Quitting Corporate with 8 Paid-Off Rental Properties ($100K Passive Income)

Summary

BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

Episode: Quitting Corporate with 8 Paid-Off Rental Properties ($100K Passive Income)

Host: Henry (BiggerPockets)
Guest: Vicente Garcia (Investor, Dallas, TX)
Date: February 2, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the inspiring journey of Vicente Garcia, who, starting with no real estate experience at age 41, amassed a modest portfolio of eight paid-off rental properties in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Vicente’s story challenges the myth that you need dozens of rentals to achieve financial freedom—his disciplined, focused strategy allowed him to quit his corporate job and generate six-figure passive income while also supporting his family and serving his community.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. How Vicente Started in Real Estate

• Corporate to Real Estate: Vicente began in the corporate world and transitioned to real estate at age 41, seeking a way to fund his children’s college education.
• Accidental Landlord: He turned his first home into a rental when moving to a larger house, using it initially as a college fund strategy.
  • "The idea was, hey, let’s try to build a college fund for my kids. So that was the first property we kept." — Vicente (02:36)
• First Real Investments (2013): After a failed attempt in the stock market, he purchased three more rental properties, leveraging the post-financial crisis market and peer encouragement.
  • "Let's see how it is. It's working. Let's repeat it." — Vicente (04:13)
• Market Details: All purchases were in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, with properties initially priced around $150,000–$160,000.
  • "I'm in the Dallas forward area, which again, has been a great market in the last 10 years, I will say." — Vicente (05:25)

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2. Strategy: Focused Growth & Aggressive Payoff

• Purposeful Acquisition: The plan evolved from funding college to creating a personal retirement fund, influenced by the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) movement.
  • "We wanted to retire. The new definition of retirement—financial independence—I think is a better word." — Vicente (05:51)
• Not Chasing ‘Door’ Numbers: Instead of scaling for the sake of scale, Vicente capped his acquisitions at eight, focusing on paying down debt rather than constant expansion.
  • "It was a personal decision. I think we're good where we are, I think in a good path. What do we do now? Okay, if we're not buying anything else...that was the plan." — Vicente (07:52)
• Discipline with Cash Flow: Maintained a separate bucket for rental income, reinvesting all proceeds and windfalls (e.g., job bonuses) into paying off mortgages.

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3. Financing: Getting Creative with Capital

• First Three Properties:
  • 1st: Personal savings (traditional 20% down).
  • 2nd: Loan against 401(k), highlighting lesser-known options for funding.
    • “Many people don't know that you can borrow money against your 401k. Pretty much you're borrowing money to yourself." — Vicente (14:02)
  • 3rd: Further creative use of resources as savings replenished.
• Refinancing for Repayment (2021):
  • Borrowed against his primary residence at a low interest rate (2.75%) to pay off rentals with higher loan rates (4.5%), leveraging historically low rates during COVID.
    • “You essentially arbitraged the debt...borrowed at 2.75, paid off the house that was at 4.75.” — Henry (15:56)

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4. The Nature of His Properties

• Type of Units: A mix of ready-to-rent homes and minor value-add opportunities (including short sales).
  • “I would say the majority, they were pretty ready...A couple of times I did short sales. It takes more time...but they're great.” — Vicente (18:16)
• Why Not Distressed Properties?: Prefers paying slightly more upfront (rolled into the mortgage) than sinking considerable cash into heavier renovations out of pocket.

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5. Refreshing the Portfolio: Using 1031 Exchanges

• Asset Management: Vicente sold aging properties partially to avoid issues with changing HOA rules and maintenance headaches, using 1031 exchanges to buy newer, better located properties without paying capital gains taxes.
  • “We've done total three exchanges so far in the last two have been back to back, you know, 2024, 2025.” — Vicente (23:50)
• Market Savvy: Proactively relocated his portfolio to areas like Salina and Aubrey, following growth trends and major developments (e.g., new Costco, hospitals).
  • “Let's move to where the next growth is and hopefully, you know, the appreciation will come.” — Vicente (25:09)

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6. Portfolio Today: Financial Outcomes and Lifestyle

• Portfolio Size: 8 single-family rentals—all paid off.
  • “So the current portfolio right now is eight. All paid off.” — Vicente (22:42)
• Cash Flow: Targets $1,400–$1,600/month per property after expenses and vacancies.
  • “Target is around, you know, between 14, 1600 per property...the goal, if everything goes well, is between 14, 16 per property.” — Vicente (26:54)
  • Estimated total: $110,000–$145,000/year in net cash flow
• Flexibility Achieved: Vicente now spends time with family, does consulting, serves on nonprofit boards, and works as a realtor for enjoyment and community service.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Simplicity vs. Scale:
  “You can just buy a few homes, have a strategy that focuses on paying them off and you can live a wonderful life.” — Henry (17:33)

• On Being an Immigrant & Late Starter:
  “41 is not immediate. It was not like right out of college. Plus, we’re immigrants...It was kind of, hey, you need to restart or reset.” — Vicente (17:15)

• On Debt Mindset:
  “I don't know if it's a cultural thing, you know, that we Latinos, we don't like debt. We were kind of raised with that, hey, you know, the debt is bad, you know, and try to pay them. I don't know if there’s something into that.” — Vicente (08:32)

• On Real Freedom:
  “Mark Cuban has a famous clip…doing what I want, when I want, with who I want…” — Vicente (28:55)

• On Giving Back:
  “Something else that I’m doing…spend also more time on nonprofit. So I’m on the board of three nonprofits here in Dallas.” — Vicente (28:25)

• On Advice for New Investors (2026 Market):
  “All honesty right now, if I were starting, is what I tell people right now is when you need to jump. Because things are on sale.” — Vicente (31:08)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [00:00] Introduction & Vicente’s backstory
• [04:13] Buying initial rental properties and the Dallas-Fort Worth market
• [07:02] Strategic decision to stop scaling and focus on debt payoff
• [13:21] Financing: 401(k) loans and creative funding methods
• [15:26] Debt arbitrage via refinancing during COVID low rates
• [17:15] Starting real estate at age 41 as an immigrant
• [22:42] Current status: 8 paid-off homes, strategy refresh with 1031 exchanges
• [26:54] Detailed cash flow numbers and financial transparency
• [28:11] Achieving retirement/financial flexibility and community involvement
• [31:08] Advice for 2026 market entrants

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Tone & Takeaways

• The tone is pragmatic, transparent, and motivating—demonstrating that successful real estate investing can be simple, disciplined, and tailored to fit different backgrounds and life circumstances.
• The episode emphasizes strategy over scale, creativity in financing, and the long-term benefits of paying off assets, while giving a realistic view of the day-to-day responsibilities and considerations.
• Vicente’s story is accessible: you don’t need to be young, wealthy, or full-time to win in real estate; meticulous planning, patience, and ongoing learning are key.

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Summary Statement

Vicente Garcia’s journey proves that it’s possible for late starters, immigrants, and everyday professionals to achieve financial freedom—not by chasing hundreds of doors, but by building a small, strategic, and paid-off portfolio. His story offers guidance, practical insight, and hope for anyone looking to break free from the 9-to-5 using real estate as a vehicle for both wealth and purpose.

Transcript

[Henry]

Eight rental properties. That's all you need to retire early. While it may seem like you have to own dozens of rentals to reach six figures in passive income, today's guest proves that a small rental portfolio can be just as powerful. Vicente Garcia had no experience in real estate investing at 41 years old, but he decided to turn his primary residence into a rental property to help him build a college fund for his kids. Now in his mid-50s, a portfolio of just eight properties not only pays for his kid's college, but it has also retired him with with six figures net cash flow. The secret, A simple but incredibly effective payoff plan. With just a handful of paid off rentals, Vicente was able to leave his corporate job, retire with six figures of income and spend more time with his kids. Work for nonprofits, and ask the big question, what's next? Follow Vicente strategy and in a decade, you too could be retired early with fewer rentals than you can. What's going on, everybody? It is Henry, co host of the BiggerPockets podcast. Today we're speaking with investor Vicente Garcia from Dallas, Texas. This is an incredibly inspiring story, so let's jump right in. Vicente, welcome to the show.

[Vicente Garcia]

Thank you, Henry. Thanks for having me.

[Henry]

Oh, happy to do it, man. You've got an interesting story. So let's start at the beginning. Tell us about your background and how you first got into this real estate thing.

[Vicente Garcia]

My background is, I would say it's more like the traditional corporate world. Working several companies and started in real estate. I don't know if it's a coincidence, but the original plan, when we were trying to have a college fund, you know, that was the first idea. Let's try to build a college fund for my case. So fast forward, you know, we started investing, bought more properties, then I became a realtor. So I was kind of first an amateur and then became professional somehow, if you will. So all in. I've been investing for 16 years about that and realtor for the last stand, you know, so that's kind of be a quick for the journey.

[Henry]

I think that's amazing. And by your standards, I'm still an amateur because I don't have my license. But that's okay. I'll take the, I'll take the amateur status. Unless we're talking about taxes. I am a, I am a real estate professional for tax purposes. But I think you, you, you're so successful, I think you glossed over a few things. You said, I just bought a couple of properties. What's. That's, that's That's, I would say oversimplifying it. So tell us about what that looked like. When was it when you bought your first one? Why did you buy it? How did you buy it?

[Vicente Garcia]

Yes, yes, we bought our first home 20 years ago. 2005, started home, first kid, stayed on the home for four years, didn't get to a point, hey, we wanted to move to a bigger home, you know, have the second kid looking for, for changing the schools. So we bought the second home. But that was the point that as I mentioned before, we decided, hey, right now we don't need to sell this house to buy the second one. So the idea, hey, let's start as a college fund, you know, so that was the idea. That was 2009. Fast forward another four years. 2013, tried to invest something in the stock market, really got burned down. And all fairness, that was the times of the financial crisis. Correct. Maybe not the best time to invest in the stock market, but either way they said, hey, you know, have the renal rental home for four years and okay. And there were good opportunities back then. So again, you need to go back in time. 2013, coming out of the financial crisis, great deals. And we decided, hey, let's have also some friends that were doing the same thing. Let's, let's now buy a home as just pure rental. Correct. Instead of the first one. That was kind of a first home, then transition to rental. And that's how we started in. And it went very quick. In that first year we bough bought three homes. And the reason for that is for me was, okay, let's, let's see how it is. Let's try it. It's working. Let's repeat it. Correct reason, repeat a little bit on those, on that first year, three homes. And then of course we continue for the next few years to continue building the portfolio.

[Henry]

Okay, so 2013, you bought your first three as pure investments, but you started where I think a lot of people overlook starting, which is, you know, sometimes I talk to people, some of my students or I just talk to aspiring investors and they say, I'm looking to buy my first rental property. And I say, okay, well tell me about where you live. And they say, oh, you know, I just, we just bought a starter home. We got a three bed, two bath single family home in such and such a market. And I go, so you want to buy a rental in that same market? And they go, yeah. And I said, well what if I told you you already own one, you're just living in it, right? Like that's a great path because if you've bought a home that would make a good rental, there's nothing stopping you from buying a second home. You're probably going to do that anyway at some point. But instead of selling the home, which is what most people do, you can rent the home out. And remember, most people are broke. So why would you continue to do what most people do? Right. Rent the home out, which is a great idea. It gives you some perspective on if you want to be a landlord without having to go take a giant risk because you already own the asset. I think that that's a phenomenal way to start, and I love hearing stories of people who started that way. Can you remind us what market this is in where you were buying these properties?

[Vicente Garcia]

I'm in the Dallas forward area, which again, has been a great market in the last 10 years, I will say.

[Henry]

So you bought those three homes in 2013. What was about the price point there?

[Vicente Garcia]

The price point was between 151, 60.

[Henry]

So you bought three homes, and the way you explained it made it sound like you kind of had a plan that you were following. So what was the strategy you were following with purchasing these properties? What was the goal?

[Vicente Garcia]

The original goal was the college fund, then getting into buying more immigrated. And the ideal goes to have our own retirement fund. You know, so we're very passionate about the whole fire movement and all that. So, hey, let's try to start building our own 401k, if you would, our own retirement fund because we wanted to retire. The new definition of retirement, financial independent, I think is a better word, sooner. And that was exactly the goal. And then start building that one house.

[Henry]

After the other, you know, and a lot of people, I mean, let's. Let's be real. Most people get into this business so that they can, you know, retire from their jobs. I think retire is a word that people use kind of frivolously because technically I'm retired from my job, but I work harder now than I've ever done before. But the concept is you don't have to go to work if you don't want to. But what I think you're saying is like, true retirement, no job, just money coming in. And for people that want to get like that, they build the strategy. Typically, and oftentimes that strategy involves them scaling some massive portfolio. But that isn't what you've done. Talk to me about what your plan is and how you've executed it.

[Vicente Garcia]

Okay, we bought three. It was working. And we continue buying some pretty much in A span of, I will say three years, we bought eight properties.

[Henry]

Okay.

[Vicente Garcia]

Now one of the things we decided because we were fortunate to have our regular jobs is we're not going to touch that money to start spending on something else. Correct. All is going to stay on their own bucket. You know, let's not start buying a new car. You know, that was also, I would say, the discipline and foundation that we had to then allow us to start paying back those properties.

[Henry]

So Instead of buying 100 doors, you wanted to buy 10, 20 doors, but focus on paying them off with the cash flow instead of growing your portfolio or buying liabilities. Is that what I'm hearing?

[Vicente Garcia]

Yeah. And to be honest, it was not like we thought about it from the beginning. Between 2013, 2015, what, several properties. 2015, I got my license. So I say now I have, I have things to manage and maybe it's easier for me to, you know, when you need to have the house rent or buying something else. And that was to the point that we said, okay, do we keep growing? Take money from that equity that you have in there. Correct. And have that house buy you another house. Correct. Into your point. Then you go just starting that. So I mean, my personal situation is I wasn't doing this full time. I mean, I still have to do my full time job, you know, so think about it, three jobs, you know, my regular job managing the properties, plus the realtor. Correct. So a lot of, a lot of hustle. So it was a personal decision. Hey, now. Okay, I think we're good where we are, I think in a good path. What do we do now? Okay, if we're not buying anything else, you have some, some classroom that is coming in. And that was the plan. And the way we did it, it was kind of focusing one property at a time. We decided, okay, property A, this is the one, we're going to pay first and then kind of, you know, redirecting all the spawns. And of course, you know, there's also sometimes like you might get, I don't know, a bonus from your job, something like that. Again, anything that is extra, you know, try to, to start paying down. And I don't know, to be honest, if it's a cultural thing, you know, that we Latinos, we don't like that. We were kind of raised with that, hey, you know, the debt is bad, you know, and try to pay them. I don't know if there's something into that, but I don't think there's, I mean, this good, good debt, bad debt. But I think in general, you know, it's a strategy change, you know, and that's what they decided to do at that point.

[Henry]

All right, we're going to jump into how Vicente purchased his first three rental properties. But before we do, we have to take a quick break. We'll be right back. 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 Baseline and it takes that all off my plate. It's BiggerPocket's official banking platform that automatically sorts my transactions, matches receipts, and collects rent from every property. My tax prep is done. 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 $100 bonus when you sign up [e-mail] BP you just realized your business.

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[Henry]

All right, we are back with Mr. Vicente Garcia talking about how he built his rental portfolio. Let's jump back in. Mr. Vicente, so you bought the three properties in 2013. What's the financing method you used or how did you find the funds to buy these properties?

[Vicente Garcia]

I would say for the first one very simple. Correct. Okay. Traditionally 20% down for second second property investment. So okay, that's the first thing. Okay, how much money down you need? Correct. Which is and also making sure you have the financing for that. Back then the first property was where we have some personal savings and again it was a different price point for what it is right now. That now 20% to your point is much higher. You know, but at that point was a 20% about the 150 bought this first property. Then it's when you start getting creative.

[Henry]

So what? So what I hear you saying is you bought the first one with savings and when you wanted to buy the second one, the savings hadn't replenished itself yet.

[Vicente Garcia]

Exactly.

[Henry]

Okay, so how did we do the second one?

[Vicente Garcia]

In my case, something that I did is I had ACT, I have my 401k, you know, for my job. And many people don't know that you can get a You can borrow money against your 401k. Pretty much you're borrowing money to yourself. So that's how we go to the second one where I say creative. Because again, sometimes people don't know. They'll know. Nobody, not many people explain you that, you know, the companies don't explain you that they don't want you to take.

[Henry]

Sure don't. They sure don't. And this is, this is cool because this is what I did to buy my very first one. I, unlike you, didn't have any savings. So I had to get creative from day one. And that's what we did. We borrowed against, well, we borrowed against my wife's 401k because I didn't have one. So we borrowed from hers. But yes, exactly. That's exactly right. If you borrow from your 401k, traditionally you pay yourself back because it's your money and you pay yourself back with interest. And if you're renting a property out and it's cash flowing, then technically your tenants are paying back your loan, which you used to purchase the property. Now, the caveat is you've got to be really smart with that money. It is your retirement savings. So if you borrow the money and then you buy a bad asset, you could find yourself in a world of hurt. But if you buy a good asset, it can be very financially beneficial. So yes, I think that that's a good tool in the tool belt to use for the right people in the right situation.

[Vicente Garcia]

In 2021, you know, Covid years, everything hit equity went through the roof, you know, the appreciation picked. So what we did is we refinance our existing home, our primary house, primary residence. We took a cash out, refinancing it, paid 2 of the rental properties. And the reason to do that is because we trade an interest rate of, let's say 4.5 now to an interest rate of 2.75.

[Henry]

So what you're saying is you essentially arbitrage the debt. So you had a 4.75 interest rate on the rental property, but you could borrow money so cheap on a line of credit. So you borrowed at 2.75, paid off the house, that was at 4.75, but you still got the money coming in. So you're paying back the line of credit with the money coming in from your rental, but you're now paying off 2.75% debt instead of 4.75% debt.

[Vicente Garcia]

Exactly.

[Henry]

That is super cool. Lots of people borrowed money and bought homes in 2020, but I haven't Heard of somebody arbitraging the debt like that to pay off a rental property. That was, that's a really cool, really smart thing to do that the market provided you.

[Vicente Garcia]

And don't want to get too technical that I'm not a tax advisor. You're still, you are still able to deduct some of that interest on those rentals.

[Henry]

That is something I hadn't thought about and now that I'm looking back, probably wish I would have done something similar.

[Vicente Garcia]

You need to wait.

[Henry]

Yeah, it's not going to happen again, buddy.

[Vicente Garcia]

Never say never, you know. But yes, not in the short return.

[Henry]

That's true. So I've got, I've got a few more questions around this, this strategy in this portfolio. First, being how old were you when you bought those first three rental properties?

[Vicente Garcia]

40. 41 is not immediate. It was not like a ride out of college. Correct. And plus, plus we're immigrants. Correct. So we came here when I was 30 years old. It's been 23 years since we came here. So for us it was kind of, hey, you need to restart or reset. Yeah, a little bit. But yes to your question, you know, 41 years.

[Henry]

I love how relatable your, your story and your method is like, I think people here invest in real estate and they automatically think I have to be this, you know, huge landlord that owns hundreds of assets and runs this, you know, multimillion dollar real estate business. When you can just buy a few homes, have a strategy that focuses on paying them off and you can live a wonderful life. And a, and I just love, I love talking to people who have used real estate in ways that maybe the normal investor doesn't even consider or think about anymore. The next question I have for you is, were these value added distressed properties or were you buying them basically turnkey. They were ready for a tenant.

[Vicente Garcia]

It was a mix. I would say the majority, they were pretty ready. I mean existing homes, you know, of course you have to do some, some, some minor work to get it ready. A couple of times I did short Sal and those were very interesting. It takes more time. You have to be patient.

[Henry]

Yes, it does.

[Vicente Garcia]

But they're great. They were great. Did some minor renovations to get it ready, but it's been a mix. My approach on that was I rather pay more for something that is ready, but because at the end everything is going into the loan, into the down payment. Correct. So paying $10,000 more for a property when you go to the down payment is only maybe $2,000 versus paying less. But then you need to take that money out of your pocket. You know, that's something I tell my clients. Sometimes people, hey, you know this house is $20,000 a year? Yes, but then do the math. How much you need to put on? I don't know. I went to see a house the other day Foundation. Okay, so how much going to cost you? It still might be a good deal, but you need to have the cash for it.

[Henry]

All right, I'm talking to Mr. Vicente about his plan and we're going to dive into where he is today with his portfolio. But before we do, we're going to take a quick break.

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[Henry]

All right, we are back with Mr. Vicente Garcia. We are talking about how he built his portfolio of paid off assets. Let's dive back in. So Vicente, you went down the path of being a small and mighty investor. You had a goal of paying off some of these properties. Talk to us a little bit about where your portfolio is today. How many houses do you own? How many of them are paid off?

[Vicente Garcia]

Yes. So the current portfolio right now is eight. All paid off.

[Henry]

Oh, you paid everything off.

[Vicente Garcia]

Now something that we have done in the last couple of years, actually two years in a row is what I call refresh the asset and that's the 1031s. So we've done it for a couple of reasons. There's no secret that in some communities HOAs are getting very aggressive.

[Henry]

Yes.

[Vicente Garcia]

So I will say in one particular community where we started, we were very we have several assets in there so we needed to start hey moving around to avoid problems with hoa. Another reason is to what I mentioned, refreshed asset some of those homes already 20 years old. And what we did is sell some of those properties, buy a brand new one different area of town and do a 1031. That's something that has worked out great. Again it's a personal strategy. You don't have to do it. But I'm telling you some of the stories that we have. So we've done total three exchanges so far in the last two have been back to back, you know, 2024, 2025.

[Henry]

That's great. That's actually another really smart thing to think about when you're focusing on paying off assets. You're right. If you have a paid off asset and it's a distressed asset, yeah, it's paid off. But you spend a lot of money fixing it up. Right. You spend a lot of money fixing repairs or updating the properties. And so instead of you taking capital out of your pocket to update an old asset, you leverage the asset and the tax code did a 1031 exchange. And for those who don't know, you're allowed to sell a property and then defer the capital gains from the sale of that property. As long as you are buying an asset of like kind and it has to be a higher value. And so you were able to probably not have to spend any of your own money buy a newer asset. Now that asset costs more, which means you probably did end up with a small mortgage. Did you do that and then work on paying that off or did you just put your cash with it?

[Vicente Garcia]

You know? No, like for like, you know. Yeah, all in. I mean the catch on that is you have to go to a different area. Correct. So maybe in my case, areas where you still, you need to move. Correct. By the next one. Areas and also maybe areas that are where the next growth is going to come.

[Henry]

Yeah.

[Vicente Garcia]

Okay, I'm going to give you an example. The one we just did is in Colling county is Salina. Salina is an area, it's been in the news, you know, last year, you know, one of the top cities growing percentage wise in the country. Correct. So it's also a little bit of a bet, if you would. It's kind of a killing trying to kill two birds. One. So one is refreshing the acid. Everything that you said about the property that lean, a lot of maintenance. But also, hey, where is growing? What is the next road? I mean kind of a. But we did 10 years ago when we bought in the Aubrey area, the first home, it was a rural area. Rural. Now you go there, you have Costco, heb, hospitals, supermarket, Walmart, everything. Right now it's kind of where you know that area, the same thing that happened. And you drive, you see that they're building Costco, they're building hiv, they just open a hospital. So it's kind of hey, let's move to where the next road is and hopefully, you know, the appreciation will come.

[Henry]

This is fundamentally sound real estate strategy. You mean you focused on buying one to three assets at a time and instead of growth you focused on paying them off. And then when you got to A point where some of them were starting to get paid off. You did leverage the asset, but you didn't leverage the asset in order to acquire more debt. You leveraged the asset to update your portfolio without having to use your own cash and just using your market knowledge. And you're a realtor, so of course you're supposed to know where the path of progress is and where things are going. So you leverage your super powers to buy assets and in new up and coming parts of town. So Vicente 8 paid off houses. That's incredible in itself and doing it in such a short time frame. But what people really want to know is how much cash flow do those houses produce?

[Vicente Garcia]

Target is around, you know, between 14, 1600 per property. You know, that's, that's the target and that's the plan. Some years you are able to achieve the numbers on depending on what the properties need. Correct. I mean, I'm going to give you an example. Last year, end of the year, property needed a new air conditioning. That's about, what's about, I don't know, $8,000. So that, that month, you know, your cash flow come down, you know, and it's not. So I'm gonna, you could call it, you know, goal and effective, you know, but the goal, if everything goes well is between 14, 16 per property.

[Henry]

That's fair. And I appreciate the transparency because most people will just say, oh, I'll make a ton of money, right. But to put that in perspective, that's somewhere between 110 to $145,000 a year of net cash flow on eight properties. That's amazing. So that's got to feel good.

[Vicente Garcia]

Maybe less.

[Henry]

That's what the general math says. So that's really cool. So it sounds like your goal or your strategy of acquiring eight to 10 paid off properties, you hit, did you hit your second part of your goal of strategy of retirement?

[Vicente Garcia]

Yes and no. Yes, because. Yes. I mean, I'm not perceiving that income, you know, from my full time job. So yes, and we're still able to manage. I mean and no, because I'm still working. You need still to manage property. You have the real estate. I'm still doing some of you call it small consulting on that. But something else that I'm doing also, that's something personal I wanted to do is spend also more time on nonprofit. So I'm on the board of three nonprofits here in Dallas. Something happened the last few years, but at the end is, is I would say is having the flexibility correct. And I'M blessed for that. It's on the flexibility of, of doing. Mark Cuban has a famous clip, you know, that do. Doing what I want, when I want, with who I want, you know, when.

[Henry]

I want to kind of write down how I want. That's right. That's right.

[Vicente Garcia]

Exactly. Easier said than done. But, but, but, yes. I mean, I think it's too early and also I would love to keep helping people do the same thing, you know. Yeah.

[Henry]

Well, that's amazing, man. I love seeing people who build a plan within the real estate niche execute against that plan and see it through. That's really cool. So you are an agent. So why continue to be an agent?

[Vicente Garcia]

I love it. It's stressful sometimes, you know, I have some, some scars, you know, from some transactions. But I really, I really love the interaction with people. Many of my unfortunate because many of my clients are also my friends or have become friends, you know, One of my friends from, from childhood, he was debating, should I buy a house? Should I not buy a house? He told me, just do it, just do it. You're going to be okay. You can rent out one of the bedrooms to help you pay the mortgage, all that. He did that in like two months later, he called me several times and just to take me, hey, thank you for pushing me. Thank you for. It's the best decision I ever made. Super happy with his house. It's kind of funeralized, so those things are great that, you know, things like that are. You're able to help people to achieve the dream somehow.

[Henry]

Yeah, yeah. It sounds to me like this is more about helping your community than it is about you having another income stream.

[Vicente Garcia]

Income is good.

[Henry]

Yeah. I tried to set you up there, but that's okay. That's okay.

[Vicente Garcia]

If you do good and get some income, you know, we win.

[Henry]

Absolutely, absolutely. It's super cool, man. You know, as someone who teaches people how to invest, it's very, very rewarding when you see someone, especially if they struggled or if they didn't know how to do it or didn't think they could do it. When you start to see them get that success, man, it feels good. I get a bigger dopamine rush when I see that happened then when I do my own deals and so I truly do understand what that feels like. So you, you did the thing right? You made a plan, you executed against the plan. You're technically retired. You have the paid off assets. What are you going to do now? What's the plans for the future?

[Vicente Garcia]

Yeah, that's what I need. Your Advice, what's next? You know, so, yeah, that's. That. That's a great question. You know, what's nice is like a. You are on a crossroads. I mean, you try to diversify or maybe grow a little bit more. Still. Tbd, not fully decided right now. It's a little bit convoluted. Market is completely. But all honesty right now, if I were starting, is what I tell people right now is when you need to jump. Because things are on sale.

[Baseline/Rent Ready Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Henry]

Yes, they are. It is a good time. I think this 2026 especially, I think it's going to yield a lot of opportunities for people. I think that you got a lot of people that experienced a lot of pain in 2025, and they're looking to dump some of those assets, and that's going to create opportunity. I think there's some opportunity for interest rates to come down a little more. I just think that there's good opportunities coming in 2026, and those who are prepared to take advantage of it, those who have done the fundamental things to put themselves in a position to be able to jump when the. When. When the time is right, are the ones who are succeed. So I agree with you. All right, Mr. Vicente, thank you so much for coming on the BiggerPockets podcast and sharing your story. It's truly an inspirational story. It's great to see someone make a plan and execute against a plan, but not have to be some massive landlord with 400 properties. And it really, truly is a simple plan that anybody can execute. Start with the home you live in. Focus on buying assets in good parts of town. Focus on paying off the assets instead of growing and scaling to a massive scale. And then before you know it, I mean, I meant to acknowledge this earlier in the show, but from 2013 to 2024, 2025, that's what, 13 years? Yeah, 13 years to pay off eight properties, like, round of applause, man, that is something that's difficult to do for one property. You knocked it out with eight properties. And so you should be proud of the life that you have built, and you should be proud of how you show up and help your community. And thank you so much for taking the time to share all of that with us.

[Vicente Garcia]

Thank you, Henry, for having me. Great to have this conversation. And hopefully people can see that it's not impossible. You know, investing in real estate is. I mean, it's not easy. And, you know.

[Henry]

No, it is not easy.

[Vicente Garcia]

Very well. But it's possible. It's possible. Might not be for everyone, but again, it's like any other business.

[Henry]

All right, folks, thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the BiggerPockets podcast. I love look forward to seeing you on the next episode. We'll see you soon.

[Baseline/Rent Ready Advertiser]

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