I Bought My First Rental in 2021, Now I Have 19 and Replaced My Salary!

BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

BiggerPockets

Education, Business, Investing

4.8 • 16.5K Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This high school football coach grew a real estate side hustle over the past four years that now replaces his W2 income. He did it making a median salary, all while working his full-time job and raising his family. He didn’t use flashy methods, risky strategies, or constant cold calling. Starting with around $30,000, Lamontis Gardner went from zero to 19 rental units in just four years and is STILL growing! After pandemic lockdowns left Lamontis with extra time and little work, he knew he needed to stop solely relying on his W2 income to fuel his life. Of course, Rich Dad Poor Dad found its way into his hands, and the real estate bug began. From there, Lamontis turned a lost deal into an opportunity to buy three duplexes from one owner. The problem? He only had a third of the money. It was time to partner up! After a home run first real estate deal that gave him a six-figure equity upside, Lamontis knew this was the path for him. Since then, he’s been buying rentals, flipping houses, and doing whatever he can to reinvest in real estate, all while working his W2 job. Now, he’s replaced his W2 income but is STILL growing his portfolio even in 2025’s high-rate, “tough” housing market. Want to do the same? Copy Lamontis’s strategy! In This Episode We Cover How to invest in real estate when you don’t have enough money for a down payment Why you DON’T need to cold call in order to find great off-market real estate deals The easiest (and most profitable) homes to flip that ANYONE can find on-market Why section 8 rentals are not what you think (and might be as good or better than regular rentals) When to flip vs. renovate and rent a house (telltale signs of a great flip/bad rental) How Lamontis scaled to 19 rentals and multiple flips per year WITHOUT a big team And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on BiggerPockets.com and https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1108 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	This investor bought his first property just a few years ago in 2021, working with two partners
0:04.6	to find the cash he needed.
0:06.1	But by the end of 2024, he'd accumulated a portfolio of cash flowing rental properties
0:11.1	in Mobile, Alabama.
0:12.5	And he had flipped five houses in a single year.
0:15.2	On the show today, we'll hear just how he did it.
0:25.6	What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to the Bigger Pockets podcast, where we teach you how to achieve financial freedom through real estate investing. I am Henry Washington,
0:29.9	filling in for Dave Meyer. Today's guest in the show is Lamontas Gardner. He's a former
0:33.8	college football player who started his investing career by buying a single rental
0:38.1	property in his first year. Over the next two years, he bought four more rentals and flipped a house.
0:43.0	By 2024, he was able to do 14 deals, including five flips. We're going to hear from
0:48.2	the Montes on how he's been able to scale up his business sustainably and without taking on too much
0:52.9	risk, how he found and financed
0:55.1	deals in the Mobile Alabama market and what motivates him to continue growing his real estate
0:59.8	business while working a full-time W-2 as a teacher and coach. It's a great story. I'm sure
1:05.2	you'll be able to learn from him. So here's me speaking with Lamontas Gardner. Lamontas,
1:10.0	welcome to the show, my man.
1:11.4	Thank you.
1:12.0	I'm grateful to be here.
1:13.4	Awesome, man.
1:14.2	So give us a little bit of background.
1:16.1	What were you doing before you got into real estate?
	...

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