Paycheck to Paycheck in His 40s, Millionaire in His 50s with “Boring” Rentals

Summary

Podcast Summary: Paycheck to Paycheck in His 40s, Millionaire in His 50s with “Boring” Rentals

BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast
Host: Henry Washington
Guest: Neil Whitney
Release Date: January 26, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode features the inspiring story of Neil Whitney, who started real estate investing at 47 while living paycheck to paycheck. Within a decade, Neil achieved financial freedom and built a multimillion-dollar rental portfolio using what he calls “boring” and traditional real estate strategies—no overnight successes, just consistent, fundamental investing. The conversation focuses on his journey from financial fear to financial abundance, lessons learned, systems used, and encouragement for those who think it's “too late” to start building wealth through real estate.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Inspiration from Crisis and the Power of Decision

• Neil’s “aha” moment came after a frightening Lifetime movie made him realize how financially vulnerable he and his wife were ([00:26]).
• Read “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” at his boss’s recommendation; this book catalyzed his desire to pursue real estate ([01:26]).
• Determined to invest but was told by his wife not to dip into their savings ([01:50]).

Quote:

“I’m one car accident away from being that guy.”
— Neil Whitney ([01:33])

2. The Hustle to Save the First Down Payment

• Took up driving Uber every available weekend for 18 months to save up for his first rental property ([03:54]–[05:19]).
• Saved $14,000 for a down payment and additional closing costs, totaling about $16,000–$17,000 ([06:12]).

Quote:

“Every free moment that I had, I devoted to Uber to get that first down payment.”
— Neil Whitney ([05:19])

3. The First Property: Proof of Concept

• Purchased a $70,000 single-family home in Pearl River, Louisiana; used a conventional 20% down loan ([06:12]).
• Home was rent-ready; rented for about $750–$800/month, cash-flowing $125 ([07:00]).

4. Scaling Up: Leveraging Home Equity

• Used a HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) from his residence to buy a fourplex for $312,000 ([11:37]).
• Fourplex initially rented at $650/unit; gradually renovated as units turned over, increasing rents to $1,000/unit ([13:23], [14:03]).
• Paid down the line of credit with cash flow thanks to strong returns.

Quote:

“As people vacated, we would remodel and raise the rents... went from $600 to $1,000 a month rent.”
— Neil Whitney ([13:51])

5. The “Boring” Real Estate Path

• All acquisitions done via conventional loans, buying on-market (MLS) properties, focusing on cash flow and fundamentals ([16:17]).
• Built a portfolio of 23 doors: 2 fourplexes, 6 duplexes, and 3 single-family homes, producing about $8,000/month in cash flow ([16:13]).
• Most properties required 20–30% down as the portfolio scaled ([20:15]).

Quotes:

“Old boring real estate still works.”
— Henry Washington ([14:34])
“If I can do this, anybody can do this... No one's gonna out hustle me.”
— Neil Whitney ([19:09])

6. Money Management & Scaling Systematically

• Treated real estate as a “game”—e.g., bought a duplex to pay for a Jeep, not the other way around ([14:48]).
• Segregated property cash flow in dedicated accounts to avoid lifestyle creep and fund major repairs ([17:36]).
• Focused on saving for large capital expenditures, like a new roof, before extracting profits ([17:48]).

Quote:

“The fundamentals will keep you afloat... will build wealth for you over time.”
— Henry Washington ([18:19])

7. Risk Management, Leverage, and Generational Wealth

• Reframed risk: used leverage conservatively, prioritized cash-flowing, tangible assets over stocks/bonds ([20:15]).
• Now shifting from acquisition to paying off properties, aiming for $20,000–$25,000/month in unleveraged rental income ([21:59]).
• Instilling real estate principles in his children; son is preparing to house hack his own duplex ([19:09]).

Quote:

“You can leverage in a good way... This is good leverage.”
— Neil Whitney ([20:55])

8. Self-Management and Tenant Relations

• Neil and his wife still self-manage all 23 units while both work full time ([27:24]).
• Emphasizes diligent tenant screening and treating tenants exceptionally well; only two evictions in 9–10 years ([26:11]).
• Tenant longevity high; many tenants left only to buy their own homes ([27:17]).

Memorable Exchange:

“We're still cutting the grass.”
— Neil Whitney ([28:07])
“Your son is.”
— Henry Washington ([28:11])
“That's right.”
— Neil Whitney ([28:12])

Quotes:

“We treat our tenants like the best customers on the planet.” ([29:50])
“If you treat your customers with quality customer service... you’ll be surprised at how much better your life becomes as a landlord.”
— Henry Washington ([32:35])

9. Mindset, Motivation, and Advice for Late Starters

• Key message: Age, lack of savings, and naysayers are not valid excuses; decision and intentionality are essential ([34:08], [35:04]).
• Strongly dislikes the word “try,” prefers decisive action ([35:21]).

Quotes:

“If you don’t like where you are today, go look in the mirror. You're there because of the choices that you make.”
— Neil Whitney ([34:08])
“Try in my vocabulary makes me want to throw up.”
— Neil Whitney ([35:21])

10. Looking Ahead: Helping Family and Enjoying Life

• Focus now is on helping his kids buy their first properties; plans to match their down payments ([38:01]).
• Personal “why”: travel with his wife, enjoy new experiences, and spend more time together ([38:40]).
• Grateful for their journey; excited for their future legacy.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [01:33] Neil Whitney: “I’m one car accident away from being that guy.”
• [05:19] Neil Whitney: “Every free moment that I had, I devoted to Uber to get that first down payment.”
• [14:34] Henry Washington: “Old boring real estate still works.”
• [16:13] Neil Whitney: “23 doors in total. Cash flow is right about $8,000 a month.”
• [19:09] Neil Whitney: “If I can do this, anybody can do this, right? I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed. No one's gonna out hustle me.”
• [20:55] Neil Whitney: “You can leverage in a good way... This is good leverage.”
• [28:07] Neil Whitney: “We're still cutting the grass.” / [28:11] Henry Washington: “Oh, your son is.” / [28:12] Neil Whitney: “My son is. That's right.”
• [29:50] Neil Whitney: “We treat our tenants like the best customers on the planet, right?”
• [32:35] Henry Washington: “If you treat your customers with quality customer service... you'll be surprised at how much better your life becomes as a landlord.”
• [34:08] Neil Whitney: “If you don’t like where you are today, go look in the mirror. You're there because of the choices that you make.”
• [35:21] Neil Whitney: “Try in my vocabulary makes me want to throw up.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:26–03:35: Neil’s “aha” moment, introduction to real estate, the “Lifetime movie”
• 03:54–06:12: The Uber side hustle and first property purchase
• 11:37–14:03: Using HELOC to scale, fourplex acquisition/renovation, rent increases
• 16:13–17:48: Portfolio overview, money management best practices
• 20:15–22:01: Leverage, risk management, shifting from acquiring to paying down
• 26:11–29:00: Tenant screening, management, self-managing 23 units while working full time
• 34:08–36:18: Mindset, advice to those starting late
• 38:01–40:20: Helping kids, planning for travel, reflections on achievement

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Core Takeaways

• Age is no barrier: Neil started at 47 and amassed a multimillion-dollar portfolio within a decade.
• Consistent fundamentals work: No trendy tactics or “get rich quick”—just steady, boring real estate.
• Focus on the basics: Save diligently, buy cash-flowing rentals, treat tenants well, manage risk, track your numbers.
• Your “why” matters: For Neil, legacy and family experiences are at the center of his journey.
• Action over excuses: Decide, persist, and stay the course; there’s power in fundamental decisions.

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Final Thought

Neil’s journey is a real-world demonstration that financial transformation is possible at any age, with the right mindset, diligence, and commitment to fundamental investing strategies. As Neil says:

“If I can do this, anybody can do this.” ([19:09])

Transcript

[Henry Washington]

At age 47, Neil Whitney and his wife were living paycheck to paycheck, and they were one bad day away from losing everything, which he found out after watching a Lifetime movie. Now, less than a decade later, he's financially free. With $8,000 a month of passive income from his rental properties, Neil started investing with no money. He drove Uber for a year and a half just to save up the down payment. And he promised his wife he'd never touch their bank account. Through acquiring boring rental properties, Neil is now a millionaire in his 50s with generational wealth for his children. Once his rentals are paid off, his rental portfolio will make him over $20,000 a month. In his own words, if I can do this, you can do this too. So if you're in your 40s, 50s, or 60s, and thinking it's too late for you to turn your life around and get financial freedom from real estate, Neal is here to prove you wrong. What's up, everybody? I am Henry Washington, co host of the BiggerPockets podcast. Today we've got an investor story with Neil Whitney from Big Picayune, Mississippi. In less than 10 years, Neil went from living paycheck to paycheck to sitting on the beach and watching passive income roll into his bank account. Literally, he did this. So let's hear about it. Neil, welcome to the show.

[Neil Whitney]

Thank you. Appreciate it. And super excited to be here.

[Henry Washington]

Yeah, man, we're glad you're here. And you've got a pretty interesting story, so I'm excited to dive into it a little bit here. So why don't you start at the beginning? Tell us about your background and what. What got you interested in this real estate gig?

[Neil Whitney]

So real estate kind of came as an accident. Funny how it all started. I was at home on a crappy, rainy weekend. My wife was bugging me to come watch a movie in the back. She's like, hey, will you come watch this movie with me? And I'm like, yeah, I guess so. You know, wasn't super excited about it. And so we went in the back and watched one of these Lifetime movies that, you know, this guy, he's driving home from work, and he gets creamed by a dump truck and got really, really messed up. And, you know, he ended up. He lost his. They ended up losing their house. So him and his wife and the kids, they're all living in this minivan underneath the bridge. And finally, the church comes in and helps them out and, you know, gets them kind of sort of back on their feet. And she's like, wasn't that movie great? And I'm like, are you kidding me? That movie just scared the crap out of me. And she's like, well, what do you mean? I'm like, I'm one car accident away from being that guy, right? So I don't. I didn't know what to do. And I'm a big believer in Law of attraction. That Monday, I go into work and my boss walks in and he hands me Rich Dad, Poor dad, and he says, you should read this book, Swear to you, right? And so I read Rich Dad, Poor dad, and the light bulb came on. I was like, okay, so I need to figure out how to get into real estate. But, you know, we were living paycheck to paycheck. We didn't, you know, we had no money. And so I told my wife, I says, hey, we need to get into this whole real estate thing. And she's like, there's no way. I says, I'm gonna figure out a way. She says, okay, I'm gonna support you on one condition. I says, all right, what is that? She says, you can't touch our bank account. All right, fair enough. Okay, we'll figure that out, right? And so we went down to a Broadway show, and we were watching a Broadway show, and we ended up taking an Uber. And I started talking to the Uber driver and the light bulb came on again. I said, oh, okay, so wait a minute, I can start Ubering, make a little side hustle money and then use that to get my first property. And so I signed up for Uber, started driving Uber. I hustled every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, every day off that I could.

[Henry Washington]

Before you get too far in, there's so much good stuff here. A. It's very similar, very similar to, like, how I got started. I had an epiphany in the middle of the night and then woke up and was like, I gotta figure this out. Went to meet somebody who I knew was a commercial broker, and she basically handed me a box of books and Rich Dad, Poor dad was in the box. And that's the one I picked randomly. So very, very similar. Changed my life, obviously, but I think there's some things I want to make sure that people understand. Roger, you had a full time gig, saw a Lifetime movie that scared the pants off of you. You're like, I need to be more financially secure. Told your wife you're going to do real estate. She said, great, you can't touch our money. So you said, I need to make some money in order to help me be able to afford the down payment for the first property. So the first question I want to ask is, how old were you at this time?

[Neil Whitney]

Oh, I was late 40s, 47.

[Henry Washington]

You were 47 and decided, let's do this real estate thing, Roger.

[Neil Whitney]

Yeah.

[Henry Washington]

And. And then decided, let me pick up a side hustle driving Uber.

[Neil Whitney]

Yep.

[Henry Washington]

So how many hours did you drive a week and how much money were you trying to save up?

[Neil Whitney]

I didn't know how much money I was going to need at the time. Right. This was all new to me. I started listening to Bigger Pockets. I had found Bigger Pockets at the time.

[Henry Washington]

What year was this?

[Neil Whitney]

2017.

[Henry Washington]

Okay.

[Neil Whitney]

I started listening to Bigger Pockets and hearing, you know, how everyone was, was getting involved with real estate and just picking up little tidbits here and there on random podcasts. I would drive Friday night until I got tired on Saturday. There near my house where I lived in, in Slide, Louisiana, there's a swamp tour that comes in every day at 11 o'. Clock. And if I go meet that swamp tour as they come in, there's bound to be somebody that needs a ride back into the city.

[Henry Washington]

Yeah.

[Neil Whitney]

Right. So that's about a 40 minute ride. And I figured I'd make a quick 50, $75 on, on a ride into the city. And like clockwork, at 11 o' clock, that tour would come in, I'd get a ride and I'd go back into the city and then I drive till I got tired again. And then some days I would get up at like three in the morning and I would go sit down in the French Quarter at the hotels and I would be picking up airport runs. Everyone's going to the airport to leave on mornings and running back and forth between the airport and the city. Airport in the city. Airport in the city. So that was my thing. Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I did that pretty much every weekend. Every free moment that I had, I devoted to Uber to get that first down payment, I think about 18 months in. Right. I had saved enough for my first house and I found a cheap little house in Pearl River, Louisiana for 70,000.

[Henry Washington]

Okay.

[Neil Whitney]

And I had 14,000 to put down plus a little closing money. So it was roughly about 16, 17,000 I think I had to come up with.

[Henry Washington]

Okay.

[Neil Whitney]

And we bought our first property.

[Henry Washington]

So you bought a single family home? First property, $70,000.

[Neil Whitney]

Yeah. A little 900 square foot, two bedroom house.

[Henry Washington]

Did it need work?

[Neil Whitney]

It really didn't. It was, it was super, super nice. The, the lady that I bought it from had really done everything already. To it. So she put in all new tile floors and crown molding, had it painted. It was super cute. I mean, like I said, super small, but super cute. And it was an easy rant. Right. So we rented it out, and I think we made, I don't know, maybe $125 a month on it, you know, but we thought, this is great, right?

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Yeah.

[Neil Whitney]

We got an extra hundred dollars a month.

[Henry Washington]

You paid 70. You didn't have to put any money into it. And you rented it out for how much?

[Neil Whitney]

I want to say, at that time, it was probably about 7,5800amonth. Right around the 1%.

[Henry Washington]

I assume you used a conventional loan.

[Neil Whitney]

We use conventional. Everything I've ever bought has been conventional.

[Henry Washington]

Conventional owned, 20% down.

[Neil Whitney]

Yeah.

[Henry Washington]

And how did it perform? Did it stay rented?

[Neil Whitney]

It did, yeah. Still want it to this day. Haven't sold anything. I love it.

[Henry Washington]

I love it. Well, it sounds simple when you hear your story, but it really isn't that complicated. You needed to find a deal that worked. You did live in a market where you could find deals that work in your market. That's something that works in your favor. Not everybody's in that position. I understand that, but you put in the work, you put in extra hours to generate income, to get yourself to a point where you are financially ready and able to purchase a property.

[Neil Whitney]

Yeah, because bear in mind, we were paycheck to paycheck. Like, we didn't have extra money whatsoever. And so that's why she's like, you can't touch the bank account. And so by. By taking that Uber Hustle money and putting that aside, and any little side job or whatever I would do, I'm in the H VAC business, right? So any little side thing I would find, I would take that money, I would buy the, pigeonhole all that money away. And eventually we got to a point that we could buy one.

[Henry Washington]

Well, Neil, I am thoroughly impressed with the story thus far, and I definitely want to jump into what you did from here and how you bought that next property. But first, we got to take a quick break.

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[Henry Washington]

Welcome back to the BiggerPockets podcast. I'm here with Neil Whitney, and we're diving into his second real estate deal.

[Neil Whitney]

The second deal was kind of crazy. It was. I found out about equity, right? And I had built a lot of equity and my home I was living in. And we took a HELOC out on the house to purchase our next property, which I found a fourplex that was available. And, you know, I had the equity in the house, so I pulled it out, I bought that fourplex, and so we did touch the money there. However, the fourplex was such a good deal for us that, you know, we were seeing significant cash flow, like over a thousand a month on. And so we were able to pay back that HELOC really, really quickly.

[Henry Washington]

Let's talk about that for a second, because I think a lot of people have thought about this as a plan or a strategy, but since you executed it, let's kind of dive into what that looked like. So you took out a heloc, and for those listening, that's a home equity line of credit. So you tapped into the equity in your personal home, and when you do that, the bank gives you access to your available equity somewhere to the tune of between 75 and 80% of the equity they'll give you access to. And you said you found a fourplex. Is this another one that was listed on the market?

[Neil Whitney]

Yeah, on MLS.

[Henry Washington]

What was the purchase price?

[Neil Whitney]

A 312.

[Henry Washington]

So purchase price, 312,000. You purchased it on a conventional loan, which means you had to put 25% down, as you said. So that's about $78,000. Is that the money that you pulled from the line of credit?

[Neil Whitney]

Yes.

[Henry Washington]

I assume you had closing costs and some other things, and so the line of credit was used for the closing costs. How did you. Did the property need work?

[Neil Whitney]

No.

[Henry Washington]

So these were turnkey?

[Neil Whitney]

Yeah. So we did do eventually some work on them as people vacated. Right. We would. We would remodel and then raise the rents, but as they sat, they were all fully granted.

[Henry Washington]

What were the rents when you bought them?

[Neil Whitney]

650.

[Henry Washington]

I want to say 650 a unit. So it was bringing in about two, six hundred dollars as it sat. And so you just kept it rented? Yeah, and then did renovations as tenants moved out.

[Neil Whitney]

Yeah, as the tenants moved out, we went ahead and. And basically, you know, it just went from crappy countertops. Pull those out. We did. On two of them. We had to pull the entire cabinets out because they were just complete garbage.

[Henry Washington]

Yep.

[Neil Whitney]

And we put new cabinet cabinetry in, new toilets, new new. New bathroom vanities, you know, but then we went from, you know, $600 a month rent to a thousand dollars a month rent.

[Henry Washington]

Awesome. So is that what everything's rented for now? A thousand per unit? Yeah, $4,000 a month on this quadplex that you bought on the market using a conventional loan. I like to call this old boring real estate.

[Neil Whitney]

I'm boring as it gets.

[Henry Washington]

It's just old boring, tried and true real estate. Find a deal that makes sense, Buy it on a conventional loan if you don't have the money. Save it up till you get it. Fix it up as you go. Rent it out. This is. This is old boring real estate works.

[Neil Whitney]

It works awesome.

[Henry Washington]

I think everybody's kind of, you know, people are always looking for what's the next fad, next big thing, you know, creative finance, rent by the room, Airbnb midterm rentals. But old boring real estate still works.

[Neil Whitney]

Guys, my wife and I started making a game, right? Again, let's go back to rich dad, poor dad, right? An asset versus a liability. And my wife, you know, we started making a little bit of money, and she's like, okay, so I want a Jeep. I says, well, okay, we're not going to just go out and buy a Jeep. We've got to go out and buy a duplex to pay for that Jeep. And so that's what we did. We went out and we bought a duplex. And that duplex pays for our Jeep. And that Jeep long been paid for, but the duplex doesn't stop paying us, right? It just keeps coming. And God forbid she wants another Jeep or whatever. Well, you know how it works, right? And so we've. We've played this little game, and, you know, we were in Mexico. I don't.

[Henry Washington]

Jesus.

[Neil Whitney]

This must have been eight, nine years ago when she real. It really clicked. First we're sitting on the beach, and her phone's going bling, bling, bling. She's getting all these text messages, and I'm like, who the hell keeps texting you all these texts? She's like, I Don't know. And she drives her phone and she looks at me and she says, I get the real estate thing now. We're getting deposits in the bank while we're laying on the beach in Mexico. And that was her aha moment. Right. That's when she figured it out like this works, you know, and at that point we had accumulated a few properties. So, you know, currently we're, we're up to. We have two fourplexes, six duplexes and three single family houses. 23 doors in total. Cash flow is right about $8,000 a month.

[Henry Washington]

That's amazing. And you found all of these on market list of properties?

[Neil Whitney]

Every single one.

[Henry Washington]

And when's the last time you bought a Property?

[Neil Whitney]

I bought four duplexes at once. October of 23.

[Henry Washington]

I think that's where a lot of people kind of get stuck is after that second or third deal. People try to figure out, all right, well how do I scale this thing?

[Neil Whitney]

One at a time?

[Henry Washington]

Absolutely. One at a time.

[Neil Whitney]

One at a time.

[Henry Washington]

Save up enough money. That's right. And what I like about the strategy that you said that you've talked about, it seems like you've done the right thing by the income that you have coming in. Because I feel like people start, they buy rental property, it starts to cash flow and then the cash flow just kind of disappears because it gets mixed in with all of the other lifestyle creep expenses. It's just kind of, it comes and it goes. And you were, it sounds like you and your wife are very intentional about having the money go to a certain account and so that you could save up a certain amount in that account and then you could go and do something with that cash flow. We do something very similar is we have an expense account. So I set up auto drafts for all the expenses in my account. All that goes into an expense account. That way if and when a problem arises, the money comes from the expense account and it doesn't feel like such a burden financially. And it's just having those fundamentals when you're investing, tracking the money, making sure it goes into the appropriate accounts, and then making sure you've got enough allocated saving up till you get to $20,000. Because I would say we did something very similar. So for us, I wanted to save up a little over what it would cost to fix probably the most expensive thing that would happen on a house.

[Neil Whitney]

That was my exact thinking. A roof.

[Henry Washington]

A roof. A roof, absolutely. I need to save up at least 15 to 20 grand that way. If I have to replace a Roof, I can replace a roof. And then anything above that, depending on how many properties we have, we would take out. And so that number goes up the more properties we have. And all of these things that we're talking about in this episode, and I hope people are taking notes, these are just fundamentals of real estate. And it sounds simple when you hear us talking about it, but the fundamentals will keep you afloat. The fundamentals will build wealth for you over time. It doesn't sound sexy, it doesn't look scentsy, it's not overcomplicated. But the fundamentals will keep you wealthy. Saving up enough until you can afford the down payment, buying the property, renovating it when the right time comes, making sure you're keeping up with rent raises, making sure that you're allocating your funds appropriately and then buying assets and using the cash flow to pay for the, for the debt that you're bringing in because of the asset. Like, this is really a lesson in Real Estate 101. And you did this starting at 47 years old. So I don't want to hear any excuses from anybody about you don't have time because you had a full time job gig and you were married. About that you don't have money because you hustled and drove Uber to save up enough money and that you can't do it at your age. You let none of that hold you back. I think that's really incredible.

[Neil Whitney]

It's been a fun journey and, and to be honest with you, anybody can do this. If I can do this, anybody can do this, right? I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed. No one's gonna out hustle me. I'm gonna go out, I'm gonna do what I need to do to get it done. This is generational for me. I did this not just for my wife and I, but we got kids, right? And my kids, you know, my son's heavily involved. He's, he's cutting all the grass and all the properties. He's getting ready now to, to either buy or build a new, new duplex for himself. He's going to live on one half, he's going to house hack and rent the other half out of boy, he is on it, you know what I mean? He's 21 years old and, and he's, he's on a mission and he wants to, so to speak, follow in our footsteps. All those properties are for them. You know, they're going to inherit. These is going to be generational wealth. I told them we don't ever sell properties.

[Henry Washington]

How would you say you've managed risk as you've grown your portfolio? Because a lot of people feel like if I'm doing this and I'm later in life, then I need to take on less risk. How have you managed risk?

[Neil Whitney]

I'm looking at this as my retirement plan, right. I'm, I'm investing all of my dollars, if you will, instead of into a 401k, which I still do a little bit into a 401k, but instead of into a 401k, I'm investing it into tangible assets. Here's the thing with real estate that a lot of people miss. If I want to, if I had a hundred thousand dollars, right, and I wanted to buy gold, I'm going to get a hundred thousand dollars worth of gold. If I wanted to buy silver, I'm going to get a hundred thousand dollars worth of silver. Stocks, bonds, you name it, It's a hundred one to one. But if I have $100,000 in real estate, what can I do with that? Henry, you can buy a lot more.

[Henry Washington]

Than $100,000 in value.

[Neil Whitney]

I can, I can buy $500,000 with my eyes closed. With $100,000 in cash, I get a $500,000 piece of real estate. So you can leverage in a good way. Good. This is good leverage, right. That you can take that and get much more than what your dollars are. Right. And so that's, to me, that's a no brainer for risk, right? It's good assets that you're purchasing and good debt. And we use that debt wisely, right. Most of our properties, we started the first one was 20%, second one was 25. I think everything after that it was like 30. Right. The more that we buy, the more that they want down. Everything now at this point was at 30% down. And so, you know, and now we've got one of them paid off, a second one getting ready to be paid off. And this is our plan at this point. We're not really looking to acquire anymore. Our plan at this point is let's get these things paid off. And with everything paid off, I'm looking somewhere between 20, 25,000amonth, right. I think I could retire pretty comfortably on that.

[Henry Washington]

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, absolutely. I'm in a very similar boat now. We're focused less on, on growth and more on paying down assets because you use the term generational wealth. And I feel like that gets thrown around often and people don't realize truly what it means. But in my eyes. You can't pass down generational wealth if you're passing down leveraged assets. So you got to get those things paid off so that you can pass down something that truly produces income for somebody without them having to work. So we're, we're focused on that as well. Well, I got a few more questions for Neil, but we're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back.

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[Henry Washington]

All right, we're back with Neil Whitney talking about, about how he grew his real estate portfolio starting at the age of 47. Neil, one of the things I want to talk about is you're buying properties that sub $200,000 price point, typically for a single family. Some would call that lower income, depends on the neighborhood. But I think there's a stigma a lot of the times with the tenants that can afford to rent these places. I want to hear from you on what's it been like to own assets at this price point. Have you had issues with tenants? Is it, you know, how and who's managing these?

[Neil Whitney]

So my wife and I still manage them and I think we've had two evictions over the course of, you know, I guess we're coming up on nine, 10 years. You know, the biggest thing is your screening. Right. Make sure that you're, you're screening your tenants and finding the right tenants income. We want to make sure they're earning three times the monthly rent.

[Henry Washington]

Yep.

[Neil Whitney]

And you know, we want to make sure that if, if they've got bad credit and it's because of medical bills, I'm not going to hold that against them. If they've got bad credit because they just don't pay their bills, that's another whole different animal.

[Henry Washington]

Yes.

[Neil Whitney]

Right. And so we, we take everything into consideration and we just. I don't know if maybe we're lucky or we're just really good at screening. You know, we've had really, really good tenant. And most of my tenants are long term. I mean, in the, in the original four place that I bought, two out of the four are still the original ones that are in there. Yeah, right. And. And the first property I bought, I've had, I think, two or three tenants over the whole time. And the most these people that move out, it's because they buy a place. Right. They bought their own place.

[Henry Washington]

Now, I want to make sure that people still understand this because you're just blowing stereotypes out of the water right now. Do you still have a full time job?

[Neil Whitney]

Yes.

[Henry Washington]

Does your wife still have a full time job?

[Neil Whitney]

Absolutely.

[Henry Washington]

And you manage your portfolio of how many units?

[Neil Whitney]

23 doors.

[Henry Washington]

23 doors starting at 47. See, I'm reiterating these things for people because I don't know how many times I hear I don't have time, I can't manage properties, I can't do this. I can't figure it out. And you are literally still to this day managing a sizable portfolio at a price point where people think all the tenants are going to be problems. And you've done this, like I said, starting at the age of 47. People can do this if you stop making excuses and just starting putting things into action. You can also hire property managers if you need to, but you can. Anyone can literally do these things.

[Neil Whitney]

We're still cutting the grass.

[Henry Washington]

Oh, your son is.

[Neil Whitney]

My son is. That's right.

[Henry Washington]

And one thing I want to make sure that I reiterate for people is what you said that was very important when we started talking about tenants. And if you're managing them is you said you really good or you take the time to be good at tenant screening. And that, that is what I find the problem is with most landlords who tend to claim that certain tenants in a certain class can be a problem. Because what I found after managing rental properties at both high price points and lower price points is that it's not that one price point of tenant is worse than the other. I've had bad tenants at a low price point and I've had bad tenants at a high price point. Do you know what the common denominator was among those bad tenants at price points screening?

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Me.

[Henry Washington]

Me. We have to take responsibility for being good and doing the detailed work it takes to screen tenants. I couldn't tell you how many times I hear landlords who don't call and talk to references. Or I hear landlords who don't call the previous landlord and ask questions. Or I hear landlords who don't call their employers and ask questions like. Like all of that stuff is tedious, but that's the stuff that's going to help you make sure you select good tenants. If you're good at tenant selection, it doesn't matter the tenant class that you're in. It's because you're picking the right people for the property that you have to offer. And it sounds like you just. I'm going to call you Tim Duncan. The Tim Duncan of real estate. Man, it's big fundamentals over here. He's just fundamentally sound. Real estate investing. I love it.

[Neil Whitney]

And so, Henry, one other thing too, is, you know, we treat our tenants like the best customers on the planet, right?

[Henry Washington]

You're talking my language.

[Neil Whitney]

So we love our tenants like we, we want them to be happy. We want them to stay forever. And I've. I've got. I'll give you one example. I've got one tenant that she lived in this really, really nice house, and her husband passed, and she's like, look, I don't want to take care of anything anymore, so I just want to move into an apartment and have you take care of everything. We're like, okay, great. We're happy to do that. Well, she came in, she put gutters on our property, she put in porches, did all kinds of landscaping, all in her dime, not on my dime, but because we come out there and we cut the grass and all that, she's perfectly fine. She, like, she, she invested probably 5, $10,000 into my property that's going to stay there when she leaves at some point. But, you know, she, she did all that on her own because she wanted something that would come out and take care of the problems when she had them. And we do, right? If, if someone calls us and says, hey, you know, I've got this and this going on, we're prompt.

[Henry Washington]

We're.

[Neil Whitney]

We're out there, you know, we're. We're getting it taken care of as quickly as possible and making sure that, you know, our tenants are taken care of and that they know that when they call us, we're going to respond.

[Henry Washington]

This is something I'm passionate about because I feel like there is still a pretty big divide between landlords and tenants. Tenants typically come into a rental relationship with a stigma towards a landlord, no matter who it is or where it is. And a lot of landlords unfortunately, look down on tenants live up to that reputation. It's such a weird dynamic for me because in any other business industry we would not accept that because we are in the customer service business, right? And so if you're as customers of other businesses, we do not allow people to treat us a certain way because we are the customer. But when it comes to real estate, landlords don't see tenants as their customer and they don't treat them as such. But what I found is when you treat your tenants like customers and you provide them good quality customer service and you give them that respect, they respect you and they respect your property in return. And a lot of people want great tenants, but they're not willing to treat tenants great to get that same result. And so I just want a lot of landlords to hear what you're saying and to hear what I'm saying and realize that without tenants, we don't have wealth, we don't have a business. We provide the service, they are the customers.

[Neil Whitney]

Customer.

[Henry Washington]

If you treat your customers with quality customer service, treat them like human beings, treat them like you would want to be treated in a service based business, you'll be surprised at how much better your life becomes as a landlord.

[Neil Whitney]

1,000%. And, and I couldn't have said it any better, Henry. What we're talking about here is taking care of your people. And, and whether it's my employees at my day job or it's my tenants that live in my properties 1000%, you got to take care of them.

[Henry Washington]

What I want to do as we shift toward the end here is you've done something great, right? You, you were going to do something. You didn't let any of the negative self talk stop you. You didn't let any of the.

[Neil Whitney]

Oh, you mean my family members? What are you doing? You're out of your mind.

[Henry Washington]

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. You figured out a way to be successful. What? And now you've built a portfolio up to the point to where you're starting to figure out how to protect that portfolio by paying off the assets. So you have truly done the thing that a lot of our listeners want to do. And so what advice do you have for the person that's listening who's maybe in the same boat as you, who has the full time job, doesn't have any money saved up, but really wants to get to that financial freedom point? And yes, you still have a job. I get that. And that's great to have. I don't think people should quit their job unless they absolutely have to. But what advice do you have for that person who's hearing all this negative self talk? Who's, who's hearing all the negative talk from the people around them who thinks it's. It might be too late or they don't have enough money, or they don't have enough time?

[Neil Whitney]

I think it all starts with you, right? You have to make a decision as to who you're going to be. Right. And how it is that you're going to live your life and what type of future are you going to set up for yourself? Because if you don't like where you are today, go look in the mirror. You're there because of the choices that you make. Yeah, right. And so make a decision. Where do you want to go? I didn't like where I was at at 47 years old. And like I said, we watched that silly Lifetime movie that changed my life, right? And I decided then and there that I wasn't ever going to be that guy. There's no way I was going to let that happen to my family. And I made the decision and I, I just, you know, dove in and the hell with all the naysayers, all the negative people out there, you know, I focus on what's good for me and my family and what's good for my business.

[Henry Washington]

I love that. I've given many a talk about that, about. This is the power of deciding. There's a difference between what you're saying and what a lot of investors say. Because what a lot of investors who are getting started say is they're going to try. They're going to give investing a try.

[Neil Whitney]

Try in my vocabulary makes me want to throw up. And so I run an H Vac company as well. And if anyone in here says try, they immediately go, because that's a no, no word. In my business, try means plan to fail.

[Henry Washington]

Plan to fail.

[Neil Whitney]

Plan to fail.

[Henry Washington]

100%. There's power in decision because decision says, no matter how many times I fail, I'm going to keep going until I get it right. And your brain understands that and starts to figure out ways to help you. If you tell your brain you're going to try something, the second you try and fail, your brain go, we accomplished our goal. We did it. We tried. And so when you, and, and the, and the beautiful part about what you did is you decided before you knew how. And I think that there's a lot of power in that because most of us want to know how first before we decide if we want to do it. And that's not that's not how life works. That's not how life works.

[Neil Whitney]

This is not rocket science, y'. All. This is, this is like you said, said basics. And, and I'm a simple boring investor. I'm doing basic 101 investing, nothing crazy, no Airbnbs or anything. I'm just buying properties and getting them to cash flow and watching. Properties that I bought for 70,000, now worth 140,000. Yeah, right. Property that I bought for 300 is now worth almost 500.

[Henry Washington]

Right?

[Neil Whitney]

So these properties are just continually growing. When my wife and I, you know, we, we sit down and we go through our books and, and look at things and, and when we saw that our, our net worth finally had that million dollar net worth, it was like, hey, holy smokes, we're worth, we're millionaires. Are you kidding me? I mean, we still have a million dollars in the bank, but it technically, you know, we're there with it.

[Henry Washington]

Forbes says you're a millionaire.

[Neil Whitney]

But, you know, so keep it simple, right? Don't complicate things. Basic real estate has made millions and millions of people wealthy.

[Henry Washington]

That's right.

[Neil Whitney]

The riches are in the niches, so to speak. But you know, if you're going to be that niche guy, you better be really good at whatever it is you're doing. I'm not really good at anything, so I just, I just focus on the basics and I guess I'm good at the basics.

[Henry Washington]

I'm with you. I'm good at, I'm good at keeping things simple. And this is a great, simple framework for people to follow. I know you mentioned that your goals were to start paying off some of these assets and you've already done that. You've paid off one or two and you're, and you're working on some more. Is there anything else you're working on in the future for your portfolio? Are you planning to grow anymore? Is it particularly just pay them off? Are you going to pivot to anything or is it just stay the course?

[Neil Whitney]

The goal right now is to help my son get into his first property. And I told him, hey, look, whatever it is, you decide if you, if you have 20,000 to put down, I'm going to match you 20,000 thousand. So whatever you put down, I'm matching you 100.

[Henry Washington]

All right. Are you adopting any more sons? Because, I mean, I could use a, I could use a, I could use a match program.

[Neil Whitney]

It's a one time deal form, right? You're not going to use it over and over again. But first, first place. And I told my daughter the same thing. I got a daughter who's given, you know, she's pregnant and she's gonna be having a baby shortly. And so.

[Henry Washington]

First grandkid.

[Neil Whitney]

First grandkid.

[Henry Washington]

Congrats.

[Neil Whitney]

That's right. Thank you. Thank you. And so, yeah, now I've really got something to, to start building this, this, the whole thing off.

[Henry Washington]

And something tells me you're gonna be a sucker of a granddad.

[Neil Whitney]

Yeah, I, I think so, too. But, yeah, so. And here's the other thing, right? My wife and I, when we first met, she, I, she's from New Orleans and, and she hadn't really traveled past the Gulf Coast. I think the furthest she had ever been in her life was to Florida. And since we met, we've gone, you know, Caribbean and Canada and all. But I want to, I want to fill her passport book. That's, that's my end game, right? I want to take $20,000 a month and, and blow it, because I can, you know, and, and travel the world with her and fill her passport book and show her what an amazing world that we live in. Right? The United States is great, but there's so much more like, and, and, you know, just the places in the US that she hadn't seen. I've taken her to New York, I've taken her to Niagara Falls and, and, and Tennessee and just, you know, a bunch of places that she'd never been before. Georgia and North Carolina and just, you know, all over, and she's, like, blown away. So every time I take her somewhere and she sees something that she hadn't seen before, that, for me, is the it moment, right? When you get your wife out there and she's just, like, in awe and, you know, just so appreciative of things that we never thought in our wildest dreams that we'd be able to do that. Now we can do. We just bought our dream home. Didn't ever think we'd ever have a house that like, we have now. You know, we've got a great house that we bought in South Mississippi. And, you know, it's. You know, it's. It's been a life changing event getting involved with real estate. And it started with a Lifetime movie and, you know, rich dad, poor dad. You know, I've heard, I've heard a.

[Henry Washington]

Lot of real estate stories about how people got started. This is the first one I've heard that started with a Lifetime movie.

[Neil Whitney]

Well, someone's got to fill a niche.

[Henry Washington]

Oh, man. Well, Neal, thank you so much for coming on the BiggerPockets podcast and sharing your journey with us. It is a truly inspirational story. You have done the things that a lot of people think either you shouldn't do or you can't do. And you did them well and you did them fundamentally sound. And it sounds like now you and your family are reaping the benefits of those great decisions. So thank you for coming on show, sharing with us.

[Neil Whitney]

Henry, thank you for having me. It was real pleasure meeting you.

[Henry Washington]

All right, thank you everybody for tuning in to this episode of the Bigger Pockets Podcast. We'll see you on the next episode.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Thank you all for listening to the Bigger Pockets 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. If you'd like to learn more about 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.