I Cracked the Code for More Cash Flow & Less Risk (Rentals + Private Lending)

Real Estate Rookie

BiggerPockets

How To, Education, Business, Investing, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rookies are often told to stick to one investing strategy, but today’s guest is going against the grain by combining the long-term appreciation of rental properties and the passive income of private money lending. Want to build a diversified real estate portfolio that can weather any kind of market shift or job loss? He has the blueprint! Welcome back to the Real Estate Rookie podcast! Shalom Yusufov’s first real estate deal wasn’t your average single-family rental. In fact, it wasn’t a rental at all, but a private lending opportunity that gave him a whopping 11% return. Leaning on the experience from that first deal, Shalom has gone on to complete several private money deals, start his own fund, and buy nine cash-flowing rental units in just ONE year! But it hasn’t been all smooth sailing. In this episode, Shalom discusses one of the deals that went south and why it’s so crucial to vet both the property and the borrower on every private money deal. He also talks about why you should always have multiple exit strategies, and why becoming a landlord isn’t quite as time-consuming as some would have you think! In This Episode We Cover: How to get into private money lending (even if you don’t have a ton of cash!) The number one thing new investors get wrong when vetting a private money deal How to lower your investing risk with a diversified real estate portfolio Why you should always have multiple exit strategies when lending to other investors Choosing the right market to invest in when your backyard is too expensive And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/rookie-641 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	Tony, I love when we get to talk to rookies who have jumped into not just one but multiple
0:05.6	strategies early on. Because let's be real, most of us start with one deal and slowly branch out.
0:11.2	Yeah, but today's guest went from lending to flips to rentals all while balancing a W2 and
0:17.0	navigating some tough rookie lessons. And that's what we're diving into today, how to diversify as
0:22.3	a rookie and what you learn when things don't go according to plan.
0:30.6	Welcome to the Real Estate Rookie Podcast. I'm Ashley Care. And I'm Tony J. Robinson. And let's give
0:35.5	a big warm welcome to Shalom. Shalom, thanks to join us today, brother. Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to be here.
0:40.8	So Shalom, how did you get first started in real estate and what pulled you towards real estate investing in
0:47.5	general? Okay, it's a load of question. Let's rewind back to COVID. I was in college. I went to Peru college. I had no idea what I
0:57.8	wanted to major in, but my friend did this internship in real estate. He's like, hey, if you want
1:02.4	to learn more about it and maybe get paid while you're sitting at home doing nothing,
1:06.3	tried out, right? And so I applied. I got in, and it was, it was amazing. I learned so much about
1:12.4	institutional real estate, what it means to underwrite a deal, look at gross rent, net rent,
1:18.0	what does vacancy mean, what are building expenses, how do you value building with a cap rate
1:22.3	and a why? And I just loved that sphere. I felt that I've never actually applied myself in anything so hard as I did with real estate.
1:32.1	And so I love this so much.
1:33.9	I changed my major to real estate finance and doubled down on learning as much as I can about real estate.
1:41.1	After that, I've interned at many different companies within Real Estate Private Equity,
1:46.8	with Mac Real Estate Group. I've worked at different public rates, doing retail work,
1:51.7	and underwriting deals, development deals, and then couldn't find a job at real estate.
1:58.5	No matter how good my resume looked like, when I graduate school,
2:02.3	I was looking for a job in New York, but I couldn't find one real estate job in New York. So,
	...

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