December 9, 2025 • 27 mins
Zach started buying rentals at 21 with no family money, no partners, and no roadmap. He didn’t come from a real estate background, but he taught himself creative financing and pushed forward deal by deal. In just two years, he built a large rental portfolio that now includes more than 100 properties.
On this episode, Zach walks us through exactly how he did it. He shares how he built a trustworthy team to handle construction and property management, and why setting clear goals played a huge role in keeping him on track.
We also talk about how making networking a priority opened doors he didn’t know existed. Zach breaks down the creative financing strategies that fueled his growth, including seller financing, raising money from private investors, and the BRRRR strategy.
If you want to see what’s possible when you combine hustle, creativity, and consistent action, Zach’s story is one you don’t want to miss.
https://rentalincomepodcast.com/episode551
Thanks To Our Sponsors:
Ridge Lending Group - Making investment Mortgage process simple and stress-free.
MidSouth HomeBuyers – Turnkey Rentals In Memphis & Little Rock. Instant Cash Flow On Day One. (Priced between $100,000 to low $200's)
Rental Accounting Software Made Easy. Free 30 Day Trial.
On this episode, Zach walks us through exactly how he did it. He shares how he built a trustworthy team to handle construction and property management, and why setting clear goals played a huge role in keeping him on track.
We also talk about how making networking a priority opened doors he didn’t know existed. Zach breaks down the creative financing strategies that fueled his growth, including seller financing, raising money from private investors, and the BRRRR strategy.
If you want to see what’s possible when you combine hustle, creativity, and consistent action, Zach’s story is one you don’t want to miss.
https://rentalincomepodcast.com/episode551
Thanks To Our Sponsors:
Ridge Lending Group - Making investment Mortgage process simple and stress-free.
MidSouth HomeBuyers – Turnkey Rentals In Memphis & Little Rock. Instant Cash Flow On Day One. (Priced between $100,000 to low $200's)
Rental Accounting Software Made Easy. Free 30 Day Trial.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The inspiring interviews with today is Top Landlord.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
This is the Rental Income podcast and now damnly.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Zach, let me make sure I get this right. So
you're twenty three and you've got one hundred rentals.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yep, that's right.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Did you have any partners that helped you do this?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
I've got a couple properties with a few properties with
a partner, what ninety percent of it or so is
just me?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Did you have a bunch of family money when you
got started, or did you win the lottery or something.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Nope.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I just sort of figured out the creative finance world
and the real estate financing world and kept kind of
scaling the business and trying to learn new things.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Zach started buying rental properties two years ago when he
was twenty one years old, and today he's got over
one hundred doors. And on the show today, we're going
to figure out how we did it. Joining us on
the show from Lynchburg, Virginia is Za Shephard. We'll take
a quick break to bank our sponsors. We'll come right
back and we'll talk to Zach. It's a lot of
(01:06):
work to find a really good rental property, and when
you actually find that property, you want to make sure
you're working with a lender that can get that loan closed.
The lender that I recommend is jay Lee Ridge from
Ridge Lending Group. She's a nationwide lender and her specialty
is helping investors' finance rental properties. She has a ton
of loan programs and she can find something customized to
(01:28):
you for your situation. If you want to find out
more or you're ready to get started today, just go
to Ridge Lendinggroup dot com. That's our Idge Lendinggroup dot
com n MLS four two zero five six. Are you
thinking about investing in rental properties but maybe you don't
know where to start. My friends at Midsouth Home Buyers
(01:50):
make it simple. For over twenty three years, they've been
selling fully renovated, turnkey rental properties in Memphis and Little Rock.
We're talking in new roofs, plumbing, electric kitchens, bathrooms. Everything
is brand new and done right. And here's the best part.
Every property comes with a well qualified tenant in place
(02:11):
before you close. That means you get cash flow from
day one. Plus Midsouth continues to professionally manage the property
for you after the sale, and they back it up
with two powerful guarantees. You get a one year total
maintenance warranty and a lifetime occupancy guarantee. Personally, I've bought
(02:32):
five properties from them and I couldn't be happier. If
you want to talk to someone that's been through the process,
feel free to reach out to me. I'm happy to
answer any questions. Or if you're ready to get started,
just go to midsouthhome Buyers dot com. That's midsouthhome Buyers
dot com. Zach, let's start things off talking about your portfolio.
(02:53):
So you've got one hundred units, So what is that
comprised of?
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Yeah, totally so, yeah, just over one hundred units. Now,
just bought a four plex yesterday. But it's a mix
of multifamily, single family, and some mobile home parks, a
little bit of commercial. I have a billboard, so it's
kind of a little bit of everything, but the bread
and butter, the big the most thing I focused the
most on is long term rentals.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
And everything is in the same area.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yep, it's all all within forty minutes of me.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
What are the neighborhoods like, I've got some that are
in Class A neighborhoods, some that are in Class B
and Class C as well. And then certainly the mobile
home parks are kind of their own little neighborhoods, so
it's kind of a mixture.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I'd say I focus more heavily on the lower.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Income neighborhoods in our area because that's where I'm able
to find more profit and I'm willing to deal with
the headaches that come with that to.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Reap the upside that also comes with those parts of town.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
To A class properties cash flow, A lot of times
those properties, they're they're easy to manage, but they're just
hard to make money on. Do your A class properties
produce positive cash flow?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
They do.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
I don't buy anything that doesn't produce positive cash flow,
but I have a very much smaller portion of A
class than you know, low B and high C and
MIDB class properties.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
And how old are the properties that you're buying?
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Some of them are late eighteen hundreds, some of them
are probably the newest ones or in the fifties. Some
buying mostly older stuff, but I kind of like the
older construction and enjoy the architecture of the older homes
as well.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
And are most of your properties rehabs? Are you buying them?
And fixing them up or are they kind of rent
ready when you buy them.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Yeah, most of them are rehabs, just because that's how
I'm able to get good enough deals to build cash flow.
So obviously, you know, managing a rehab and putting in
some sweat equity helps build equity, and so I'm able
to get into a property for the right amount in
order to be able to get the property to the
cash flow.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
You've got a big portfolio. I mean, are you doing
this all yourself or do you have any people helping
you out.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
I definitely have a lot of help.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
I've got about fifteen or twenty guys on the construction
side that worked for me, mostly full time. And then
I've got two guys that helped me with the management side,
Brian and Adam, super awesome guys, and so I've kind
of been able to build a team of people and
we all kind of are chasing the same thing, which
is to help improve our community and provide housing for people.
I have a partner on about a dozen units, and
(05:31):
then the rest of them I own just me. But
I certainly wouldn't be able to do this without the
help of all the investors that invest in my business
and the employees that you know, I employ, and the
wholesalers and agents and everybody who kind of brings me deals.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
So you're twenty three right now. How long have you
been doing this for?
Speaker 3 (05:53):
So I first start into real estate about three years ago,
about my first house. I didn't buy another house for
about a year. I got married in that time and
kind of built up a bit of a contractor business,
handyman business. And then two years ago is when I
bought my second property, and then I bought four more
right after that, and then really decided, you know, I
was going to try to scale this bigger than I
(06:15):
was thinking prior to that. And that's kind of that
was two years ago, and this is kind of where
we are now.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Wow. All right, So in over in just about two years,
you've you've bought over one hundred properties.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Over one hundred units.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yeah, unit's wow. So how did you how did you
figure this out? I mean that is like just really incredible,
I mean taking your age out of it, but you know,
figuring out how to buy that many properties in that
sort of a time, Like, how how did you figure
that out? Figure out how to do this?
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Yeah, there's a lot of pieces to it, I would
say a few pieces are. Number one is I'm pretty
intentional about goal setting. So my my the year that
I bought five houses, my goal that year was to
buy three, and I ended up buying more than I
thought I could buy. And so and when I said three,
I was okay if one of them was a mobile
home and a mobile home park and somebody else owned
(07:11):
the land. I just wanted to figure out a way
to get into the rental business. And so I ended
up buying five standalone houses. And so the next year
I was like, well, I need to think bigger, and
so I set a goal to buy eight to twelve
and I ended up buying fourteen. And that was about
a year ago. I had twenty units a year ago.
And I was goal setting last December, and I was thinking, Okay,
where do I want the business to go. Obviously want
(07:31):
to grow something big because I just really enjoy getting
to employ a lot of people, provide housing to a
lot of people, and create something that you know will
hopefully one day have some positive influence in our community.
And so I was kind of thinking last December, where
do I want to take this? What do I want
to do for my goal for this year twenty twenty five,
and so I was thinking, well, maybe I'll do maybe
I'll buy thirty units. And then I was like, I
(07:54):
think I can do more than that. Maybe I'll try
to do fifty, which is a bit crazy. And then
I read Grant Cardones book The ten X Rule, which
is a bit of a meme, but he's exactly right
in his principle of this book is make your goal
so big it seems really hard, and then chase after it,
which I had done in years past, but one hundred
units just seemed crazy. So I set a goal this
year to buy one hundred units. Told my wife about
(08:15):
it a year ago and she said, I think you
can do it, and that was about all I needed,
and I I just sort of started planning and trying
to work towards that, and so far I bought about
eighty three units and I'm under contract on another forty five,
some of which will close this year, some of which
will close next year. So I would say probably the
biggest piece is a mix of two things. It's goal setting,
(08:35):
which is really important to me. I learned that when
I was in sales, which is what I did before.
Have my own business, and then in order to achieve
those goals, set I set high goals and then I
bite off a little more than I can chew, and
then I figure out how to chew it. Not in
a stupid way where you you know, take on all this,
you know, more depth than you can handle, and more
projects than you can handle. But to try to take
a project that you're like, I've never done that before.
(08:57):
I don't know how to do that, but I'm not
going to let myself fail. And I'm pretty striving to
come out the other side and do well with it,
and to and to bite out more than jew each time,
and and and it you know, eventually leads to compounding growth.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
So, like, were your parents involved in real estate? I mean,
just to have the mindset that you have at such
a young age I think is really impressive, Like like
where did that come from?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah? I appreciate appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
My mom actually is who I found out about the
Rental Income podcast through. They never haven't had any rental
property yet, but I think they will probably one day.
But my my dad's a business owner and a really
hard worker, and I credit you know, almost everything I
have today to my dad. Because he was so intentional
as he was raising me and my brothers to teach
us practical skills and to teach us how to work,
(09:47):
and to teach teach us about tax write offs, and
to teach us about accounting, and to teach us about
you know, very little little bits and something a lot
of different, a whole bunch of different areas. But the
most important skill I think that he gave me was
just hands on construction experience. I kind of grew up
in the construction world because my dad did as well,
and he taught me a whole bunch of stuff, and
(10:08):
so I was able to I was able to leverage
that to get into the real estate business. And without that,
I don't know, I mean, I would have been super
hard to try to do what I'm doing now because
I was able to be the one swinging the hammer
and to then employ people and be their manager and
to know exactly how it should be done and teach them,
you know, anything that they might need to know in order.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
To do it. So I would say, I credit so much.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Of you know, what the Lord has blessed me with
with you know, giving me parents who were just super
intentional to teach teach practical skills that allow you to
to to go into business and take some risks and
feel like you'll come out the other side because you
have the skills needed to make it happen.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Now, what about money, Like, I think coming up with
the money to get started is the hardest part for people, Like,
how did you do it? How did you get the
money to do this?
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Yeah, this is probably one of the most exciting pieces
of real estate to me. And I met this I
basically when I started in real estate, I took networking
very seriously because I wasn't very good in school, so
I lived by the maxim it's not the grades you make,
it's the hands you shake.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
And I dropped out of college, went into sales.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
I learned learned a lot about that, and then when
I started my own business three years ago, I decided
to make networking in the real estate space a priority,
and so through that I met this gentleman named Abe
who was a little bit older than me, probably twice
my age, and he at one point I had fourteen
rental units, which is a pretty substantial portfolio, and at
(11:34):
the time was really I was.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
I was pretty impressed by.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
It, and he was actually getting out of the business
because he had another business that was doing well and
he wanted to invest in that. And Abe had a
house he was interested in selling. And what somebody did
for Abe when he got started in the real estate
business is the owner financed him and helped him figure out,
you know, creative finance. And they help him figure out
a way to buy a bunch of property zero down.
And when you find a retire real estate investor who
(12:01):
somebody did that for them, they would love the opportunity
to get the bottom dollar they need on their property,
but to help a younger guy start and do so
without having to put fifty thousand dollars down on a property.
And so Abe opened my eyes to the world of
creative finance. It helped me see that you don't need
(12:21):
you don't need cash to put down on a property in.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Order to buy a property. You do need reserves.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
You shouldn't do this, you know, with no money, but
you don't necessarily have to be the one that's putting
the down payment on a property. And so through putting
sweat equity into property, increasing its value and using a
seller credit at a local bank, I was able to
buy my first investment property that I didn't live in
without any money out of pocket, and I got seven
thousand dollars back at the closing table.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
So is that kind of the model that you've followed,
that you've you've bought properties from other investors and done
seller financing.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
I've done a lot of that.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
I think there's a misnomer in the real estate space,
and it's that you can't get good deals from investors
because they know it's they have.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
That's sort of true.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
There's also sort of not true because when the property
needs work, oftentimes it's a real estate investor who knows
how much work it really needs. And so if you
can find an investor who's willing to be reasonable with you,
I've found a lot of success from just buying property
that other people are trying to get out of for
various reasons, working out a deal that works for both
parties still cash flow, still has equity, and they're willing
(13:25):
to be sort of creative on the financing side of things.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
So it's not that you saved a bunch of money,
you didn't have large down payments, You've just networked with
right people and made deals happen.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yeah, I would say probably ninety percent of what I've purchased,
I've done zero down are pretty close to.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
How did you find the people that you've bought properties
from and that have helped you along the way.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Just through networking in the real estate space.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
I just I love people and love getting to know people,
and I enjoy getting no other investors, and I've learned
everything I've been able to do is been, you know,
on the shoulders of other people who have been willing
to give me their advice, and so in that just
you know, you meet people and you find that you've
got a mutual way you can help each other out.
They're looking to offload a property, I'm looking to buy
a property, and there you have it. There's a deal
(14:21):
and then and there's it's more than just deal finding too,
there's you know, I've I've raised probably a few million
a few million dollars of private capital from other investors.
And some of them are buddies of mine, some of
them are retired business people, some of them are you know,
just various people who are interested in getting a decent
return in their money. That has also just been from
(14:42):
getting to know other people in the real estate space.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
So I think there's just a lot.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Of value in getting to know people in your industry
because you you find pretty quickly that you have things
that you both can help each other out with and
great win wins for both parties.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
And I think that's really the great thing with real
estate is it's probably the only industry where most investors
don't look at other investors as the competition, Like we're
all kind of in this together and we're all working together,
and I think that's I think that's that's great that
you've you've found the right people. Now with the private
(15:15):
money that you've raised, what have you done with that?
Speaker 3 (15:19):
I use that pretty much exclusively as short term debt.
There's some there's some private capital that I have that's
long term. Like I bought a single wide trailer on
an acre for thirty thousand, and I have forty five
thousand into it because I fix it up and it
rents for nine hundred a month, So that one I
have long term private capital and I pay the guy
ten percent per month on it, which is a high
(15:40):
interest rate. But I've the single white trailers just cash
really really well. So some of its long term. The
bulk of the private capital that I've been able to
pull together. Has been for burs It's been for buying
houses that need work, fixing them up, and then I
refinance out of it and pay the investor's money back
and do it again.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Okay, So now without having cash that that you're you're
putting into deals where it's it's mainly buying properties under
market value, maybe sometimes fixing them up. Do you ever
get concerned that maybe you're you're too highly leveraged.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Yeah, I try to be. I try to be conservative
enough to well. I what I say is, I try
to be aggressive enough to grow, but conservative enough to
grow safely. So I kind of like a seventy percent
debt position thirty percent equity position, and so I try
to have cash in the bank and equity and property
(16:39):
and build equity through fixing up property. So I'm not
just like, I'm not just like leveraging a property one
hundred percent and getting an owner finance note one hundred
percent on a bunch of deals and getting in zero
down with no equity. The bulk of what I'm doing
is buying stuff that needs a bunch of work. I've
rebuilt numerous foundations. I've you know, done guts on properties.
I've you know, got a bunch of properties that we're
(17:01):
reh having right now. So the bulk of what I've
done is buy stuff that someone's lived in for a
long time.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
It's been torn apart.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
The only thing they could do is list it on
the market and hope somebody buys it or sell it
off market to an investor and then fix those up
and you know, basically hold those hold those properties as
rents as rentals is what I do. And then on
top of that, you know, I do a little bit
of flipping as well, and then I also try to
(17:28):
have some paid off property too. So my leverage position
isn't everything's mortgaged. It's a majority's mortgage, but you have
some that's cash so that if you need to sell
something quickly or you need money quickly, you can either
do a quick refinance or a quick sale so that
you're not just like you know, overly leveraged and not
being safe enough to be able to grow a business
(17:50):
responsibly and effectively.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Now, I mean, obviously you're very well spoken. You really
seem to understand what you're doing here. You know, I
can tell you're a good investor. But when you're working
with tenants, do they ever look at you and think, oh, well,
you know, this is a young guy. He doesn't know
what he's doing. Like, has that been a problem at all.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
I haven't really run into that much occasionally. I think
occasionally sometimes tenants don't know I'm the owner and they
think I'm just a young guy that works for the company.
And I don't, you know, go around saying I'm not
the owner. But I don't also go around saying I
am the owner. But early on everybody knew I was
the owner, and I don't really think about that very much.
I had a job, a sales job for a few
(18:36):
years that kind of kicked that out of me. I
was nervous that I was selling a product to people
who are two three times my age, and my boss
at the time helped me be like, just stop, like
there's no reason, you're you're an adult.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Just stop.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
It's fine, right, And so I, you know, I then
just stop worrying about it and stop thinking about it,
and people stopped asking me how young I was because
I stopped, you know, walking into things nervous that I
was young. And I think, also, you know, this is
kind of more philosophical, But in the history of the world,
we as a culture prolonged youth much longer than most
(19:08):
cultures past in the past have. And you think of
the great men of hundreds of years ago, and so
many of them were in their twenties and did things
that changed the world. And so I think, I think also,
you know, I don't. I don't really think of that
as as necessarily a hindrance for for what I'm doing.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
I agree. I mean, I think thinking you're too young
or too old, that that's all in your head. So
I think I think you're looking at that right. Well,
let's take a look at at one of your deals.
Tell me about this property.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Yeah, so the deal I've selected.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
It's in the downtown part of my town. It's a
historic eighteen eighty five property. It's beautifully renovated. A friend
of mine had it. He bought it for one ninety
a couple of years ago, and just is more, he's
more interested in flipping than rentals, which is one of
the beautiful things about the real estate industry. There's so
many avenues people can go, And so he ended up
(20:03):
selling it to me for two h five, which is
you know, hardly more than he had in it, but
I think it would probably appraise for like two sixty
five or so. So it's not a smoking hot deal
where I'm fixing it up and adding equity, which is
most of what I do. But he's willing to sell
it at about twenty twenty two to twenty three percent
off something like that, so or twenty five percent off
(20:25):
something like that. So I'm I'm I purchased this property
with the intent to refinance into long term debt, so
I'm basically doing a bur But what I did with
it is I talked to him, you know, about how
I could probably buy it at one ninety or below
two hundred and use hard money and make it make
sense and refinance out of it. Or I could pay
him a bit higher of a number if he's willing
(20:46):
to owner finance and offer it as a subject to
the existing mortgage, which I've done a few of those.
I don't love subject too, but in certain circumstances I
like it. So I purchased this property. I put three
thousand dollars into it as the closing costs, bought it
for two oh five. He's carrying a mortgage on it
in second position and then also I'm buying it subject
(21:07):
to his existing debt, and all I'm gonna do is
just refinance it. I have the appraisal later today at
two forty, and so I'll go there, we'll have the appraisal,
and I'll refinance right out of it, and I'll be
able to get a property that rents for twenty four
hundred a month for two hundred and five thousand, which
is better than one percent rule, which is typically how
I like to buy, where interest rates are.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
And zero down.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
And the property didn't need any work.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
No, it's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Most of the stuff I buy needs a lot of
work some of some of it when I buy it, it's
quite junkie, and then I mean me and my team
fix it up. But this property specifically just happens to
be really pretty. It's a you know, hold historic property
and is in good shape.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Is this a single family or a duplex?
Speaker 2 (21:48):
It's a duplex?
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Okay, all right, So twenty four hundred is the rant
m h. And what's the mortgage payment? Right the right now?
Speaker 3 (21:59):
Yeah, right now, I think it's so right now, I
think it's probably fifteen hundred or something like that, because
it's short term owner finance debt, which I don't really
care for the interest rate as much when it's shorter
term debt because I'm going to refinance out of it.
But once once the refinance goes through, it'll probably be
thirteen hundred or something like that a month, including taxes
(22:19):
and insurance.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Okay, so you've got about nine hundred dollars cash flow
on that after you pay the mortgage correct yeap. Now,
with most people, if they have a couple of rental properties,
I think it's a good idea to budget money on
that properties cash flow for any repairs or things that
(22:42):
come up. But with you having so many properties, I'm
sure you have a lot of positive cash flow. So
like you, how do you budget for repairs and for
expenses that are going to come up.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Yeah, that's a good question. When I start in the business,
if something happened that was a five hundred dollars expense,
it was a big deal because I had one or
two properties and I didn't have a lot of money.
As it grew a year in. If something happened that
was a four thousand dollars expense, it was a big deal.
But anything you know, a couple thousand or a few
hundred was not a big deal.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
As as you add.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
More zeros to the end of our portfolio, the oh no,
this is a problem. That number starts to grow because
you have more cash flow coming in. So I keep,
you know, a healthy amount in the bank account as reserves.
I also try to have equity and property if I
need to get out of something, and all of my
cash flow goes back into my reserves, back into my
bank account, and some of it's used as operating funds.
(23:38):
And you know, basically when you get a large enough portfolio.
I have one guy who is a W two employee
for me. All he does is maintenance on properties pretty
much all week long. Sometimes he has a light week,
sometimes he has a heavy week, but all he does
is maintenance. So that money that if you had five
properties you'd be putting in a bank account waiting for
the water heater to go out, it's all going into
our operating account because every month, you know, we might
(24:01):
have a water heater or a plumbing issue, and you know,
every month we have an electrical issue somewhere, and every
month there's a there's.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
This, or there's a roof issue.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
So there's just always there's enough property where the capex
and the repairs and maintenance is just always an expense,
and so it's always something I account for.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
So how many properties did you get to where having
a big expense wasn't a big deal. It was just
kind of a normal day, Like was there a certain
number of properties that you got to where the maintenance
wasn't a big problem anymore?
Speaker 3 (24:37):
It was never really big problem because I I when
I first started, I did all the work myself. Again,
you know, going back to my I kind of grew
up in the construction space, so when I first started,
I did all the work myself, so it was I
only had a big problem if I couldn't fix it myself,
And the amount of things I couldn't fix myself were
very small. And then as it grew, I started to
add more zeros, and then I had people working for me,
(25:00):
so I wasn't anymore fixing it myself. But there was
enough I couldn't fix it myself because there was so
much property. But the other side of that is there's
so much property I can afford to pay somebody else
to fix it. So I never really had I never
really had a big issue with maintenance I've never had
a maintenance issue come up that really spooked me. Most
of that's because, you know, when it was small scale,
I could do it myself, and now that it's larger scale,
(25:21):
we have the funds to hire people to do it.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
So where do you see yourself going with this? I mean,
in two years, you've got a hundred properties. When we
talk in five years or ten years, how many properties
do you think you'll have.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
I have no idea.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Obviously I'm pretty intentional with goal setting, but I don't
know exactly what this what it looks like. I would
love to become one of the best, and you know,
one of the biggest real estate investment companies in my area.
And I love the idea of business for the influence
you can have on a community, and you know, for
the lives you can affect, the people you rent to,
the people you employ, all of those types of things.
(26:00):
And I also love that, you know, I lived in
a town that's growing pretty substantially but has a lot
of dilapidated houses. So I get to be a part
of revitalizing our downtown community by buying houses and fixing
them up. So I don't know exactly where this goes,
but I hope to continue to be able to grow
it and continue to be able to employ more people
and provide more housing for more people.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Zach is definitely off to a great start with his
investing and it's going to be fun to see how
far you can take this. We'll be sure to check
in with him at some point down the road. Well,
if Zach inspired you and you're ready to buy your
first property or you want to add to your portfolio,
reach out to our sponsor, Jailey Ridge. She's a nationwide lender.
(26:43):
She's got a ton of different loan programs and she
can find something that works for you. If you want
to track her down, you can find her at ridgelendinggroup
dot com, NMLS four two zero five six. Thank you
so much much for checking out the podcast today. Make
sure you hit that follow button. I put out a
(27:05):
new episode every single Tuesday, and if you're following the show,
you'll get notified when the next episode comes out. My
name is Dan Lane and this has been the Rental
Income podcast
The inspiring interviews with today is Top Landlord.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
This is the Rental Income podcast and now damnly.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Zach, let me make sure I get this right. So
you're twenty three and you've got one hundred rentals.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yep, that's right.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Did you have any partners that helped you do this?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
I've got a couple properties with a few properties with
a partner, what ninety percent of it or so is
just me?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Did you have a bunch of family money when you
got started, or did you win the lottery or something.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Nope.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I just sort of figured out the creative finance world
and the real estate financing world and kept kind of
scaling the business and trying to learn new things.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Zach started buying rental properties two years ago when he
was twenty one years old, and today he's got over
one hundred doors. And on the show today, we're going
to figure out how we did it. Joining us on
the show from Lynchburg, Virginia is Za Shephard. We'll take
a quick break to bank our sponsors. We'll come right
back and we'll talk to Zach. It's a lot of
(01:06):
work to find a really good rental property, and when
you actually find that property, you want to make sure
you're working with a lender that can get that loan closed.
The lender that I recommend is jay Lee Ridge from
Ridge Lending Group. She's a nationwide lender and her specialty
is helping investors' finance rental properties. She has a ton
of loan programs and she can find something customized to
(01:28):
you for your situation. If you want to find out
more or you're ready to get started today, just go
to Ridge Lendinggroup dot com. That's our Idge Lendinggroup dot
com n MLS four two zero five six. Are you
thinking about investing in rental properties but maybe you don't
know where to start. My friends at Midsouth Home Buyers
(01:50):
make it simple. For over twenty three years, they've been
selling fully renovated, turnkey rental properties in Memphis and Little Rock.
We're talking in new roofs, plumbing, electric kitchens, bathrooms. Everything
is brand new and done right. And here's the best part.
Every property comes with a well qualified tenant in place
(02:11):
before you close. That means you get cash flow from
day one. Plus Midsouth continues to professionally manage the property
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with two powerful guarantees. You get a one year total
maintenance warranty and a lifetime occupancy guarantee. Personally, I've bought
(02:32):
five properties from them and I couldn't be happier. If
you want to talk to someone that's been through the process,
feel free to reach out to me. I'm happy to
answer any questions. Or if you're ready to get started,
just go to midsouthhome Buyers dot com. That's midsouthhome Buyers
dot com. Zach, let's start things off talking about your portfolio.
(02:53):
So you've got one hundred units, So what is that
comprised of?
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Yeah, totally so, yeah, just over one hundred units. Now,
just bought a four plex yesterday. But it's a mix
of multifamily, single family, and some mobile home parks, a
little bit of commercial. I have a billboard, so it's
kind of a little bit of everything, but the bread
and butter, the big the most thing I focused the
most on is long term rentals.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
And everything is in the same area.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yep, it's all all within forty minutes of me.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
What are the neighborhoods like, I've got some that are
in Class A neighborhoods, some that are in Class B
and Class C as well. And then certainly the mobile
home parks are kind of their own little neighborhoods, so
it's kind of a mixture.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I'd say I focus more heavily on the lower.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Income neighborhoods in our area because that's where I'm able
to find more profit and I'm willing to deal with
the headaches that come with that to.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Reap the upside that also comes with those parts of town.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
To A class properties cash flow, A lot of times
those properties, they're they're easy to manage, but they're just
hard to make money on. Do your A class properties
produce positive cash flow?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
They do.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
I don't buy anything that doesn't produce positive cash flow,
but I have a very much smaller portion of A
class than you know, low B and high C and
MIDB class properties.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
And how old are the properties that you're buying?
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Some of them are late eighteen hundreds, some of them
are probably the newest ones or in the fifties. Some
buying mostly older stuff, but I kind of like the
older construction and enjoy the architecture of the older homes
as well.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
And are most of your properties rehabs? Are you buying them?
And fixing them up or are they kind of rent
ready when you buy them.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Yeah, most of them are rehabs, just because that's how
I'm able to get good enough deals to build cash flow.
So obviously, you know, managing a rehab and putting in
some sweat equity helps build equity, and so I'm able
to get into a property for the right amount in
order to be able to get the property to the
cash flow.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
You've got a big portfolio. I mean, are you doing
this all yourself or do you have any people helping
you out.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
I definitely have a lot of help.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
I've got about fifteen or twenty guys on the construction
side that worked for me, mostly full time. And then
I've got two guys that helped me with the management side,
Brian and Adam, super awesome guys, and so I've kind
of been able to build a team of people and
we all kind of are chasing the same thing, which
is to help improve our community and provide housing for people.
I have a partner on about a dozen units, and
(05:31):
then the rest of them I own just me. But
I certainly wouldn't be able to do this without the
help of all the investors that invest in my business
and the employees that you know, I employ, and the
wholesalers and agents and everybody who kind of brings me deals.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
So you're twenty three right now. How long have you
been doing this for?
Speaker 3 (05:53):
So I first start into real estate about three years ago,
about my first house. I didn't buy another house for
about a year. I got married in that time and
kind of built up a bit of a contractor business,
handyman business. And then two years ago is when I
bought my second property, and then I bought four more
right after that, and then really decided, you know, I
was going to try to scale this bigger than I
(06:15):
was thinking prior to that. And that's kind of that
was two years ago, and this is kind of where
we are now.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Wow. All right, So in over in just about two years,
you've you've bought over one hundred properties.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Over one hundred units.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yeah, unit's wow. So how did you how did you
figure this out? I mean that is like just really incredible,
I mean taking your age out of it, but you know,
figuring out how to buy that many properties in that
sort of a time, Like, how how did you figure
that out? Figure out how to do this?
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Yeah, there's a lot of pieces to it, I would
say a few pieces are. Number one is I'm pretty
intentional about goal setting. So my my the year that
I bought five houses, my goal that year was to
buy three, and I ended up buying more than I
thought I could buy. And so and when I said three,
I was okay if one of them was a mobile
home and a mobile home park and somebody else owned
(07:11):
the land. I just wanted to figure out a way
to get into the rental business. And so I ended
up buying five standalone houses. And so the next year
I was like, well, I need to think bigger, and
so I set a goal to buy eight to twelve
and I ended up buying fourteen. And that was about
a year ago. I had twenty units a year ago.
And I was goal setting last December, and I was thinking, Okay,
where do I want the business to go. Obviously want
(07:31):
to grow something big because I just really enjoy getting
to employ a lot of people, provide housing to a
lot of people, and create something that you know will
hopefully one day have some positive influence in our community.
And so I was kind of thinking last December, where
do I want to take this? What do I want
to do for my goal for this year twenty twenty five,
and so I was thinking, well, maybe I'll do maybe
I'll buy thirty units. And then I was like, I
(07:54):
think I can do more than that. Maybe I'll try
to do fifty, which is a bit crazy. And then
I read Grant Cardones book The ten X Rule, which
is a bit of a meme, but he's exactly right
in his principle of this book is make your goal
so big it seems really hard, and then chase after it,
which I had done in years past, but one hundred
units just seemed crazy. So I set a goal this
year to buy one hundred units. Told my wife about
(08:15):
it a year ago and she said, I think you
can do it, and that was about all I needed,
and I I just sort of started planning and trying
to work towards that, and so far I bought about
eighty three units and I'm under contract on another forty five,
some of which will close this year, some of which
will close next year. So I would say probably the
biggest piece is a mix of two things. It's goal setting,
(08:35):
which is really important to me. I learned that when
I was in sales, which is what I did before.
Have my own business, and then in order to achieve
those goals, set I set high goals and then I
bite off a little more than I can chew, and
then I figure out how to chew it. Not in
a stupid way where you you know, take on all this,
you know, more depth than you can handle, and more
projects than you can handle. But to try to take
a project that you're like, I've never done that before.
(08:57):
I don't know how to do that, but I'm not
going to let myself fail. And I'm pretty striving to
come out the other side and do well with it,
and to and to bite out more than jew each time,
and and and it you know, eventually leads to compounding growth.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
So, like, were your parents involved in real estate? I mean,
just to have the mindset that you have at such
a young age I think is really impressive, Like like
where did that come from?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah? I appreciate appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
My mom actually is who I found out about the
Rental Income podcast through. They never haven't had any rental
property yet, but I think they will probably one day.
But my my dad's a business owner and a really
hard worker, and I credit you know, almost everything I
have today to my dad. Because he was so intentional
as he was raising me and my brothers to teach
us practical skills and to teach us how to work,
(09:47):
and to teach teach us about tax write offs, and
to teach us about accounting, and to teach us about
you know, very little little bits and something a lot
of different, a whole bunch of different areas. But the
most important skill I think that he gave me was
just hands on construction experience. I kind of grew up
in the construction world because my dad did as well,
and he taught me a whole bunch of stuff, and
(10:08):
so I was able to I was able to leverage
that to get into the real estate business. And without that,
I don't know, I mean, I would have been super
hard to try to do what I'm doing now because
I was able to be the one swinging the hammer
and to then employ people and be their manager and
to know exactly how it should be done and teach them,
you know, anything that they might need to know in order.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
To do it. So I would say, I credit so much.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Of you know, what the Lord has blessed me with
with you know, giving me parents who were just super
intentional to teach teach practical skills that allow you to
to to go into business and take some risks and
feel like you'll come out the other side because you
have the skills needed to make it happen.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Now, what about money, Like, I think coming up with
the money to get started is the hardest part for people, Like,
how did you do it? How did you get the
money to do this?
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Yeah, this is probably one of the most exciting pieces
of real estate to me. And I met this I
basically when I started in real estate, I took networking
very seriously because I wasn't very good in school, so
I lived by the maxim it's not the grades you make,
it's the hands you shake.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
And I dropped out of college, went into sales.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
I learned learned a lot about that, and then when
I started my own business three years ago, I decided
to make networking in the real estate space a priority,
and so through that I met this gentleman named Abe
who was a little bit older than me, probably twice
my age, and he at one point I had fourteen
rental units, which is a pretty substantial portfolio, and at
(11:34):
the time was really I was.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
I was pretty impressed by.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
It, and he was actually getting out of the business
because he had another business that was doing well and
he wanted to invest in that. And Abe had a
house he was interested in selling. And what somebody did
for Abe when he got started in the real estate
business is the owner financed him and helped him figure out,
you know, creative finance. And they help him figure out
a way to buy a bunch of property zero down.
And when you find a retire real estate investor who
(12:01):
somebody did that for them, they would love the opportunity
to get the bottom dollar they need on their property,
but to help a younger guy start and do so
without having to put fifty thousand dollars down on a property.
And so Abe opened my eyes to the world of
creative finance. It helped me see that you don't need
(12:21):
you don't need cash to put down on a property in.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Order to buy a property. You do need reserves.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
You shouldn't do this, you know, with no money, but
you don't necessarily have to be the one that's putting
the down payment on a property. And so through putting
sweat equity into property, increasing its value and using a
seller credit at a local bank, I was able to
buy my first investment property that I didn't live in
without any money out of pocket, and I got seven
thousand dollars back at the closing table.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
So is that kind of the model that you've followed,
that you've you've bought properties from other investors and done
seller financing.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
I've done a lot of that.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
I think there's a misnomer in the real estate space,
and it's that you can't get good deals from investors
because they know it's they have.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
That's sort of true.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
There's also sort of not true because when the property
needs work, oftentimes it's a real estate investor who knows
how much work it really needs. And so if you
can find an investor who's willing to be reasonable with you,
I've found a lot of success from just buying property
that other people are trying to get out of for
various reasons, working out a deal that works for both
parties still cash flow, still has equity, and they're willing
(13:25):
to be sort of creative on the financing side of things.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
So it's not that you saved a bunch of money,
you didn't have large down payments, You've just networked with
right people and made deals happen.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yeah, I would say probably ninety percent of what I've purchased,
I've done zero down are pretty close to.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
How did you find the people that you've bought properties
from and that have helped you along the way.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Just through networking in the real estate space.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
I just I love people and love getting to know people,
and I enjoy getting no other investors, and I've learned
everything I've been able to do is been, you know,
on the shoulders of other people who have been willing
to give me their advice, and so in that just
you know, you meet people and you find that you've
got a mutual way you can help each other out.
They're looking to offload a property, I'm looking to buy
a property, and there you have it. There's a deal
(14:21):
and then and there's it's more than just deal finding too,
there's you know, I've I've raised probably a few million
a few million dollars of private capital from other investors.
And some of them are buddies of mine, some of
them are retired business people, some of them are you know,
just various people who are interested in getting a decent
return in their money. That has also just been from
(14:42):
getting to know other people in the real estate space.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
So I think there's just a lot.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Of value in getting to know people in your industry
because you you find pretty quickly that you have things
that you both can help each other out with and
great win wins for both parties.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
And I think that's really the great thing with real
estate is it's probably the only industry where most investors
don't look at other investors as the competition, Like we're
all kind of in this together and we're all working together,
and I think that's I think that's that's great that
you've you've found the right people. Now with the private
(15:15):
money that you've raised, what have you done with that?
Speaker 3 (15:19):
I use that pretty much exclusively as short term debt.
There's some there's some private capital that I have that's
long term. Like I bought a single wide trailer on
an acre for thirty thousand, and I have forty five
thousand into it because I fix it up and it
rents for nine hundred a month, So that one I
have long term private capital and I pay the guy
ten percent per month on it, which is a high
(15:40):
interest rate. But I've the single white trailers just cash
really really well. So some of its long term. The
bulk of the private capital that I've been able to
pull together. Has been for burs It's been for buying
houses that need work, fixing them up, and then I
refinance out of it and pay the investor's money back
and do it again.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Okay, So now without having cash that that you're you're
putting into deals where it's it's mainly buying properties under
market value, maybe sometimes fixing them up. Do you ever
get concerned that maybe you're you're too highly leveraged.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Yeah, I try to be. I try to be conservative
enough to well. I what I say is, I try
to be aggressive enough to grow, but conservative enough to
grow safely. So I kind of like a seventy percent
debt position thirty percent equity position, and so I try
to have cash in the bank and equity and property
(16:39):
and build equity through fixing up property. So I'm not
just like, I'm not just like leveraging a property one
hundred percent and getting an owner finance note one hundred
percent on a bunch of deals and getting in zero
down with no equity. The bulk of what I'm doing
is buying stuff that needs a bunch of work. I've
rebuilt numerous foundations. I've you know, done guts on properties.
I've you know, got a bunch of properties that we're
(17:01):
reh having right now. So the bulk of what I've
done is buy stuff that someone's lived in for a
long time.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
It's been torn apart.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
The only thing they could do is list it on
the market and hope somebody buys it or sell it
off market to an investor and then fix those up
and you know, basically hold those hold those properties as
rents as rentals is what I do. And then on
top of that, you know, I do a little bit
of flipping as well, and then I also try to
(17:28):
have some paid off property too. So my leverage position
isn't everything's mortgaged. It's a majority's mortgage, but you have
some that's cash so that if you need to sell
something quickly or you need money quickly, you can either
do a quick refinance or a quick sale so that
you're not just like you know, overly leveraged and not
being safe enough to be able to grow a business
(17:50):
responsibly and effectively.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Now, I mean, obviously you're very well spoken. You really
seem to understand what you're doing here. You know, I
can tell you're a good investor. But when you're working
with tenants, do they ever look at you and think, oh, well,
you know, this is a young guy. He doesn't know
what he's doing. Like, has that been a problem at all.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
I haven't really run into that much occasionally. I think
occasionally sometimes tenants don't know I'm the owner and they
think I'm just a young guy that works for the company.
And I don't, you know, go around saying I'm not
the owner. But I don't also go around saying I
am the owner. But early on everybody knew I was
the owner, and I don't really think about that very much.
I had a job, a sales job for a few
(18:36):
years that kind of kicked that out of me. I
was nervous that I was selling a product to people
who are two three times my age, and my boss
at the time helped me be like, just stop, like
there's no reason, you're you're an adult.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Just stop.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
It's fine, right, And so I, you know, I then
just stop worrying about it and stop thinking about it,
and people stopped asking me how young I was because
I stopped, you know, walking into things nervous that I
was young. And I think, also, you know, this is
kind of more philosophical, But in the history of the world,
we as a culture prolonged youth much longer than most
(19:08):
cultures past in the past have. And you think of
the great men of hundreds of years ago, and so
many of them were in their twenties and did things
that changed the world. And so I think, I think also,
you know, I don't. I don't really think of that
as as necessarily a hindrance for for what I'm doing.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
I agree. I mean, I think thinking you're too young
or too old, that that's all in your head. So
I think I think you're looking at that right. Well,
let's take a look at at one of your deals.
Tell me about this property.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Yeah, so the deal I've selected.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
It's in the downtown part of my town. It's a
historic eighteen eighty five property. It's beautifully renovated. A friend
of mine had it. He bought it for one ninety
a couple of years ago, and just is more, he's
more interested in flipping than rentals, which is one of
the beautiful things about the real estate industry. There's so
many avenues people can go, And so he ended up
(20:03):
selling it to me for two h five, which is
you know, hardly more than he had in it, but
I think it would probably appraise for like two sixty
five or so. So it's not a smoking hot deal
where I'm fixing it up and adding equity, which is
most of what I do. But he's willing to sell
it at about twenty twenty two to twenty three percent
off something like that, so or twenty five percent off
(20:25):
something like that. So I'm I'm I purchased this property
with the intent to refinance into long term debt, so
I'm basically doing a bur But what I did with
it is I talked to him, you know, about how
I could probably buy it at one ninety or below
two hundred and use hard money and make it make
sense and refinance out of it. Or I could pay
him a bit higher of a number if he's willing
(20:46):
to owner finance and offer it as a subject to
the existing mortgage, which I've done a few of those.
I don't love subject too, but in certain circumstances I
like it. So I purchased this property. I put three
thousand dollars into it as the closing costs, bought it
for two oh five. He's carrying a mortgage on it
in second position and then also I'm buying it subject
(21:07):
to his existing debt, and all I'm gonna do is
just refinance it. I have the appraisal later today at
two forty, and so I'll go there, we'll have the appraisal,
and I'll refinance right out of it, and I'll be
able to get a property that rents for twenty four
hundred a month for two hundred and five thousand, which
is better than one percent rule, which is typically how
I like to buy, where interest rates are.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
And zero down.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
And the property didn't need any work.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
No, it's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Most of the stuff I buy needs a lot of
work some of some of it when I buy it, it's
quite junkie, and then I mean me and my team
fix it up. But this property specifically just happens to
be really pretty. It's a you know, hold historic property
and is in good shape.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Is this a single family or a duplex?
Speaker 2 (21:48):
It's a duplex?
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Okay, all right, So twenty four hundred is the rant
m h. And what's the mortgage payment? Right the right now?
Speaker 3 (21:59):
Yeah, right now, I think it's so right now, I
think it's probably fifteen hundred or something like that, because
it's short term owner finance debt, which I don't really
care for the interest rate as much when it's shorter
term debt because I'm going to refinance out of it.
But once once the refinance goes through, it'll probably be
thirteen hundred or something like that a month, including taxes
(22:19):
and insurance.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Okay, so you've got about nine hundred dollars cash flow
on that after you pay the mortgage correct yeap. Now,
with most people, if they have a couple of rental properties,
I think it's a good idea to budget money on
that properties cash flow for any repairs or things that
(22:42):
come up. But with you having so many properties, I'm
sure you have a lot of positive cash flow. So
like you, how do you budget for repairs and for
expenses that are going to come up.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Yeah, that's a good question. When I start in the business,
if something happened that was a five hundred dollars expense,
it was a big deal because I had one or
two properties and I didn't have a lot of money.
As it grew a year in. If something happened that
was a four thousand dollars expense, it was a big deal.
But anything you know, a couple thousand or a few
hundred was not a big deal.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
As as you add.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
More zeros to the end of our portfolio, the oh no,
this is a problem. That number starts to grow because
you have more cash flow coming in. So I keep,
you know, a healthy amount in the bank account as reserves.
I also try to have equity and property if I
need to get out of something, and all of my
cash flow goes back into my reserves, back into my
bank account, and some of it's used as operating funds.
(23:38):
And you know, basically when you get a large enough portfolio.
I have one guy who is a W two employee
for me. All he does is maintenance on properties pretty
much all week long. Sometimes he has a light week,
sometimes he has a heavy week, but all he does
is maintenance. So that money that if you had five
properties you'd be putting in a bank account waiting for
the water heater to go out, it's all going into
our operating account because every month, you know, we might
(24:01):
have a water heater or a plumbing issue, and you know,
every month we have an electrical issue somewhere, and every
month there's a there's.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
This, or there's a roof issue.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
So there's just always there's enough property where the capex
and the repairs and maintenance is just always an expense,
and so it's always something I account for.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
So how many properties did you get to where having
a big expense wasn't a big deal. It was just
kind of a normal day, Like was there a certain
number of properties that you got to where the maintenance
wasn't a big problem anymore?
Speaker 3 (24:37):
It was never really big problem because I I when
I first started, I did all the work myself. Again,
you know, going back to my I kind of grew
up in the construction space, so when I first started,
I did all the work myself, so it was I
only had a big problem if I couldn't fix it myself,
And the amount of things I couldn't fix myself were
very small. And then as it grew, I started to
add more zeros, and then I had people working for me,
(25:00):
so I wasn't anymore fixing it myself. But there was
enough I couldn't fix it myself because there was so
much property. But the other side of that is there's
so much property I can afford to pay somebody else
to fix it. So I never really had I never
really had a big issue with maintenance I've never had
a maintenance issue come up that really spooked me. Most
of that's because, you know, when it was small scale,
I could do it myself, and now that it's larger scale,
(25:21):
we have the funds to hire people to do it.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
So where do you see yourself going with this? I mean,
in two years, you've got a hundred properties. When we
talk in five years or ten years, how many properties
do you think you'll have.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
I have no idea.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Obviously I'm pretty intentional with goal setting, but I don't
know exactly what this what it looks like. I would
love to become one of the best, and you know,
one of the biggest real estate investment companies in my area.
And I love the idea of business for the influence
you can have on a community, and you know, for
the lives you can affect, the people you rent to,
the people you employ, all of those types of things.
(26:00):
And I also love that, you know, I lived in
a town that's growing pretty substantially but has a lot
of dilapidated houses. So I get to be a part
of revitalizing our downtown community by buying houses and fixing
them up. So I don't know exactly where this goes,
but I hope to continue to be able to grow
it and continue to be able to employ more people
and provide more housing for more people.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Zach is definitely off to a great start with his
investing and it's going to be fun to see how
far you can take this. We'll be sure to check
in with him at some point down the road. Well,
if Zach inspired you and you're ready to buy your
first property or you want to add to your portfolio,
reach out to our sponsor, Jailey Ridge. She's a nationwide lender.
(26:43):
She's got a ton of different loan programs and she
can find something that works for you. If you want
to track her down, you can find her at ridgelendinggroup
dot com, NMLS four two zero five six. Thank you
so much much for checking out the podcast today. Make
sure you hit that follow button. I put out a
(27:05):
new episode every single Tuesday, and if you're following the show,
you'll get notified when the next episode comes out. My
name is Dan Lane and this has been the Rental
Income podcast
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