You DON'T Need Dozens of Rental Properties to Retire Early

Episode #1,004

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You want to retire early, so you come up with a plan. “I’m going to buy ten rental properties and call it quits, then I’ll never have to work again.” Within a decade, you’ve got your ten rental properties, but now you want more. You buy another ten, then a big apartment complex, and now you’re raising money to buy even more. You have zero free time, investors to answer to, and a lot of stress. This wasn’t what you wanted. Let’s take it back to where you are now: how do you actually make it to early retirement?

At the height of Chad Carson’s real estate investing career, he was working eighty-hour weeks flipping homes, buying rentals, and dreaming of a financial freedom-enabling portfolio. But when the market crashed, he took a step back and asked, “What do I really want?” Thus, the small and mighty investor mindset was born. Now, Chad is retired early in his forties, working just two hours per week and making six figures in passive income. Want to do it, too?

Today, Chad discusses how you can build a small and mighty portfolio with fewer rentals, more cash flow, and ultimate time freedom. We’ll show you how to reverse engineer your goals to build the real estate portfolio you ACTUALLY want to own, why having hundreds of doors isn’t completely worth it, and the “metrics of success” you can use to measure your progress toward financial freedom.

00:00 Intro
01:56 You DON'T Need 100 Rentals
05:18 What Do You REALLY Want?
09:53 Why Work More?
14:04 Metrics of Success
23:36 Reverse Engineering Financial Freedom
26:42 Does Door Count Matter?
33:13 What is "Enough"?
37:20 The Dish

[DionTalkFinancialFreedom]

I love it. I like the idea of not really caring about door count. My goal was, the right amount of cash flow from the least amount of units.

[Ewoodmi]

Definately glad bp is head back to this mindset. Not the grow into oblivion mindset that serves only the ego. Good moves bp

[richardgirgis]

This is probably one of the most important real estate episodes I've ever seen. The whole point of real estate and work in general is to help you live life.

[PaceMorby]

Dave is such a smart dude. Love that guy.

[tonymimi]

COACH!! That's my mentor. I've met him in person at a REI meet up in Charlotte. My wife and I acquired one property during my bootcamp with him 2 years ago. We're at 3 now. He's a great teacher!

[illes_invest]

This episode really spoke to me. I subdivide land and use it to build small multi-family from the ground up. Since I keep my land costs absurdly low and do the build myself, these small multis perform as well as a lot of larger properties and everything is brand new.

[Constellasian]

I love the mindset here. It resonates with me. I only have 3 rental properties as part of my portfolio. One is a STR. Two of my properties are in an area where appreciation in equity and rent are good. This is a good buffer for inflation. I'm looking at adding maybe one more as a long term rental, and that's it. Stocks make up another portion of my portfolio. This provides me more than enough to live a comfortable life. My lifestyle doesn't require much money, so I don't need multimillion status. Plain little millionaire is fine.

[harrylove]

This is great stuff! I have a small portfolio of properties and always felt the need to keep getting more. That’s my ego talking. This video was a light bulb moment! Thanks!

[Matt-qjcr]

I’ve been following BiggerPockets for a long time, and this is one of the best episodes I’ve seen. I wish I had watched something like this years ago—my rental portfolio might be in much better shape. Keep it up!

[adelrezk]

So good to see you back on the show, Chad! Thanks for sharing your philosophy!!!!

[jameswelsh]

Excellent episode. Chad is the best. This sounds like a One Rental at a Time conversation. Michael Zuber is changing lives.

[TwoSideHustles]

Always great to have a discussion with the Coach.

May be the real measure of success is ROT... Return on Time... That's been mine. I took on this journey to get my time back to do what I enjoy.

[Maxrotor]

My goal was never to accumulate dozens of properties with small cash flow. My goal was to have 10 paid off properties before I retired. I came up short. I have 6 paid off rental properties and a nice 401k. These assets will fund my retirement.

[shana]

These are the kind of episodes I love, It’s very relatable. Coach Carson is one of my favorite real estate investor, he keeps it simple, small and mighty!

[GibsonJames-gron]

Real estate is often touted as one of the best ways to build wealth for retirement. It’s like having a golden goose that keeps laying eggs in the form of rental income.

[JevonMusicGroup]

Coach Carson is my favorite! His videos really inspire me.

[semiotik]

This guy has great books behind him - Vagabonding, How to Think LIke Da Vinci, Ferris, Cal Newport, etc.

[denicelopez]

The fact that his honest enough to say he doesn’t understand the risk in bigger deals such as syndication deals is so refreshing. It’s so important to remember not to go into investments not knowing what you are risking. Thanks Chad for being so honest and providing a whole different view of RE investing!

[nateforbes]

I like the direction you guys are going, Chad Carson is more relatable to most of the guest that have come on lately. I would also consider having on "The Lumberjack Landlord", Michael Zuber from one rental at a time and John Schaub.

[nicholasheist]

Really great to see this opinion coming back to the main show. Very relatable to I think more of your target audience, thanks for the insight.