BRRRR vs. Turnkey: Which Rental Strategy Actually Wins? (Not What You Think)

Real Estate Rookie

BiggerPockets

Entrepreneurship, Education, Investing, Business, How To

4.7 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2026

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Before you buy your first rental property, you’ll need to pick an investing strategy. Should you opt for the convenience of a turnkey rental property or swing for more upside with the BRRRR method (buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat)? We’ll help you make the right choice! Welcome back to the Real Estate Rookie podcast! Today, we’re breaking down everything you need to know about turnkey real estate and value-add rental properties. To make sure we’re comparing apples to apples, we’ll use the same example property, crunch the numbers, and cover both processes from start to finish—your all-in costs, project timelines, cash flow, and much more. Which strategy is more rookie-friendly? Which makes more money? Which has the biggest risks? You’re about to find out! We provide a checklist of things you’ll need to do before committing to one strategy or the other, and then help you make a decision that aligns with your lifestyle and investing goals. Whether you’re starting from square one or have already begun narrowing down your options, this episode will give you the confidence to move forward! In This Episode We Cover The convenience of turnkey properties versus the upside of value-add real estate How to choose an investing strategy that fits your long-term goals The biggest investing risks to consider when using the BRRRR method Four crucial questions to ask before committing to an investing strategy The “checklist” to complete before buying your first investment property And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠h⁠ttps://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/rookie-711. 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

Transcript

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0:00.0	Two investors, same market, same budget.
0:02.9	One buys a turnkey property and the other is collecting rent in 30 days.
0:07.4	The other buys a fixer-upper, forces equity and walks away with significantly more upside two years later.
0:13.1	Who made the right call?
0:14.3	The answer is, it depends.
0:16.4	And today we're going to break it down exactly what it depends on so that when you're standing in front of
0:21.2	that decision, you know which path is actually going.
0:29.1	This is the Real Estate Rookie Podcast. I'm Tony J. Robinson. And I'm Ashley Care. Now let's get into it.
0:36.3	Let's start off talking about the first thing, turnkey,
0:40.3	and what that actually means. We do talk a lot about adding value and doing rehabs and things
0:46.7	like that on this podcast, but what about a turnkey property and how this actually can work
0:51.5	as an investment for you depending on your situation and what you
0:55.7	want out of it. So turnkey, a turnkey property is where the property is ready to go. You put the key in,
1:03.1	you turn the door, you open it, and it is ready to be a rental. So oftentimes there are companies
1:08.8	out there that specialize in selling turnkey homes where they're going out and either maybe doing a new build property or they're going out and buying a dilapidated property, fixing it up and then selling it to you as a rental.
1:23.6	So oftentimes it comes with they have property management service they offer.
1:29.0	They have a tenant that's placed in the property for you.
1:33.1	And so everything turnkey is supposed to be just this all-inclusive package handed to you.
1:38.1	And you do nothing except collect the rent check.
1:41.1	Tony, what are some cons that you have seen with the strategy? Yeah. I mean, I think the,
1:48.3	I don't know about the biggest con, but I think just one thing to look out for is the track record
1:53.2	of the turnkey provider. You know, and again, there's, it's like a, maybe like a spectrum of turnkey.
	...

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