The Small Sacrifices That Gave Me 25 Rentals and $18,000/Month Cash Flow

0:00Brandon Turner:How much short-term sacrifice are you willing to make to control your long-term financial future? Would you share a bathroom with three strangers? Cameron Philgreen didn't start investing in real estate with a master plan or a ton of money. He and his wife just made a decision to sacrifice comfort early so they could buy back their time later. They house-hacked in Waco, Texas and rented out their extra bedrooms to maximize cash flow. And yes, there was at least one gross uncomfortable situation involving that shared bathroom. But that property set Cameron on a path five years ago. Today, he owns more than 30 rental units.

0:34Brandon Turner:Instead of working a traditional day job and slowly saving for retirement in his 60s, Cameron followed a proven, repeatable real estate investing strategy. Now he's running a specialty coffee shop as a passion project, spending leisurely mornings with his kids and traveling the world with his church. That's Cameron's financial freedom dream, and he's living it today. Take a moment to think, what's your dream? Are you on the path to achieving it? This episode isn't about get-rich-quick schemes or extremely risky investing. It's about what can happen when an average person makes a few uncomfortable decisions and sticks with them.

1:12Brandon Turner:What's going on, everybody? I am Henry Washington, co-host of the BiggerPockets podcast, and today's episode is an investor story with Cameron Philgreen from Waco, Texas. And this is a special one because I had a chance to meet Cameron in person during the BiggerPockets Cashflow Roadshow in Texas last month. Dave and I actually visited one of the properties Cameron talks about in this very episode to see how he turned his former primary home into a rental property cash-flowing thousands of dollars per month. So I've seen firsthand how almost anyone can repeat this formula and replicate Cameron's success in just a few years.

1:46Brandon Turner:I cannot wait for you all to hear how he did it, so let's bring Cameron on. Cameron, it's good to see you again. Hello, sir. Great to see you. Let's talk a little bit about your journey, man. Tell the audience your background and how you got into real estate. Well, first off, I'm not trying to be a teacher's pat, but I do owe a lot to BiggerPockets. I discovered you guys back in 2018 through Graham Stephan's YouTube channel. Totally got the bug and started house hacking and this house we bought in 2018. Moved down to Waco, Texas in 2019 and got as much square footage as we could for a really good price.

2:21fixed up the kitchen, Airbnb'd all the bedrooms, and so very much bootstrapped our real estate investing career. After reading Brandon's book, the book on rental property investing, made the goal of 25 units by 2025. 25 by 25 was our thing, my wife and I. Before 2025, I think we hit 28 or 30 units or so. And so hit the goal, and it's been a blast. We've learned a lot and really thankful for BiggerPockets and just the education that you guys provide through the podcast and the forum and so many relationships. And it's led to us opening a coffee shop here. We can talk about that. And man, and financial freedom.

3:02I mean, it's freedom of time and just really thankful for you guys. So appreciate you.

3:07Brandon Turner:Oh, man. Well, thank you. BiggerPockets has always been a great help to me as well when I was first starting. So I completely can get on board with that sentiment, but I appreciate the kind words. But I want to dive a little deeper into kind of what you said in terms of telling your story of how you got started, because you did several things that sounded like, and one of those things sounded slightly uncomfortable, yet you were able to pull it off. This was actually back in Lawrence, Kansas. We had a little three-bedroom house with one bathroom upstairs, and we were sharing the bathroom with our Airbnb guests.

3:44And that turned into some funny stories. One time, this, I wouldn't call her super strange. I didn't, but she had this guy over and I noticed the next morning my toothbrush was used. And so I approached them about that. And that was probably one of the weirder things that happened. Like, dude, this Airbnb guest used my toothbrush.

4:03Brandon Turner:Did you continue to use said toothbrush? No, sir. But I did continue to Airbnb the room because, you know, we got a house sack. Like we gotta eat. And so anyway, when we moved down to Waco, we kind of did the same thing, but it was a five bedroom house and we Airbnb'd the rooms, also shared bathrooms with guests. But, and that's not for everybody. I think that's my point in sharing. That's not for everybody, but I'm a huge believer in house hacking and eliminating your housing expense as a way to get started investing in real estate. And I'm just so thankful for those uncomfortable times that led to funny stories and all the people we got to meet along the way.

4:41It's been a blast.

4:42Brandon Turner:Yeah, man. I thank you for sharing that because a lot of people, we talk all the time on the Bigger Pockets podcast and on various other platforms on the Bigger Pockets ecosystem about how much we love house hacking just as a strategy. And you did what we would call a, you know, air quotes, extreme version of house hacking where you lived in the house, but you also had strangers living in the house with you via short-term rental. That's definitely a house hack. Like you can also house hack by renting out a separate unit. So you're not actually living with your tenants. Yeah. But to me, house hacking is just finding a way for your primary residence to pay for itself to generate some sort of income.

5:21Yeah, nailed it. I mean, I've been doing wedding photography for about 12 years, so it wasn't like my only form of income. But yeah, definitely have over the last six or seven years put like every dollar I can into real estate. Huge believer in this method of investing. And I just want to say also there's less uncomfortable ways to house hack. Like we chose the discomfort for the extra cash flow, but like we could have just had roommates, you know, what were we thinking?

5:49Brandon Turner:What kind of profit you were getting for said uncomfortability? How much were you renting each room out for versus what was your mortgage? Yeah, I think our mortgage on that house is somewhere around$1 ,400, you know, in Waco, So I think a room like roommates, I'd say about 500 a room is appropriate. So we could have had three roommates and made 1500 bucks just from a few friends on Airbnb with, you know, just a bed and some light furnishings and sharing the kitchen, sharing bathrooms with people. I think we were bringing in something like 3000 a month, but it felt worth it to us because we have the, you know, we had this five bedroom house.

6:27We had to do something with it.

6:28Brandon Turner:I don't know that it's worth it for everybody, but to bring in$3 ,000 where instead of now you're having to pay for a place to live, but now you don't have to pay. And I want people to see the compounding benefit of doing this because we all have to spend money on a place to live. So let's say you were going to spend$1 ,500 on a place to live. Now you don't have to do that. Plus you were bringing in an extra$1 ,500. That's three grand a month of additional income that you could put towards focusing on building your investing business. And so So I often tell people that the more uncomfortable you're willing to get, the more profitable or the more opportunity for profitability there is.

7:03Brandon Turner:Again, not for everybody. But if you're similar to Cameron, where you have an anomaly of a wife who wants to be okay living with strangers in their house, then this is a great way to build up some capital. This is also before we had three kids. So keep that in mind too. Another thing I just want to say, if you're listening and you're like, how do I get started? I need to get my first property. This property, which is our second property, like one property can change your life in a pretty significant way. I mean, this was, we paid 180 grand for it. Pretty cheap property. Not super nice. We fixed it up.

7:41We painted it. We did the kitchen ourselves, added a porch in the back. And I want to share it later on, we turned the two-car garage into a dwelling, separated it with a little fence. And then in 2020 with COVID, we moved out, moved into a different house, rented that house for 2 ,800, and then ended up later renting the ADU for, it averages around 2 ,000 a month. And so like one property is bringing in, you know, 3 ,000 to 3 ,500 a month. One property, you guys. And like we, everyone wants to, you know, go and get 10 units that are each going to cash flow two or three hundred dollars. Like, what if like you could get into one property and live there for one or two years and move out and rent it?

8:26That's what we did. And I'm just thankful for that. And, you know, again, I give a lot of credit to BiggerPockets for even implanting that idea in my mind.

8:35Brandon Turner:Yeah, man, I think that obviously I got to see this property when we visited you in Waco. And it's a it's a pretty cool story and a pretty cool property. But I want to dive into a little bit of, you know, what was the goal? So you moved here, you started house hacking, you were saving money. Like you said, you set the goal of 25 doors by 2025. That seems if you've only done one or two deals, like a pretty aggressive goal. Like, tell me what kind of fueled the fire? Why 25 doors? What was the plan? Well, I will say in 2020, when we set that goal, it felt so daunting and so impossible. Like we're going to have to really bust our butts to get there.

9:15Our primary form of investing was the Burr method because we, I'm not a trust fund kid. I don't come from money. I mean, so it was very much like starting from nothing, kind of using whatever money we made from wedding photography. We would try to put that into a property and then refinance out of it. if we bought the deal right, my back of the napkin math is around 70 or 75 % rule is what I aim for. If I can hit that, then I can get all my cash back when we refinance and then like do it again. And then over time, of course, I discovered hard money lenders. There's individuals out there that are comfortable lending to me.

9:53And so I can do multiple deals at the same time because cash and capital is not the constraint. And so that became a thing as those relationships and the network grew and continue listening to podcasts and reading books, it just became easier and easier. You know, once you do it a couple of times, then you've got the system down. And then, yeah, before we knew it, we had hit 25 units, you know, and we're still growing. I'm still hitting it hard. I'm focused on flips now. But yeah, it felt super daunting at first and just became easier as we went.

10:22Brandon Turner:Setting a goal, an aggressive goal is a good thing to do, but then actually being able to execute it on it is difficult. And typically the key constraints to growing and scaling a real estate business is access to money and access to deals. You talked about access to money. You were using hard money and built relationships with lenders, but you still got to find deals to buy. So what is, what was, and what currently is your primary method for finding deals to help you hit your goals? Yeah. I mean, there's a couple of Facebook groups here that are just wholesalers posting deals. I'm not going to lie.

10:55Some MLS deals have I've been super solid. Maybe a pocket listing from a realtor. I've done some direct to seller. I've done mail. I've done cold calling. I've done driving for dollars. I put notes on people's doors. You know, you name it. I've tried to get deals. Roll down the window, talk to somebody. Hey, you want to sell your house? I literally got a deal that way. Just a lady raking her lawn. So, you know, all over the board. But I'd say the most consistent is on-market deals that I tend to have to do, make 10 offers in order to get one because I'm usually low-balling or wholesalers are a great way.

11:32Brandon Turner:I love that, man. I wanted people to hear that because, I mean, 25 can sound like a daunting goal, especially if you've only done one deal or to some people out here listening who probably done no deals. But you can find deals through free channels like utilizing wholesalers. And for those of you who don't know what a wholesaler is, wholesalers are people who go out and spend money on marketing and go direct to seller, they find a deal and then they look for people like Cameron or myself to sell the contract to. And then Cameron and myself will buy the property, typically at a discount. And yes, the wholesaler does make a fee, but the goal is there's typically still meat on the bone for us to be able to be profitable.

12:09Brandon Turner:And then on market, there are more on market deals right now than I've seen in a long time. It's opportunity is out there. If you're willing to look and if you're willing to get uncomfortable enough to make the offers necessary to get the deals at the price point we need them at. Because I assume this is still current day how you're finding your deals. Yeah, for sure. And I agree. There's a lot of on-market deals right now, especially January. We're in kind of the middle of winter and stuff has been sitting on market. So quick tip, if you're listening, you're like, I want to, you know, check out Zillow and get an on-market deal.

12:44What I search for on, I think it's Redfin that you can And dude, days on market plus the price per square foot is in our area. Every area is going to be different. But as a good rule of thumb, like anything under$100 a square foot that's been on market for more than 45 days, I just have that as a filter. And then it will like notify me. It'll email me whenever there's a house that's been sitting for more than 45 days that's under 100 a square foot. And I'll like, you know, try to reach out and look at it. Usually I need it for closer to 60 or 70 a foot. But if it's been sitting, you know, the sellers are going to be more inclined to accept a lower offer.

13:22Brandon Turner:I hope you all took some notes. That's a little bit of a cheat code you just gave. I mean, seriously, to be able to, you're fine. Because what you need to get a deal are two things, right? You need equity and you need motivation, right? People have to have equity in their home for you to make them an offer that they'll actually make some money if they were to sell to you. And people need motivation. They need a reason to sell at a discount. And if you're shopping on the MLS, the only true way to figure out motivation is to use an indicator like days on market or expired listings. You're just assuming that because it's sad and hasn't sold that that seller may be willing or may be motivated to take a lower offer.

13:59Brandon Turner:And so you just it's very, very simple stuff, guys. Like these are things that anyone can do. You can all go out right now and get on Redfin and set up a filter for a price per square foot. That would be under the average price per square foot in your market. You could do under a hundred square foot in your market. In my market, that would get you, you know, maybe a parking space, maybe not. But in some market, you have to figure out what that price per square foot is for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that is your filter. And then look for properties that have been sitting. I typically tell people, look, if you're going to look for days on market, figure out what the average days on market is in your market.

14:34Brandon Turner:and then add 30 days. So if the average day is on market is 30 days in your market, you should be looking at anything that's 60 days or older that fits your buy box. And then you have to make the uncomfortable offers, but that's a great way to get free deals on the market. Is it easy? No. Are you going to get told no a lot? Absolutely. You're going to get told no a whole lot, but when you get the yes, that's how you start building wealth and the profitability. So I love your story because it's truly, you know, you said it earlier, it's like you boop strapped your way in, but that's what it is.

15:10Brandon Turner:You buy a house, you house hack, you save the money, you take the money, you put it towards your investments. You start looking for deals. You didn't have to go send direct mail immediately. You didn't have to go hire a VA to manage cold calls. You just looked in the places where people said, Hey, I'd like to sell a house and you were able to make some offers. And I want to highlight that because this is something that anyone can do. These methods have been around for decades and it still works if you do it consistently enough. So I love hearing your story. Thanks, man. All right, Cameron, I want to transition and talk a little bit more about the actual process of you scaling, maybe what your first true investment deal looked like.

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20:04Brandon Turner:All right, we're back with Cameron Fieldgreen, and we're talking about how he grew his real estate business from zero to 25 doors by 2025. All right, Cameron, so you moved to Waco, you house hacked, you saved money, you started to buy deals and do some burrs. You were setting a goal of 25 doors by 2025. What did that first true investment property look like that you didn't live in? Yeah, man. I'll be honest. It was super difficult. I remember it was 601 North 5th Street, if you want to look it up. And we bought it for a little bit too high. I mean, it wasn't a home run on our first one. I remember we bought it for 95.

20:47But we actually prayed about it and we really felt like the Lord was saying, hey, go for it. And we actually fixed up the whole thing ourselves, my wife and I. My wife is amazing. She gets her hands dirty and she's a hard worker. And so we were, and I have a little bit of a handy background with my dad and, you know, we'd fixed up our basement together. So I knew a thing or two, but YouTube University got me through this house and we ended up way deeper into it than we expected. So I ended up redoing all the plumbing, drains and supply, rewired the whole house. It was a full gut. We did some pretty significant framing changes ourselves and honestly, just like friends and helping us out.