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BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

$100K/Year Passive Income with Cheap, Small, Repeatable Rentals

BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

BiggerPockets

Education, Business, Investing

4.816.5K Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This investor is making $100,000 per year with small, affordable, repeatable rental properties. He started investing years ago but recently bought another home-run rental for just $87,000, which will continue to boost his passive income. His slow, steady “tortoise” approach is one that anyone (especially beginners) can use in 2025 to build wealth and massive passive income through rental property investing. How do you do it? He’s sharing his blueprint. Nathan Nicholson woke up one day in his 30s to realize that his bank account had only $32,000 in it. While by no means is $32,000 a small sum, as a top producer in the mortgage business, he expected to have much more—something needed to change. After watching clients close (and make it rich) on rentals, he decided to give it a shot. But instead of going for the biggest house his money could buy, he opted for a small, affordable property where less could go wrong. It was a good move and one worth repeating. Fast forward over a decade later, Nathan has 22 properties, 10 of which are paid off, with six-figure cash flow coming in every year. He scaled smart (and safely) using his “tortoise approach” to investing—an approach you can use, too! In This Episode We Cover Why buying small (less than 1,000 square feet!) rentals is a smart move for beginners  Taking the “tortoise approach” to wealth so you safely get to early retirement  Cashing out your 401(k) for rentals? Why Nathan says it’s worth it  One quick calculation (that beats the 1% rule) every investor should use  Why Nathan is buying even more as price cuts hit many major housing markets  And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1132 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This investor buys the same $80,000 house over and over again.

0:05.3

He had only $30,000 in the bank in his early 30s, despite a successful career.

0:10.2

And at that point, retirement looked like a pipe dream.

0:13.3

Then he discovered real estate investing and started slowly building a better financial

0:17.7

future, one affordable property at a time.

0:20.8

Now, he owns 22 properties,

0:23.5

cash flows almost $100,000 per year, and we'll have the option for a stable retirement well

0:29.4

ahead of schedule. Let's find out exactly how he did.

0:41.5

Hey, everyone, I'm Dave Meyer, head of real estate investing at Bigger Pockets.

0:45.9

Today's guest on the podcast is investor Nathan Nicholson from Louisville, Kentucky.

0:51.3

Nathan didn't buy his first investment property until he had a realization about needing to take control of his financial future in his early 30s.

0:55.5

But he since then built an incredibly impressive portfolio all at very affordable price points.

1:01.4

Today, we're going to hear how he was able to embark on a path to financial freedom

1:05.5

with only a handful of properties in his first few years of investing.

1:09.8

Why he recommends being very careful with

1:12.4

leverage, even as a loan officer, and why, unlike a lot of investors, he always wants to buy

1:18.3

the smallest possible house for his money. There is a ton of actionable advice in this conversation,

1:24.5

especially for investors looking for houses at a price point around

1:28.8

$100,000. So let's get into it. Nathan, welcome to the show. Thanks for being here.

1:34.7

Yeah, thank you for having me. It's a pleasure. Tell us a little bit about yourself. How do you

1:39.1

find yourself on this podcast? What do you do in the real estate industry? Well, in the real estate

1:44.0

industry,

...

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