Scott Trench’s $1,000,000 Bet on Real Estate (Update)

BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

BiggerPockets

Education, Investing, Business

4.8 • 16.6K Ratings

🗓️ 21 January 2026

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Last year, Scott Trench, former BiggerPockets CEO, made a big bet on real estate—selling $1,000,000 in stocks to buy rentals instead. A year later, he’s on the show, and we’ve got one crucial question to ask him. Was it worth it? The man behind the mustache (yes, he’s still got it!) is joining us today to give a life update and share how his huge financial decision played out. But a lot has changed in the past year, markets aside. Scott stepped down as BiggerPockets CEO and is now fully dedicated to BiggerPockets Money, helping as many people as possible find their own version of financial freedom. We’ll go over his $1,000,000 stock sell-off, how his investments have been performing since then, his 2026 outlook, and why he believes many investors will be proven wrong about the housing market and real estate investments. Scott believes the next three years will be an “absorption” phase for real estate, but what does that mean for your property values, rent prices, and cash flow? And don’t worry, Scott also shares what he’s been doing since stepping away from 100-hour weeks as BiggerPockets CEO. In This Episode We Cover Was selling worth it? The results of Scott’s $1,000,000 bet on rentals Scott’s growing fear about the stock market and AI-led price rallies Scott’s investment portfolio in 2026 and why he still has so much of his net worth in the stock market The “absorption” phase begins, and Scott’s 2026 rent price growth prediction Stocks vs. real estate: Are either truly safe in an economy like this? And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1229 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	Should you invest in real estate or pour your money into the stock market?
0:04.0	It's a question you're probably asking yourself right now as you create your financial
0:08.4	plans for the year and work on building wealth.
0:11.3	So today we're digging into it.
0:12.8	Should you put a down payment on that local property or buy more into the S&P 500?
0:22.6	Hey, everyone. I'm Dave Meyer.
0:24.6	Welcome to the Bigger Pockets podcast.
0:26.7	Today's episode is a follow-up to one of our most popular shows from a year ago.
0:31.1	We've got former Bigger Pocket CEO, Scott Trench.
0:34.9	A year ago, on this show, he proclaimed himself a big bear on the stock market,
0:40.4	and he announced he was selling $1 million from his stock portfolio to reposition that capital
0:46.8	into real estate in Denver. Now, a year later, S&P is up. It's up 15% from that conversation. And Scott is back. And I'll get an
0:56.6	update on his life since stepping away as CEO of Bigger Pockets, his recent work hosting the
1:02.3	Bigger Pockets Money podcast. And then I'll ask him if he has any regrets about that big
1:06.8	financial decision he made last year. But more importantly, I'm also going to get his take on the
1:11.9	markets, stock and real estate and more for the rest of 2026. I want to find out, is Scott doubling
1:18.0	down on real estate and continuing to sell off equities? Or maybe he's changed his outlook and
1:22.8	he's back to stockpiling ETFs for the next 12 months. And I'm curious what he recommends for other investors striving towards the same level
1:30.4	of financial freedom that he's achieved himself.
1:33.3	So let's find out.
1:35.0	Scott Trench, welcome back to the Bigger Pockets podcast.
1:38.1	It's so good to see you.
	...

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