Again, going back to like, why did I choose real estate?

You know, I was still clinging on to the RV lifestyle, you know, so it's like,

for me, it was if I could get our house hack to be basically cheaper or the same as what we were

paying to live in our RV, you know, we would pull the trigger.

Welcome to the real estate and Financial Independence Podcast.

I'm your host Chad Carson.

You can also call me coach, and this is the show all about helping you get out of the financial grind so you can do more of what matters.

Whether your first-time listener or a long-time listener is always an honor to have you back for another episode.

The title of today's episode is Meet the Dirtbag Hiker who just bought two duplexes in Montana.

This is an interview with Joe Jimenez.

I met Joe through him taking my course, Real Estate Deal School.

He's also been a teaching assistant in that course with me.

He took it about a year and a half ago. And this interview with him talks about his journey from beginning as a civil engineer. And right in the middle of the Great Recession, 2011, didn't have a lot of good job prospects. And so he took off and started hiking. Actually, it was a through hiker on the Appalachian Trail. And I really resonated with him and this outdoor ethic and the frugality of just having everything on your back. It is the freedom that gives you. It's a great metaphor for a lot of other things we talk about in finance and investing. But we talk about that journey, how that made an impact on him and how he's kind of taken those values and that experience of being on the trail and integrated that into his finances and the fire movement and being frugal and saving money and ultimately living

in alternative type housing situations. He and his wife lived in an RV and then now they've

gotten into the real estate investing game and have bought a couple properties in a perfect

location for them right near Glacier National Park. And he's turned those into a house hack in one case. Another one's going to be a long-term rental and he's going to do some Airbnb as well. So we talk about all those details, what his journey was like, where he came up with the money, how he was able to put those deals in motion. He was living in one state in Florida, buying a property across

the country in Montana. So all of those nitty-gritty details that are helpful to you when you're buying your own properties and you're learning about your own journey, that's what we go over in this interview. And I think you'll enjoy it as much as I did. Now, before we get to the interview, it's time for my weekly behind-the-scenes segment where I share a short snippet of what's going on with me with my real estate investing, finances, or business behind the scenes. So today I want to

actually talk about. weekly behind the scenes segment where I share a short snippet of what's going on with me with my real estate investing, finances, or business behind the scenes. So today I want to actually

talk about something real estate related with my market here in Clemson, South Carolina,

and also a little bit, this common theme with the interviewee today, Joe Jimenez, who lives

in Calispell, Montana. And the idea is this, that a lot of you are looking for target markets to buy rental properties. And the common theme, a lot of people, a lot of big, huge investors from Wall Street and that sort of thing, focus on locations that are in major metropolitan areas. And that makes sense because you have to follow the jobs, right? There's a lot of jobs. There's a lot of industry, a lot of diversity of economy and in Atlanta, in L.A. and San Francisco, a New York, a Washington, D.C., a Miami. And that, so it makes sense to start there. But my tip here is something that I've discovered living in a small town in kind of close to the metropolitan areas. I'm in Clemson, South Carolina.

Clemson has a major university. So it's about 25,000 people, students who go to school there.

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