Rental Property Owner & Real Estate Investor Podcast

Land-home development is one of the most overlooked strategies in affordable housing, and most real estate investors have never seriously considered it. The model is straightforward: buy a parcel of land, order a brand new manufactured home from a factory, place it permanently on the property, and sell the land and home together to a first-time buyer. In this episode, Robert Howell breaks down how...

Most real estate investors talk about what worked. Dearonne Bethea is willing to talk about what didn't. In this episode, the CEO of Band of Brothers Investment Group walks through a $500,000 business loss on his first Anytime Fitness franchise, the three mistakes that caused it, and the decisions he made after that eventually led to $200 million in assets under management. Along the way he breaks...

How to Scale Your Real Estate Portfolio Without Burning Out: The 5-Step Framework Real Investors Need Most real estate investors who plateau aren't stuck because of bad deals or bad markets. They're stuck because the habits and decisions that built their business are now the ceiling keeping them from the next level. In this episode, high-performance coach and real estate investor Trevor McGregor b...

Home Staging for Real Estate Investors: How Presentation Affects Sale Price, Days on Market, and ROI Home staging is one of the most underused tools in a real estate investor's toolkit. Most investors treat it as an optional expense. The ones who understand it treat it as a marketing strategy that directly affects what a property sells for and how fast it sells. In this episode, Alisa Sparks, foun...

Most investors with 60 units didn't start with capital, connections, or a roadmap. Andres Bernal started with $500 and an FHA loan on a three-unit in Connecticut. He built that rental portfolio from there, one deal and one strategy at a time, until the income replaced his day job entirely. About Andres Bernal Andres Bernal came to the United States in 2012 as a professional tennis player from the...

Most rental portfolios stall between $500,000 and $5 million. Not because the deals stop. Because the owner is still operating like a technician instead of a CEO. In this episode, Brian talks with Andy Clark , bestselling author of Getting the Whole Pie and creator of the Whole Pie System. Andy works with small business owners who have hit operational ceilings and need structure, clarity, and acco...

Most real estate investors never reach financial freedom. Not because they lack hustle. Not because they miss deals. They fail because they never build a real long-term strategy. In this episode, Brian sits down with Joel Kraut , a real estate investor with over 30 years of experience. Joel has flipped more than 100 homes, built rental portfolios across multiple states, operated through the 2008 c...

Co-living is one of the most overlooked strategies in real estate investing. While most investors chase single-family rentals generating $200 a month per door, a small group of operators is filling houses with multiple residents, charging per bed, and clearing $5,000 or more on a single property. In this episode, co-living investor and coach Katrina Robinson breaks down exactly how this model work...

Most investors think price equals value. They look at comps. They trust broker packages. They assume appreciation will fix everything. That's where they get into trouble. In this episode, I sit down with Ryan Cadwell , Principal of Resolute RDM, an Indianapolis-based firm involved in over $100M in transactions, development, and asset management. Ryan has flipped nearly 150 homes and is currently d...

Most investors blame the market. Very few examine their management. Vacancy, delinquency, and maintenance creep rarely start with the economy. They start with weak systems, poor tracking, and inconsistent execution. In this episode, Brian talks with Donny Nguyen, real estate investor, business strategist, and founder of VanderWinn Property Management. Donny brings a background in corporate strateg...

Too many investors chase interest rates and ignore structure. They worry about an eighth of a point while overpaying on taxes, misunderstanding underwriting, or choosing the wrong loan product entirely. In this episode, Fred SaintAmour of Boathouse Commercial Funding Group breaks down how lenders actually assess risk and why most investors misunderstand leverage. We cover: How debt service coverag...

In this episode, Dr. Paul Isely joins the Midwest Real Estate Investor Conference podcast for another MREIC 2026 Speaker Spotlight where he unpacks the market signals, economic trends, and bigger-picture forces that could shape investment decisions in the months ahead. Dr. Isely is Associate Dean and Professor of Economics at Grand Valley State University's Seidman College of Business and is widel...

Manufactured housing rarely gets attention until markets tighten. That's exactly why Matthias Gruenwald built a business around it. In this episode, Matthias, co-founder of WCG Investments, shares how he grew from a duplex in 2022 to overseeing roughly $45 million across 25 manufactured housing communities in less than three years. Before real estate, Matthias was a global manufacturing COO. He br...

Short-term rentals have matured fast. But many operators are still stuck paying rising distribution costs while losing control of the guest relationship. In this episode, Eric Goldreyer , hospitality entrepreneur and founder of BedandBreakfast.com , former co-founder of TurnKey Vacation Rentals , and creator of Savvy , joins Brian to unpack what's happening behind the scenes in vacation rental dis...

Nathan Biller is joining us at the 2026 Midwest Real Estate Investor Conference to break down what real estate investors need to know about ADU development in today's market. Nathan is a real estate investor, infill developer, ADU specialist, and Co-Founder of My Backyard Build. Based in Grand Rapids, he helps homeowners and real estate investors add housing through small-scale, zoning-aligned dev...

Many Sunbelt markets that once dominated headlines are now facing oversupply, rising expenses, and compressed returns. Meanwhile, much of the Midwest is quietly doing the opposite — holding occupancy, stabilizing rents, and delivering durable cash flow. In this episode, Jeremy Yost , Navy veteran and CEO with over $244M developed across 56 properties and 2,000+ units , shares why his disciplined M...

Zachary Beach is next up in our 2026 MREIC Speaker Spotlight series. Zachary breaks down why creative financing is becoming more important in today's market. As CEO and Partner of SmartRealEstateCoach.com , Zach shares how real estate investors can structure deals without relying solely on traditional bank loans, large down payments, or personally guaranteeing debt, and why those strategies are ga...

Most Airbnb failures don't come from bad luck. They come from bad assumptions made before the deal ever closes . In this episode, John Bianchi , founder of STR Search , breaks down how he evaluates short-term rental deals using data most investors either misunderstand or completely ignore. John has helped guide more than $100M+ into short-term rental properties and has reviewed 350+ deals nationwi...

Anthony Chara joins the Midwest Real Estate Investor Conference Speaker Spotlight to talk about why multifamily investing deserves serious attention in 2026. In this conversation, he breaks down what he sees happening in the apartment market, where opportunities may emerge, and why investors need to be ready to analyze deals with discipline. With more than 30 years in real estate, Anthony has owne...

At some point, every real estate investor has to ask a hard question: Is this property still working for me, or am I just holding it out of habit? In this episode, Dan Ihara , a national real estate planner with more than 400 completed 1031 exchanges and over $110M in deferred capital gains , joins Brian Hamrick to talk about how investors should evaluate aging properties, declining returns, and n...

AI is no longer theoretical. It is already changing how real estate decisions get made in underwriting, leasing, operations, marketing, asset management, and communication. In this special episode, I sit down with  Steve Brown , AI futurist, bestselling author, and former senior leader at Google DeepMind and Intel . Steve is the Opening Keynote Speaker at the 2026 Midwest Real Estate Investor Conf...

Paul Moore is coming to MREIC 2026 with a message a lot of investors need right now: the path to long-term wealth isn't exciting—it's durable, disciplined, and often "boring." In this Speaker Spotlight conversation with host Brian, Paul (Founder of Wellings Capital) explains why many investors are still dealing with the fallout from the last cycle—paused distributions, capital calls, dilution, and...

Dr. Jordan Romano is an Ivy League–trained physician who has built a strong real estate portfolio not by chasing headlines or spreadsheets—but by going extremely hyper-local , staying curious, and learning to see what others overlook. Jordan shares how he uses on-the-ground observation, municipal GIS tools, zoning knowledge, and simple pattern recognition to uncover opportunities that don't show u...

The first Speaker Spotlight for MREIC 2026 is live. We're kicking off with John Burley , real estate fund manager and capital raiser with 40+ years of investing experience and $600M+ raised . In this conversation with Brian, John breaks down why real estate success becomes dramatically simpler when you stop chasing "magic deals" and learn how to raise capital in a proper, formal, compliant way—inc...

Every real estate investor has at least one deal they would redo if given the chance. Some teach expensive lessons. Others leave scars. In this episode, Brian Hamrick shares a live panel recording from the 2025 Midwest Real Estate Investor Conference , where three experienced investors pull back the curtain on their toughest deals and what they learned the hard way. This is not theory. These are r...