooked strategy has allowed Jose to use equity from other properties to buy bigger deals, often putting down less than 5%! If Jose could do it, starting with no experience, speaking no English, and being new to the U.S., why can’t you?  In This Episode We Cover How to reach financial freedom much faster by buying rental portfolios (not single rentals) The genius financing strategy Jose uses that only small, local banks offer  Why you need to stop waiting and start investing (don’t get stuck!)  The key to finding a mentor who will help you scale significantly faster  How to use your rentals’ equity to buy more rental properties and put way less down  And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1240 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

If you want financial freedom faster, you need to stop buying rentals and start buying rental portfolios. Imagine if, instead of buying two rental properties, you could buy 10 at a time. How quickly could you replace your income then? Jose Martinez did it in just four years without any experience, special skills, or creative financing. Using a special type of loan that only small banks provide, Jose was able to buy 28 units in only two deals with less than 5% down. Now he's replaced his income and his full time in real estate. He went from waiter who spoke no English to owning over 50 rental units. His source for deals?

A mentor landlord who showed him the ropes and sold him the properties. Your path to scaling is probably closer than you think, and so is financial freedom. What's going on, everybody? I'm Henry Washington. And today on the podcast, we have an investor story with Jose Martinez from Albany, Georgia. Jose is going to tell us how he went from waiting tables to owning more than 50 rental units and only four years. So let's bring them on. Mr. Jose Martinez. How are you, buddy? I'm doing good. How about you, Mr. Henry? Great, man. I appreciate you being here.

I just wanted to start with a little bit about your background. So tell us how you got into this real estate thing. So I came from the Dominican Republic. That was like probably 11 years ago. I used to play baseball. So that's how I got to the States. I came here, no English. I didn't know basically anybody. I came directly to a city where I live now. But I was. I was always curious of learning and listening podcasts like this, like you guys put out there, which is goal for me and free on top of that. But anyway, so 2022 about my first co-aplex. And from there, man, I just started going.

What city are you in? So I'm actually in Albany, Georgia right now. Albany, Georgia. So you come from Dominican Republic to play baseball. You don't know English. Correct. You play some baseball. You pick up.

language and then you're like, hey, this real estate thing sounds interesting and you, and you decide to start with a quadplex. So tell us about that deal. Where did you, where'd you just find a quadplex to pick up? Man, I was watching videos from you guys. You know, that, that bug start going in your head. Like, if you buy this many units, you have to make sure it's a real cash flow. It's not cash flow. But on my end, being 100% honest, I didn't know anything I was doing when I got a quadplex. Okay. I didn't know anything about it. interest rate. I didn't know anything about who was my tenants in there. I mean, I just got in it. And my first experience doing an ambition was my first deal. So as soon as I got that deal,

I had to do an ambition. And I learned with that, really, when you put you hands on it, it's right. Really when you start learning. I mean, you'll never be ready if you wait, really. Okay. So you bought this quadplex. How much did you pay for it? So at the time, it was around $330,000. The quadplex needed some work. bought it without even having any contractors. I didn't know anything about fixing or anything like that. That's correct. Okay. And how much money did you end up having to spend on fixing that thing up? I spent right around $20,000 fixing the Squablex, making it look better as far as appearance, getting the tenant out, getting the unit ready. It was around that much money I spent.

So you paid 330, you got about $20,000 into it. So you're all in it $350. How much were the rents? So at the time, the ranks were like 450. So I bought a value ad without even knowing I had a value out. So really, it's crazy because so far, that's been one of my best deals. Okay. What's it renting for? So right now, it's 1195 each unit. I mean, that's pretty good. You're all in for $3.50. You've got $4,800 a month coming in. That sounds like positive cash flow to me. And you bought that deal on the market, albeit it was back in 2022, but still, there's still great deals on the market people can find today. Tell us how you finance that deal. What kind of loan did you get? So at the regular conventional loan, I put, it was like 15% down. I think I got on that property.

For me, it was like a lot of money at the time because I was like, it really empty, you know, had to go to my bank accounting here, there, pull some money from everywhere. But I was able to buy it and it was 15% now. You spent about 20 grand on a renovation now. Did you end up doing some of that work yourself or did you hire it out? How was the process of getting that renovated? I was there with my wife was helping me in cleaning. So yeah, that was yes. Then I got some friend of mine. I got some construction knowledge. And hey, man, I need you here. I need to, you know, help me out to do this toilet. You just got to teach me. I want to learn how to do this. And it really was, like I said, was a blessed because I was able to get help from close people to

actually do some things out. That's why I end up spending less money. Okay. Yeah, as I was going to say, 20 grand seems like not a ton of money to renovate a four unit. But if you're doing a lot of the work yourself and you're calling in favors from friends and paying them in pizza and beer, I guess you can get it done a little bit faster, a little bit cheaper. Okay. Well, it sounds like you went through the real estate investor ringer on your first deal, found something, hustled, put in the sweat equity, put the money down. I mean, that's a solid, I mean, it sounds like a solid base hit or a double. making great cash flow right now. So how did you transition from that deal into your next deal? So from there, it took me a while because I bought real estate just for buying real estate.

I was like, like I said, oh, let me see what is this like. So I wasn't even counting on the money that was coming in from the properties. So I was just collecting ranks, keeping a little cash flow and just, you know, paying the loan. But then, like I say, everything happened for the reason. I remember I started going to the gym 5 a.m. For some reason, I said, you know what? I want to go to the gym early in the morning. And I remember at the sauna I met a guy. So this guy owns over 150 properties.

And we were just talking. I was like, man, you know, that's interesting. And the thing is that eventually I see some properties that come on the market. This guy is selling basically his whole portfolio. And I called him in and, hey, you. So are you selling properties right now? And he was like, yeah, yeah. And I want to buy a duplex.

I told him, he said, like, no, you don't need to buy a duplex. Buy 10 or 15 houses from me. And, you know, and I'm like, there is no way I can do that, you know. So basically he kind of won me through. He wanted to sell. I wanted to buy. And he won me through the process. And, man, I end up buying 10 houses.

That was my second deal. So I was at 14 doors. Okay. So you bought 10 doors from this guy. How did the process go? How much did you end up paying for him? And like, that's a lot of money. So how did you finance 10 deals? So basically, when I got in the state that I, like I mentioned, I played baseball, I went to an school here. I left school and then I opened a restaurant. So I started doing some restaurant business.

So at the time, I had like two or three running, but I basically just started saving money. I mean, I didn't know what to do with money. So I just started saving money, saving money, I didn't buy the nice cars and I would just saving money, saving money, saving money, because eventually I knew something would come out where I wanted to park it. The restaurant business was good, but I don't think that was going to be where I will put my legacy, you know. Okay, post-baseball, you open a restaurant and it's doing so well that you end up opening two more? Yes, so I start doing a couple of more in the city. Yeah, that's correct.

I used to be a waiter. So I worked as a waiter in a Mexican restaurant for a while. Yeah. So I learned a business in there. Then I opening, like I said, the first restaurant bar, kind of sports bar type of places. And I had three other time. And yeah, I just tried to save money and do real estate. Man, well, that's impressive in itself because the restaurant business is a hard business to get into.

It is. You got into the restaurant business and found success, which is tough to do. So you pivot this into. real estate. So what did the, what did the finance structure look like? Did you buy them all individually? Or was it like, did you buy it with one loan as a package? Yeah, it was one loan. It was a package deal. The way how teens wonder, this guy, which I call it, he's like my mentor in real estate. He introduced me to the bank. He was like, hey, you don't need to meet this guy. He got something. You all need to talk with him. So I had a meeting, you know, I didn't know banks were like that where you can sit on a table, talk with the president.

Okay, tell me what you do here. So you feel like an interview to a point. I was feeling like, oh, my God, I'm not getting a job or getting a loan. They asked me a lot of questions. And I figured that all they wanted to know was that I was serious about this and that I knew what I was doing at the time. Okay. So what was the purchase price for the 10 properties? 1.4 million, something like that.

Okay, 1.4 million. You got a loan from the bank. How much down did they require? I put 20% down. That's a big chunk of change. And you had all that saved up from the restaurant business. And every time I put a percent out, like, it's like on zero. I went back to zero.

It'd be like, oh, my gosh, back to zero, back to zero. Okay. And did these properties need any work? No, they were all occupied. They didn't have any property management company. It was a landlord running in itself, like all these properties. So he took great care of it. And, yeah, man, I mean, they were all rent.

They were all bringing rent in. And I just needed to kind of raise rents to, to, to, to, to match the return that I was looking for. And at this point, you had four units, but now all of a sudden you're sitting at 14 units. Are these properties? Were you managing them yourself? Did you have property management? So I was managing then along with my wife.

So, yeah, we were back and for, hey, what are this money that you spent? Like, you're crazy. You spent years. We went through all that. Yes, we went through all that. And because in the beginning, I wanted each property to look like my house. Like, I was like, all right. We got to get in.

We got to bring everybody. So then I started learning, you know, I had to get this property. That doesn't mean that they had to be on bad shape. But, you know, there is rental materials that you buy based on, okay, which toilet sure I get. Which life features should I get? So, yeah, I was spending a lot of money. I wasn't making no cash flow at all in the beginning. But then I learned, okay, this is what I need to do.

Like I said, I was handling. then myself along with my wife. And we end up learning about these rental softwares to actually manage their now. And yeah, I mean, it makes my life easier to being able to collect rents through there. Are you self-managing still to this day? So I have some help now. But yeah, I'm on day-to-day basis. You know, I'm still around me.

All right. I've got a couple more questions for Jose about the mentor relationship that brought him 10 doors. We'll get to that 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 was doing every weekend, flipping between a bunch of apps, bank statements, and receipts, trying to sort it all out by property and figure out who's laid on rent. Then I found Baseline, and it takes all that off my plate.

It's BiggerPock's official banking platform that automatically sorts my transactions. It matches receipts and collects rent for every property. My tax prep is done and 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 $100 bonus when you sign up today at baseline.com slash BP. You've upgraded how to buy properties, but did your insurance get the memo? When investors start scaling, insurance can't be an afterthought. Most policies were designed for a single property, not multiple rentals, LLC ownership,

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That's N-R-E-I-G.com slash BP pod. We all joke that rentals are passive, but if you're spending nights matching receipts or guessing what a property earned last month, that's not passive at all. Base lane fixes that part of landlording, the financial chaos. Their banking and AI bookkeeping system automatically tags every transaction, updates cash flow insights in real time, and builds the reports you need for tax season. You can even automate transfers and move money around without paying wire fees. It's just cleaner. Sign up at baselane.com slash BP and get a $100 bonus.

Baselane is a financial technology company and not a bank. Banking services provided by Threadbank, member FDIC. Do you ever notice how every passive investment somehow turns into a very active lifestyle, active spreadsheets, active phone calls, active stress? Here's a better question. What if you could buy, brand new construction homes, 10% below market value, in the best markets across the country,

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helping thousands invest smarter. If you want to do the same, visit BiggerPockets.com slash retirement to learn more. Do you ever notice how every passive investment somehow turns into a very active lifestyle, active spreadsheets, active phone calls, active stress? Here's a better question. What if you could buy brand new construction homes, 10% below market value in the best markets across the country, without making real estate your second job? That's exactly what rent to retirement does. They're a full service, turnkey investment company handling everything for you. In some cases, investors get 50 to 75%

or down payment back at closing. Plus, interest rates as low as 3.75%. They've partnered with Bigger Pockets for over a decade, helping thousands invest smarter. If you want to do the same, visit BiggerPockets.com slash retirement to learn more. All right, we're back with Jose Martinez on the Bigger Pockets podcast.

Jose, so you have a mentor. He sells you 10 properties. What was next? Did you continue to buy more properties? Or did you continue to foster this mentor relationship? or was it kind of a one deal and done thing? No, so we kept talking on my end. I was the lucky guy that he wanted to sell his properties to and help me through the process, you know.

So, yeah, basically just got a lot of questions every day. Even today's day, I're calling for a lot. So after that deal, I bought 18 more properties. 18? That's correct. From the same guy? Correct, yes. He sold you 10 properties.

You're happy with the. those properties, but it wasn't like he sold you 10 properties and fell off the face of the earth. You continue to foster a mentor-mente relationship. So you could call this guy for anything you needed help with. And he was explaining to you and teaching you how to manage the properties and run a real estate business, it sounds like. Absolutely. Absolutely.

The biggest thing I learned while I was doing that way, he needs to run this as a business. You know, it's not just buying, oh, one property, you get rents here, there. So understanding that this is a business, just like a restaurant, sports bar business type. So understanding that, he helped me put that mentality on me. And then we put a deal package together again and I'll purchase 18 more properties. Okay. Before we jump into the 18 more properties, I do want to touch on that because it does sound like, you know, to the average person listening that maybe this guy just wanted to offload a bunch of properties to somebody who was new. but I want people to understand like true mentorship relationships are the best when there is

mutual benefit. I think a lot of new people want to find a mentor, but they don't think they have anything of value to add or they just expect someone to pour into them and they don't have to give anything in return. And those aren't true relationships. Now, occasionally you'll somebody who wants to give, give, give to you and you can just take, take, take, take. But a real relationship is give and take both ways. And so it sounds to me like in this relationship, yes, there was value for him because he sold you properties, right? Correct. But there was a lot of value for you, not just because you were able to build your portfolio, but now you had a mentor you could call on for any questions you had. That's a true relationship. And I'm not saying

you got to go buy properties from someone for them to mentor you, but I do want people to think about what value can I bring to somebody? Maybe I can go do work for them. Maybe you can babysit their kids. Like there's a million things that you can do. It doesn't have to be real estate related, but try to lead with value. That's super cool, man. So how much time passed between when you bought the 10 units and when you were buying the 18? You went like a year or so after. So basically it took me a while because, you know, that was a big thing to do. That's a big chunk of change. Yes. But remember, and this is when it comes, the mentor part, this guy sat down with me and say, look, when you bought these 10 properties from me, this is how much equity you got here.

And was like, what? Is that all the money I have? Yes. So that means that now I understood what type of deal I got. Because it wasn't that he gave them away for me, but he could have charged me way more and I realized that whenever I went and we did some appraisals on these properties. So I was like, oh, my goodness. Okay. So now I was able to buy my 10 houses a year after using my 10 houses. Okay. That I purchased from him before.

So I used cross-collarization. So to summarize, you bought the 10 units, but the guy didn't try to take advantage of you. He sold you the units at a fair price that allowed. you to walk into some equity on these properties. So when the opportunity arose to buy the package of 17 houses, you use what's called cross collateralization. So for those of you are listening, cross collateralization is where you pledge equity from existing properties and you use that equity as your down payment essentially for the other property. So because the 17 properties had equity in them, the bank basically gave you a loan and you pledged some of that equity. In other words,

they put a second mortgage on some of those other properties to allow you to have access to the funds that you would need as the down payment. So were you able to get into the 17 units without having to touch any of your own personal cash? I had to put really little amount. It was around $40,000, something like that I had to put. Again, like we go back to Badging a Right. We're talking about a year after. It wasn't even like two, three, four, five years. A year after, we redo appraisals and this come to, you know, to have no equity to buy this 18 more properties. And at the time, I didn't even know that I could do that. Yeah. That I could actually, you know, use those properties to buy other properties. So this guy set me down and was like, hey, look, this is how much money you have.

Keep growing and buy more properties. Even if it's not from me, that's what you. you say, you got to keep growing and growing, and that's how I did it. Yeah, cross-collateralization is one of the, one of the cool tools that small local banks have at their disposal. Now, not every local community bank will utilize cross-collateralization. You have to call community banks and talk to them and ask them, are you willing to cross-collateralize, or are you willing to let me pledge equity in an existing property. So this only works if you own real estate that only has a first mortgage on it. So if you've got real estate with equity, either it's paid off or you have only one mortgage on it, if you're interested in this, you can call local community banks. You want banks that have under $4 billion

in assets. Those banks can be a lot more nimble than some of these big banks. But the key to this strategy is exactly what Jose said is you have to buy a good deal. because you're using leverage. You're using borrowed money as a down payment. So if you use borrowed money and buy a bad deal, well, now you've got a first and a second mortgage that you can't pay back. And it can put you in financial strain very quickly. So you only want to do this when you know you are buying phenomenal deals

that also have a ton of equity in them. That's correct. That's correct. And also what you mentioned regarding the banks, I went to a lot of banks and they told me, to before. A lot of banks told me they couldn't do it. It was too much risk. But going to the right community bank will help you your investor life a lot. Every bank is a different business. Everybody bank has different regulations. So just get to know your community banks and that can change your

life a bit. Yeah, man. That's a phenomenal point. You're absolutely right. Sometimes you'll talk to banks and it can be very discouraging when they tell you know. Sometimes it has to do with you. Maybe They don't like you, your credit score or your current portfolio. Sometimes that's nothing to do with you. But it still sucks to hear no. But some keys to being able to find a bank that does do what you want to do is, first and foremost, ask the bank what kind of assets they like to lend on. Some local community banks love lending on large multifamily. Some love lending on smaller single family.

It's really going to depend on the bank and where their focus is at the time. if you have a good deal in the asset class that they like to lend to, it's a lot more likely that they'll want to work with you. B, warm introductions are always better than cold introductions, right? So Jose had a warm introduction. He had somebody who had a relationship at that bank, introduce him to the lender. That's always going to help you in terms of favorability than just reaching out cold. A great tip if you want a warm introduction to banks is to go to your local Chamber of Commerce or Rotary Club meetings. You can go to Rotary Clubs, I think as a guest, if you get someone there to bring you with them. It's a member, or you can go to the Chamber

of Commerce meetings. I think you can go as a guest off the street if you want to. But typically bank, community bank presidents and commercial lenders are members of local chambers of commerce. And so if you join the local Chamber of Commerce, just being a part of that Chamber of commerce is your warm introduction. So those are, those are some tips to help you start to find those relationships if you don't have that mentor who can introduce you. All right, we've got to take another short break. We'll be right back talking with Jose Martinez about how he was able to purchase another 18 units right after the break. 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

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Have NREG review your insurance with someone who gets investing at NRE.com slash BPOD. That's N-R-E-I-G.com slash B-Pod. When I bought my first rental, I thought collecting rent would be the hard part. Nope. The admin crushed me. Every night was receipts, tax forms, and checking who was late on rent. I kept thinking, if this is one unit, how do people run 10? Baselane changed that. It's BiggerPockets official banking platform that handles expense tracking, financial reporting, rent collection, and even tenant screening, all in one place. It's the system I wish I had from day one.

Sign up today at baselane.com slash bigger pockets and get a $100 bonus. Baselane is a financial technology company and is not an FDIC insured bank. Banking services provided by Threadbank, member FDIC. People love to call real estate passive income. which is interesting because most of the investors I know are very busy. Busy finding deals, busy managing teams, busy worrying they pick the wrong market. Rent to retirement flips that model. They help investors buy turnkey new construction homes, often 10% below market value in top rental markets across the country. Their local teams handle the build, the property management, and the details, so you don't have to.

In some cases, investors even receive 50 to 75% of their down payment back at closing, and there are interest rates as low as 3.75%. They've been trusted partners with Bigger Pockets for over a decade. And if you want to learn more, visit BiggerPockets.com slash retirement. People love to call real estate passive income, which is interesting because most of the investors I know are very busy. Busy finding deals, busy managing teams, busy worrying they pick the wrong market.

Rent to retirement flips that model. They help investors buy turnkey new construction homes, often 10% below market value, in top rental markets across the country. Their local teams handle the build, the property management, and the details, so you don't have to. In some cases, investors even receive

50 to 75% of their down payment back at closing, and there are interest rates as low as 3.75%. They've been trusted partners with BiggerPockets for over a decade. And if you want to learn more, visit BiggerPockets.com slash retirement. All right, we're back with Jose Martinez, man. Jose, what a great story of growing your business and your portfolio to,

go from a quadplex to then adding 10 units and then adding another 18 units and leveraging community banks and leveraging cross collateralization to help you get creative about the financing so that you were able to acquire these properties. Where has that led you? Where is your portfolio sitting right now? About how many units? So right now I have 51 units. 51 units. That's incredible. So you started in 2022, four years ago and now you're sitting at 51 units. But you did. transition away from a successful restaurant business into this real estate business. So now that you own 51 units, are you glad that you moved away? Has it been beneficial? Is the money similar? Well, 100% I can tell you, like, I leave strictly from real estate. And my wife is happier because

I don't have to be won. That's a win in itself. Yeah. So yeah, definitely. I mean, it's been a blessed. I have been able to be home and see my. My girls growing, I got two girls. Yeah. And that's for me is, you know, it's a wind rider, being able to stay here with a family. And, you know, being able to see them every day and support my lifestyle, of course. Man, congratulations. Restaurant industry, now full-time real estate investor.

And I like that you talked about how it's afforded you the ability to spend more time with your wife and with your children. Maybe you could talk to us a little bit about what other benefits. fed. So what else is real estate allowed you to be able to do for your community? Man, it's a lot of deals out there still. And I'm doing my best to try to pull my knowledge into, you know, my community, which is the Spanish community that we really don't understand how many opportunities are in the stakes right now. I tell everybody, this is the best country of the world because there is a lot opportunities out there. So I've been blessed. and know to, you know, learn from things like you guys do, but now I'm putting that into

them, translating that into them. And I have some people that have bought like duplexes, quaplexes. So just for me, that that's a win to, I mean, being able to pour that into the people that I know and see them growing as well. Yeah. Here's what I love about this, man. It's kind of a full circle thing. And you are doing this the right way. So I often tell people when you're looking for a mentor, one of the best ways to attract a mentor is to try to find a way to be a mentor. I think a lot of people want a mentor and then maybe they find one and they get help. But I think our responsibility after you gain the information, you act on it and it starts to be beneficial for you is to you to be willing to do that for somebody else.

right that's what creates the best kind of symbiotic relationship in the investor community and the investor community is just amazing already like we've talked about this a million times on the show but like real estate investing is one of the weirdest industries in terms of like people will just help you they'll just give you information people don't really hoard information they're not scared to create you know competition amongst themselves people will share information and if we want real estate investor communities to continue to operate like that, we have to be willing to give once we get from somebody else. So I love that you're taking what you've learned and now you're helping people who probably just don't have access to the information or don't understand that this

is something that they can do. And now you're being a beacon for them to invest and being a blessing to your community, man. So that's amazing, man. Thank you very much. I think also to out there, Henry is also being hungry and not to actually go after after that knowledge that you are missing like understanding that okay if Jose Henry did it like what what's the line that I need to follow you know you don't need to go exactly like you did or I did it but it's a lot of options out there you guys put the best content every single week I mean you you go through that and that allow on that can definitely change your life for good. For me, without any doubt, man, I mean, bigger packet help me a lot.

I mean, this is more than half of my knowledge come from here on four years. And my other knowledge come from my mentor, of course. But when I go and sit down and ask questions, it's because you guys talk about, okay, community lending, how do you handle a situation? So I go, hey, so I read about this. How does this work? you know, and your mentor will also see you doing your own researches and being hungry about it. So for me, this podcast has changed a lot of life and I'm one of those too.

Oh, man. That's, that's great to hear, man. It's always, it's always awesome to kind of see the impacts or the positive impacts you're having on people. So we, hey, we appreciate the kind words, but we also appreciate the value that you're bringing to your community. And before we get out of here, Jose, is there any plans for the future? What's next, man? So I'm doing flippings as well on the side. So I got like a separate business from what I'm doing. So I kind of, I'm, I'm want to learn more about developing too. So I'm really just, I'm in love with real estate. I mean, I start with one and I just kept going, keep going. And now, I mean, I really enjoy to, you know, fix a house, rent it or sell it. So I really, I love it. I mean, this is, this is life for me. I love it too, man. You got the bug. I do the same thing. I'm doing my first new development this year. Wow. Nice. Well, thank you so much, Jose, for joining us and sharing your inspiring story. Thank you so much to you, the listeners, for tuning in. We hope you got some great value for this episode. And we'll see you on the next show of the Bigger Pockets podcast. And if you found this story with Jose Inspiring, go ahead and check out another episode of the Bigger Pockets podcast, episode 1231. That's my interview with investor Neil Whitney from just a few weeks.

ago. That's episode 1231. Do you ever notice how every passive investment somehow turns into a very active lifestyle, active spreadsheets, active phone calls, active stress? Here's a better question. What if you could buy brand new construction homes, 10% below market value in the best markets across the country without making real estate your second job? That's exactly what rent to retirement does. They're a full service, turnkey investment company handling everything for you. In some cases, investors get 50 to 75% of our down payment back at closing, plus interest rates as low as 3.75%. They've partnered with Bigger Pockets for over a decade,

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