BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

Over 400 episodes, we've absorbed a lot of hard-won real estate investing wisdom from our guests. Pretty tough to boil down to 10 concepts... but that's exactly what Brandon and David set out to do on today's show! You'll hear them outline each principle, cite the person they learned it from, and bring it to life with real-world examples from their own investing experience as well as those of prev...

Today we’re swerving a bit from tradition to bring you a guest who is not a real estate investor. Jeff Thorman spent years as a general contractor, built his own company, then started his own YouTube channel, HomeRenovisionDIY, to teach people how to renovate their own homes. Learn from his years of experience renovating in this episode. Jeff brings us incredible tips on building strong relationsh...

When Tarl Yarber last appeared on the show (#189), we got a behind-the-scenes look at his monster house flipping business. He was doing a lot of volume, but here's the catch: he was stressed out and unhappy. Plus... with zero rentals to his name, he had to keep spinning the hamster wheel – "feeding the machine" – to make any money. Today's show is about a big mindset shift, and the systems and tea...

In today's episode we open up the phone lines again to field your real estate investing questions... and for an added twist, we bring in the familiar voice of author, BiggerPockets Business Podcast host, and house flipper/investor extraordinaire J Scott. You'll hear callers chime in with questions like: 1) "Help me get started" 2) "should I partner with family members?" 3) "How do I transition fro...

No one knows where the real estate market is headed next... but with an estimated 30 million Americans out of work, wouldn't you like to know how to buy foreclosed properties, step-by-step? That's what you'll learn today, from two investors who have completed over 1,000 deals each: David Osborn and Aaron Amuchastegui. They begin the show by sharing their thoughts on today's economy (hint: they've...

Today: a no-excuses, American Dream story that will get you fired up to go hunt down a deal! Thach Nguyen is an investor and agent in the Seattle, Washington area. When he was a kid, his family fled Vietnam for the U.S... he later parked cars at a Chinese restaurant... and despite becoming a top-producing agent building a monster portfolio of paid-off rental properties, he's still hungry and shows...

Ever considered partnering up with your spouse or another family member? Today's guests Elliot and Chrissy Smith did just that when they left stable careers to flip, wholesale, and buy rental properties together in Washington state. Running the business together wasn't easy on their marriage. In fact, they almost got divorced. Fast forward to today... they're happy, doing 25 deals/year, and buildi...

Real estate investing... old school! Rick Jarman (@realestateoldschool on Instagram) joins us today to share some of his hard-won wisdom from 44+ years as a flipper and landlord in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. And it's quite the journey, from cabinet maker and campus maintenance man to cigar-puffing 64-year-old social media influencer! In this episode you'll hear tales of up markets, down markets, losing...

A $1 million net worth before the age of 30... through frugality and creative real estate investing! That's what Todd Baldwin's achieved in a few short years, riding the red-hot Seattle housing market by repeat house hacking, renting by the bedroom, and living way below his means. Sure, Todd's benefited from appreciation, but he's also generating monster cash-on-cash returns across his 6 rental pr...

Live calls, Dave Ramsey style! In this episode we open up the phone (er, Zoom) lines to take audience questions on everything from "should I flip or hold this deal" to "Coronavirus cost me my job... how can I invest now?" Brandon and David offer also advice on house hacking, Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOCs), appraisals, and the pros and cons of tapping a retirement account to jumpstart a real...

From fashion design work in India, to a corporate career with Nordstrom... to leaving that career to flip 40+ houses in 6 years – all in one of the hottest markets on the planet! Seattle investor Leka Devatha has quite a story to tell, and a lot of hard-won wisdom too! From her 6 tips for finding and keeping great contractors, to the exact criteria she uses when looking for a flip opportunity, Lek...

Are you tired of toiling in the trenches... and ready to run a business that cranks out profits without your constant involvement? That's what today's guest has managed to do! In this episode, Michigan-based investor Mike Simmons shares exactly how he went from moderate success to $1 million in annual profit. You'll learn why Mike switched gears from flipping to wholesaling real estate, what he's...

Do you dream of stepping back from the day to day and working on your business rather than in it? Of course you do! AJ Osborne has achieved that goal—and having experienced a harrowing health emergency that incapacitated him for months (see show 286), this Boise, Idaho, investor is ultra-qualified to discuss the value of documenting, delegating, and streamlining your real estate business so it can...

On today's show: the massive impact of just a few flips and a few small multifamily rental properties. Starting in 2017, that combination allowed our guest Megan Greathouse to step aside from her W-2 job (her husband still works) and spend much more time with her two young kids... all while dedicating just 5 hours per month to self-managing her portfolio in St. Louis. Want to know how she did it?...

Yesterday, Marcus Maloney showed us how he built his deal-finding machine. Today, he tells us how he's hanging onto it by making two big shifts in his business. When the pandemic hit, lenders got nervous... and that put a couple of Marcus' deals in danger. So did he give up? No! He tapped his own network of private lenders to provide financing to his end buyers—a win-win-win. Plus, Marcus tells us...

From "bad drug dealer" in his youth... to earning a master's degree, then jumping into real estate at age 36 and crushing his first deal! Today, Marcus Maloney shares his wild ride in Part 1 of two episodes this week. This one was recorded before the coronavirus pandemic, so we don't discuss that topic. Tomorrow, we'll dive into how Marcus pivoted to keep doing deals in these trying times. In this...

Flipping with no money down... in Hawaii? You heard that right. Greg Gaudet actually considers himself "risk-averse" and still holds a full-time job, but he's able to make nice chunks of change by hustling to find deals and managing rehabs for Brandon's team on Maui. Today, Greg walks us through his journey from "rock bottom," including bouts with addiction and homelessness, to living the life of...

After yesterday's deep dive interview discussing 2 disastrous flip projects, we have a solo show for you today. And the title says it all, really. Brandon and David boiled down nearly 400 podcast episodes, countless forum threads, books, and real-life conversations, and their own missteps and now present: the Top 10 Ways Real Estate Investors Lose Money. These aren't the only ways to go wrong in t...

You can put a dollar number on the losses Spencer Cornelia took on his first two long-distance flips... but it's hard to quantify the value of the lessons he learned and is now passing on to you. We noticed Spencer's thread detailing his struggles in the BiggerPockets forums and invited him on the show; he bravely accepted. In this episode, you'll learn the pitfalls to watch out for when taking on...

Interested in someday making the leap to bigger investments? Don't miss this one! Ben Leybovich and Sam Grooms join us for a high-level conversation about how they transitioned from flips and smaller assets to 100-plus-unit, value-add multifamily deals. Since the first part of this show was recorded pre-coronavirus, we brought the guys back on to hear their thoughts on today's market and get an up...

What happens to a no-money-down BRRRR investor when a pandemic breaks out, lending standards suddenly tighten, private money lenders get skittish, and property values quickly drop? Today, Josiah Smelser returns to the show and tells all. In Part 1 yesterday, we learned how Josiah built a $4M portfolio by buying, renovating, renting, refinancing, and repeating using both hard money and private mone...

Today we bring you Part 1 of back-to-back episodes with real estate investor/appraiser/author/all-around good guy Josiah Smelser. This first conversation was recorded pre-coronavirus lockdown, but it's packed with tips you can put into action today. You'll learn how Josiah solved the #1 bottleneck in his business (capital!), allowing him to BRRRR at scale and rack up rental properties with very li...

Can you flip, wholesale, and buy rentals throughout a downturn? Yes... IF you heed the advice given out in today's episode. Our guest Tucker Merrihew is more than qualified to tackle this subject, having launched his real estate business in Portland, Oregon, in 2008—during one of the worst housing markets of all time. In a rare "Double Deep Dive" segment, Tucker walks us through a couple TTM Devel...

Feeling like you're in uncharted territory as a landlord? You're in good company! Today's show walks you through how to ethically and profitably manage rentals through the COVID-19 outbreak and beyond. Brandon and David sit down with Mike Butler, acclaimed author of Landlording on Autopilot; Chris Clothier, partner at REI Nation (formerly Memphis Invest); and Dave Poeppelmeier, owner of eight hous...

There are plenty of opinions out there about where the real estate market is headed next. But what are the numbers telling us? Today we dig into the data with Dave Meyer, BiggerPockets' VP of Growth and Analytics and a real estate investor himself. Dave leads BiggerPockets Insights—a Pro/Premium benefit providing current local market data—and he's been looking at data points in the weeks since she...