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BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast
How Dave Went from Broke, Living in Grandma’s Basement to Rental Millionaire
00:45:12
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- [00:00]
Henry Washington
Today's guest started with literally $0 in the bank, waited tables, and secretly moved into a 55 plus retirement community to save money. I am not kidding. He bought his first property in 2010 with a loan from a partner because he couldn't afford his share of the down payment. Now, 16 years later, he's achieved financial freedom with a rock solid rental portfolio built entirely on his own terms. Wait, is this story sounding a little
- [00:29]
Dave Meyer
bit familiar to me? It sounds a little familiar to me.
- [00:32]
Henry Washington
Yes. What's going on, everybody? Henry Washington here, co host of the BiggerPockets podcast. We bring you an investor story every Monday on the show. So you might be wondering why there's no guest here today. And that's because Dave Meyer is our guest and we are going to be hearing about his investor story from 2010 to today. Davis told pieces of the story before, but not in a few years and definitely not to me. And since I am the new co host, that's what we're going to do here today. We're going to go full into this journey. We'll talk about the hidden unit he found on a mislabeled MLS listing, his 100% success rate on cold calling, which is impressive, and how moving to Amsterdam forced him to become a much better investor. And Dave, I've also got a couple surprise questions for you that you may not see coming.
- [01:27]
Dave Meyer
Okay, well, I am coming prepared to answer any and all questions you have for me.
- [01:32]
Henry Washington
Well, let's get started and let's start off this episode the same way we start off every investor story, and that's by asking Dave, what were you doing when you first decided to get into real estate?
- [01:42]
Dave Meyer
I got started in real estate about six months after I graduated college. I had moved from New York to Denver sort of just on a whim to see Ski, and wound up waiting table. Yeah, I mean, for vibes.
- [01:57]
Henry Washington
You moved for vibes.
- [01:58]
Dave Meyer
Yeah, but I mean, I was looking for a job, but it was 2009. It was at that point the worst job market since the Great Depression. I wound up waiting tables, but I was, you know, looking for a sort of corporate job. But I had always wanted to do something entrepreneurial throughout college, even in high school, even in middle school. I had started small businesses and always trying to make money for myself. And so I was open to the idea and looking for side hustles, as they're now called. And a friend of mine introduced me to real estate and that's how I got into it.
- [02:35]
Henry Washington
So, like, similarly for me, my father was an Entrepreneur. Now he never talks to me about entrepreneurship. Like he wanted me to go the normal corporate route, get a job, climb the ladder and all those things. But he always had a side hustle or a gig. And so like that's where that seed was planted in me. But like, why do you think you were so entrepreneurial minded?
- [02:56]
Dave Meyer
Necessity. I think honestly I didn't grow up poor, but when I was like 11 or 12, my parents went through a couple in a row, like pretty big financial challenges that lasted a decade. And so like my family's finances just kind of like got turned upside down and it just, if I wanted money starting in middle school, I had to earn it. And you know, I don't know if you know this, but not a lot of people hire middle schoolers. Job I walked dogs, I shoveled snow, I, I tutored. So I was just like always doing that kind of stuff. And I did it throughout high school. And like, I should say that one of the financial issues my family face is like after the dot com boom, my dad lost his job and was out of work for like two or three years. And he's smart, dude works, works hard, had recently gotten promoted and, and I just remember seeing that like so many people do and being like, corporations will throw you out in, in no time. And I just, for a long time I think it got sort of ingrained in me that you can't trust a job and I wanted to just do things on my own.
- [04:10]
Henry Washington
And it's tough because corporations are very good at trying to make you feel like you're part of some family. But trust me, if it's in their best interest to let you go, they will. And if you leave, they'll have a cake and then somebody will be in your seat in a week.
- [04:23]
Podcast Announcer
Right?
- [04:23]
Henry Washington
It is.
- [04:23]
Dave Meyer
Everyone's replaceable ye 100%. And I don't blame them. Like, I own businesses too. Like, I understand you have to make these decisions. I, I just realized, I guess at a young age, like I want to be making the decisions. If I own my own business, then no one can fire me. And that was just always really appealing to me. At 22 though, when I was starting real estate, I wasn't thinking, oh, I was going to just go start some huge company. I was just kind of like, I want sort of a side backup thing going on in case, you know, I can't find a job or someone fires me.
- [04:55]
Henry Washington
So you had the entrepreneurial seed planted. You had the entrepreneurial spirit. And then you said someone introduced you to real estate. What did that look like?
- [05:03]
Dave Meyer
The way I remember it is I was going skiing with this guy who lived across the hall for me. Good dude, but like, not someone who you would go out and be like, this guy's got it all together. And at this point, like, he was doing it with his girlfriend at the time. And I feel like we all knew these couples when you were like 23, but, like, they were the worst couple. They were always fighting. Like, they were just. You knew that it wasn't going to work out, but they were just crushing it on rental properties. And he was telling me about it when we were skiing once. I was like, man, if this guy can do it, I can definitely do it.
- [05:38]
Henry Washington
Yeah.
- [05:39]
Dave Meyer
And I had actually started working one of the multiple jobs I had at the time, in addition to waiting tables that I was cold calling for a tenant rep, a commercial broker. And I was just kind of asking her a bunch of questions. And I started to figure out that I thought I could do this. And it just gave me the confidence, just learning a little bit and getting some validation from some people I trusted and was working with that this was a good idea.
- [06:04]
Henry Washington
I kind of had a similar epiphany. Mine was just because I kept seeing people online that were doing this, and I was like, if they figured it out, I got to be able to figure it out. Yeah. But then I had to, like, set a goal because I didn't really know where to start. And so my original goal was to buy one house a year for five years. Like, once you decided, like, okay, if this guy can do it, I can do it and I'm gonna go all in. Did you have a goal in mind?
- [06:28]
Dave Meyer
Not really. To be honest, I just saw this as a side hustle.
- [06:32]
Henry Washington
Yeah.
- [06:33]
Dave Meyer
At that point I was just. I was trying to do two things. I guess I had some short term goals, but nothing big. The first was pay rent. Like, I. I know that sounds silly, but, like, I honestly wanted 300 bucks a month in cash flow, 400 bucks a month. That was like, pretty meaningful to me at that point in my life. And then the other point was at 22, I could see if I buy a property now, even though I had three partners, you know, as a four way split, if I pay this off by the time I'm 52, I'm going to have a nest egg. And that was the only tangible savings account I had at that time. I could not save money based on my income and what my expenses were. And so I thought if I buy this property, at least I Know, I'm saving up a bunch of money and I'll have something in my 50s. And that was sort of the other thing that motivated me.
- [07:25]
Henry Washington
You did say you were waiting tables. That doesn't tend to make you a ton of money. So how did you buy your first deal?
- [07:34]
Dave Meyer
That is true. It wasn't making a ton of money actually. I tell a story and it's true. Like, I mean I had a bank account, but like all the money I had was like in my nightside drawer. Like that. I had zero dollars.
- [07:46]
Henry Washington
You just kept money in a mattress?
- [07:48]
Dave Meyer
Basically I got paid in cash every day, which is weird, but they did pay us in cash at the end of every day. And that was just, I just lived, you know, dayto day on that kind of thing. So I, I had to partner with people. I wound up finding three different partners. One was a family member, two were friends. And the total we needed, closing cost reserves, down payment I think was a hundred and forty four thousand because I'll tell you why I remember that number, because we split that four ways. But I did not have $26,000. Like I had no dollars basically. And so what I wound up doing was taking a loan from one of the partners for my part of the down payment. I paid them, I think a 7% rate on that. And then I managed the property. And so I was getting 10% of
- [08:41]
Podcast Announcer
rents to manage the property.
- [08:42]
Dave Meyer
And I use that income to off the loan that I got for my portion of the down payment. So if you're following this, I was really stretching myself to figure out how to do this, but is how I
- [08:56]
Podcast Announcer
got in the game.
- [08:57]
Dave Meyer
I mean even with that, I was still making a couple hundred bucks a month. Not in cash flow, but from property management. And that's honestly one of the major things that was motivating me was because that was the immediate return that I was getting.
- [09:09]
Henry Washington
I mean you call it stretching yourself. The kids, I believe, call this hustling. Yeah, like it was, you hustled your
- [09:16]
Dave Meyer
way into a deal 100%. I would do anything to get into this first deal. And it worked.
- [09:21]
Henry Washington
Okay, so tell me about that deal. What was it? What it looked like.
- [09:24]
Dave Meyer
So what it was, it was a four unit. You see this a lot in Denver, you see it a lot in the Midwest. It's like these cut up old Victorian homes. So big, like three 4,000 square foot house in a really good location, walkable, high demand area for young professionals. So it was someplace I wanted to live. Two, two units and two one bedrooms. Bought it for 462. And I think the rents when I first bought them were about 4,000. So not quite the 1% rule. But after really easy cosmetic and just getting things up to market rents, they were quickly at 6,000. Like within a year they were at 6,000 in rent. So that was the opportunity I saw in buying that deal and was. Honestly, I had no idea what I was doing, but was pretty easily able to get rents up to market rate.
- [10:15]
Henry Washington
One more question about the first property. Did you occupy it or any of your partners occupied or was it a pure investment?
- [10:21]
Dave Meyer
I had no idea what house hacking was. Like, I am not one of those people who is like an early adopter of Biggerpockets. I was just making stuff up. I had no idea what I was doing. But I was like, man, I could live in this unit for less than I'm paying in rent. And so I was going to move in with my roommate at the time who was one of the partners. That was one of my partners. And then. This is a crazy story, but my. His grandma had passed away and she lived in a 55 plus community a little bit outside of. Of Denver. And I see your face where you think this is going, and it absolutely is where it went. Well. So it was like 2009 and no one, they couldn't. Like, his family was like, we're not selling this property. No one was buying it.
- [11:16]
Henry Washington
55 plus community.
- [11:18]
Dave Meyer
Yes. We did it in the middle of the night too, because you're not allowed to move in. And we were like, we're just going to move in into the middle of the night.
- [11:26]
Henry Washington
Did you live there like Anne Frank? In secret? Like no one knew.
- [11:30]
Dave Meyer
We let, we try to. We lived there secretly for like five days until people quickly realized what was going on. But all the people loved us because we would like carry their packages, you know, we would just do nice things for the people in the community. We were like, this is going to be three months until we like figure it out. We're going to save up some money. I lived there for three years. More than three years. More than three years. It was basically free. We were just like paying utilities. And funny story, when I first met Jane, my wife, I was living in the basement, my friend's grandma's basement, in a 55 plus community in the exurbs of Denver. And she loves to point this out that she was like truly a visionary. She was like, I met you then and I still fell for you.
- [12:20]
Henry Washington
Lord, she saw. She saw something in you.
- [12:24]
Dave Meyer
I know. Yeah, she's some sort of oracle because that was ridiculous.
- [12:30]
Henry Washington
As a real estate investor, the last thing I want to do or have time for is to play accountant, banker and debt collector. But that's what I was doing every weekend, flipping between a bunch of apps, bank statements and receipts, trying to sort it all out by property and figure out who's late on rent. Then I found Baselane and it takes all that off my plate. It's BiggerPocket's official banking platform that automatically sorts my transactions, matches my receipts, and collects rent for every property. My tax prep is done and my weekends are mine again. Plus I'm saving a ton of money on banking fees and apps that I don't need anymore. Get a hundred dollars bonus when you sign up today@baselane.com BP did you know
- [13:11]
Podcast Announcer
your house gets bored when you leave? I can't actually prove that, but it probably misses out on the action.
- [13:17]
Dave Meyer
The footsteps, the late night fridge raids.
- [13:20]
Podcast Announcer
Yeah, when you're gone, your place is
- [13:22]
Dave Meyer
basically on unpaid leave.
- [13:24]
Podcast Announcer
It's sitting there in the dark thinking I could be contributing. Right now your side room wants a side hustle. Even your wifi is like we could be networking. You're on vacation, spending money like it's a sport, while your staircase at home is fully capable of sending your income upwards. Here's the twist. You can go on a trip and actually earn money. Airbnb makes that possible with the co host network. If you're away for a while or have a secondary property, you can hire
- [13:53]
Dave Meyer
a vetted local co host with real
- [13:55]
Podcast Announcer
hosting experience experience to handle it all.
- [13:58]
Dave Meyer
A co host can handle guest communications.
- [14:00]
Podcast Announcer
It can manage reservations and keep things running smoothly so you don't have to check your phone between beach days. That means less stress and more time enjoying your trip. You can relax knowing guests are taken care of and your place is in good hands. You travel, your house works, everyone wins.
- [14:17]
Dave Meyer
If you're ready to host but could
- [14:18]
Podcast Announcer
use some help, find a co host@airbnb.com host Most investors spend all their time talking about their high level returns, but that's not the number that actually matters. What actually matters is what you keep after taxes. And that's where multifamily real estate quietly stands out. With built in advantages like depreciation, the right deals can generate steady cash flow while reducing the tax drag. Bam. Capital structures its multifamily investments around those fundamentals, pairing tax efficiency with disciplined operators and a long term approach. This isn't about chasing hype or guessing market timing.
- [14:54]
Dave Meyer
It's about Building durable, tax aware wealth over time.
- [14:57]
Podcast Announcer
Learn more@biggerpockets.com Bam Most investors spend more time chasing deals than reviewing their insurance. But a quick coverage check can be fast, easy and one of the smartest ways to protect and even improve your property's cash flow. As the months get colder, frozen pipes, icy walkways and seasonal wear and tear can increase the likelihood of claims. And traditional insurance companies aren't always built to handle these claims quickly or smoothly. That's why more real estate investors are turning to steadily. They focus exclusively on landlords. Whether it's a single family rental, a BRRRR Builders risk policy, or midterm holiday guests, you get fast quotes, flexible coverage and protection for property damage, liability and even loss of rental income. Now is the perfect time to review your rates and coverage. Get a quote in minutes@biggerpockets.com landlordinsurance steadily landlord insurance Designed for the modern Investor Most investors spend more time chasing deals than reviewing their insurance. But a quick coverage check can be fast, easy and one of the smartest ways to protect and even improve your property's cash flow. As the months get colder, frozen pipes, icy walkways and seasonal wear and tear can increase the likelihood of claims. And traditional insurance companies aren't always built to handle these claims quickly or smoothly. That's why more real estate investors are turning to steadily. They focus exclusively on landlords. Whether it's a single family rental, a BRRR Builders risk policy, or midterm holiday guests, you get fast quotes, flexible coverage and protection for property damage, liability and even loss of rental income. Now is the perfect time to review your rates and coverage. Get a quote in minutes@biggerpockets.com landlordinsurance steadily landlord insurance designed for the modern investor
- [16:47]
Henry Washington
so I imagine this cost savings allowed you to start start saving a lot of this money that you were making. And so what was the next step? What was the next deal?
- [16:56]
Dave Meyer
I didn't buy my next deal until 2014. It took me four years to figure that out. And so that one I did house hack. I was like I gotta get out of this basement. So I wound up buying a three unit one block away from my my four unit. That was like a big appeal to me. I was self managing both of these and so I could walk from one property to the other. I love telling this story about finding this deal because I looked for quite a while to find deals and eventually I walked into this place. It was marketed as a 2 unit. It was supposed to be 13 bed and 14 bed, super nice units and at that price. I was like walking around this property,
- [17:40]
Podcast Announcer
I was like, okay, it's pretty good.
- [17:42]
Dave Meyer
And then I open this door and there's a staircase. And I walk up there and there's an amazing, recently built, renovated, permitted one bedroom apartment. And I'm like, no wonder no one else is looking at this deal because they're, they're just completely miss marketing it. And I wanted a house hack. And I was like, this one bedroom is like a perfect place for me. And so I just tell this story because people think on market deals you can't find, they're mislabeled, there's mismarketed, they're
- [18:12]
Podcast Announcer
mispriced all the time.
- [18:14]
Dave Meyer
This was sort of an extreme example of that. But that's how I found that deal. Wound up moving into that and house hacking there for over two years.
- [18:23]
Henry Washington
That's almost exactly how I found my first house hack.
- [18:27]
Dave Meyer
Seriously? I did not know that.
- [18:28]
Henry Washington
Absolutely. It was a mislabeled property.
- [18:31]
Dave Meyer
A hidden unit.
- [18:32]
Henry Washington
It wasn't hidden. It was there, but it was just listed as a single family home. And there was no mention of an adu. And this was before the bigger pockets house hacking craze. So like, no one called it house hacking yet, But I knew I wanted to live in a, in a duplex. But I was at work and this is when I worked at Walmart, and I overheard a guy in the restroom just saying, man, I just can't seem to get my house sold. People, they come and they see it and they just, they just don't want the extra unit. They just want a house.
- [19:06]
Dave Meyer
Like, pop your head over the stall and you're like, I'll buy it.
- [19:09]
Henry Washington
Look, I had some tact, okay? I waited outside of the bathroom door like, like a normal creeper. And as soon as he came out of the bathroom, I was like, hey, tell me about that house. And he told me all about it. He gave me his agent's phone number. I went to look at it. It was just listed as a single family home. She said the same thing. Nobody wants the second unit. And I was like, no, I want the second unit. And so I bought that house and that was my house hack.
- [19:32]
Dave Meyer
Oh, that's awesome. Wow, that's great. I love that we both had mislabeled. Honestly, it still happened.
- [19:38]
Henry Washington
It's still a thing.
- [19:38]
Dave Meyer
It's still happening. Absolutely happens. It's pretty rare for an entire unit to be missed, but opportunities for lock off to create, you know, to create another unit. People mislabel bedroom counts. People mislabel Square footage all the time. Like, absolutely. These things happen. So just throwing that out there that those things are possible.
- [19:59]
Henry Washington
Okay, so you bought this house hack. What'd you pay for it? How'd you finance it?
- [20:03]
Dave Meyer
So prices in Denver had gone up a lot in just those couple of years, I guess four years between buying deals. So I financed it with another partner. I actually was a minority partner in this as well because I didn't have enough capital to put in. So I. I split it with a partner and then paid, I think it was 7:20 for a 3 unit. This is again in a prime location in Denver though. Like, really good walking distance area.
- [20:31]
Henry Washington
I assume you mean walking distance to like libraries and research facilities at all the things you were very interested in. Yeah.
- [20:38]
Dave Meyer
Museums and cultural experiences. Experiences. No. There was a sandwich place called Snarfs down the road. I was very happy with it. There's a grocery store two blocks away, a dive bar with a couple of pool tables and darts. I was in heaven. It was. Honestly, I look back on it, I think the two years, like the most fun I've ever had was those two years house hacking in that house. I had a great time and it was a great deal. I still still own that place today. It's one of the best deals I've ever done, for sure.
- [21:05]
Henry Washington
So your second deal was a house hack. You were having the time of your life. When did bigger pockets come into the picture?
- [21:11]
Dave Meyer
Yeah, so that was 2014 when I bought that deal. And then like towards the end of 2014, 2015, the tech company that I had started, it was profitable, it was doing okay, but decided to wind it down. It was just not taking off in the way that I wanted to. Whole other topic. But basically I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do next. And I decided two things were really interesting to me. I really like data analytics. Shocking for everyone who listens to this podcast. I know. So I decided to go back to grad school and I wanted to stay in Denver, so I got into grad school there for data analytics. But then I was realizing that I just loved real estate. I really enjoyed doing it. I found that I was going to open houses even when I had no money to buy anything. I would just go and look at them. You know, I had a friend who is a real estate agent. I would just go look at deals. I was just having fun.
- [22:05]
Podcast Announcer
Fun.
- [22:06]
Dave Meyer
I really enjoyed it. And so I decided to see if the next job I could get was like both tech and real estate. That's what I was looking For. And I literally just Googled, like, tech companies, real estate, and went through a bunch of them and found this company called Bigger Pockets. I had never heard of it before. And I was like, this is really interesting. This is kind of what I've been doing. What are these words? Like house hack? There are forums where all of these people who are doing what I'm trying to do are talking to each other. I was amazed. And so I looked at it, and the office was one mile from where I was housed. It was just, like, complete luck. And I looked and reached out. There were no jobs for me. And so I waited. I think it was nine months from the first time I reached out, and they put up a job that I was qualified for.
- [22:57]
Podcast Announcer
And I applied.
- [22:58]
Dave Meyer
And thankfully, I got interviewed. I got interviewed first by Scott Trench, then by Josh Dworkin, then by Brandon Turner, then by all three of them together sitting on a couch, all three of them, and then me sitting on the other job. But luckily I got the job. And that is when I think I started seeing myself as a real estate investor. Like that, you know, joining biggerpocket sort of changed my whole trajectory from wanting to be in tech, which I still did. Like, I still like working at tech companies, but. But that's when I was like, oh, man, I should, like, grow a portfolio. Like, take this thing a little bit seriously, start setting goals, get a little bit more sophisticated about it. And that really sort of like, changed my trajectory as an investor forever.
- [23:40]
Henry Washington
So can you give us maybe some specifics about how Bigger Pockets helped you become maybe a more structured or a more intentional investor?
- [23:50]
Dave Meyer
I was still investing in Denver at that time. I started to see all the equity that I had saved up in these first two properties that I was really proud of. Like, I was like, oh, my God, I've got a couple hundred grand between these two deals. Even being, you know, a partial owner of these, like, that's my nest egg. That's my life savings. And I think the big, you know, honestly, the big thing was like, oh,
- [24:12]
Podcast Announcer
my God, I should have reinvested that
- [24:14]
Dave Meyer
years ago into different deals. I sort of, like, realized that I had been going much slower than I needed to. And then, you know, sort of having that realization, learning about doing refis effectively, you know, using equity for one deal to build into others. Like, from 2016 to 2020, it allowed me to just do, like, way more deals in Denver over the course of those couple of years.
- [24:36]
Henry Washington
Can you give us an example of how a deal you did now that you were a More experienced investor with a little more strategy was different than maybe one of those first two deals.
- [24:46]
Dave Meyer
So I'll just give you an example of the third deal I did, which is I realized that I could take money out of one of my first two deals. I think it was the second one I did a refi on and wound up doing my one, my one and only off market deal. I think I've told you this story, but I was just learning about off market deal finding. I was learning about buying in the path of progress. I was learning about how real estate investors research areas to buy. This is obviously like my thing. I, you know, I had just gotten a degree in data analytics. I'm good at this stuff. And I was like, I'm going to find the best block to buy in Denver and go out and find an off market deal. And that's exactly what I did. And I had never, I would have never done that years ago. You know, like I was just buying on market retail prices. Things were easier to buy back then. And then I was like, no, I'm going to like really get good at this and figure out exactly what corner, what pockets to buy and where I'm finding the deepest value and just like really getting good at the analytical side of things. And so that one deal I probably bought for 70, 80 grand below comps because I bought it off market. And I knew all these things were coming to the area and there was all this infrastructure spending. And so like I just started thinking about it in a really different way and was able to finance it without having to wait several more years to build up for my next deal.
- [26:11]
Henry Washington
What were some of the characteristics or things that you were looking for in the neighborhood to let you know that this is where you needed to buy?
- [26:18]
Dave Meyer
Denver at this time was just growing like crazy and the city was struggling to keep up with infrastructure, like cities, you know, roads, railroads. And so they announced this light rail. They were restoring the major train station in downtown and it would connect to the airport, which if you've ever been to Denver, airport is in the middle of. And so like you need, you needed a train to get there.
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Henry Washington
It's very.
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Dave Meyer
And so I was like, like I'm going to figure out where the stations are. And I actually went to city planning meetings myself to try and figure out they were coming up with different routes that they were thinking about doing. But there was like two neighborhoods that had common stations in them. Like either way that they did it, there was going to be a station in this neighborhood. Then they announced that they were going to tear down this whole street and build a park alongside it. And I was like, okay, this is the place I got to be. They're putting a ton of money in here. Denver people love to bike. They love to walk. So it's like a bike lane going in there. And I was like, I gotta. I gotta buy this. And literally the friend you were joking about before, my friend who is a great real estate agent, and I went and we literally like marked off on streets like where they were going to be doing eminent domain, which were the houses that were going to be closest to this park. And we figured it out and I called. I'm one for one on cold calling on. I called one guy a thousand on cold calling. And then I quit. I've never done it again. I did this once and I got this deal off market and then never did it again. I was. It was honestly one of my first days at Biggerpockets. I was like, I got to do. I was like so stoked about all this stuff I was reading. I remember like walking into the hallway and being scared, like Josh was going to be like, why are you not at your desk? And I just called this guy, he picked up. And I was like, how about. I think I bought it for like 4:30. I was like, how about 430? Here's like, okay. And I bought it. It was great house hack that too.
- [28:17]
Henry Washington
So you paid 430, you moved into it. What'd you rent the units for?
- [28:21]
Dave Meyer
So that actually became my primary residence. I still own it as a rental today, but that became a primary residence because I figured out that I could move out of the apartment I was living in, rent that out for about 1500 bucks, which is great. That was going to cover basically my mortgage on this new property. And also at that point, just life stuff. My wife and I, you know, now wife and I wanted to move in together. And I was like, really stoked about this house. She was less stoked about this house. But I was proud to have a place that I owned to. For us to move into.
- [28:56]
Henry Washington
And you still own the property today. Were you correct in terms of the park and the infrastructure that was coming?
- [29:03]
Podcast Announcer
Oh, crushed it.
- [29:04]
Dave Meyer
Yeah. You know, I bought it for 430.
- [29:06]
Podcast Announcer
I.
- [29:06]
Dave Meyer
It's probably worth 800 now.
- [29:08]
Henry Washington
Nice, nice.
- [29:10]
Dave Meyer
And I didn't even. I didn't even renovate it. That was not even a brrrr deal. I just, I bought that straight up from a flipper.
- [29:15]
Henry Washington
Before we move on to the rest of your journey, is there some sort of tips or strategy or resources you could give people who want to do similar market research to determine where the path of progress is or what may be coming.
- [29:28]
Dave Meyer
People always ask me this because you can get really analytical about it. But I honestly think the best thing to do once you've picked a market is go analog, go old school, go to. I think the best things that I still look at is every market I invest in. I subscribe to the local like business journal or if there's like an economic development area, see where businesses are moving and also just understand where you would want to live. Like people pay for walkability, people pay for convenience. They pay for access to jobs. Like these are the kinds of things that you can learn by talking to your tenants, talking to your agent, talking to local people. I honestly still think that is better than any analytical thing that you can do. That's how I learned about it is I was just like, hey, they announced they're building a train. I'm going to figure out where the train stops are going to be. Like it wasn't online. I had to literally go and look at the renderings that they were building and I like wrote down the addresses in the cross streets and then just figured it out from there.
- [30:29]
Podcast Announcer
Did you know your house gets bored when you leave? I can't actually prove that, but it probably misses out on the action.
- [30:36]
Dave Meyer
The footsteps, the late night fridge raids.
- [30:38]
Podcast Announcer
Yeah, when you're gone, your place is
- [30:41]
Dave Meyer
basically on unpaid leave.
- [30:43]
Podcast Announcer
It's sitting there in the dark thinking I could be contributing. Right now your side room wants a side hustle. Even your wifi is like, we could be networking. You're on vacation, spending money like it's a sport, while your staircase at home is fully capable of sending your income upwards. Here's the twist. You can go on a trip and actually earn money. Airbnb makes that possible with the co host network. If you're away for a while or have a secondary property, you can hire
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Dave Meyer
a vetted local co host with real
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Podcast Announcer
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Dave Meyer
A co host can handle guest communications,
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Podcast Announcer
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- [31:35]
Dave Meyer
If you're ready to host but could
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Podcast Announcer
use some help, find a co host@airbnb.com
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Dave Meyer
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Podcast Announcer
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- [33:56]
Henry Washington
All right, I think the story's been super interesting and I'm learning a lot about you that I didn't know. So I hope our audience is also learning a lot about you that they didn't know. But one thing I do know about you is that you just up and moved to Europe out of the blue is what it seemed like to me. And so when did that happen, why did it happen? And how did it change or shape you as a an investor?
- [34:19]
Dave Meyer
Yeah, so it happened in in 2020 and I'll say that when in 2016, when I started getting serious about investing and when my wife and I moved in together, we actually made a goal. You know, we had some financial goals, but one of our goals was to move abroad. It was always my dream. I love to travel. It's probably my greatest passion. Even more than sandwiches, it is my greatest passion. And so I really wanted to do that. And I had no idea how it was going to happen. And then in 2019, my wife's job, they were like, you're getting transferred to Amsterdam. And we were kind of like, cool, this is it, this is. We've been waiting for a chance to do this. And it fell into our lap and I was pretty nervous. But Scott Trench, who's the CEO at BiggerPockets at the time, let me go and it was cool. But you know, I had to, you know, I was self managing at least 10 units at that point. And so I really had to figure out how to become a more sophisticated investor. At first I sort did a hybrid strategy where I had a friend who was kind of a maintenance guy who would pick up the phone if there were emergencies, but I was still doing the leasing. And then over time I just started to realize that I should just hire a full time property manager. And then I sort of had this realization then I was like, now the whole country is open to me. All kinds of investing are open to me. It was sort of forced into this way of thinking, you know, I can't be hands on no matter what. There's no way from Amsterdam. It was an 18 hours door to door flight back to Denver. You know, like, how was I going to do this? And I just started really learning about everything else. I was like learning about commercial real estate, syndications, passive investing opportunities like private money funds. And I also started thinking, I'll start to invest in other markets.
- [36:13]
Henry Washington
Yeah.
- [36:13]
Dave Meyer
Now because of COVID I actually wound up not buying any active deals for like three years, I think until 2023. But I actually think the experience made me a much better investor. I just learned all of these different skills that I did not have when I left Denver. And that's really opened me up to having a much more diversified and I think sophisticated portfolio. Now, even though I'm back in the
- [36:39]
Henry Washington
United States, I think out of state investors have a strategic advantage over backyard investors. You know, and I'm a backyard investor. And, and what I mean by that is out of state investors are forced to build an automated business that operates without them. Like they don't have the luxury of being in the backyard. And so they have to build systems, they have to have tools, they have to have people to do things for them in order for their business to function. And I think that gives them an advantage because at some point all of us decide, hey, maybe I don't want to be as hands on. And most of us like myself who invest in our backyard, I now have to go build those things that somebody who invests out of state just inherently structured their business to be able to operate. And so I totally can see how that would just make you an all around better investor.
- [37:27]
Dave Meyer
There's trade offs, there's like total pros and cons. But given where I am in my investing career, I've been doing this now 16 years and I've fortunately, you know, built up a lot of equity and I'm like transitioning from what like Chad Carson would call from the growth stage to the harvesting stage. And I am grateful for those skills now, now that I'm in this sort of era where I don't need to buy a lot of deals, I can buy deals, but I'm more thinking about sort of an end game and how to reduce risk and build just a rock solid portfolio that is highly automated. The skills I learned when I moved to Europe and was forced to offload a lot of this stuff are coming in handy right now. I'll say that, that with that being
- [38:13]
Henry Washington
said, what does investing now look like for you and what is the plan, the end game as you say.
- [38:19]
Dave Meyer
So I basically my, my overall portfolio, I think of it in three in thirds, so one third. Gasp for people who are hearing this. But I invest in the stock market, so I do actually diversify. Unlike a lot of real estate creators, I put about a third of my net worth into the stock market. I have about one third of my wealth into what I would call up actively manage properties. I'm not self managing, but they're things I own directly, they're not like funds or syndications. And then I have about a third in funds and syndications, which is split between multifamily syndications. And I actually have put quite a lot of my net worth into lending funds recently. Private, private credit. It's a great way to make cash if anyone is interested. So that's what it looks like right now. And I've started, you know, buying actively again since I've been back in the United States, in the Midwest. And I think I've told you this, but my goal in the short term is to keep buying those deals. But getting better at value add investing. It's been a weakness of mine for 15 years. You know, I did do burrs in Denver while I was living there, but never structural like I was.
- [39:30]
Podcast Announcer
I've.
- [39:30]
Dave Meyer
I've added units, I've added some bedrooms, I've done some lock offs, that kind of stuff, but never the kind of stuff you do or what James does. And I don't really want to get there, but I just want to get better at construction. I think that, you know, in 16 years, I think I've learned that that is the one way to make money in real estate. That doesn't really change with market conditions. You can always make money if you're a good value add investor.
- [39:54]
Henry Washington
That's very true.
- [39:55]
Dave Meyer
And I want to get good at that. And so that's why I've been a part of three flips. I've kind of done two in the last year. Not because I want to be a flipper. That is not really my goal. But it has taught me so much about construction and I want to do it. To just be able to take on bigger burr projects is kind of what I'm moving towards. But I'm still doing. I really like passive investing, so I'm going to keep doing that as well.
- [40:17]
Henry Washington
All right, Dave, I was thinking about letting you off the hook, but I think I changed my mind. I got a couple of good ones for you.
- [40:24]
Dave Meyer
Okay, well, I don't even know what you're talking about.
- [40:26]
Henry Washington
Let's go. All right, first one, we'll start off easy. What's something that people may be surprised to learn about how you actually like to spend your free time?
- [40:38]
Dave Meyer
Okay, I guess. I don't know if this is surprising or not, but I am a exercise freak. I'm like one of those people who has to go to the gym or do something active every day or I actually go crazy and lose my mind. So I definitely do that every single day.
- [40:54]
Henry Washington
Okay, makes sense because you said you needed a gym when you came to visit.
- [40:58]
Dave Meyer
I mean, I sit in front of a computer all day, so if I don't, you know, the rest of my day, usually they're doing real estate stuff or working for bigger pockets. So if I'm. If I don't do something physically active, I become a psychopath.
- [41:09]
Henry Washington
Next question. Are you one of those morning routine guys? Like, do you have a morning routine every morning that you follow, don't you
- [41:17]
Dave Meyer
can't function lutely not. I actually made a whole reel making fun of this tread because I think it's so silly. People are like, oh, if you, if you don't get up at 5 in the morning, like you can't be successful. Like, honestly I do wake up early. I wake up at like 5:30. Not because I want to. If I could sleep till 9am I would. I just naturally wake up that early. No, I'm not one of those people who is like super regimented in like the time I do stuff. Like I work a lot, but I am pretty loosey goosey on when I, when I do do different things. Are you, do you have a morning routine?
- [41:53]
Henry Washington
No, no, I, my day is different every day. I don't.
- [41:58]
Podcast Announcer
Yeah.
- [41:58]
Henry Washington
The only morning routine thing I have is I take my daughter to school every morning.
- [42:02]
Dave Meyer
That's like a nice one.
- [42:03]
Podcast Announcer
It's not.
- [42:03]
Dave Meyer
I wake up every morning and do an ice bath. Then I do 15 minutes of journaling about why I'm the best guy in
- [42:11]
Henry Washington
the world about why ice baths are awesome.
- [42:16]
Dave Meyer
Then I eat 150 grams of protein and nothing else. Not a single carb since 2022.
- [42:23]
Henry Washington
Did I intermittent fast until 6pm and eat two crackers.
- [42:28]
Dave Meyer
No, I actually like to enjoy my life. Like that's part of why I invest in real estate is to not have to live some completely stoic lifestyle. So no, not me.
- [42:37]
Henry Washington
All right, now we're gonna get a little spicy. Tell us your wildest tenant story as a landlord.
- [42:45]
Dave Meyer
Oh, oh, I have a. I actually have a fun one. So I was house hacking. I told you guys in this three unit had a really good relationship with these people living downstairs who lived there for four or five years in the main unit. We got along really well. And then when they moved out they just straight up like didn't clean the apartment. And so I paid a professional cleaner to go in and clean it out. And they got like really mad about it that I deducted it from their deposit. And it's truly one of the two or three times I've like ever gotten a disagreement with a tenant. I was like personally upset with this. Like we hung out, we were like friendly with each other.
- [43:20]
Henry Washington
Yeah.
- [43:20]
Dave Meyer
And we had this like blow up fight. And I was like really upset about it for like a while and I sort of like forgot about it. And then I was living in Amsterdam and Jane and I had a party. We invited over a bunch of our friends, some of them are American. And my buddy Joe was like, I'm gonna bring some friends of mine, like, can they come? And I was like, yeah, of course. And in walks my tenant in Amsterdam. Across the world. This Was eight years later, across the world, walks in, and she was like, hey, Joe told me you were gonna be here, and I just wanted to apologize. I was really immature about that. Can we be friends? I was like, yeah, we could be friends. And we, like, hung out. We had this, like, cocktail party. We stayed up and drank and reminisced, and we're now friendly again. So again, full circle. Hilarious.
- [44:11]
Henry Washington
Your life seems to be just a smattering of randomly unusual circumstances. That's. Yes, hilarious.
- [44:18]
Dave Meyer
I have plenty of awful situations, but I, like. I'm gonna now answer that with a positive story, because that was a good one.
- [44:25]
Henry Washington
All right. Have you ever been recognized for being on the show in some sort of weird or unusual place or doing something you wish somebody liked recognized you?
- [44:35]
Dave Meyer
Yes. A lot more and more recently, I think I got to tell the one you were there for, which was so funny. So before BP cod, Henry, myself, Henry's wife Jessica, and a friend of mine, Andrew, were going out. Henry suggested the steakhouse. We booked it on open table, right? Like, no special connections. Just, like, went out on open table. We get there, and they seat us at a table for four, and it's this. This beautiful table looking out over the strip. It was a nice place. It was a nice restaurant.
- [45:05]
Henry Washington
It was really great view.
- [45:06]
Dave Meyer
It was great view. And so we're sitting down, and the host or server says to us, you know, you guys must be pretty important to be able to get this table. And completely, jokingly, like, not. I was just joking around. I was like, what? You don't know who I am? And he goes, actually, I do know who you are. You're the host. And I was like, well, now I look like such an.
- [45:31]
Henry Washington
Like, you look like a giant douchebag.
- [45:34]
Dave Meyer
Look like a huge. I just. I'm not used to actually getting recognized. But it was so funny in the moment.
- [45:42]
Henry Washington
Hilarious. It caught us all off guard because it was. It was clearly the best table in the house. And he. He brought it up on his own. He was like, oh, you guys must be special. And Dave was like, don't you know who I am? Yeah. Yeah, bro. I do. You're not that cool.
- [45:57]
Dave Meyer
You're a giant jerk.
- [46:01]
Henry Washington
Oh, classic story.
- [46:04]
Dave Meyer
Still embarrassed thinking about that, but, yes, that happened.
- [46:07]
Henry Washington
All right. Have you ever been around or seen somebody that you were starstruck by? Oh.
- [46:12]
Dave Meyer
Oh, my God, yes. Okay. I grew up in the. In the suburbs of New York and had an internship when I was in high school. I was like, you know, filing cabinets, and I'm going to New York City for it. And I got in the elevator one time by myself, and in walks Liv Tyler. And I'm like, you know, this is. This is probably. I would have 2001 or two. You know, this is. She was just in Lord of the Rings, Armageddon Stage, you know, Can I tell you?
- [46:44]
Henry Washington
Armageddon secretly one of my favorite movies.
- [46:47]
Dave Meyer
It's everyone's favorite movie. It's the best movie. I've seen it at least 25 times. It's so good. So I'm like. I guess I was probably, like, 15 or 16 years old. And she walks in. She's very tall. She's taller than I am, and she just, like, comes in and is, like, super nice to me. She's like, hey, how's it going? And I did not say a single word the entire time. We went for, like, the 40th floor to the first floor, probably a full minute. I just stared at her, probably drooling out of my mouth, and then she was just like, okay, bye. I haven't thought about that in so long.
- [47:30]
Henry Washington
But, yes, first of all, you nailed it. Congratulations.
- [47:35]
Dave Meyer
Yeah, I really nailed my chance with Liv Tyler, too, because I'm sure it's significant. 16. I had a chance or now ever had a chance with Liv Tyler, but hilarious. That was pretty cool.
- [47:47]
Henry Washington
All right, well, that's hilarious and a great way to end the show. Thank you for sharing your story with us, your investor story, but also thank you for getting a little vulnerable with us both in the story and then answering these random questions at the end. It's been a good time, and I think the audience enjoys learning about our journeys. But also, you've got a lot of lessons, lessons in your journey, and I appreciate working beside you, and I love how you treat investing, and I hope other people learn from this and can treat investing very similarly.
- [48:16]
Dave Meyer
Well, thank you. I hope what people have learned is, although I talk a lot about math and people think I'm smart, I'm just a normal idiot. And if I can do this, any of you can do it as well.
- [48:25]
Henry Washington
That should be the takeaway. If Dave can do this, anyone else can do this, too. All right, folks, thank you so much for listening to this episode of the BiggerPockets podcast. We look forward to seeing you on the next episode.
- [48:39]
Dave Meyer
Thank you all for listening to the
- [48:40]
Podcast Announcer
Biggerpockets Real Estate podcast. Make sure you get all our new episodes by subscribing on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Our new episodes come out Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I'm the host and executive producer of the show, Dave Meyer. The show is produced by Ian K, copywriting is by Calico, content and editing is by Exodus Media.
- [48:59]
Dave Meyer
If you'd like to learn more about
- [49:01]
Podcast Announcer
real estate investing or to sign up for our free newsletter, please visit www.biggerpockets.com. the content of this podcast is for informational purposes only. All host and participant opinions are their own. Investment in any asset, real estate included, involves risk, so use your best judgment and consult with qualified advisors before investing. You should only risk capital you can afford to lose, and remember past performance is not indicative of future results. Biggerpockets LLC disclaims all liability for direct, indirect, consequential, or other damages arising from a reliance on information presented in this podcast.