In short
Real Estate Rookie Podcast Episode Summary
Episode Title
Changing His Family’s Future with 3 “Boring” Rentals and $2,500/Month Cash Flow
Podcast Overview
The Real Estate Rookie Podcast is hosted by Ashley Kehr and Tony J. Robinson, designed for new real estate investors. The show's focus is on providing actionable advice and insights to help beginners navigate the world of real estate investing.
Episode Description
This episode features Kadeem Kamal, who transformed his life through real estate investing. Starting from zero, Kadeem has built a portfolio that generates over $2,500 in monthly cash flow through three rental properties, illustrating that substantial financial gains can be achieved with simple and straightforward investing strategies.
Key Highlights
- Kadeem started investing in real estate with a simple goal: stop paying rent.
- He purchased his first property in 2018 with little knowledge of real estate.
- Over ten years of steady, “boring” investing has led to over $800,000 in equity across his properties.
In This Episode, We Cover
- Monthly Cash Flow: How Kadeem generates $2,500 per month from three rental properties.
- Long-Term Planning: A 10-year strategy for achieving financial freedom through consistent, modest investments.
- House Hacking Strategy: Utilizing rental properties to cover mortgage payments.
- Creative Financing: Strategies Kadeem used to fund his first property down payment.
- Section 8 Considerations: Discussing the risks and protections associated with Section 8 rental income.
Kadeem’s Journey
Early Experiences
- Kadeem's journey began during his undergraduate studies where high rental costs prompted him to consider homeownership.
- After living in overpriced apartments and realizing the benefits of house hacking, he decided to buy instead of rent.
Initial Investments
- First Property:
- Purchased in 2018 with a down payment of $10,500 using an FHA loan.
- A multi-unit property that allowed him to live rent-free as tenants covered the mortgage.
- Second Property:
- Bought in 2020, continuing the trend of using FHA loans, with a low down payment strategy.
- Third Property:
- A two-flat investment with a more substantial down payment of 25% for a total of $40,000.
- Allowed Kadeem to expand his portfolio without relying on FHA.
Lessons Learned
- Consistent reinvestment of cash flow rather than lifestyle inflation allowed Kadeem to scale his portfolio effectively.
- The importance of understanding the housing market and thorough research before purchasing properties for investment.
Current Financial Standing
- Equity: Kadeem maintains approximately $800,000 in equity across his properties.
- Monthly Income: Total rental income amounts to over $10,000, with profits contributing to household expenses and savings.
Challenges and Overcoming Obstacles
- Kadeem faced challenges, such as dealing with problematic tenants and the intricacies of property management.
- He learned to establish boundaries with tenants living in close proximity to his family.
Key Takeaways for New Investors
- Start investing early and recognize opportunities in the market.
- Understand the financial mechanics of real estate, including leveraging loans and managing budgets.
- Focus on long-term growth rather than short-term gains or complex strategies.
Conclusion
Kadeem's story serves as an inspiration to would-be investors, emphasizing that even simple, straightforward real estate investments can yield significant financial improvements over time. His experience underscores the value of diligence, education, and community support in achieving financial freedom through real estate.
Resources
- Visit [BiggerPockets](https://www.biggerpockets.com) for more insights on real estate investing.
- Follow Kadeem on Instagram at [Kadeem Ali](https://www.instagram.com/kadeemali/) and TikTok at [Kadeem The Ali](https://www.tiktok.com/@kadeemtheali) for updates on his journey.
Call to Action
Interested in sharing your story? Apply to be a guest on the Real Estate Rookie Podcast at [BiggerPockets Guest Application](https://www.biggerpockets.com/guest).
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOKadeem's Journey Begins
0:45 to 2:41
Kadeem shares his early experiences with rental properties and house hacking.
“Kadeem, thanks for joining us today, brother.”
The Turning Point
2:41 to 3:49
Kadeem discusses the realization that he could buy instead of rent.
“And so I thought, oh, I can just recreate this.”
Navigating Financial Aid
3:49 to 8:06
Kadeem explains his experience with financial aid and securing funds for his first property.
“So we'll skip back to like undergraduate.”
The First Property Purchase
8:06 to 9:38
Details on how Kadeem chose and financed his first rental property.
“Nope, didn't need that one, just needed the first one.”
Initial Cash Flow Success
9:38 to 14:04
Kadeem shares insights on cash flow from his first property and early mistakes.
“I want to clarify the seasoning piece because that is like a very important like rule regulation with, you know, getting a loan.”
Understanding FHA Loans
16:20 to 18:45
Detailed discussion on FHA loans, PMI, and associated costs.
“recap, you had told us you used an FHA loan on this 3.5 % down.”
Navigating FHA Inspections
18:45 to 21:16
Insights into the inspection process and hurdles of FHA loans.
“Well, first, I actually just learned this past year that you can get denied PMI.”
VA Loans and Their Challenges
21:16 to 23:09
Discussion on VA loans, their inspections, and common issues.
“If you get messed up, they get messed up.”
Tenant Management and Experiences
23:09 to 28:01
Experiences with managing tenants and dealing with challenges.
“And I've only sold a house to maybe one person that used an FHA loan.”
Navigating Tenant Challenges and Renovations
28:01 to 29:10
Learn about the challenges of tenant management and the importance of standardizing renovations.
“but there are definitely people who know the system enough to where they can use that against you.”
Show all 17 chapters
Strategizing Property Ownership with Family
29:13 to 31:01
Discover the strategy of leveraging family names for property purchases to maximize FHA loan benefits.
“Can you explain why you decided on this strategy?”
Scaling Up: From Rentals to Financial Freedom
31:03 to 32:38
Explore how multiple rental properties can create cash flow and financial security.
“Across the portfolio right now, just like ballpark, what's your cash flow across all those units?”
The Compounding Effect of Real Estate Investing
36:12 to 42:00
Understand how early investments can compound over time to create wealth and opportunities.
“So, Kadeem, we just heard before the break about how you scaled up the portfolio.”
Building a Real Estate Machine
42:00 to 42:54
Learn how consistent, boring real estate investments can lead to financial freedom.
“The first, second, and third fed into the fourth.”
Impact of Real Estate on Family Future
42:54 to 44:04
Discover the transformative impact of real estate on family dynamics and future planning.
“So I guess before we wrap up here, one thing that you talked about was buying a property for your daughter, but how has real estate really changed the outlook on your kid's future compared to how you grew up?”
Lessons from Early Mistakes
44:04 to 45:18
Hear about common mistakes new investors make and the importance of starting early.
“And we've been able to not just for my daughter setting her future up.”
Reflections on College Investment Opportunities
45:18 to 45:54
Explore the potential of investing in real estate while in college and the missed opportunities.
“If I was really smart, I would have come up with this.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Ashley Kerr:What if I told you that someone bought their first rental property with about$10 ,000 in Chicago while still in grad school? Because today's guest did exactly that. And what I love about this story is how simple it started. No fancy strategy, no real estate background, just asking one question. How do I stop paying rent?
0:20Tony J. Robinson:Yeah, and this episode is such a good reminder that you don't need to wait until everything is perfect to get started. Kadeem didn't come from money, didn't have a massive income, and didn't know the term house hacking at the time. He just saw an opportunity and took action.
0:39Ashley Kerr:This is the Real Estate Rookie Podcast. I'm Ashley Kerr.
0:42Tony J. Robinson:And I'm Tony J. Robinson. And with that, let's give a big, warm welcome to Kadeem. Kadeem, thanks for joining us today, brother. Thank you guys so much for having me. Excited.
0:51Ashley Kerr:Kadeem, take us back to the very beginning. What was your life like before real estate and what originally made you start thinking about housing differently?
1:01Kadeem Kamal:So it really started in undergraduate school. First two years, we lived on campus. So you had not a care in the world. Things just kind of flew past you. And then junior year, we had to live off campus. And I can remember me and two buddies, we were paying 14, like 1475, some crazy number that will just round to 1500 apiece for like a 1000 square foot apartment. Now this is my very first apartment. So like those numbers sounded okay to me. There was pretty much monopoly around Illinois State University where you just pay what they say because you didn't have an option. And then my senior year, me and my fraternity brothers, we rented a house and it ended up being like$400 a person.
1:43Kadeem Kamal:And so immediately like, okay, I'm never having a traditional apartment. I'll just get a house and either rent it with friends or buy it and they pay me directly. And then again, that idea of house hacking was born there. I was telling people I made something up like you'll never forget. Like this is this new concept. I'm going to coin this phrase. I don't even remember what I called it. But it for sure wasn't house hacking and I for sure hadn't heard it before. I just knew living with friends, living with a group of people to kind of combine to cover the bills made so much more sense.
2:14Ashley Kerr:So you didn't even know that the term was house hacking. So how did the idea of buying a property instead of renting actually come to you because of the situation you were in?
2:27Kadeem Kamal:Well, I knew that the house that we were renting was significantly bigger than that thousand square foot apartment that I shared with two other people. It was three floors. It was massive compared to the four hundred dollars out of pocket it cost me. And so I thought, oh, I can just recreate this. I'll take a room. I'll find some friends to take some rooms and we'll buy a big house. And if it's in my name or we renting it, it doesn't matter. Everyone's a little bit better off than going the fifteen hundred dollar for a small apartment route.
2:55Tony J. Robinson:$1 ,500 per person for an apartment, that's wild. Crazy.
3:00Kadeem Kamal:$4 ,500 for a thousand square. And what year is this, Kadeem? This was 2016, 2017.
3:08Tony J. Robinson:Wow, man, that's crazy high rent. So, okay, so you go through this experience and that kind of opens your eyes to say, man, there's got to be a better way to do this. And it's funny, Kadeem, because we hear that so often. Like, you know, it could be the moment that someone's just like writing the rent check or, you know, submitting their rent payment online. and they kind of look around, they're like, man, there's like four units in here. And if all four of us are all paying the same amount, like this landlord is making a killing, like I can do this too. So it's a very common backstory that we hear about what folks think about that kind of motivates them into getting started.
3:39Tony J. Robinson:So you didn't know that it was house hacking, but you have this idea. So once that seed is planted, what is your next move? Like, how do you actually turn that into something that it's worthwhile? Yep.
3:49Kadeem Kamal:So we'll skip back to like undergraduate. I remember watching people blow refund checks. And I don't know if all the listeners know, but if you get whether it be scholarship or any financial aid above the cost of school, they cut that in half. They give you half in the fall, half in the spring. So they would get those refund checks and say here, rental provider, here's the rent for the year. So when I went off to graduate school, I remember being in the financial aid office and the lady was like, how much do you want? And I thought like maybe she misspoke. That's not really how it goes. I'm an expert on borrowing money.
4:21Kadeem Kamal:I know how to borrow money for school. I'm like, well, well, what exactly? Give me the exact number for tuition, like for the cost. And then I'll do my own math, adding in housing expenses. And she sat me down. It was a much older woman. And she said, sir, that's just not how this works. A lot of your classmates are I know you are your traditional student, but a lot of your classmates are full fledged adults. I wasn't quite the adult yet. And they have kids and they have mortgages and they have cars and they are in this program that did not allow us to work. It was full time. We had a full time in school internship, practicum.
4:55Kadeem Kamal:We didn't work. They're supplementing their lives off of this loan. If you give me a number, I'll put that number in. Way too much pressure. I think I was 21 and you're telling me I'll write you a blank check. That's just way too much pressure. And I'm normally when I tell the story, I say I hung up on her and I called her back the next day. It was about a week later and I didn't hang up. I was polite. I don't have an answer for you today, but I can come back. And in a week's time, again, without BiggerPockets as what ended up being my biggest information source. But before BiggerPockets, I was like, I just created a new thing.
5:31Tony J. Robinson:Kadeem, I just want to understand that it sounds like there was maybe some fear and some shock in that moment. But why was that? Was it because you were worried about having that much money and not spending it the right way? Why were you nervous? Why couldn't you give her a number in that moment?
5:49Kadeem Kamal:So the goal was just to take enough money for school and then I'll scrape by whatever everything else looks like. But when she said, no, you have, you know, basically you have an opportunity to cover your housing expense. I wasn't going into that conversation thinking that that was the math I needed to do. So not only was she in my mind saying what just what how much money do you want me to give you? Plain and simple. It was also that I just wasn't prepared for anything above to agreeing for the exact tuition amount.
6:17Tony J. Robinson:Now, I got to give you some credit because, you know, my first year in college, like like many students, I got a refund. above and beyond my tuition for financial aid. And I was 18 years old. I'd never seen, I don't even think like a four figure check in my life at that point. So the very first refund that I got for financial aid, I went straight to AT &T and I bought not one, but two iPhones, one for me and one for my girlfriend who later became my wife. So I guess it worked out well, but that was like the most irresponsible thing that an 18 year old could have done.
6:53Kadeem Kamal:There was a lot of PlayStation 4s floating around ISU campus around disbursement time. Everyone was buying their game systems, buying shoes, whatever.
7:04Tony J. Robinson:And luckily, as I got older, I started to realize that this isn't free money. You know, like I had grants, but I also had loans associated with that as well. So then it started, you know, then it was my rent money and that's what I use it for.
7:13Kadeem Kamal:So thank God in undergrad, they actually have a cap. They won't let you just do whatever you want there. But in graduate school, that cap was lifted. And when I called her back a week later, I hid in my mind, okay, 3.5 % down. I know roughly with Google how much things are selling for. We had went beyond the idea of buying a house because I was with my girlfriend at the time, who's now my wife. Does she want a roommate? Probably not. So how about we buy an apartment building where all of the apartments are super small and that's the same as a roommate. We just have our own separate kitchens. That's really the only big difference.
7:48Kadeem Kamal:and that ended up being$10 ,500. That's 3.5 % down on the$300 ,000 building. So I went, called her, hey, I need a$10 ,500 refund track disbursement. And because they split it into two, the fall and the spring, I had to ask for double that. And then when I got the second one, I just gave it right back. Nope, didn't need that one, just needed the first one.
8:09Ashley Kerr:Interesting. Okay. So you're planning ahead. You're getting that$10 ,000 upfront, but you asked for$20 ,000 and then in the spring, you're just paying$10 ,000 of that back. So in this week period of her telling you you can get whatever until you call her back, is that where you're actually going and looking up deals and analyzing?
8:25Kadeem Kamal:That's the first time any of this really like went beyond just like, oh, I shouldn't pay rent no more. Right. Like this is when we're looking it up. And I can remember my wife again, my girlfriend at the time found the property we had in this week. We had a realtor. We had a lender. We had all of this and explaining the situation. and they're like, okay, this is how we got to do it. We had a lawyer. Everyone's kind of pro bono because they know the money's coming on the end. So everyone's like, I'll give you whatever you need. It sounds like you guys are truly dedicated. You're doing your research.
8:55Kadeem Kamal:We got the disbursement and we had to let it, what's it called, season because I didn't have a job. I didn't have a job. They weren't loaning to me regardless of how much, unless I had enough money to buy the building outright, it couldn't be in my name. So we had to let the building, the money season, we bought it FHA in my wife's name. Again, girlfriend at the time. I keep making that distinction because then we got married in the second building we bought in my name. We kind of flip-flopped there. It was$290 ,000. I think all in, we had to pay$12 ,000 out of pocket and that was with closing costs and all that good stuff.
9:28Kadeem Kamal:That's roughly 4 % altogether and we have never paid a housing expense out of pocket 2018. That's the last time we've come out of pocket for housing expense.
9:39Ashley Kerr:I want to clarify the seasoning piece because that is like a very important like rule regulation with, you know, getting a loan. Like a lot of people know, like you're going to get a loan. Don't go out and buy furniture and finance it while you're waiting for your house to close. Don't go out and buy a car. But also when you're going to get pre-approved for the loan, especially when it's your primary residence, they're going to want to know where the funds came from. So if you're buying it in your wife's name, the funds need to come from her. So what was that process like getting the funds actually seasoned so they showed into her account?
10:15Ashley Kerr:What was the timeframe they had to sit in her account for?
10:18Kadeem Kamal:So I don't remember off the top of my head, but I think it's like three months or so. It ended up being a lot longer than that. But I think the minimum was because they only asked for like three months check stubs. And they were like, we don't care what happened prior to the check stubs that you provide for us with the bank statements. Luckily enough, me and my wife had a shared bank account at the time. So all my money was her money on paper. It was really easy there. We just had to wait enough times to where when we submitted documentation, they didn't have to ask the question of where this money came from.
10:45Ashley Kerr:And then was there any questioning about that it was where the, I guess you didn't have this because you waited the seasoning period, but do you think there, if you wouldn't have waited and you would have gone ahead, do you think they would have denied you because technically that was borrowing funds from the loan from the student loans?
11:04Kadeem Kamal:I think so. In my mind, if I'm a bank, knowing what I know about banks, now I would say I'm loaning to you on the fact that clearly you're a good steward with money and you've saved this. But if you just got it all in one lump sum, maybe you haven't proven yourself to be someone worthy of me loaning to. So I think that that question would have come up.
11:24Ashley Kerr:Okay. So tell us about that first property that you found. And you're looking at properties, you get your 10K secured while you're waiting for the funds to season. Are the same properties still available or are you pulling up other properties and putting offers in?
11:40Kadeem Kamal:They're not. We hadn't started looking until like things were seasoned. The bank wanted to like there was no point looking without an actual preapproval. So we had to wait a little bit. I think we saw maybe five properties. And the one that we happened to pick was one that my wife found. And what sold her and what sold to us is the fact that the unit that we moved into was so well upgraded that even by today's standards, you'd say, oh, they recently upgraded this unit. Like it still looks really, really, really nice. So my wife's like, hey, this is the one we're moving into. All of the other properties with all of the meat on the bones that you kept talking about, like, no, I don't want to live there.
12:20Kadeem Kamal:I don't want to live in that situation. but this one at the very least looks nice enough. It's comfortable enough. Mine was a five bedroom, two bath apartment. It's two of us. We didn't have children. It's just, I'm like, why do we even need five bedrooms? It was massive, but it was also upgraded to the point where she felt comfortable. So pretty much sold us there.
12:37Tony J. Robinson:And just from an underwriting and like analyzing perspective, Kadeem, what did that part look like? Or was it really just, Hey, we first want to prioritize us having a clean, safe space to live. Right. So because it took a long time from like refund check to purchase, I learned all I need to know.
12:57Kadeem Kamal:Right. The learning is exponential. Once you have about 80 percent understanding, you'll gain a little bit over time, but you have the bulk of it. So I'm like, OK, rents, not just minus mortgage, but I'll pay utilities. Like my mom's a homeowner. So it's like, Mom, what are you paying for? Tell me everything you pay for so that I can start roping that into my math. the rents were the first floor we lived on the second floor the first floor was 1100 the basement was there was a legal basement apartment was 700 the mortgage was 1550 I had no idea what the water bill would go for my mom's like I know what my house is water bill but I have no idea what a multi-unit water bill well it couldn't be 700 we're good all of the wiring was set to where everyone paid their own utilities excluding the water bill so I'm like as long as the water bill isn't$700 a month, we don't have rent anymore.
13:44Kadeem Kamal:We don't come out of the pocket. And it ended up being like$125 a month. We pay every other month. Cash flow from the beginning, we made every mistake known to man, but because the deal was so good on paper, 18 coming in, 14 going out, all those mistakes just kind of got wrapped into it. We were perfectly fine.
14:04Ashley Kerr:Well, I want to hear more about this deal and your next deal, but let's take a short break. And when we come back, we'll get into more of the numbers on this deal. We'll be right back.
14:13Kadeem Kamal:We all joke that rentals are passive, but if you're spending nights matching receipts or guessing what a property earned last month, that's not passive at all.
Read the full transcript
14:21Tony J. Robinson:Baselain fixes that part of landlording, the financial chaos. Their banking and AI bookkeeping system automatically tags every transaction, updates cash flow insights in real time, and builds the reports you need for tax season. You can even automate transfers and move money around without paying wire fees. It's just cleaner. Sign up at Baselane.com slash BP and get a$100 bonus. Baselane is a financial technology company and not a bank. Banking services provided by ThreadBank. Member FDIC.
14:43Ashley Kerr:Starting something new is terrifying. When I launched my business, I kept thinking, what if I fail? What if no one listens? Taking that leap was one of the best decisions I made. Shopify powers 10 % of all U.S. e-commerce with ready-to-use templates. AI tools that write product descriptions and that iconic purple shop pay button with the best converting checkout on the planet. It's time to turn those what-ifs into cha-chings with Shopify today. Sign up for your$1 per month trial today at shopify.com slash rookie. Go to shopify.com slash rookie. That's shopify.com slash rookie.
15:19Tony J. Robinson:Billion-dollar investors don't typically park their cash in high-yield savings accounts. Instead, they often use one of the premier passive income strategies for institutional investors, private credit. Now, the same passive income strategy is available to investors of all sizes, thanks to the Fundrise Income Fund, which is more than$600 million invested and a 7.97 % distribution rate. With traditional savings yields falling, it's no wonder private credit has grown to be a trillion-dollar asset class in the last few years. Visit fundrise.com slash pockets to invest in the Fundrise Income Fund in just minutes.
15:57Tony J. Robinson:The fund's total return in 2025 was 8%, and the average annual total return since inception is 7.8%. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Current distribution rate as of 12-31-2025. Carefully consider the investment material before investing, including objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. This and other information can be found in the income funds prospectus at fundrise.com slash income. This is a paid advertisement.
16:17Ashley Kerr:Okay, welcome back. So to recap, you had told us you used an FHA loan on this 3.5 % down. You had$10 ,000 for a down payment. during the loan process, were there any other fees or expenses or maybe even during the due diligence and inspection of this property that came up that might have surprised you?
16:37Kadeem Kamal:Not surprised me because again, bigger pockets had me by then. So I pretty much knew the costs I didn't know. I think it was a thousand dollars or roughly that for the actual, not the appraisal, but the guy who's on our team. I figured the appraiser is on the team of the bank inspector.
16:57Tony J. Robinson:Like your property inspector? Okay.
16:58Kadeem Kamal:Yeah. The inspector came. He was a nice old man. He said, I'm not doing this twice. So come with me, come to every room with me and I'll talk out loud. So you should be able to do this next time. Can I do it now? No. But he walked us through exactly what was wrong. And he was like, look, it's a lot wrong on paper, but it's perfectly fit for what it is you're trying to do. There's some concrete, not level, but as long as no one trips, you're fine. It's not that bad. That was a cost. I think we had to pay a few times, whatever the fee is to keep the loan rolling because of how long this process took.
17:32Kadeem Kamal:I think it took maybe six or seven months to close. It was ridiculous. And we had our own apartments, so we were still paying rents. And we're like, hey, we need to move in. We'll never pay rent again. But we were on a timeline of not just ourselves, but the deal in of itself.
17:49Ashley Kerr:You know, it's one thing we have not mentioned in probably a year on this podcast is PMI. So did you pay PMI with this loan? And can you explain what it is?
18:00Kadeem Kamal:Yep. So private mortgage insurance, because we didn't have 20 % equity, we didn't put 20 % down. It's almost like insurance on the loan itself. I think it ended up being like$50 extra. Again, that's in that$14.50 total PITI, I guess PMI add that in there as well. So that doesn't roll off the tongue as well as PITI. But that additional property, I just lost it. The loan insurance, essentially. Right. It was about$50. So, yeah, we paid that. We still pay that, oddly enough, because we have not refinanced out of the FHA loan because it's a four point two. I mean, let's keep it there. No, no need to disturb the interest rate.
18:43Kadeem Kamal:But yeah, so we still pay it. We'll address that down a lot.
18:46Tony J. Robinson:Two quick things, Kadeem, on the PMI. Well, first, I actually just learned this past year that you can get denied PMI. So PMI is a form of insurance, and there are only so many companies in the United States that offer PMI. And there are certain properties that they'll underwrite themselves, and they won't approve for private mortgage insurance. So that was something new to me. So just know as you're shopping for PMI, like there's an opportunity that someone could say no.
19:16Ashley Kerr:Tony, I have a question on that. Does that mean the lender wouldn't lend to you then?
19:21Tony J. Robinson:Yeah, the lender wouldn't close. Yeah, no. Yeah, without or unless you went up to at least 20 % down, right? But without the PMI, they wouldn't close on it. And it was actually it was an investor that I knew that was working with the lender that I knew. And that's kind of how I got wrapped into it. But the second part of PMI, and Kadeem, this is more so for you, is that even if you don't refinance, if the appraised value of the home has increased, where when you compare that to your current loan balance, you've got at least that 20 % margin now, a lot of lenders will still remove that PMI even without refinancing.
19:56Tony J. Robinson:So it could be in your best interest to go call because it's been a while since you guys purchased that.
20:02Kadeem Kamal:Yeah. We recently went to go sale. So we have on the books an official appraisal where they should have taken it off if that's the case.
20:10Tony J. Robinson:Yeah. Yeah. So go back and share that to them. You know, that could be a way to maybe get the PMI removed. But you mentioned FHA and I've got two questions around that. A lot of folks are worried about FHA because of the kind of hoops you have to jump through during the purchase process and more specifically around the inspection, like the FHA inspection. You mentioned you were there for it. Were there any hurdles specifically related to the fact that this was an FHA loan that you can call out for Ricky listeners so they know what to kind of look out for as they go through this process?
20:43Kadeem Kamal:So not on the buying end. Again, we tried to sell the property and we were selling it to someone with an FHA loan. And so I kind of saw it firsthand the other side. But if I was to look, it's a whole bunch of little stuff. The paint on the brick outside can't have any chipping, like a whole bunch of little things that as a buyer, if I'm advising the buyer, you should be happy because these are safeguards for you. Yes, it's a lot of hoops, but it's a lot of hoops to make sure that you're buying something that has good bones, that's going to work for you. The bank is on your side. If you get messed up, they get messed up.
21:20Kadeem Kamal:So they're putting these extra hurdles for your advancement, for you to make sure that you're purchasing something that's really good.
21:26Tony J. Robinson:Yeah, and I think that's where a lot of folks also have hesitation is when they are the seller. And if they've got two offers, one's FHA, one's conventional or cash, the FHA usually kind of gets bumped down a few rungs. Another loan product that's really common, but then also kind of has its hurdles is the VA loan. Ash, have you ever worked with the VA loan in that way?
21:48Ashley Kerr:Yeah. So Daryl's a veteran and he's doing his first VA loan right now. And from what came back from the inspection, it's more like safety issues, I guess, instead of actual repairs. Um, like this, there's two sump pumps in the basement and they needed covers on them. Uh, there are some electrical outlets didn't have outlet covers on it. Um, the, there is two stairwells that lead into the basement and one didn't have a handrail. So it needs a handrail. So like, those are pretty easy things to do. And then the other thing is there's an exterior shed that has some rotting wood and paint chipping and they want the rotting wood replaced and the chipping paint it repainted.
22:35Ashley Kerr:The problem is, is it's zero degrees right now. Paint is not going to stick. So Saturday is our day to actually go there. The seller already took care of the sump pumps, the outlet covers. So we just have to do the handrail and then we're like, we have to figure out what to do with this shed. And so I think we're either going to take some like metal siding, like from a Morton building and just tack it on there like, oh, it's got brand new siding or we're going to just have to like rip out pieces of the wood and just put it up and maybe paint it inside and let it dry and put it up. I don't know.
23:08Ashley Kerr:We're going to assess more, but that's what at least our list was. And I've only sold a house to maybe one person that used an FHA loan. And it was kind of a similar thing, more like they're wanting it to comply with code enforcement laws and stuff.
23:28Tony J. Robinson:Which in the grand scheme of things isn't all that terrible, but for a seller who wants convenience during the sales transaction, a lot of times they'll just want the person who's gonna overlook those things or maybe take care of it themselves.
23:40Ashley Kerr:And this is holding up the loan too, because you have the appraiser come and then they tell you the things and then they have to come back and inspect. I have to schedule with the seller, when can we go and do this stuff? or if they're going to do it. So it's like, it's a lot of back and forth also. And one thing too, that delayed the loan was like, we've got the appraisal, but we want to make sure that we have loan commitment. So don't go and do the repairs. So like, you know, we could have started a couple of weeks ago, but then we had to wait for commitment. And then it's like, okay, now go, but everybody else is ready to close.
24:16Tony J. Robinson:Yeah. Yeah. And then in New York, everything takes long anyway. So you add this on top and Ashley might close in like two years, you know, it'll be, it'll be 2030 by the time. Don't say that because that did happen to be
24:27Ashley Kerr:on the property I'm sitting in right now.
24:29Tony J. Robinson:It's two years to close. Um, well, it could do my, I think one last question for me on, on the first, uh, on the first house hack. And I think this is the question that a lot of people ask is you're, even if you have your own separate space, you're still somewhat living close to your own tenants. And we're, how was the experience for you self-managing for the first time and what guardrails or kind of boundaries were you able to set with your tenants to make sure that even though they were your neighbors, you still had some level of privacy?
25:00Kadeem Kamal:It was terrible. Just to sum it up, that first round of tenants. I can remember calling my tenant and like, I can hear her talking not only through the phone, but through the floor because he was right under us. And she had been there for like 10 years. So from her perspective, and this was her argument, You're the new guy. What do you mean? How are you going to come here? I'm like, but I own the building. I get to set some rules. And she knew we owned the building. And so it just wasn't as professional as we would want it to have been. When we finally kind of turned over our units and had new people come in, then we can put some guardrails up, right?
25:34Kadeem Kamal:Now it's a little bit more professional. But those first tenants for whom they saw us walk through the property. So I'm like, I know you're the owner. You were here seven months ago. You were here. And now you're upstairs. Like, I know you're the owner and now I can pull on heartstrings and it's like I'm not bargaining at the Walmart checkout line for prices because I know that the person who I'm talking to don't set them. And when you're talking to the person who has full control over setting some of the parameters of your agreement, you try for that. So it was definitely difficult until we got new tenants in.
26:05Tony J. Robinson:Yeah, Kadeem, one follow up to that is what tactics or I guess what experiences did you have where they were trying to maybe negotiate with you? And how did you navigate that? Like, did you find yourself kind of not not falling victim? I think that's the wrong phrase, but did you find yourself kind of having empathy for them in that situation, maybe bending the rules? Or was it you were able to kind of stick to the guns of what the police said?
26:32Kadeem Kamal:So so let's paint the picture. I was a full time graduate student. I had a full-time internship. I had a full-time job and was a full-time landlord, all rolling. And these were section eight tenants. And I asked my wife, like, what were the rents back then? And she told me, she was like, but remember, we never got their portion. I think it was like 700 and then she was supposed to pay a hundred. Not in the year she lived there did she pay her 100. And it was like, I can fight this lady over a hundred dollars, but I got school or I got to go to work or like a lot of things we ended up budging on because the deal still worked to where, okay, if it keeps the piece of the building, keep it.
27:09Kadeem Kamal:And then we'll just make sure that things are in place when, whenever you're no longer our tenant.
27:14Ashley Kerr:Did you guys end up evicting her or terminating the lease or how did she ended up moving out?
27:19Kadeem Kamal:Oddly enough, and this is our discomfort with like section eight is that it works perfect for normal, moral people, but if you are immoral, you can take full advantage of it. And we failed an inspection because they were like mouse droppings. And then we had someone come back, spray, do all this stuff. We had all the receipts for the company who came and did all of the abatement, but the lady never swept the mouse drop. And I'm like, I'm not going in your apartment to sweep this up, but she knew if they were still there, we would fail again. So even though we paid for the exterminator. We failed again.
27:55Kadeem Kamal:We went like three months without getting rent from section eight, which everyone considers like, oh, it's guaranteed. If everyone's moral, it's guaranteed, but there are definitely people who know the system enough to where they can use that against you. And eventually it was like, hey, lady, if you don't want to be here, we'll cut it. We'll give you a great review, the section eight, and then you can just go somewhere else. And that's what ended up happening.
28:16Ashley Kerr:So a blessing in disguise, I guess.
28:19Kadeem Kamal:Minus the three months we missed out on, but yeah.
28:22Ashley Kerr:Yeah. Yeah. But an eviction probably would have been just as costly and more of a headache and more time consuming for you to be able to do that. So once the tenant left, did you go and renovate this unit at all? Or was it already pretty turnkey besides cleaning up the mouth drop?
28:41Kadeem Kamal:It was pretty turnkey. It was super minor. One thing that we have across all of our units is it's all the exact color paint, all the exact cabinets. So with that unit, we established the like, this is what every single unit moving forward will look like the next turnover. We just repainted everything to that. So it wasn't a lot for that particular unit, but that unit was super important because it set the standard for what we would use for every other unit moving forward. And I live there, so I was doing all the work.
29:11Ashley Kerr:Yeah. So one thing before we go to break, I want to touch on is you had mentioned that you and your wife kind of put a strategy together where this first property was in her name, and then you went on to get the second property in your name. Can you explain why you decided on this strategy?
29:29Kadeem Kamal:Because we had to, right? But I know you can only have one FHA loan in your name at a time. And with that assistance with the down payment, the 3.5 % down, that was the only way we were able to do it. So we asked ourselves, okay, well, I can't do it in your name. We can refi out. It didn't really make sense for us at that time. So the second one would be in my name. And then I know we talk about a third deal. The third building we bought mentally with our daughter in mind. And so it's not in her name, but it's her building. So we put it on a 15-year mortgage thinking that, oh, this is your first birthday present.
30:06Kadeem Kamal:By the time you're old enough to need a car, your building will buy your car. And then when you go to college, your building will pay for your college. And then that'll be the seed money. And so that's kind of why after the third building, my wife was like, I'm done. We're getting the house. We're not moving around anymore. It's only three of us. We have three buildings. That's enough.
30:25Tony J. Robinson:Kadim, I guess just, we're kind of going through this quickly, but you went from one to two to three in what sounds like a relatively short period of time. The first one, FHA. The second one was FHA in your name. And what about the third one? How did you finance that one? The third one was conventional. We had to put 25 % down. That was just you being able to save all that money from not having living expenses. Yep.
30:49Kadeem Kamal:So we'd say one bought two.
30:52Tony J. Robinson:Yeah.
30:53Kadeem Kamal:One and two bought three. And then one, two and three brought our primary house, what we were able to build from the ground up two years ago.
30:59Tony J. Robinson:That is fantastic. Let me ask one last question. Across the portfolio right now, just like ballpark, what's your cash flow across all those units? So we do not have to ballpark because I took notes.
31:13Kadeem Kamal:We collect a little over$10 ,000 a month in rent. We bring in, we save about 25 % for like maintenance, CapEx, vacancy, because I do the management, there's a little bit of savings there. So profit for the month is about$2 ,500. And that's the mortgage on our primary house. So we kind of say we're still not paying out of pocket any housing related expenses.
31:39Tony J. Robinson:Kadeem, congratulations, man, because to go from sitting in the financial aid office to now being at a point where you've got three different investment properties, a new primary that you love. And all of this has been funded by your ability to execute as a real estate investor is, I think, such an inspiration to everyone that's listening. because a lot of times we think about the end goal of real estate investing and different people have different goals. For a lot of people, it's like, oh, I want to quit my job or I want to do this or I want to do that. But there are so many other ways that real estate can change your life for the better.
32:15Tony J. Robinson:And something as simple as, I don't have to worry about paying my mortgage every month because I've got three other properties that are paying it for me. There is a peace of mind that comes with that that would be hard to get elsewhere. So man, I love your story. Congratulations, brother. So we're going to take a short break, but when we come back, we're going to dig into how Kadeem's story has evolved and how his investing strategies evolved. We'll be right back after this. When I bought my first rental, I thought collecting rent would be the hard part. Nope. The admin crushed me. Every night was receipts, tax forms, and checking who was late on rent.
32:47Tony J. Robinson:I kept thinking, if this is one unit, how do people run 10? Baselane changed that. It's BiggerPockets' official banking platform that handles expense tracking, financial reporting, rent collection, and even tenant screening all in one place. It's the system I wish I had from day one. Sign up today at Baseline.com slash bigger pockets and get a$100 bonus. Baseline is a financial technology company and is not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by ThreadBank. Member FDIC. Billion-dollar investors don't typically park their cash in high-yield savings accounts. Instead, they often use one of the premier passive income strategies for institutional investors, private credit.
33:21Tony J. Robinson:Now, the same passive income strategy is available to investors of all sizes, thanks to the Fundrise Income Fund, which is more than$600 million invested and a 7.97 % distribution rate. With traditional savings yields falling, it's no wonder private credit has grown to be a trillion-dollar asset class in the last few years. Visit fundrise.com slash pockets to invest in the Fundrise Income Fund in just minutes. The fund's total return in 2025 was 8%, and the average annual total return since inception is 7.8%. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Current distribution rate as of 12-31-2025.
33:56Tony J. Robinson:Carefully consider the investment material before investing, including objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. This and other information can be found in the income funds prospectus at fundrise.com slash income. This is a paid advertisement. All right, rental property investors, listen up. Our friends at Dominion Financial already have some of the best DSCR rates in the industry. Now they're the fastest too. They just launched 10-day DSCR closing. That's right, 10 days. And they're still the only lender with a DSCR price beat guarantee. That means faster closing, the best terms, zero guesswork.
34:29Tony J. Robinson:That's Dominion Financial. Check them out at biggerpockets.com slash Dominion. Again, that's biggerpockets.com slash Dominion. Tax season reminder for all the real estate investors listening. If you own rental properties, short-term rentals, commercial buildings, basically anything that's not your primary residence, you need to know about cost segregation. It's an IRS-compliant strategy that lets you accelerate depreciation on your properties, which means you're paying less in taxes this year and keeping more cash in your pocket for your next deal. Cost Segregation Guys is the go-to firm, having done over 12 ,000 of these studies with 500 million in total depreciation identified.
35:10Tony J. Robinson:Head to costsegregationguys.com slash BP to get a free proposal and see your potential tax savings. Passive income sounds amazing until it involves 17 apps and active maintenance. That's where the Gemini credit card comes in. It earns you Bitcoin back on everyday purchases automatically. You use it like a normal credit card for lunch or gas or groceries. And every time you swipe, you earn up to 4 % back instantly in Bitcoin or one of over 50 other cryptos sent straight to your Gemini account. No points to track, no categories to activate, no waiting to redeem rewards. It just shows up and there's no annual fee, which is great because paying money to earn rewards has really never made much sense.
35:51Tony J. Robinson:So if you've been curious about building your Bitcoin stack without constantly thinking about it, this is one of the simplest ways to start. Go to Gemini.com slash card to learn more. Terms apply. See the link in the description for more information regarding rates and fees.
36:05Kadeem Kamal:Issued by WebBank. Some exclusions to instant rewards apply. This is not investment advice and trading crypto involves risk. Check Gemini's website for more details on rates and fees.
36:12Tony J. Robinson:All right, welcome back. So, Kadeem, we just heard before the break about how you scaled up the portfolio. And again, congratulations on that. Now, you briefly mentioned that, you know, you kind of the first bought the second, the first and second bought the third, the third and the first, second and third helped you pay for the fourth. I want to talk a little bit more about the third property because I know that one required a little bit more money down. What was slightly different? You said that one wasn't FHA. So just kind of walk us through how that deal was different than the first two.
36:41Kadeem Kamal:It was a lot less expensive as far as like the purchase price of the building because we had to come up with 25 percent down. So it wasn't a three flat like the others. It was a two flat, which is a two unit building. I know it's flats mean different things, different places, but it really wasn't that far off. It was a lot quicker. We didn't have to jump through like the hoops of FHA, but we also didn't have the guide rails of FHA. FHA. So all of that due diligence of making sure that it would make sense, that it was safe, foundation, all that good stuff was on me and my wife to make sure that this was the deal that we wanted.
37:17Kadeem Kamal:But I tell everybody like, it's just math. The math makes sense. We got a nice little spreadsheet that we use and here's what the expenses will be. Include all of them, right? Don't cheat yourself. Include all of those expenses. Here's what you'd likely get, which is just like as a renter, if you know how to find out what an apartment would rent for, then you can just do that backwards and find out what you would rent an apartment for. So this is how much they would rent for. This is how much it would cost. This is what the mortgage would be. There's a million mortgage calculators out there. It was really easy to say, this makes sense on paper.
37:50Kadeem Kamal:And then we pulled the trigger.
37:51Ashley Kerr:So this property was a two flat, a two net. And so you were going to move into one or this was purely investment?
37:58Kadeem Kamal:Purely investment. So it was$160 ,000 and we put$40 ,000 down, which still It blows my mind to say, to even think that like we had$40 ,000 cash. Even though we talk about the portfolio paying our mortgage, we actually do not contribute to the portfolio at all. And we never have since the initial$12 ,000, which you can argue is also not us personally contributing to it. It has been fully self-sustained. And once we realize, oh, we shouldn't pay ourselves rent per 10, we should literally make a second bank account. and pay ourselves rent and have the rent. Once we cut ties with the business altogether, we've not intermingled our money at all.
38:41Kadeem Kamal:And we looked up and said, oh, we have enough for another purchase.
38:45Ashley Kerr:I think that is a really hard portion of being that diligent to just let that money grow and to not touch it and to say, oh, let's go on a vacation. We've got 10 grand extra. We don't need it. And being able to, when you have that income creep that, you know, and not having that lifestyle creep with it actually does take a lot of, you know, diligence to stay motivated as to why you invested in real estate in the first place. And not only real estate, if you got a big bonus or you got a pay raise or something like that, it's very, very easy for somebody to have that lifestyle creep that goes up with your increase in income.
39:30Ashley Kerr:So congratulations on being strict with yourself to not touch that. And when you did touch it, you continue to invest.
39:37Kadeem Kamal:We still fall a victim to that within our personal lives, but our income creep, our lifestyle creep is strictly based on our nine to fives. My wife's a nurse practitioner. I'm a child psychologist. So it's like, if you want more, you got to do more in your primary job, but this is just separate.
39:53Ashley Kerr:Let's look at the numbers on this real quick. So how many years since the purchase of that first property, did it take you to accumulate that$40 ,000 in there?
40:01Kadeem Kamal:So we bought it in 2018. We bought the second property in 2020. I know that you only have to live in the unit for one year. It took us two years, new management issues, learning curves, and then one year after that. So in a three-year span, And we bought two gold.
40:17Ashley Kerr:And then how much equity has accumulated in those properties since you bought the first one?
40:24Kadeem Kamal:Yeah. So we include our primary residence, given that it was bought by the real estate as well. We have about$970 ,000 in outstanding mortgages, but$1.8 million in total value. So$800 ,000 in equity.
40:41Ashley Kerr:That's incredible. Yeah. How else are you going to find$800 ,000 that you can tap into over that many years?
40:48Kadeem Kamal:We tried to last year sell the first property because we bought it for$290 ,000. We have about $240 ,000 left on it. We started at 3.5%. So it's taken a very long time to start paying down that mortgage, but it's valued at$600 ,000. So just eight years of waiting with it being 100 % self-sufficient is roughly$350 ,000 in equity. And if we could have sold it, we would have 1031 and exchanged it into a larger building. And then I would maybe taking up that whole, maybe I'll be a property manager to benefit from the real estate professional and then just do this full time. That's still on the books if that ends up happening.
41:25Kadeem Kamal:If not, I have a four-month-old daughter who's in need of a building by her first birthday. So either we're 1031 exchanging or we're just going to buy another two, three flat for her first birthday as well.
41:36Tony J. Robinson:I love this theory of like compounding. Because I think people don't realize just how, and I'm not talking about compounding in the sense of like the stock market and, you know, interest and all that stuff. I mean, the compounding of your portfolio, because it took you all this time to kind of get that first deal together. But then the first deal fed into the second deal. And the first and second fed into the third. The first, second, and third fed into the fourth. The first through fourth will feed into the fifth. And the time between each deal starts to get shorter and shorter because this machine that you've built gets stronger and stronger.
42:11Tony J. Robinson:And like we talk about all the time, but it's like if someone were just to invest in a very boring fashion for the better part of a decade, for most people, they could probably put themselves in a position to at least be somewhat job optional and maybe have options around working less or maybe taking a lower paying job that they enjoy more, if they really just like focused in for 10 years. And we've seen this story over and over and over from so many amazing guests. And Kadeem, I mean, your story is one that I hope really, really resonates with people because you didn't do anything sexy. You didn't do anything earth shattering.
42:48You just showed up, put one foot in front of the other, and it compounded
42:53Tony J. Robinson:over time. So man, I love your story.
42:54Ashley Kerr:So I guess before we wrap up here, one thing that you talked about was buying a property for your daughter, but how has real estate really changed the outlook on your kid's future compared to how you grew up?
43:07Kadeem Kamal:So single parent household, that's not necessarily real estate related, but just like looking at what's to come for my daughter. We bring her to the properties all the time. She's five years old, but she does understand that like, oh, this is my property. And she'll say like, no, no, no, that's my property. You did all that work. Yes. But you did that for my property. And she kind of understands the idea of ownership that we rented out or we loan it to people and they pay us. And she was like, oh, well, once it's paid off, and mind you, this is a five-year-old talking, once it's paid off, I won't need a job.
43:40Kadeem Kamal:I could just live there for free. And I'm like, you got the right mindset, right? That's not how it's going to pan out, but that's the thought process. You have something that you own that you can live in yourself. You can sell whatever it looks like. We'll guide her through that. But I know if I started with that much seed money, oh, it would have been over. We would have been retired by now. It would have been an entirely different story. And we've been able to not just for my daughter setting her future up. But when this made sense on paper, we told everybody we knew. Everybody with an earshot.
44:14Kadeem Kamal:I'm yelling like this makes sense. This makes sense. When it made sense to my mom, she said, oh, OK, cool. went to her 401k borrowed my own my mom owns so much more real estate than we do and started after we started because she had more capital to employ uh but i have friends who bought it and use me as resources like hey you have a plumber i don't because they're transient but i can help you find one like the the community that we built within my immediate family my immediate friend group everyone's kind of planning out for their futures and this is not what i grew up with this is not the community I grew up in.
44:49Tony J. Robinson:Yeah, Kadeem, all the more reason. I love your story even more, man. Aside from all the success, though, you mentioned some challenges along the way. We've hit some of them, but I guess if you could kind of zoom out 30 ,000 foot view, are there any maybe larger mistakes, strategic kind of mistakes maybe that you feel that you've made that Ricky should think about as they get ready to jump into their first deal?
45:15Kadeem Kamal:I didn't start soon. I didn't start in college. If I was really smart, I would have come up with this. And instead of renting a house, I would have bought that house that my friends and I'd still have a property in a college town. I think this just works so well. I didn't make this up. You guys didn't make this up. This math has one plus one is always equal to before we knew it was it did. Real estate has always worked so well that even when you overpay, because I've overpaid for so many things in the grand scheme of things, just do it. Even the mistakes that you can come up with are so small at that 30 ,000 foot view that once I look up from that vantage point, I don't even see mistakes.
45:53Kadeem Kamal:They're just little blips.
45:54Ashley Kerr:Kadeem, I have to ask that college house, have you ever gone back and looked at what it's valued at now or what people are paying for right now?
46:03Kadeem Kamal:I looked at what the mortgage was when we lived there and we were paying maybe like$2 ,000 combined with the five people paying$400. And I think the mortgage should have been like$1 ,000. And again, resonated this idea that like, don't tell anyone. And I guess we can't do this on the podcast, but my plan is still to go back and buy a house in my college town where I still know people from my fraternity and say, you guys can live here. Don't mess it up. But knowing that you have a constant recycling potential tenants, all of whom are paying with refund checks who don't have a grasp of money yet.
46:41Kadeem Kamal:And they're like, here, here, here it is the whole year and one, like that's still a plan.
46:46Ashley Kerr:Well, anyone listening that knows the best flooring that makes beer spills less sticky, reach out to him, whoever is a, his frat house, he's going to purchase there. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. We really appreciated you taking the time to share your story and also all of the knowledge that you've obtained since you bought that first property. Where can people reach out to you and find out more information?
47:11Kadeem Kamal:Because I'm not a realtor or anything like that, you can follow me on Instagram. I document almost everything we do. I'm really bad at it. So don't be surprised, but I'm trying to get a little bit better. On Instagram, I'm Kadeem Ali. So K-A-D-E-E-M-A-L-I, which is just my middle name. And then TikTok is Kadeem The Ali because I started the TikTok a long time ago, forgot about the password and couldn't keep my original name. So Kadeem Ali on Instagram and Kadeem The Ali on TikTok.
47:40Ashley Kerr:Well, thank you guys so much for listening today. I'm Ashley. He's Tony. And we'll see you guys on the next episode. At some point, your little real estate side hustle stops feeling little. Rent's coming in. Maybe you've got a couple properties now and suddenly the money part gets real. Your tax bill's going up. you're Googling LLC versus S Corp at midnight, and you're just hoping you didn't miss something that'll cost you later. That's where Collective comes in. Collective is the first all-in-one financial solution built exclusively for solopreneurs, saving you time and money. They help you structure your business for success, whether that's forming a single-member LLC or adding an S Corp election.
48:15Ashley Kerr:Collective's AI engine, backed by expert oversight, automatically categorizes every expense so you never miss a deduction. Beyond bookkeeping, they handle quarterly tax estimates and prepare both your business and personal tax returns. So you never miss a deadline. You'll also get integrated invoicing plus seamless payroll for S-Corp owners, which can unlock thousands in self-employment tax savings. And with Collective's community and support, you can finally take the solo out of Solopreneur. Right now, Collective is giving you 50 % off your first two months when you go to collective.com slash rookie.
48:45Ashley Kerr:That's 50 % off your first two months at collective.com slash rookie.
48:49Tony J. Robinson:Hey, rookies, if you're watching this, We want you to apply to be a guest on the Real Estate Rookie Podcast. That's right. Ashley and I are looking for amazing stories just like yours to be a part of our Real Estate Rookie Podcast. Now, look, you don't need to be an expert. You don't need to have done thousands of deals. Even if you've done one deal, your story could help inspire the next listener.
49:07Ashley Kerr:As a rookie investor, especially if you just got your first deal, it is all fresh in your minds and you are the best person to tell your story, give your experience on how you got it done to help someone else get their first deal.
49:20Tony J. Robinson:So head over to biggerpockets.com slash guest if you want to be a part of our show. Again, that's biggerpockets.com slash guest. And we'd love to have you on.
From the publisher
Think you need a trust fund, seed money, or a rich uncle to invest in real estate? You don’t! With just 10 years of simple, “boring” investing, rental properties could completely alter your life’s trajectory. Today’s guest started from zero but now owns a small real estate portfolio that brings in over $2,500 in monthly cash flow!
Welcome back to the Real Estate Rookie podcast! Kadeem Kamal didn’t come from money—quite the opposite. But after discovering he could buy a house that doubled as a rental property, after years of paying rent, he grabbed the opportunity with both hands. Since buying that first property back in 2018, Kadeem has bought two more rental properties, built his own home, and never paid his mortgage out of pocket!
Like many rookies, Kadeem knew very little about real estate investing when he got started. But by taking action and learning on the fly, he’s been able to secure his family’s financial future. In less than a decade, Kadeem has built up over $800,000 in equity. Stay tuned to learn how YOU can copy his success!
In This Episode We Cover
How Kadeem makes $2,500 in monthly cash flow with three rental properties
A 10-year game plan for achieving financial freedom with “boring” investing
Having tenants pay your mortgage with the house hacking strategy
The creative strategy Kadeem used to fund the down payment for his first property
Section 8 rental income isn’t guaranteed? (How to protect yourself!)
And So Much More!
Check out more resources from this show on BiggerPockets.com and https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/rookie-683
Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email advertise@biggerpockets.com.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices




