{"id":9799,"date":"2023-10-26T14:47:06","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T14:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/?p=9799"},"modified":"2023-10-26T14:47:06","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T14:47:06","slug":"financial-freedom-in-5-years-and-making-300k-on-one-property","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/2023\/10\/26\/financial-freedom-in-5-years-and-making-300k-on-one-property\/","title":{"rendered":"Financial Freedom in 5 Years and Making $300K on ONE Property"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p>If<strong> Lindsey Duguet<\/strong> can <strong>reach <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/start-journey-financial-freedom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>financial freedom<\/strong><\/a>, you can too. She was <strong>hundreds of thousands in debt<\/strong> from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/rookie-podcast-94\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">student loans<\/a>, trying to<strong> raise a family with almost zero free time<\/strong>, <strong>working eighty-hour weeks<\/strong>, and failing to find financial footing. Now, <strong>just five years later, she\u2019s financially free<\/strong>, owns over five hundred rentals, and works not because she has to but because she wants to. She\u2019s scaled faster than almost anyone else we\u2019ve interviewed, so tune in to hear her secrets!<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s address the elephant in the room. Lindsey Duguet is actually Dr. Lindsey Duguet, a physician who was the <strong>first in her family to attend college<\/strong>. After being told \u201cyou can\u2019t do that\u201d more times than she could count, Lindsey <strong>made it her mission to prove everyone wrong<\/strong> on her road to success. She <strong>got into medical school, nailed residency, became a doctor<\/strong>, and then <strong>built a massive <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/passive-income-from-real-estate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>passive income<\/strong><\/a><strong> rental portfolio<\/strong> on the side to free up family time.<\/p>\n<p>In this episode, Lindsey talks about what made her realize she couldn\u2019t rely on a W2, why buying<strong> squatter-filled rentals for just $5,000 <\/strong>isn\u2019t the best move to make, a MASSIVE <strong>BRRRR win that made her $300K<\/strong> (tax-free), and <strong>how to get \u201cunstuck\u201d <\/strong>when you feel like your real estate investing has hit a wall.<\/p>\n<div style=\"overflow-y: scroll; max-height: 400px; background: #eee; padding: 20px; border: 1px solid #ddd;\">\n<p>David:<br \/>This is the BiggerPockets podcast show, 836. How did you know, Lindsey, what you should listen to from other people and when you should say nope, I don\u2019t care what they say, I\u2019m going to move forward?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Good question. I thrive a little bit on beating the odds, and if somebody tells me no, I take that as a challenge. Whether that\u2019s you probably can\u2019t become a doctor. Well, I\u2019ll prove you wrong. That was a long 11-year challenge to get to that point. But similar to real estate, when I first started, the very first broker I spoke to said, I don\u2019t have time for you. And that was a big challenge to me to keep going forward and prove them wrong too. So I like a good challenge.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>What\u2019s going on everyone? It\u2019s David Greene, your host of the BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast, the biggest, the best, the baddest real estate podcast in the world every week, bringing you the stories, how-tos and the answers that you need in order to make smart real estate decisions now in today\u2019s market. And we have got a show for you today. Rob and I will be interviewing Lindsey Duguet, who is a multifamily operator, a small multifamily operator, a little bit single family mixed in there. She\u2019s done a lot of things, but she\u2019s done well with the BRRRR method and long distance real estate investing, two things that we both know that I\u2019m passionate about, and she\u2019s proven a lot of people wrong along the way. Rob, what are some things that you think people should look out for in today\u2019s episode?<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>I think for anyone that\u2019s at home listening to this podcast, if you have reached a plateau in your real estate investing journey and you\u2019re trying to scale and you\u2019re trying to figure it out and you\u2019re struggling with it, this episode is going to be particularly impactful for you because we\u2019re going to uncover some of the secrets that Lindsey uses to scale her own portfolio. But on that note, David, what\u2019s one thing that\u2019s fueled you that people have doubted you in?<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>I\u2019ve been hearing for years hateful messages in my DMs, shade thrown my way that I will never have a beard like Brandon\u2019s. And I finally said, enough is enough that I\u2019m going to prove the doubters wrong. I\u2019m going to show them that they\u2019re wrong about that. That in fact, just because I don\u2019t have hair on my head does not mean I can\u2019t grow hair. I\u2019m going to grow twice as much underneath my chin, and that\u2019s what I\u2019ve gone and done.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Well, I wouldn\u2019t say\u2026 I mean twice as much would be like an eight-foot-long beard, I feel like.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>No, not twice as much as Brandon, twice as much as I would normally have on my head. You got to run your own race, Rob.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Well, hey, it\u2019s a marathon, not a sprint.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Yeah. Before we bring in, Lindsey, today\u2019s quick tip is simple. Do your homework before you partner. We often talk about partnerships and they\u2019re portrayed on many podcasts as if they are this catchall magic pill that will solve all of your woes. But many partnerships can make things trickier and more problematic rather than helpful. And be sure to listen all the way to the end of today\u2019s episode because Lindsey is going to share with you her four questions she asks every partner before committing. Rob, anything before we bring in Lindsey?<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>No, no. Just that nowadays, I\u2019m thinking about starting a little side hustle raising peacocks, and you\u2019ll soon find out why.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>That\u2019s exactly right. If you want to learn a little bit more about the buy and hold peacock method, we\u2019re going to get into that soon.<br \/>Lindsey Duguet, welcome to the BiggerPockets podcast. How are you today?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>I\u2019m excellent. How about yourself?<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Excellent. I can\u2019t quite say I\u2019m that good. I clearly am the number two in this equation, but I\u2019m doing pretty good, Rob, how are you?<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>I\u2019m doing really good. I\u2019m doing really good. I got 10,000 steps in and we\u2019re only halfway through the day, so I mean, there\u2019s many more steps to come.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Oh, you\u2019re not going to become one of those people, are you, that counts that as a workout?<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>I track it a lot. I just need to know.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Tracking is fine, but is it a substitute for your workout?<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Well, it\u2019s a pillar of wealth, I\u2019ll tell you that.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>There\u2019s nothing against the Fitbit people. I just don\u2019t like it when people don\u2019t exercise, but they say they did by counting their steps. Steps are not bad.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>They got that circle check. Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>I did work out at 5:40 in the morning.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Yeah, that counts, right? I don\u2019t know. I\u2019m not a fitness expert, obviously, but walking is a pretty efficient movement that human beings are pretty good at doing. Doing something hard, I think counts as exercise. But that is neither here nor there. Speaking of hard things, Lindsey, you\u2019ve done a lot of hard things and you are very financially fit, much like Rob\u2019s physical fitness, and I\u2019m excited to get into your story today. A little background for everybody who\u2019s listening, 476 units across 18 properties, and you\u2019ll be crossing the 500 mark in just a few weeks. Congratulations on that. Fingers crossed.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>That\u2019s right. That\u2019s a big landmark. Yeah. Yeah, it didn\u2019t close yet, so.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Now some of these properties are partnerships, which is awesome that you disclose that because it\u2019s very common in the world of podcasting for people to claim that they have 7,000 units, but they really are just a limited partner in other people\u2019s investments. You\u2019ve got a mix of single family, duplex, fourplex, tenplex, all of the plexes, including large multifamily with 212 units. You live in Pennsylvania where you also invest as well as Indiana, Chicago and South Carolina, Kansas City, and Springfield, Missouri. We\u2019ve got a long distance investor in the house here.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>But not the West Coast yet. Haven\u2019t made it over there. So it\u2019s all the East Coast.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>And you\u2019ve been doing this for the last five years, if 500 units in five years sounds unattainable, I get it. But we\u2019re going to be focusing on the early days of Lindsey\u2019s investing and break down how she paved the way to get from there to here so you can too. And a fun fact, Lindsey raises peacocks.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Right. I\u2019m a crazy person. That is for sure.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Do you own them or do you raise them? Do you train them for other people?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah, they don\u2019t do any tricks for me, but I grew up on a horse farm and full disclosure, now I live in a neighborhood. It\u2019s at the end of the cul-de-sac. Thank God we don\u2019t have any HOA fees or I 100% would\u2019ve get kicked out. But a couple of years ago, I missed having some of my fun little animal friends and one of the other physicians that I work with said, Hey, do you want to raise or try to hatch some peacock eggs? I said, yeah, absolutely. It sounds fantastic. So five years later here we are doing it every single summer. So yeah, my neighbors, I\u2019m sure they love hearing them and seeing them.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Did you feel like Khaleesi from Game of Thrones holding your peacock eggs?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah, I didn\u2019t step out of any fire, so I\u2019m not that cool.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Nothing like that?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>No.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>But did you have the moment where you felt like it, for Halloween, maybe you dressed up that way, you\u2019ve got the blonde hair, you held the eggs?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>No, but I don\u2019t have a Halloween costume yet for October, so I think that\u2019s a good idea.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Yeah, you could change your Instagram name to breaker of chains. The conqueror mother of peacocks, have that really long title.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Passive peacocks, I don\u2019t know, something real estate investing related.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Before we get into your backstory, tell us in one quick sentence what\u2019s working for you in real estate right now?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Conservative underwriting is definitely a key for us right now. Times are a little bit different now than when we started five years ago. It\u2019s a little bit easier and you had more of a buffer than you do right now.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>That is such a good point. And this is something that doesn\u2019t get talked about a lot. It is not, how do I want to put this? When it comes to real estate investing, there\u2019s always going to be some art to the science. So the last five years of multifamily investing, really any type of properties that were based on commercial lending, there\u2019s a formula that we use and it\u2019s basically your NOI and the cap rate combination of those two things create value. Well, nobody saw interest rates tripling or that fast, and that has a massive impact on the cap rate. And even if you did everything right as an operator, you could have doubled your NOI and you could still get stuck with these interest rates increasing.<br \/>And to be fair, I don\u2019t know how much I blame some of these operators. They did a great job and they still ran into problems because when they have to refinance their property, that doesn\u2019t debt service anymore at today\u2019s rates or when they go to sell it to somebody else, there\u2019s less people that want to buy it and those that are going to buy it, they can\u2019t pay as much because of this cap rate problem.<br \/>So I say all that to say that conservative underwriting can be a win. And many people that did not buy in the last five years that felt like, oh man, not taking action. I know all this stuff, but I\u2019m just nervous. What if rates go up? Some of those people are looking pretty smart, and the ones that did buy in the last five years are probably feeling really good if they paid more to get a 10-year fixed rate, not the three-year balloons that some people took out. So I appreciate you saying conservative underwriting is working for you right now because that doesn\u2019t get glamorized. We are always like, what did you acquire? How many units did you get? Here\u2019s a picture of me signing my documents on Instagram. Everybody gets to see it, right? But you don\u2019t see a lot of people say, here\u2019s a picture of me taking a haircut on this property rates skyrocketed on me.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah, we\u2019re definitely not closing as much as we had been, but the ones we are, we\u2019re very confident and their little cash cows, so that\u2019s good.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Now, one of the things I hear a lot of other multifamily operators, commercial operators talking about is that the cashflow itself is incredibly hard to find. They\u2019re focusing on value add or rent growth. Are you finding something that you feel like is cash flowing right out the gate year one?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>So everything we\u2019re buying there\u2019s a degree of cashflow to it unless we\u2019re getting a few of these off market ones where there are complete renovations where\u2026 We can talk about some of the ones that we bought before where there\u2019s literally grass growing in the front living room and everything like that. But we\u2019re really trying to get cashflow from day one with still having value add that we can go in and then refinance and still pull out the majority if not all of our money.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Okay. Well that\u2019s good news for you, Rob, because you got that grass growing on the top of your head. Apparently it grows in more places than just front lawns.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Oh, I give my whole family haircuts, so yeah, I can come over. I\u2019ll give you one too.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Will you be at BP Con? I\u2019ll wait to cut it.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>No, not, but-<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>So not only are you a barber, but you are also a doctor, and that wasn\u2019t the expectation that your parents had for you growing up. What did they say when you told them that you wanted to become a doctor?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>For all intents and purposes, I shouldn\u2019t be a doctor. I definitely shouldn\u2019t be a doctor who is doing real estate investing and definitely not a doctor doing real estate investing with peacocks in my garage. But I grew up in a very small town. I was the first person in my entire family to go to college. Nobody invested. My parents absolutely thought I was going to lose all my money when I first said that I was going to go into real estate investing. So my mom, she was very happy that I went to college. God bless her, I love her so much. But when I said, \u201cHey, I think I want to go become a physician,\u201d she\u2019s like, \u201cThat\u2019s a lot of work. That\u2019s a lot of time. That\u2019s a lot of money. Why don\u2019t you be a nurse? Your cousin\u2019s an LPN. She makes a nice amount of money.\u201d<br \/>There was definitely some dissuasion from my own family members to become a physician. I still have one of my birthday cards from my dad. He\u2019s a man of few words, but what he speaks, you listen to him, he speaks volumes. And I have it up in my office actually, and he said, \u201cDon\u2019t listen to the negativity. You can do anything you want and you\u2019ll be good at it.\u201d So I still look at that quote to this day, so I figured I have the grit, I have the determination, I can become a physician. So I went for it.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>You didn\u2019t ask where was this when I was in pre-med and you were telling me not to do it?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Yeah. I had a similar experience. My dad actually said, you\u2019re not going to be a cop. You\u2019ll never make it. You\u2019re not tough enough. Which is crazy. I don\u2019t know where that often comes from. I know that the people that are naysayers don\u2019t often mean to be as discouraging as they can be, and it can be tricky sometimes they\u2019re trying to protect people from delusion. There are some people who would say, I\u2019m going to be the next Gary Vaynerchuk, and someone needs to put them in their place and say, no, you\u2019re not. You can\u2019t even hold a regular job. But then in other cases, there are people in our lives that mean, well, that can be discouraging. So how did you know Lindsey, what you should listen to from other people and when you should say, \u201cNope, I don\u2019t care what they say, I\u2019m going to move forward?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah, good question. I thrive a little bit on beating the odds, and if somebody tells me no, I take that as a challenge, whether that\u2019s you probably can\u2019t become a doctor. Well, I\u2019ll prove you wrong. That was a long 11-year challenge to get to that point. But similar to real estate, when I first started, the very first broker I spoke to said, I don\u2019t have time for you. And that was a big challenge to me to keep going forward and prove them wrong too. So I like a good challenge.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Yeah. So speaking about challenges, what was your upbringing? Did you have challenges when you were a child you had to overcome as well?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah, like I said, I was the first person to go to college in my whole family. It\u2019s not like we were poor, but we certainly lived in more of a scarcity mindset instead of an abundance. Nobody taught me about investing stocks or otherwise. My mom literally has $30,000 in her entire retirement fund right now. It\u2019s not like I grew up with a silver spoon or anything like that. I mentioned I grew up on a horse farm. There were no neighbors around me. I really was a friend to all the animals and everything like that, so I did a lot of reading. I love to learn obviously, I wouldn\u2019t have spent 11 years becoming a physician. So yeah, I spent a lot of time reading and learning.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Sure, sure. And so I mean, you go on to become a doctor. This is a huge feat, congratulations by the way. And tell us about what it was working as a doctor in your early days.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah, so it\u2019s a long road. You go to college for four years, medical school for four years, and then depending on what specialty you want to go into, it\u2019s another three to seven years of training and residency. So yeah, it\u2019s a lot. It\u2019s a long time. It\u2019s not a small thing to want to do. So in residency, you\u2019re working 80 hours a week. It\u2019s an average of sixty, sixty-five thousand dollars for salary. So when you break that down, it\u2019s like $16 an hour as a physician. And my specialty is emergency medicine and trauma. I\u2019m surrounded by people who didn\u2019t think they were going to end up in the ER. You never wake up thinking you\u2019re going to be in a car accident, have a heart attack or a stroke or anything like that. So I realized, okay, if I am not going to work and putting in these hours, I\u2019m not getting paid.<br \/>And when I was in residency, my husband and I had our first kid, he\u2019s six and a half now, but we realized, okay, we need to do something where we are more financially secure and if God forbid, I\u2019m not here or something, we\u2019re still having money come in instead of just relying on my W2, which I have to physically be there for. So that\u2019s when we started to look into, okay, what are we going to do? How are we going to make some money besides my W2 job?<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Sure. I mean, obviously there\u2019s the perception that doctors seem to do well. Is sixty-five thousand dollars? Is there kind of a point where it\u2019s supposed to be more than that? How does that work for doctors?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>When you become an attending? So once you\u2019re done that three to seven years of residency training, then your salary does increase to varying degrees depending on what type of physician you are. So there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but most of us have hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical school debt when we come out. I had $230,000 in medical school loans. That\u2019s not an asset. That\u2019s a big liability. So a lot of debt to pay down too.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Sure, sure. Okay. So at what point was it where, how, when did you know something needed to change? Because obviously you get into this groove, you\u2019re like, all right, I\u2019ve got this W2 job. All my time is being soaked up. I need to change something. What was that turning point for you?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah, my husband and I, we started to look into what can we do to invest in. All the physicians that I worked around are very stock heavy, so we started to look into the stock market. It didn\u2019t excite us very much. And then my husband listened to the book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, gateway book for a lot of us, I\u2019m sure. And he said, \u201cHey, I think you need to listen to this and see what you think.\u201d As soon as I read it, I was like, Okay, this is it. We need to do real estate investing. And it was mindset shift and full force ahead.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Okay. And so was that the spark for you that got you actually into real estate? Or when did real estate actually come into the picture?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>So as soon as I read the book, I said, okay, we\u2019re going to do this. And I signed us up for a three-day real estate investing course. There was good and bad to that. It was almost a little bit like a time chair sell that they pump you up and then at the end there was this upsale. So we were like, okay, we\u2019re going to join this group for $30,000, and we definitely\u2026 And that part wasn\u2019t worth it. So it wasn\u2019t maybe the best start to it, but it did teach us about real estate investing, leverage, and it got us\u2026 Well, first of all, I learned about BiggerPockets through that. I didn\u2019t know what that was until five and a half years ago.<br \/>I remember standing in line for coffee and one of the other guys said, \u201cHey, have you heard of BiggerPockets?\u201d I was like, \u201cNo, what\u2019s that?\u201d So we learned about local real estate investing groups, and I went to one of those with my husband the very next month, and that\u2019s actually how we got our first deal. So there was good that came out of the first course we took.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Okay. And so is it sort of like you\u2019re all in, you want to go into buying properties, investing, is it more you want to be a realtor? What exactly did you want to get started in when you were like, all right, I know I want to be in this career?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>So just like in medicine, we have this saying, you don\u2019t know what you don\u2019t know. So I at first thought I was going to be a wholesaler. I was like, oh, okay. That sounds okay. I can find these properties and then I can sell them to somebody else. Not thinking, okay, well that\u2019s not really actually passive income. That\u2019s not something you\u2019re going to hold and still get cashflow from it every month. So the first local meetup that we went to, there was a guy, his wife is a physician, and that resonated with me, obviously, and he at the time owned 20 units and he said he got 20 units in five years. To me, that sounded unattainable at that time. I\u2019m like, wow, 20 units in five years maybe I can be like him. And the next meetup we went to, he said, \u201cHey, I have two single family properties,\u201d and it was a D class area, which we didn\u2019t know what D class was or anything at that time, but he said, \u201cI am sick of these two properties. They\u2019re too far away. They were an hour from where we live.\u201d<br \/>But he said, \u201cI\u2019ll give them to the highest bidder in this room, basically.\u201d So I ended up saying, \u201cOkay, these will be our first properties.\u201d So we got them sight unseen for $2,500 each. So we got two properties for $5,000. I was like, that\u2019s it. I\u2019m an investor. He came over to my house, we had this paper contract we signed. He\u2019s like, okay, just go to the courthouse. This is going to be your deeded. Here\u2019s the keys. And he walked out. So I remember we had a bottle of Korbel champagne. My husband and I popped and we\u2019re like, yeah, we\u2019re real estate investors. This is before we even went to see the properties.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>I\u2019ll sell this to the highest bidder in the room.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>In the room in a local real estate meetup. Yep.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>That is a ballsy move on their part.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah, it created some FOMO in the room.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>100%. And of course, you\u2019re targeting to people who don\u2019t know anything about investing, so-<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>That\u2019s right.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>\u2026 you hear everyone else talk about the success stories of real estate investing. You assume being an investor is a good thing. You\u2019re not thinking about what you\u2019re actually buying. Can you describe what a D class neighborhood is for the listeners?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah. So D class is where you don\u2019t want to buy. It\u2019s the crime areas. That was not the property that ironically had grass growing in the front living room, but it did have squatters that we found when we finally opened up the doors. So there tends to be some drugs, high crime rate in those areas versus C class, which we have some C class areas a little bit better, more working class. You want to find the B or C property in an A class neighborhood ideally. So the A class are the very, very good education ones, the perfectly manicured front lawns and everything like that, but maybe tend to be less value add. So these were in very bad areas.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Yeah. Okay. So you foreshadow a little bit here. You buy two properties for $2,500 each.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yep. 5,000 total for two properties.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>And then they appreciated greatly and provided insane cashflow, right?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Oh yeah, we walked in. They were perfect. We didn\u2019t have to do any rehab. No, not at all. So yeah, we walked in. First of all, we didn\u2019t ask because again, you don\u2019t know what you don\u2019t know. And he neglected to give us full disclosure that he was behind on a lot of taxes. There were squatters in one of the houses which he tried to remove. So he cut all the pipes and that did not dissuade them to stop living there. So when we walked in, there were urine bottles all over the house. It was a mess, to say the least.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Let me ask you a question. Looking back in hindsight, how much would he have had to pay you to take these over to make it worth it?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah, it would\u2019ve been a hard pass knowing what we know now. Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>But I mean, was there a number, like a hundred grand would\u2019ve been worth it or 500 grand?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>A hundred grand. Yeah, I would\u2019ve taken them for a hundred grand.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Yeah. And that\u2019s just a thing that never gets talked about, right? You bought a job basically.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah. Oh, yeah. We bought a job. We learned a lot. We Googled local contractors and we found a guy and we paid him upfront. So that was a really wise thing to do with no contract. So yeah, lots of good things. He still has-<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Every mistake we all made in the very beginning. Hit you on the same deal.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>So many mistakes.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Okay, so you learned some lessons here. You said you don\u2019t know what you don\u2019t know. What would you say some of the questions should have been? What were some of the questions that you wish you could have go back and asked to help avoid this?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah, I think we asked zero questions basically, other than where are the properties?<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>So really just any question?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>So any questions to start. But yeah, I mean I definitely want to ask, do you currently have anyone in there? What are the rents, all the things that you should be underwriting for, right? What\u2019s the property taxes? What\u2019s the insurance you\u2019re paying for? Are you up to date on taxes? So all the questions.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Sure. Let me ask you this. In that exact moment, you buy these houses, what did you think was going to happen? Were you thinking, oh, I\u2019m going to buy these houses, I\u2019m going to rent them out and I\u2019m going to cashflow? Or was it sort of like, yeah, let\u2019s buy it and yeah, I know real estate is good, let\u2019s just figure it out. What was the actual mindset there?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Our mindset was knowing that this was going to be some learning properties. I mean, $5,000 isn\u2019t nothing, but it\u2019s not huge. It wasn\u2019t going to break our bank account at that time. So we took them as some learning opportunities. We learned more than we thought we were going to have to, but we did buy them. We did end up getting them fixed. We did a lot of the work ourselves. My husband\u2019s from France, he moved to the US 13 years ago, and I joke that when he moved here, he was the fancy French guy who couldn\u2019t even change a light bulb, and now the poor guy knows how to rehab everything. He changed an entire sewer line on one of these properties. So we ended up rehabbing them. We did the BRRRR method here, if anybody\u2019s heard of that, David Greene.<br \/>And we pulled out, oh yeah, over 100% of our money on the property. So we owned those for five years. Actually, we just sold them six months ago. So we had bought them for $2,500 each. The one unit we put $15,000 into, and the other unit we put $20,000 into because they were an absolute mess, but we ended up selling them for $60,000 and $70,000 each in the spring.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>As well as parts of your soul.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Parts of it, yeah. But we can never get some of that back. I had a nail go through my knee when I was taking the carpet off of the stairs on the one property, trying to learn how to [inaudible 00:22:52].<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>When you sold that property, certainly there must\u2019ve been some aspect of like, wow, I\u2019m really letting go my first set of bad memories who shaped who I am today or were you like, hell yeah, get these things out of here?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah, it was a combination of both because even though we had a really rough start once they were rehabbed and we ended up getting some good tenants in there, they were cash flowing $400 to $500 per unit, and we had bought a duplex in the town a month after we got the first. So we were really rehabbing four at the same time. But all of them were cash flowing very well despite being in a bad neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Yeah. I always like to ask this just out of curiosity, if you could go back to younger Dr. Duguet, do you wish you could have avoided these houses or are you happy that you went through that journey, because obviously you\u2019ve gone on to do a pretty amazing thing with your portfolio?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah, I joke about how bad they are, but we did learn a lot and I don\u2019t think we would have some of the same grit and determination if we hadn\u2019t gotten through all of those landmines and troubles that we had with those first properties. And we can help guide other people as well. I mean, people, they know how bad they are. They\u2019ve seen the pictures on my social media and everything, so they\u2019re like, Hey, I saw your bad properties. How did you get over this? So we did learn a lot and we can teach now on what not to do.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Okay. So you buy these properties, you\u2019ve sold them or there\u2019s a little bit of resolution there. How did you scale up from there?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah. So we had those first four that we acquired. We ended up doing the full BRRRR on those. Then I started doing some direct mail campaigns, so handwritten letters, handwritten envelopes, sending them out, and we had some people reach back out from those. We ended up getting a couple of single families in more, B plus a minus neighborhoods at a lake really close to us. We still have all those properties. We got a four unit from one of the off-market campaigns from a seller in New York, and you think we would\u2019ve learned this lesson, but we also bought this one sight unseen, and this was the grass in the living room that we ended up walking into. We got it for $20,000, very big building. They\u2019re just over 1,100 square feet per unit. So those were full rehabs. We ended up pulling out 126% of our capital on that property too. So another perfect infinite return BRRRR on that one.<br \/>And then we ended up getting our 10 unit that was our seventh deal, just between my husband and I. So we were doing everything ourselves. I was working extra shifts at the hospital, moonlighting to fund the properties, buying them cash or traditional 75% LTV from local banks that we were using and starting to form these good relationships with. But then each property we were buying, we were running out of capital. So instead of paying an actual contractor to do it quickly, my husband was learning along the way and doing a lot of these rehabs himself. He was also managing the tenants and the properties and everything. None of this was passive the way we thought it was going to be when we first got involved, so we really reached a cap where we\u2019re like, okay, this is another job, we\u2019re not scaling the way we want to, and our resources are getting tapped out here when we got to 22 units.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Passive income is one of the greatest marketing statements ever in the world. Just that anything would be passive. How people have been able to fool others into thinking that you\u2019ll buy real estate and never touch it again when nothing else in life works that way. Have you ever met a married couple who\u2019s like, I worked really hard to get my wife and then I married her and I never had to do anything again. She just loves me every day, and it\u2019s passive love at this point. It\u2019s like-<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>My husband would definitely disagree with that statement.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>And there\u2019s no passive fitness. It\u2019s just funny how we\u2019ve done that. Now, Lindsey, you\u2019ve clearly read the BRRRR. You understand that strategy. I\u2019m curious if you guys guys ever read Long-Distance Real Estate Investing?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah, yeah. That was an audiobook at the beginning we listened to. Again, I\u2019m a good learner. The first year that we started investing, I literally listened and read over 100 different books. Not just real estate, but mindset and everything. So yeah.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>So with the principles in that book, was that something that was skipped when you guys bought a house without seeing grass was in there, or had you not read it yet?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>We probably got through that the half year. We were already a good eight units in deep and in the rehab process at this point. But it sounded like, pun intended, a long distance concept to us too. At the beginning. We did want properties that we could feel and see and drive by at the beginning, but that got old after we got to 22 units, and that\u2019s when we started looking for partnerships in other people.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>But you just didn\u2019t get a video made that showed what the condition of the property was, right?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>No.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Because there is a way to invest sight unseen. I do it all the time, but somebody has to see it doesn\u2019t have to be us, right? So that\u2019s another learning lesson.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>We have JV deals where we have not set foot in the properties, but we own them. We\u2019re partners. We\u2019re very active in the JV deals. But yeah, we haven\u2019t physically set foot in them.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Me too. I have lots of properties I\u2019ve never been in, never seen before, but someone did, right? Somebody went through, took a video, there was still due diligence that was done.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Whether that\u2019s a boots on the ground partner or yeah, another realtor or something. Yeah. Exactly.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>So that\u2019s a learning experience. You learned from that as well. And speaking of learning, I understand that there\u2019s a method that you learned in your medical residency that has helped you improve how quickly you learned. Can you tell us about that?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>The see one, do one, teach one, that\u2019s the one you\u2019re talking about. Yeah. Yeah. So in medicine, we have that saying, so say you\u2019re going to learn how to do an intubation. You watch somebody do it, then you do one yourself, and hey, now you\u2019re an expert after one, so now you can teach one. I mean, we definitely do that in medicine, but it\u2019s applicable to real estate investing too, and it\u2019s all about learning processes and perfecting them to get a method going. So I mean, just like the single family BRRRs that we did, we initially read about it, watched some podcasts, listened to the podcasts about it, talked to some of the other investors. We did one ourselves, a couple of them, and now we are mentoring people and teaching them about it as well.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Now I\u2019m a little nervous to get intubated knowing that the doctor may have only done it one time.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Not with every procedure, but yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>So you\u2019ve said that your seventh deal was really a big turning point for your career. Can you tell us about that deal?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah. Oh my God, I love this deal. We still own this property. So this had been a direct mail campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>What does that mean for-<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Oh, yeah. We use a software, it\u2019s called RE Property Finder. You can search for any number of units, any amount of equity in the property. And at that time, we were targeting the mom and pop type owners. My criteria at that time had been owned for 20 years. They had 100% equity, so they had no loan with a bank, and we were hoping that these people weren\u2019t running it quite like a business like they should, and these are the properties that we ended up buying. So we bought this one, it was 10 units, eight of them were rented at the time, but they were significantly under rented. The average rent in that area at the time was about $850. He was renting them out for 500, 525. He had owned it for 25 years. It was well maintained, but it was very, very dated.<br \/>And then two of the units in the back on the bottom, they were basically just being used as storage. They were uninhabitable. So we negotiated this down to $250,000 and then the bank financed the whole construction loan for the two units in the back. We learned a lot with this property too. My husband learned in this one that cockroaches can fly and that ceiling tiles can hold 13 pairs of dirty underwear too. It fell in his head when he was doing one of the rehabs on the properties. I don\u2019t know what that tenant had in mind, but we ended up rehabbing the units. We are now getting between 1,000 per unit and $1,200 per unit. So we over doubled the rent. It appraised for just under $800,000 when we did our refinance last August on this property, and we got 275% of our money out and after the refi, we are still getting between five and five-fifty per unit cashflow.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>So it\u2019s these BRRRR principles that you\u2019re employing. You\u2019re just doing it in the commercial space, not residential. And I\u2019ll clarify what that is. When you BRRRR basically the fundamentals here, are you trying to buy it below market value? You\u2019re trying to add value to it. Once you\u2019ve done that or combination of those two, you\u2019re going to refinance. Now, we typically describe this from a residential framework where the way that you add value to it is by increasing its comparison to a better comp. You\u2019re looking for a residential property that is worth more, and you\u2019re either changing the floor plan, the square footage or the condition of the property to match a comp, because that\u2019s how residential real estate is valued. It\u2019s actually kind of silly how that works. It\u2019s like, well, what the Joneses pay for their house? All right, I\u2019ll pay that. It doesn\u2019t make any objective sense.<br \/>Commercial real estate makes a lot more sense from a financial perspective. What does the property make? How much can I expect to earn from this property if I buy it? So what you\u2019re doing is you\u2019re buying properties below market value because they\u2019re being operated inefficiently. The rents are too low, the expenses are too high, maybe there\u2019s some deferred maintenance and so the owners are like, well, let\u2019s not raise the rent on them because then I\u2019d have to go fix something up. And you\u2019re adding value to it by fixing those things, you\u2019re improving your income and you\u2019re decreasing expenses, which improves the NOI.<br \/>Now you\u2019ve got a property that\u2019s worth more and hey, sometimes you catch some tailwinds. Sometimes interest rates go down, cap rates go down, the property becomes worth more. Just like in the residential space, values have been going up as we printed a bunch of money, and so it made it easier to pull your money out of a BRRRR. The same thing has been happening in the commercial space. It\u2019s just as simple as residential real estate. You\u2019re just pulling on slightly different levers because commercial real estate\u2019s value differently.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>That\u2019s exactly right. Yeah. We implemented what we did with the single families and the duplex, and we took it to the commercial 10 unit, and it worked wonderfully.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Well. That\u2019s amazing. I want to go back a little bit because you said you got 275% of your money back. What the heck did that feel like? That\u2019s insane.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>I remember the day that we got our refi check and I was sitting in my husband\u2019s truck, which the business pays for. It\u2019s another great thing about real estate investing, business expense. And I remember sitting there in his truck and crying because the refinance check was $301,000 and refinance checks are not taxed, and I was literally just crying in the truck thinking, oh my goodness, this is more money than I made seeing thousands of patients in the last year at my W2 physician job, and we were already very much into the real estate game, but that was when I truly realized we can do this as a career and this can completely replace my salary and what we\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>That\u2019s so crazy. Wow. I want one of those. Give me one of those. So that deal was also a turning point in another way as I understand it. Tell us about getting stuck and how you were able to get unstuck.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah, so like I said, this was our seventh deal, just my husband and I, and that took us to 22 units, but it was a full-time job. I mean, I was still doing more than full-time at the hospital with the moonlighting shifts to finance these deals. My husband was doing rehabs, he was doing the property management, he was doing the tenant management, everything. And we realized we were scaling, but not as fast in the way we wanted to. And we sat down, we\u2019re like, okay, what are we going to do? Do we want to keep doing it this way? Or what can we do different to make this easier on ourselves and continue to grow our portfolio and not get burnt out? So we decided, okay, we need to leverage more, but in this time we need to leverage other people\u2019s money and other people\u2019s knowledge and time as well, because my time was basically maxed out. I can\u2019t make two of me as much as I wish I could. So we decided we need to start looking at some partnerships and working with other people.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>That\u2019s amazing. So tell us a little bit more about, you said, at this time you\u2019re sort of taking on more properties, you\u2019re in scale mode, but are you trying to figure out what\u2019s the next step from here? Well, where did you turn the corner exactly?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah. So we started going back to some meetups. We started looking more into partnerships, and we joined a mastermind group, and that was really a huge turning point and piece of leverage for us as well. Tons of masterminds out there. Obviously a lot of free ones, a lot of ones focused just on short-term rentals, just on commercial property. We joined, it\u2019s called Make It Happen Mastermind, and we have weekly, sometimes monthly group calls, a lot of accountability, and we\u2019ve formed partnerships with other people in this group, and that\u2019s how we started to scale up into JV deals, which obviously we\u2019re still very active in as well as being GPs on some syndication deals.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>So that\u2019s interesting because you mentioned at the beginning of this, you bought a course or you got enrolled in a course, it was really expensive, wasn\u2019t particularly a winner for you. Now you end up going and you joining a mastermind. Was there a difference as to why one was so much more pivotal for you the second time around? Was it the people, the connections?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah. We had looked into a couple and this one just felt right, the vibe of the people. We were interviewing different groups to see which one we were going to vibe with. This one in particular was focused on the people in the group, do they have good ethics as well as doing deals together. And that\u2019s what we wanted to do. We didn\u2019t want to focus just on the education component. We wanted to scale with some more properties.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>You wanted to do.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yes, we wanted to do not just learn, which obviously we\u2019re still learning all the time, but yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>So I\u2019m pretty curious here because I\u2019ve got to imagine, especially early on in your career as a doctor that you\u2019re taking a ton of calls, you\u2019re on call as a doctor, you\u2019re intubating people for the first time, possibly, second time. At the same time, you\u2019re also managing your real estate portfolio. Was there ever a moment where you\u2019re just taking insane amount of tenant calls during the workday?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah, it\u2019s really hard to do CPR and take a toilet call at the same time from a tenant. Yeah, I mean, luckily my husband dealt with a lot of that. He kind of has the pager, I should say, for the tenants, and I have the pager for the patients. But yeah, I mean it\u2019s tough to manage because at that time when we reached our 22 unit ceiling, we also had two very small kids at home. There were two, a baby and a toddler, so I had the mom aspect and the family aspect going on as well. So it was a lot to balance. So they\u2019re tiny.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Yeah. You said they were three and what was the other one?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>I think she was a year and a half old at that time. Time is fly now because right now they\u2019re six and a half. My daughter just turned five last Thursday, and our son is 22 months old, our second son.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Listen, hey, I got a two and a three-year old right now. First of all, it\u2019s a hard age gap, but second of all, to be in the throes of your real estate career is absolutely crazy. Were they coming to job sites with you? Were they your makeshift handy people? How was it juggling all that?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah, our six and a half year old now, he actually really likes it. He says, my houses when we will go past some of the local ones. And he picked up a quarter a couple of months ago, he said, you need money to make money. So he\u2019s definitely listening to some of the things that we\u2019re saying about investing.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>So you hit a point where you recognize, okay, we need some support. We cannot keep going at the pace we\u2019re going, we have kids, we have jobs, these properties that we bought. You\u2019ve done really well, now, on the other end of that is that\u2019s because you put a lot of effort into these. You pulled 275% of your equity out because you were hyper-focused on turning these things around. It is not passive, it\u2019s passiver. It\u2019s less passive than having to be a doctor, but it\u2019s still not completely passive.<br \/>Once you recognized partnership was the road you were going to take, what are the questions you came up with that you recommend people ask a potential partner to vet them out?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>So one question that I always ask other people, especially as we\u2019re doing some of these bigger syndication deals, is what other full cycle deals have you done? It\u2019s one thing to say, I closed X amount of properties, but if you closed a whole bunch of them in the last year, but you\u2019re running them poorly, it doesn\u2019t matter. Anybody can take a great deal and run it into the ground if you\u2019re not managing it properly. So I like to see what the other partners have done full cycle and full cycle well to make sure they can be good operators. So that\u2019s number one big question that I\u2019m looking for in other partners.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>And why is it important to see full cycle?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>So just like in medicine, if you get into med school, yeah, it\u2019s a great feat to say, okay, I am in med school to become a doctor, but that doesn\u2019t mean you are a doctor yet. You still have four more years in med school and residency. There\u2019s a lot of opportunities to fail until you actually can be a practicing physician on your own. It\u2019s the same as real estate. Just because you buy the property doesn\u2019t mean that it\u2019s going to be successful. So full cycle means you\u2019ve bought it, you\u2019ve managed it well, and you\u2019ve refied it out well, or you\u2019ve sold it successfully and not in a sale as in a foreclosure. You didn\u2019t operate it well if that happened.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>And that\u2019s just because you don\u2019t want your partner getting stuck on something that they don\u2019t have experience with.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Correct. Yeah. Yeah. And some of the teams that reached out to me to see if I wanted to join, they were all brand new teams. They didn\u2019t have any experience. And syndication\u2019s a little bit of a dirty word right now too, because there are a lot of people with bridge debt that are getting into some financial trouble right now. And of course, those are the big ones that you\u2019re seeing about on the news, and everybody thinks multifamily is bad now.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Good point. Okay. What\u2019s the next thing that you\u2019d ask someone to vet them out?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>I like to see are they vertically integrated in their own company? And that\u2019s not something that\u2019s a deal breaker for me, but especially some of the bigger deals that we\u2019re doing, if they successfully have their own property management company that can save a lot of expenses. One of our properties in South Carolina, it\u2019s 110 unit, we vertically integrated this summer, and the operating expenses have gone down significantly, which means our NOI has gone up a lot too. And-<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Can you just briefly explain yeah, what does vertically integrated mean?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah, so having our own property management company in the building and not using a third property management company and doing that across a couple of the properties that we own.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Okay, carry on.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>So that\u2019s something that I like to see, but it\u2019s definitely not necessary.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>And what\u2019s the next question you\u2019d ask?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah, so another one asking for their details of underwriting. Underwriting is to me, one of the most, probably the most important thing that you need to have in a successful real estate deal. Anybody can make numbers look good on paper, but that doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re accurate. I cannot tell you how many times other people have come and presented a deal to me saying, Hey, do you want to do a JV? Do you want to partner? Do you want to put some of your money into this? It\u2019s a great deal. The equity multiplier, you\u2019re going to double your money in five years. So I always say, okay, show me the underwriting. And my husband, he\u2019s a mechanical engineer by background, so he\u2019s very, very nitty-gritty on the underwriting. And he\u2019ll start going through it and he\u2019ll look up and see, okay, your taxes are not written down correctly.<br \/>He talks to our insurance broker and they\u2019ve underestimated what the insurance is going to be by 10,000, $20,000 at some cases on some of the properties. There are many, many things that can go wrong that if you\u2019re not doing your own due diligence and looking at how they\u2019re underwriting the deal can go very poorly. Sometimes they\u2019re not putting in property management fees. If they\u2019re using a third company, they\u2019re missing huge things that are really going to affect your property in a negative way, and you\u2019re not going to be making money on it if you\u2019re not underwriting well. So that is huge.<br \/>And one of the other things that I like to see is how are they researching the area of the property? We mentioned that some of these properties we haven\u2019t even walked into yet that we\u2019re doing partnerships with. So are they really doing their market research? They might give us the operating memorandum or a piece of paper saying, okay, subjectively they think that this is a great area because oh, our friends, our family\u2019s moving in, they\u2019re building a new gas station here. It is a really growing area, but that\u2019s just them thinking that. But then when you actually look into the numbers and the demographics, it\u2019s losing 2% year over year for the last five years of population growth. So I don\u2019t want to be investing in an area that is not increasing.<br \/>So mainly you need to be doing your due diligence, whether you are an active operator, whether you\u2019re a limited partner, limited partners, that\u2019s the most passive you can get, but you still need to be able to look at numbers and understand if the deal is good or not.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Great questions there. I really like that, and that\u2019s something practical that we can all move forward with. Really quickly, Lindsey, give us a snapshot of where your portfolio stands today in terms of the number of properties, the equity in the properties and your cashflow.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Right now we have a total of 472 units. Actually next Tuesday we\u2019re closing a 72 unit in Springfield, Missouri. So that one is going to take us over the 500 unit line, which is going to be a huge landmark for us. So this is a mix of\u2026 Yeah, it\u2019s a big landmark for us. So that\u2019s over some of these single family lake houses. We have a eight unit JV deal in Indianapolis. We have a 21 unit in Chicago, which is a short-term rental, hostel hotel type and bar restaurant. We have the 110 unit in South Carolina, a 212 unit in Kansas City. The 72 unit that we\u2019re going to close, we have the 10 units in fourplexes around this area. And then across from the medical school at my hospital, we\u2019re actually under contract to close in October, a 19 unit medical student. So obviously that\u2019s up my alley. And then two houses down, it\u2019s a big mansion that we\u2019re converting into a 13 unit, also medical student building, so we have some other properties in the works here too.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Wow. Well, let me ask you this. Is there anyone else in your life that you\u2019ve proven wrong in reaching this point? Because I mean 500 units is a lot, but I\u2019m curious, are there people or naysayers that may have data you at the beginning that now might say like, wow, that\u2019s a crazy feat?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Probably the first broker that I spoke to after that three-day seminar. They\u2019re like, okay, you need to find your core team. You need to get a lawyer on your team, you need to get a broker. So I was like going down the checklist, doing my good due diligence and my action steps, and I called a local broker and he\u2019s like, okay, well what type of properties are you looking at? What are your criteria? And I didn\u2019t really have criteria, so honestly, to him, I probably did sound like I didn\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing because I didn\u2019t, but he straight up said to me, I don\u2019t have time for you. And that one really got to me because I was like, wow, if I can\u2019t even get any brokers to give me time, how am I going to close any properties? So yeah, I\u2019m sure he would be shocked to see where I\u2019m at now.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>And to close, just curiosity, can you also give us a snapshot of what your life looks like today? I\u2019m sure it\u2019s very different than when you started. I\u2019d love to hear.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah, the life is definitely very busy. Probably if not even busier because now we have three kids instead of just the one when we started. So I\u2019m still working at the hospital as a physician. I actually was there this morning and I\u2019ve actually become the regional director of my hospital system as well. So now I\u2019m managing a whole bunch of other doctors and everything too. But I had on my vision board earlier this year that I didn\u2019t want to do any more night shifts and I wanted to cut down at the hospital. And specifically for the night shifts, I wasn\u2019t quite sure how that was going to happen. And since I took this role, that has happened, so that\u2019s great. I\u2019m a big believer in manifestation and vision boards and everything like that, so that\u2019s very good. I\u2019m having more time at home with the family now, some more weekends off, so more time for real estate and more time to do things like this.<br \/>I\u2019m holding some local meetups now, so we usually get between 50 and 75 people. We\u2019re doing quarterly. These are free, we\u2019re giving back to the community. I love to talk about real estate investing, so it\u2019s very fun for me to talk and help teach other people this as well. And then spending a lot of time with the three kids, obviously. They have a lot of new hobbies as they\u2019re getting older. My husband coaches our son\u2019s soccer team, so that\u2019s fun for them. And real estate\u2019s definitely helping us to give more time.<br \/>On paper now, as of the summer, we are officially financially free with our real estate investing. So it\u2019s a good feeling to be able to work at the hospital because I want to, and not because I have to. I\u2019ve worked very hard to become a physician. I never want to give it up completely, but it is a weight lifted off the shoulders to feel that.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>What does financially free mean for you guys?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Meaning we\u2019re having enough cashflow from our investments that if I would lose my job today, we are okay paying bills.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Amazing. Well, congratulations.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Thank you. So now we\u2019re working on generational wealth, which is another goal. Next step.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>You\u2019re five years in and you\u2019ve created something that 99% of our listeners want. I\u2019m sure in the next five years you\u2019ll crush that one out too. Thank you so much for sharing with us. If people want to learn more about you and connect with you and do all that good stuff, where can people find you?<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Yeah, so I\u2019m the only Lindsey Duguet on Facebook, so you can type me in there. I have Instagram. Cloverkeycapital.com is our website. So I\u2019m very responsive to everybody messaging me. So again, I love to talk about real estate investing, so I\u2019d love to talk to anybody else too.<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Cool. And David, what about you?<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Davidgreene24 on all social media. Go give me a follow there and check out davidgreene24.com and spartanleague.com. You can learn a lot about me. How about you, Rob?<\/p>\n<p>Rob:<br \/>Cool you can find me over on YouTube @robuilt if you want long form video, and then if you want really wacky real estate reels where David makes appearances on my lists, you can go follow me on Instagram too.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>Go check that out. That was a very funny video that made\u2026 If you want to know what Rob looks like in lipstick, it\u2019s a can\u2019t miss. Lindsey, thanks for being here and thanks for sharing the story and thanks for not listening to the people that told you that you can\u2019t do it. Keep going.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey:<br \/>Thank you guys.<\/p>\n<p>David:<br \/>This is David Greene for Rob, putting the man in manifestation, Abasolo. Signing off.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Help us reach new listeners on iTunes by leaving us a rating and review! It takes just 30 seconds and instructions can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/forums\/25\/topics\/161423-do-you-listen-to-the-bp-podcast\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>. Thanks! We really appreciate it!<\/p>\n<p><em>Interested in learning more about today\u2019s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#89e8edffecfbfde0faecc9ebe0eeeeecfbf9e6eae2ecfdfaa7eae6e4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><span class=\"__cf_email__\" data-cfemail=\"6e0f0a180b1c1a071d0b2e0c0709090b1c1e010d050b1a1d400d0103\">[email\u00a0protected]<\/span><\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><b>Note By BiggerPockets:<\/b> These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.<\/p>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/real-estate-836\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If Lindsey Duguet can reach financial freedom, you can too. She was hundreds of thousands in debt from student loans, trying to raise a family with almost zero free time, working eighty-hour weeks, and failing to find financial footing. Now, just five years later, she\u2019s financially free, owns over five hundred rentals, and works not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9800,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/836-web.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9801,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9799\/revisions\/9801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}