From 9 to 5 Grind to Real Estate Freedom with Jessie Lang

What if you didn’t need a trust fund, rich family, or perfect timing to build financial freedom through real estate? In this episode, I’m joined by Jessie Lang, a self-taught investor who turned a crappy condo into a 70+ rental portfolio—and a freedom-filled life on her own terms.

Jessie shares how she house-hacked her way into investing (before she even knew what house hacking was), how she scaled her portfolio using the BRRRR method, and why she believes clarity comes from action—not waiting until you feel ready. We talk systems, screening mistakes, SWAT teams (yes, really), and how she now works fewer hours per week managing 73 rentals than she did managing her first three.

If you’re dreaming of breaking out of the 9-to-5 and creating a lifestyle rooted in freedom, strategy, and self-trust, this episode is packed with relatable wisdom and tactical steps to get you started.

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What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✅ How Jessie scaled from house hacking to managing 70+ long-term rentals
✅ What the BRRRR method is—and how to use it to build wealth
✅ Jessie’s biggest early mistakes (and how she recovered from them)
✅ Why you don’t need to “feel ready” to get started
✅ How to go from overwhelmed landlord to systems-driven investor
✅ The wild story of a SWAT team raid—and what it taught her about screening tenants
✅ Why creating freedom means building repeatable systems, not hustling harder
✅ The power of showing up in the right rooms (and how it changes everything)

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Resources & Links:

📘 Get Jessie’s Book: Rentals Made Easy → on Amazon
🎓 Watch Jessie’s Free BRRRR Mini-Course → https://www.unlockedrentals.com/minicourse
📲 Follow Jessie on Instagram → @jessielangofficial

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Connect With Me:

🌟 Join the Manifestation Playground → www.manifestationplayground.ca
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Episode Transcript

Jenni (00:00):
Welcome to the Manifestation and Money Podcast, Jesse. Hi. Thanks Jen for having me. I am so excited to have you on the show today, and I would love for you to share with the listeners just who you are and what your story is.

(00:01):
It was $92,000, and I put down my entire life savings to buy this place. And I know 90 2K in Austin. It sounds unreal, but this was like 2012, , you know, it timeline. So, , bought that, lived there for a couple years and I couldn't, I mean, I could afford the mortgage on paper, but it wasn't really, I didn't want all my money going to my mortgage.
, my partner and I, at the time, he was one of the roommates and we actually split. And so I knew that it would be too hard emotionally to live in the condo. I knew that it would be crazy to sell it 'cause I had just bought it, . Prices were going crazy in Austin at that time, and then I knew that I couldn't just have a property sitting there vacant.

Jessie (00:03):
totally could have. And knowing what I know now, I didn't do any screening. , I didn't do anything. I was just like, oh, you have money.
I still have my W2 job at this point. , so 2016 rolls around and I'm kind of like, I need more, I need more , in this world. And so I quit my job. I moved outta my place, so I had three long-term rentals and I actually went to go travel the world for all of 2016. Ooh, that's kind of exciting. Yeah, it was really exciting.
I was doing every single thing I could to kind of, you know, , I knew that this is what I was supposed to do. I just didn't know how. So I was meeting everyone I could and, , 18 months came by and I had enough confidence to quit my job, but it definitely took some confidence.
Yes. And so I'm just curious for you. For people listening, if you take yourself back to that very green brand new, , landlord or like you said, housing provider, what are some mistakes that you made or ahas that you wish you would've had insight on buying those first couple places out of the gate?
No, no, none of that. , you have to treat everyone the same. So, you know, here in the US we're really big on fair housing. I'm sure Canada has, you know, similar, , laws in place and so. Fair Housing says I have to treat everyone the same, and that means that I have systems and processes. And when I was getting started, I didn't have a lot of that 'cause I just, I didn't know better.
You're not still buying it, living in it. Correct. So what's your current strategy that you're using?
So the idea is that we're buying, we're renovating the property, we're getting it rented out, we're refinancing out of our short-term money into long-term money, and then we're doing the process over and over and over. And that's the last R repeat.
So that means that if my long-term lender on the refinance is going to lend me 75% of that value. 150 K for this deal to work, for it to be a good bur, B-R-R-R-R. Then I need to be all in at 75% of the 200 K. So that's 150 KI need to be all in. There's three numbers that make up your all in. There's your purchase price, your , rehab costs, and then your holding costs, which is finance, title, insurance, , taxes, all that business utilities.
So with our housing stock here and my portfolio specifically, we are focused on affordable housing space, but we are providing, , I always say clean, safe, affordable housing .

Jenni (00:12):
I like that. And that probably makes it way easier for you if you're going to do maintenance or touchups between tenants. It's the same bucket of paint you're sending over there to have the work done.
It did not go well for probably all the reasons you've heard, and I brought everything back in house multiple years ago, and I got really serious about kind of building out our systems. And so it's myself and one full-time employee. We have contract workers for every other.
What is something that, I don't know, some hard knock story that you have from being
You know? It. It's in our blood. It's in our blood. It truly is. And the more people like you on the show that I have that. Find that lifestyle freedom so you have more time in your schedule. They typically are, they're doing the things, they're going out creating their own podcasts, they're writing the books, they're doing all the things right, because they have the time and space to do it, and the drive is
, a girl moved in to a property that had been, it had been vacant, , for a month. I don't know. I wanna say I was like verging on. Feeling desperate. And so I was like, I just need to get someone in, but don't fall for that. Do not fall for that. Wait for the right resident. So I just, I moved this girl in her proof of income.
I get this call. I'm like, oh crap, what's going on? So I go down there and by like, I don't even, I don't know the exact time it happened, but by the time this all goes down, I drive down all of the windows in the house have been shot out. I find out later by the SWAT team. So the SWAT team raided the property.
I did a lot of research after I talked to a lot of people. I was like, has anyone experienced this? , it's like, it's a common thing.
We have a bunch of resources online that go along with the book that you can download. , and it is my entire method, all the lessons I've learned, some student success stories, all of that really in, , you know, couple hours worth of reading. , it is on Amazon and we have the paperback as you see, and then also a Kindle version.
'cause in my mind I thought a real estate investor was, , in a suit and drove a Ferrari and was like an asshole. I don't know if I can say that, but, , it was like a, just a bad person. And so. To get in a room with other investors doing the same thing and having challenges and learning that they're just regular people like you and me, that switched in my brain like what was possible.

Jessie (00:21):
Yeah, exactly. Right. And you, once you find out that investors are just normal people. , I mean, it's just a totally different ball game. You're like, wait, I can see myself there.
So that's your time afterward. And your five to nine, you have kids, you have a family, , you have all that get through, get through nighttime routine, but you have potentially a couple hours every single night where you could be working on your dream, your side hustle, getting this started. , you can make excuses forever.

Jenni (00:23):
, I'm a hundred percent on that and especially like, I know there's creative financing and stuff, but I think if you're planning on making real estate a piece of your future plan, I definitely think keeping that job, especially outta the gate to get those first couple properties is really, really important.
Under Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and so get your 10 while you have a job and then you know you're gonna be their preferred terms and then you're gonna,, time outta those anyways. So take the job for that time.