Ep. #103: Tom Brickman of the FrugalGay with Brian & Deni discussed how he retired with real estate

Abstract

I've traded almost all of those up now and turned them into houses or multifamily properties. Brian: So how has your real estate investing strategy changed as you have gotten older, as you've become more experienced? You mentioned that your first property in college was a duplex that you house packed and then you got into some of the ugly condos. Then in 2017, 2018, I started getting priced out and I couldn't make numbers work and I shifted back to Ohio and I can still find in May I bought a solid two bedroom, one bath, one car, garage, house for $52,000 in Ohio and in Texas. Do you want addresses or Look at these? And he gave me the address and I'm like, Oh, that's the zip code that I own my crack house. Brian: Primary residence exclusion, right? Tom: So I've done that a few times over the years and that's, you know, when people DM me and they're like, how do I get started? I'm like, find something you can house hack or you know, if I had to start over again today, I'd start with condos again. You've got to start and you've got to scale up and it's you can't move into your dream house right off the bat, right? So I always encourage them to start with like the two bedroom, two bath condo and trade it up over time. Another piece of advice I love to give people and they don't realize is even in the hottest markets, I've got a great house in Dallas last year that I put under contract the weekend of Thanksgiving because nobody wants to move during the holidays.