MB469: This One Mistake Is Why You’re Not Scaling Your Real Estate Portfolio – With Axel Ragnarsson
Financial Freedom with Real Estate Investing
Michael Blank
4.7 • 577 Ratings
🗓️ 28 April 2025
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, Michael Blank and Garrett Lynch talk with Axel Ragnarsson, who scaled from self-funding small multifamily deals to building a 500+ unit portfolio and raising over $15 million in capital. Axel shares the turning point that forced him to move beyond his DIY approach, how he overcame mental blocks around partnering and raising money, and what it really takes to grow in today’s market. Whether you're early in your investing journey or looking to level up, Axel’s story offers powerful insights.
Key Takeaways:
- Self-Funding Has Limits: Axel built up to 70 units on his own, but liquidity challenges and stress forced him to rethink his approach and start partnering.
- Mindset is Everything: His biggest obstacle wasn’t skill—it was fear of raising capital and losing control. Overcoming that changed everything.
- Adapt or Miss Out: In today’s shifting market, underwriting must adjust constantly. Flat rents and rising interest rates mean conservative assumptions are critical.
- Scale with Purpose: You don’t have to grow endlessly. Axel is evaluating whether to stay put or expand into new markets—and why lifestyle alignment matters.
Connect with Michael
Resources
Access the #1 FREE Apartment Investing Course (Apartments 101)
Schedule a Free Strategy Session with Michael's Team of Advisors
Explore Michael’s Mentoring Program
Join the Nighthawk Equity Investor Club
Review the Podcast on Apple Podcasts
Get the Book, Financial Freedom with Real Estate Investing by Michael Blank
For full episode show notes visit: https://themichaelblank.com/podcasts/session469/
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, dealmakers, welcome to the show where it's all about financial freedom with real estate. |
| 0:03.8 | Let's do this. |
| 0:08.2 | Today we're diving deep into what it takes to scale a multifamily portfolio using smaller to mid-sized |
| 0:13.6 | properties, 10 to 75 units. |
| 0:15.4 | And our guest is Axel Rognerson, and he's built a 500-plus unit portfolio by sourcing deals directly from sellers, which |
| 0:22.8 | is kind of cool. And he raised over $15 million from investors and is self-managing his own |
| 0:28.3 | deals. And he's going to talk about how he did that. And we spent quite a bit of time when |
| 0:33.5 | he first started getting into real estate because he was really focused on self-funding |
| 0:39.1 | these deals and buying duplex and single-family rentals and building up a significant portfolio |
| 0:43.5 | before essentially the wheels were coming off liquidity and the amount of work he was doing |
| 0:48.2 | and he got this aha moment where he started to get into raising capital and joint ventures, |
| 0:53.6 | which allowed him to get to the place where he is today. So I think you'll find the journey very, very interesting. You might recognize yourself in some of those limiting beliefs that he had back in the day and how we overcame them. And then how did he scale to this level? And we're going to talk all about that here in the podcast episode. Before that, let's bring in our co-host, Garrett Lynch. What's going on? What's going on, Michael? So one of the cool things about the podcast is we're all talking about stuff that's going on the market before we get into the podcast here. And, you know, the market's changing. Every quarter, things are changing, you know, one time rents are going up. One time, rents are going down, then the interest reserves are going up and whatever. |
| 1:28.3 | Things are always changing based on what's going on right now. And one of the things that we're seeing |
| 1:32.8 | currently is that rents are actually, in many markets, not all, but they're projected to be flat or maybe |
| 1:39.3 | mildly down. And the question is in those markets, or even when the interest rates go up, public people say, |
| 1:45.5 | oh, this is bad. |
| 1:46.6 | Industry rates going up is bad. |
| 1:48.4 | Rent's not going up is bad. |
| 1:50.6 | And how do we deal with that, right? |
| 1:52.5 | In an environment where we're trying to buy and scale, how do we just wait for the market to improve, |
| 1:59.5 | or do we do something else? How do we deal with this, |
| 2:01.9 | whatever situation there is in this case, it might be rents that are flat. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Michael Blank, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Michael Blank and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.