I own 850+ apartment units and I’ve never had to depend on a bank to do it.

I spent eight years at CoStar Group selling commercial real estate data. I knew the buildings, the owners, and the rents in my market. By the end of those eight years, I owned two duplexes and the house I lived in.

The duplexes covered my mortgage, but saving for one down payment at a time was slow. During Covid, I left my sales job. My wife, Danni, decided to leave teaching at the end of the school year.

Around that time, I met an investor who owned about 30 seller-financed rentals. I asked whether he could help me get to 30 units by my thirtieth birthday. He had a different proposal: partner with him on a 38-unit building and run it. With my four units, that would bring me to 42.

The building needed serious work. It had been listed at the same price for thirteen years and was losing money. We bought it for $2 million with 85% seller financing. Three investors contributed the remaining $300,000, so we never had to depend on a bank to buy it.

Over the next eleven months, monthly collections increased from $5,000 to $23,000. The bank appraised the property at $4.1 million. We refinanced, paid back the investors, and used the capital to keep buying.

I went from four units to 100 in a year. That first apartment purchase changed how I thought about financing and partnerships. It also gave Danni and me a business we could build together.