How I Turned $9,000 into My Dream Home By "Level-Up" Investing

BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

BiggerPockets

Education, Business, Investing

4.8 • 16.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Can you afford your “dream house” right now? The one with the pool and the ocean views, space for the kids to run around, and a huge pantry. The secret nobody will tell you: you CAN afford your dream house right now—or at least you can afford the investment that will get you there. Just ask James Dainard, who took a $175,000 hoarder condo and turned it into what would eventually become his $8,500,000 dream house. You can do the same using his level-up strategy. James only started with $9,000, which turned into multiple millions over the next fifteen years. He would buy a house, fix it, and trade it up for a better one, repeating this strategy five times until he reached the goal: a 9,000-square-foot luxury home in one of the priciest markets in America, Scottsdale, Arizona. He made millions of dollars completely tax-free because of this live-in flip strategy that ANYONE can use to massively multiply their wealth and take them to their dream home. And maybe you don’t want an $8,500,000 mansion—that’s fine! It only took James three house flips to get into “dream home territory,” and you can do the same! In This Episode We Cover: How to use the live-in flip strategy to make tax-free millions and buy your dream home Why buying the worst house in the best neighborhood can make you rich Why your primary residence IS an investment…if you use it the right way The real estate tax cheat code that lets homeowners make $500K in tax-free profits How to renovate a home even if you have zero flipping or construction experience Why it’s crucial to find a spouse who’s DTF (down to flip) And So Much More! Links from the Show Join BiggerPockets for FREE Let Us Know What You Thought of the Show! Ask Your Question on the BiggerPockets Forums BiggerPockets YouTube Apply to Be a Podcast Guest James’ Live-in Flip Story! Watch the Trailer for Million Dollar Zombie Flips! Try REsimpli, The Only All-In-One Real Estate Investor CRM Software That Helps You Manage Data, Marketing, Sales, and Operations Find Investor-friendly Tax and Financial Experts Grab James’ New Book, “The House Flipping Framework” Sign Up for the BiggerPocket Real Estate Newsletter Find Investor-Friendly Lenders Is a Live In Flip Right for You? Here’s How to Tell Connect with James Connect with Dave (00:00) Intro (03:57) Best Investment? YOUR House! (07:41) House 1 ($175K Condo) (12:05) Pay NO Taxes on Profit! (14:06) House 2 ($235K) (19:09) House 3 ($890K) (22:04) House 4 ($1.7M) (26:22) Making $1.2M on ONE House!? (28:10) House 5 ($8.5M Dream House!) (31:44) Tips for 1st Live-in Flip Check out more resources from this show on BiggerPockets.com and https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1089 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

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0:00.0	From a 1,000 square foot condo to a 9,000 square foot luxury home in just five steps.
0:06.5	Today, we're talking about how to add value to your house so you can trade up into the home your family dreams about without having to spend your savings.
0:19.6	Hi, friends, Dave Meyer here for another episode of the Bigger Pockets podcast where we teach you how to achieve financial freedom through real estate.
0:27.7	I've got James Dainerd on the show with me here today.
0:30.6	And if you've heard James on the show before, you know he's all about value at, renovating homes to increase their price and sell them at a profit.
0:39.9	But James hasn't only added value on the thousands of homes he's flipped as investment
0:44.7	properties during his investing career. He's also done it on the homes he's owned and lived in.
0:50.3	And you probably hear me say this all the time on the show, but your primary home is an investment.
0:55.3	And if you agree with me on that, then don't you want to make it the best investment possible?
1:00.5	That's what James has done.
1:01.8	And it's allowed him to make money each time he's sold his primary home, sometimes making over a million dollars on a single transaction.
1:10.0	And he's used that money to level up from
1:12.4	that 1,000 square foot condo I mentioned into an amazing 9,000 square foot home he lives in right
1:18.7	now. It only took him 15 years, and if you want to check it out, you should go look at his
1:22.8	Instagram. It's pretty crazy. But I wanted to have James on the show because, let's be honest, you don't need to
1:28.5	be a professional home flipper. You don't need to have a 9,000 square foot home or even an ambition
1:33.0	to have that kind of home. You can do this at pretty much any level. Today, he's going to tell us
1:38.7	how to buy your primary home like an investor. That's the most important thing. You need to think
1:43.5	about the most efficient
1:44.5	ways to add value while you're living in it and how to leverage the incredible tax benefits
1:50.2	live-in flips can create. Let's bring on James. James, welcome back to the show. I always like being
1:56.3	here. And this is actually one of my favorite things to talk about. I love this topic. You put out such a cool social media post about this.
	...

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