Regular Investor Makes $1.5M by Recognizing This Rare “Upside” on Her Rental

Summary

BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast Summary

Episode Title: Regular Investor Makes $1.5M by Recognizing This Rare “Upside” on Her Rental
Host/Author: BiggerPockets
Release Date: February 10, 2025
Host: Dave Meyer
Guest: Dina Onior

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Introduction

In this captivating episode of the BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast, host Dave Meyer sits down with Dina Onior, a determined real estate investor who achieved an astounding $1.5 million upside on her rental property. Dina's journey from entrepreneurial struggles to remarkable success offers invaluable insights for both novice and seasoned investors.

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Dina's Background and Entrepreneurial Journey

[01:04] Dina Onior shares her personal history, highlighting her immigrant roots and early exposure to entrepreneurship through her father's business.

Dina Onior: "My father really built my business skills, and I didn't even know at that time what he was doing, but I became who I am today."

Dina recounts the challenges she faced, including a failed business venture that led to bankruptcy and relocation from New York to Boston. Undeterred, she pursued higher education, obtaining a master’s degree, and eventually founded a successful home healthcare company that has been operational for a decade.

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Transitioning into Real Estate Investing

[04:03] Dina explains how her home healthcare business inadvertently introduced her to the real estate market.

Dina Onior: "People started to just ask questions. I would get like a phone call from reception... why am I not buying those properties directly from my clients?"

Recognizing the potential in multifamily homes over single-family residences for risk mitigation, Dina began exploring real estate investment. Her entrepreneurial drive, honed from her early experiences, propelled her into this new venture.

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Building a Supportive Real Estate Community

[05:39] Dina discusses the importance of finding a community within the predominantly male-dominated real estate industry.

Dina Onior: "I felt really lonely... I needed to find my people. I needed to find who can I talk to who can give me some guidance, and especially, like a woman."

She credits BiggerPockets, networking groups, masterminds, and continuous learning as pivotal in establishing a supportive network that provided guidance and collaboration opportunities.

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Initial Real Estate Deals and Strategies

[07:01] Dina walks through her first real estate transactions, emphasizing her strategic focus on multifamily properties.

Dina Onior: "My goal is always to get this to the highest ARV I can so I can refinance out, pull my construction money out and move on to the next project."

Her approach involved purchasing properties, investing in substantial renovations to increase their value, and leveraging refinancing to extract capital for subsequent investments. Her first property in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, saw a value increase from $289,000 to $650,000 over five years, yielding a significant profit upon refinancing.

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Challenges in Property Management and Construction

[16:17] Dina candidly shares the complexities of managing multiple responsibilities, including a home healthcare business, property management, and a large-scale rehab project.

Dina Onior: "I was the one actually on site with my husband checking out like what's happening... Do we need to order materials? Do we need another person in here?"

She discusses the trial-and-error process of building a reliable team of contractors, the importance of supervision, and the intense commitment required to juggle her entrepreneurial duties alongside her personal life.

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Highlighting the $1.5 Million Upside Deal

[24:36] Dina describes her most recent and remarkable deal, where she capitalized on inadvertent multi-family zoning during the purchase of a primary residence.

Dina Onior: "The equity that I was generating in that project was $1.5 million."

This deal involved converting a single-family home into dual townhomes, leveraging zoning laws and strategic financing. Dina meticulously navigated the construction and development process, ultimately realizing a substantial equity gain. She highlighted the risks involved, including unexpected construction challenges and financial hurdles, but underscored the potential rewards when executed correctly.

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Managing Risks and Financial Strategies

[29:58] Dina emphasizes the critical role of financial planning and risk management in her investment strategy.

Dina Onior: "The biggest challenge for me was like, finances my project... I had to figure out, two years from now, how am I going to qualify for a $2 million loan."

She details her efforts to secure favorable loan terms, the importance of maintaining strong financial discipline, and the necessity of having contingency plans for unforeseen expenses, such as the additional $70,000 encountered during her development project.

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Future Plans and Continued Growth

[34:28] Looking ahead, Dina outlines her strategies for navigating the current challenging market conditions.

Dina Onior: "I'm continuously looking just... you have to...create opportunities yourself."

She expresses interest in accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and remains open to innovative investment opportunities, emphasizing the importance of adaptability and continuous learning in sustaining growth amidst high prices and interest rates.

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Key Insights and Takeaways

1. Persistence and Resilience: Dina’s journey underscores the importance of perseverance through entrepreneurial setbacks and the ability to pivot towards new opportunities.
2. Strategic Networking: Building a reliable community and leveraging platforms like BiggerPockets can provide essential support and knowledge.
3. Risk Management: Thorough financial planning and risk assessment are crucial, especially in multifamily and development projects.
4. Value Addition: Investing in property improvements to increase ARV is a proven strategy for maximizing returns.
5. Innovative Thinking: Recognizing and capitalizing on zoning opportunities can unlock substantial equity and elevate investment outcomes.

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Conclusion

Dina Onior’s story is a testament to the power of strategic thinking, relentless effort, and the ability to identify and exploit rare opportunities in the real estate market. Her success in achieving a $1.5 million upside on a rental property not only inspires but also provides a practical roadmap for investors seeking to replicate her achievements.

Notable Quotes:

• Dina Onior: "I love to tile. I think that what gives me like peace and quiet... every single unit, every single house that we bought, I would put my stamp on it." [19:29]
• Dave Meyer: "That's probably one of the bigger equity pops I've ever heard of on this show." [31:19]
• Dina Onior: "You have to be comfortable to win and lose." [34:28]

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This episode encapsulates the essence of successful real estate investing through Dina’s real-life experiences, offering listeners actionable insights and motivation to pursue their own investment goals.

Transcript

[Dave Meyer]

Foreign.

[Brandon Turner]

Imagine generating one and a half million dollars in a single deal in an.

[Dave Meyer]

Expensive market in 2025.

[Brandon Turner]

I know these numbers may sound impossible to believe, but today we are talking to a normal everyday investor who took.

[Dave Meyer]

A regular deal and found upside in it to the tune of one and a half million dollars. Dina Onior, over the course of her career, started a few different businesses, some of which failed and left her in pretty bad financial situations. But eventually she discovered real estate and gradually accumulated a handful of properties near Boston. And it was sort of a modest sustainable portfolio until she accidentally stumbled onto a once in a lifetime deal. We're going to get into Dina's full.

[Brandon Turner]

Story today and how you can look for the same types of upsides as.

[Dave Meyer]

You look for your next property. Let's bring on Dina.

[Brandon Turner]

Dina Onura, welcome to the BiggerPockets podcast.

[Dina Onior]

Thank you so much for having me, Dave. I'm so excited. Pinch me that I'm here.

[Dave Meyer]

Well, we're excited to have you as well. From everything I've read about you and heard about, you have a really cool story that I'm eager to dig into. So maybe you can just start by giving us a little bit of background on you and how you first started investing or at least thinking about real estate investing.

[Dina Onior]

Sure, yeah, absolutely. So I'm an immigrant. I came to this country about 25 years ago with my family. My father's entrepreneur, he threw me into his business sourcing different type of materials that we exported to different countries. So got married, moved to New York, had my two kids, me and my husband started the business together. We made not such a good decision. So within six months we filed the bankruptcy, had to move, relocate from New York to Boston. And that was very difficult times. That's when my husband restarted his life. I started to going back to school, got my master's. I got myself into a corporate world which I did not like a lot. I was working in the medical device industry and after that I decided to research what else can I do? And I loved home healthcare business. I quit my job and started my own company, so. So my home healthcare company has been open now for 10 years.

[Dave Meyer]

Thank you for sharing your story, Dina. It sounds like you've had a lot of the ups and downs of an entrepreneur over the course of your career and have somehow, you know, figured it out. I'm curious, sort of what gave you the drive to keep going and start another business after? Unfortunately, I'm sorry to hear that you had a business that had failed in the past. But you know, what, what was it about either your background or your personality that gave you sort of that drive to keep going and keep trying new entrepreneurial things?

[Dina Onior]

Sure. So I think that was from the early age. My father, who threw me into the business at age 16 and 17, you know, trying to find products in us, sourcing them, connecting with vendors. So he gave me a lot of push. My father really built my business skills, and I didn't even know at that time what he was doing, but I became who I am today. Just because, you know, of him.

[Dave Meyer]

Yeah. I grew up in obviously not the exact same situation, but like, my dad was always kind of like pushing me in these situations where I'd have to, like, figure things out for myself. And I find that people either go in one or two directions, they either take to it and really like it, and then want to become entrepreneurs themselves, or people just go the complete opposite direction. They're like, I want to be an accountant and I want like the most stable, predictable possible job. But it sounds like you sort of caught the entrepreneurial bug, started this home healthcare business, which is awesome. And tell us how that led into real estate for you.

[Dina Onior]

People started to just ask questions. I would get like a phone call from reception. Well, this family is looking for real estate agents. You know, do you, do you know someone? And that's what I started to like, think, why am I not buying those properties directly from my clients?

[Dave Meyer]

Interesting.

[Dina Onior]

And majority of those clients actually had single family homes. They didn't have multifamily. And at the time when I started to read, I realized, like, single family homes are not for me. I'm looking for multis. I want less risk because when you have a single family, you only have one payment coming in. So I was minimizing the risks. I knew from the entrepreneurship, like working with my dad, that, you know, things can go up and down very fast and I did not want that for sure.

[Dave Meyer]

So.

[Dina Onior]

So home health care company made me like, really open up my eyes into like a real estate world.

[Dave Meyer]

So people were looking to sell their homes because unfortunately someone in their family was either passed away or needed to move into some sort of assisted facility. So, yeah, sort of by accident you found yourself with a deal flow pipeline.

[Dina Onior]

Yeah.

[Dave Meyer]

That was sort of unexpected to you at that point. You know, you said you wanted multifamily, but, like, had you even been thinking about becoming a rental property investor or was this kind of just a unfortunate opportunity?

[Dina Onior]

No, it was just like one business was leading to another one. Like a couple of years later down the Line. I was thinking about it. I'm like, oh, my gosh, this is incredible how this has pushed me into something else. And I pivot and I listened to a lot of, like, bigger pocket stuff, which I loved. I joined networking groups, masterminds, and read a lot of books. And actually, it felt really lonely, to be honest with you, When I realized and found, like, real estate, like, I needed to find my people. I needed to find who can I talk to who can give me some guidance, and especially, like a woman. It's more like male dominate industry.

[Dave Meyer]

It's definitely a part of entrepreneurship. People don't talk about that. It is lonely, you know, when you're trying to figure everything out by yourself and you're not necessarily following the path that a lot of your friends or your family members are doing. And if you don't have a community or support group, it can be really challenging. So how did you go about finding a community that would help you? Was it. Was it just biggerpockets or were there other things you were doing as well?

[Dina Onior]

So BiggerPockets was one of them. I religiously listened to the podcast. Brenda Turner was at that time the host of the show. He's amazing guy for sure. One of my dreams is to meet him one day. And also masterminds. And I was able to network with people, learn a lot of stuff that people were doing a lot of different things. They were doing not what I had my mind set on. So some of those people grew into, like, very close relationships that we can bounce off ideas, you know, like ask questions. It's just like community of people that have the same mindset, same goals.

[Dave Meyer]

So you found yourself with this deal flow, which is really interesting. How did you go from seeing an opportunity but not being an investor? So probably not knowing exactly how to make the most of that opportunity, and then go and develop a strategy and a plan to build a business that was in line with your personal goals.

[Dina Onior]

It was really hard to, like, you know, pull the trigger. I really was, like, pushed into it. It wasn't the client from home healthcare company that I purchased my first deal from. It was actually the employee, because you have so many employees. You have 50 employees. They come and you talk and you communicate. And she told me that her landlord was selling the property because he's moving to assisted living facility. And I offered her to introduce me to him in return for a commission.

[Dave Meyer]

Oh, nice.

[Dina Onior]

And she could stay. Stay at the property. So that's how I ended up purchasing my first deal. And then I was all the way in, into rehab. I was trying to figure it out, you know, things that I need to do, pull the permits. And I ended up skipping some of the steps.

[Dave Meyer]

We all do. Not on purpose. It just happens.

[Dina Onior]

Yeah. So I was finding my deals throughout my employees and through my clients. But my clients were having single family homes, majority of them. So I passed on a lot of those deals to real estate agents because my focus was on the multifamily homes primarily. That is what I wanted to do. I had very straight focus, multifamily rehabbing them, following the birth strategy. Just like it was written in the book. I got the book and I got the recipe. So that was. That was pretty amazing.

[Brandon Turner]

All right, we do have to take a quick break, but before we go.

[Dave Meyer]

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[Brandon Turner]

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[Dave Meyer]

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[Brandon Turner]

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[Dave Meyer]

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[Brandon Turner]

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[Dave Meyer]

Thanks.

[Brandon Turner]

For sticking with us. Here's more of this week's investor story.

[Dave Meyer]

You mentioned that your goal was small, multifamily. You liked that it was relatively lower risk because you know if you have four units and someone unfortunately doesn't pay still three other incomes for as just one example. Tell us about your first couple of deals. It sounds like you were doing heavy rehabs right off the bat.

[Dina Onior]

Yeah, I did that. So first Property was a three family home. Purchased it for 289,000, put in about $70,000 into the property. I like to go in and make it look nice. I like to update all electrical, plumbing, kitchens. I don't want to have a phone calls because I'm managing properties myself.

[Dave Meyer]

Yeah.

[Dina Onior]

So my goal is always to get this to the highest ARV I can so I can refinance out, pull my construction money out and move on to the next project. So when I purchase them, purchased them as a portfolio loans at 25% down payment. I was very skeptical about people suing you and this and that. So I wanted all my properties to be under the llc.

[Dave Meyer]

And where was this? Just in what, what area of the country?

[Dina Onior]

So this is in North Attleboro in Massachusetts, sovereign part of Boston. So I rehabbed it, refinanced out in a year. I was able to pull my money completely out.

[Dave Meyer]

Oh, that's great.

[Dina Onior]

And make about $15,000, which actually $15,000 I subtracted like from the down payment.

[Dave Meyer]

And what year was this?

[Dina Onior]

I purchased 2018, 2019. I refinanced. Then I did another refi in 2023 and I was able to pull my down payment out and make $70,000. So the property value went from 289 to 650 in about five years.

[Brandon Turner]

Okay, great.

[Dave Meyer]

That's awesome. That's a huge jump. Some it sounds like due to your work and forced appreciation and value add and then some due to sort of market conditions that helped everything go up.

[Dina Onior]

Exactly.

[Dave Meyer]

That's great.

[Brandon Turner]

Awesome.

[Dave Meyer]

So what have you done since then? I mean I can see why after a deal like that, very successful, you'd want to keep going. So what did you do after that?

[Dina Onior]

So I did another one which was a six family home. It was next door and the lady who owned it, it was a six house. It was just falling apart. I sent her a couple of letters, I handwritten them, followed up with a couple of phone calls. Six months went by, she called me, she said she wasn't interested. Then couple more months, patience.

[Dave Meyer]

Yeah.

[Dina Onior]

And then I get a phone call and she told me she was ready to Sell. So it was very interesting how this deal was working out. She was 80 years old. She was leaving an hour and a half away. So I had to arrange for an attorney to go out to her house. At that time, it wasn't like really a thing. Like, attorneys were going places. Usually you come to their offices. So this was 2019. So she sold it to me for $420,000. A six family home, which was a complete mess. We needed to take down the roof, take down the walls, put new windows, siding. Like, there was a major rehab.

[Dave Meyer]

Wow.

[Dina Onior]

I think it was like $165,000 invested in that project. And the money, like, it was saving and the HELOC that I was able to pull on my house. So combination of both of those helped me go from project to project.

[Dave Meyer]

And so you're saving money from your home healthcare business, essentially, or was some of it also coming from the rental income from the first one?

[Dina Onior]

It wasn't. It wasn't that much. You can't really, like you getting like 3, 300, $500 per door. And it's only three family home. So it's. There is income, but it's good income.

[Dave Meyer]

But it takes a long time for a down payment and a renovation budget, you know, like that. That would take a long time.

[Dina Onior]

So that took like a year itself.

[Dave Meyer]

A year. Wow.

[Dina Onior]

Yeah. And because it's six family home, you can't really, like, move people out. You have to wait for them to leave. And it's just like, on its own. Like, very intense.

[Dave Meyer]

Yeah. And so I just want to make a point to people that that's one of the things when you take on a rehab with these multifamily homes, if they're not vacant when you get them, it can be really slow, and you should really plan for that and a lot of vacancy in the first year. And it's totally fine if you underwrite your deal and. And forecast at least one or two of your units being vacant at all times for the next year. It hurts, but if it still makes sense, you know, when you're running your numbers, that's fine. But pay close attention to that when the leases are coming up, how long that construction is going to be dragged out, too. Because at least in my experience, Dina, correct me if I'm wrong, like, it's also hard to keep your contractors on a good schedule when you have these sort of, like, rotating things. A lot of times you want to maximize the work that you can do when you have the person there every single day and you don't want them coming and going. So did you learn how to sort of manage your subs and your construction during the course of this project?

[Dina Onior]

I was trying different subs. That's when it was like kind of like my learning curve. Who is my team of people, you know, who do I want to continue working with? It is hard because they go from project to project, you know, sometimes they don't show up. Sometimes people take your material, you know, like it, it happens. So this is just like trial and error. You learn, I mean you get referrals and stuff, but you never know who's gonna be, you know, working with you by your side. So you have to supervise it. And I was the one actually on site with my husband checking out like what's happening, you know, like, do we need to order materials? Do we need another person in here? Do we need to fire someone?

[Dave Meyer]

Yeah.

[Dina Onior]

So it's just like it gets real, you know, when you're talking about like big projects like this.

[Dave Meyer]

How did you manage all this you were doing here? Three kids, you're running a home health care business, you have one property that you're self managing and then you're doing this big rehab. Like were you just busy all the time? Like how did you manage that?

[Dina Onior]

So my home health care business, I was only already at that time it was, I think it was like established five years ago. I was only doing just the finance, just the billing part of it. The first two years when I started my home health care company, I was grinding, I was, my husband was saying to me, you're married to your business, not to me. So it was a lot of time spent for the first two years establishing the business and then I had the freedom to actually learn what the real estate is all about. Managing kids. That's also like my part time work that I do.

[Dave Meyer]

Yeah, of course, yes, it is a lot.

[Dina Onior]

But you juggle where you're going to be needing more or less. So it's just like planning out and running with it. If you want to reach your goals, you, you just have to work hard.

[Dave Meyer]

Yeah, of course. I want to get into your, your most recent deal because I think it's going to be fun to talk about with everyone. But just question, you've done so many things and it seems like been honing more and more in on real estate. Is it just because it's the most profitable? Do you like it or like why have all these different things that you could be doing with your time? Are you doing real estate?

[Dina Onior]

I love it. I'm very passionate about it. Whenever we do a rehab, actually I do some work myself there as well. I love to tile. I think that what gives me like peace and quiet, maybe it's like a.

[Brandon Turner]

Therapeutic meditation type of thing.

[Dina Onior]

So every single unit, every single house that we bought, I would put my stamp on it. I would tile do the backsplash in the kitchen. That's just like my thing.

[Dave Meyer]

That's nice. Yeah. And then when you go visit, you're like, I did that. That's a good feeling. Nice.

[Dina Onior]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Brandon Turner]

All right, we have to pause for.

[Dave Meyer]

One final ad, but on the other.

[Brandon Turner]

Side, Dean is going to tell us about one of the most incredible real estate deals I've ever heard of.

[Dave Meyer]

We'll be right back.

[Brandon Turner]

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[Dave Meyer]

Tell me a little bit about your most recent deal because obviously market conditions have changed a lot, but you're still active. What are you doing right now?

[Dina Onior]

So in 2023, me and my husband, we were talking about moving closer to where his business is and it's in suburbs of Boston.

[Dave Meyer]

Okay.

[Dina Onior]

About like 15 minutes away. We found a house that we wanted to buy and we thought we are going to expand it because two kids were going off to college and we have this, the little child with us. So we purchased it. And when we were closing, I realized we purchased not only single family home, we purchased a house in a multi family zoning. That changed the whole strategy.

[Dave Meyer]

I'm gonna live here now. I'm gonna build an apartment building kind of. Yeah. Which is great. I mean, but like did you. So you didn't know that because you were shopping for a primary residence, right?

[Dina Onior]

Yes, we purchased it like a primary residence too. So that's why me and my husband were like, well, what do we do? And I was like, this is an opportunity to build in this very expensive market. We took like six months to really like sit and think, are we going to do it? Let's. Let's put strategy together. Are we going to like. And he's like, okay, let's not move. Let's just rent it out, develop the project, knock it down and build two beautiful townhomes.

[Dave Meyer]

Okay.

[Dina Onior]

And they both townhomes, about 7,000 square feet all together, not each.

[Dave Meyer]

Whoa. So big houses, 3500 a pop. Those are serious townhouse.

[Dina Onior]

Yeah, Huge townhouses. And I thought that I can pull it off and I did.

[Dave Meyer]

I think I love how modest you are. I just, just pull it off. I did. But that's great. So I. Let's dig into this because one of the things if you've been listening to the show recently, I've been talking about a lot is like looking for deals that work today but have upside. And this zoning upside is like one of the sneaky things that can really go buying a good deal, even if you're buying it as a rental property to from a good deal to an amazing deal. And it Sounds like Tina. You found this on your primary too. So you were going to move in, you decided not to, right?

[Dina Onior]

Not to. Yeah.

[Dave Meyer]

But did you say you rented it out then?

[Dina Onior]

So, yes, we decided to not move in, stay where we were and rented it out to college kids. And they paid 30 $700 mortgage.

[Dave Meyer]

Wow. I mean, that's still pretty good for college kids because I guess. Was it a big house?

[Dina Onior]

No, this is 900 square foot home.

[Brandon Turner]

Wait, what?

[Dina Onior]

Yeah.

[Dave Meyer]

Where's college kids get that money?

[Dina Onior]

Babson college kids.

[Dave Meyer]

Wow. I'm going to date myself, but my rent, my last year of College was like $210.

[Dina Onior]

That's amazing.

[Dave Meyer]

Okay, so I guess the other nice thing about that is I would always worry about renting to college kids. But you're going to tear down the house anyway, right? So it doesn't even matter.

[Dina Onior]

I didn't care. I didn't care. The only thing I cared about is, you know, they're going to disturb the neighbors. We had a couple of phone calls, you know, the cops came by, they said turn down the music, but that was, that was fine, you know.

[Dave Meyer]

Okay, so you had, you've done rehab at this point, but this is development.

[Dina Onior]

New development. Yeah. Ground up, construction, knocking down, you know, putting the footings is a big project that took a whole year. And we are doing the finishes right now.

[Dave Meyer]

How did you go about learning that? Because it's something, frankly I've thought about and always been a little bit wary of because it just seems like a lot of bureaucracy. Especially this is in Massachusetts. Right. I would imagine there's a lot of red tape. There's red tape everywhere, to be honest, when you, when you go through development. But certain areas, certain states are definitely more infamous for bureaucracy.

[Dina Onior]

Yeah. It took a year and a half to go through all the paperwork.

[Dave Meyer]

Okay, so good thing you rented out. So you rented it out that whole time, hopefully in basic, basically broke even.

[Dina Onior]

No, I decided to rent only for one year. In one year, the $44,000 came out of my pocket because I had all those permits with the special due dates and timelines, and I could not afford to have a tenant in there that needs more time to move or this or that.

[Dave Meyer]

Okay.

[Dina Onior]

So I didn't want to play around because I was investing 100k into architect, wetland specialist, arboretas, you know, like, you name it. Like, I had to assemble like a team of people, prepare all these documents to submit to the town and have all those permits with special due dates. So I had to like really put the schedule together. How this is all going to work out. I've never done it before. I just, like, listened to a lot of stuff, read stuff, ask questions. The biggest challenge for me was like, finances my project. If we're talking about converting the mortgage, which is the primary resident mortgage that we had, like, 5% down into construction loans. So that whole amount came into 2 million, doll.

[Dave Meyer]

Yeah. I was thinking in my head, you know, it's like, what, 300 bucks a square foot, roughly. You know, sounds like a little cheaper, but 2 million to build?

[Dina Onior]

No. Well, to get the land. So what? You have to convert the primary resident loan into a construction loan. So 740,000 plus 1.3 million is the construction budget to build two townhouses.

[Dave Meyer]

That's a ton of money.

[Brandon Turner]

Yeah.

[Dave Meyer]

So how do you do that?

[Dina Onior]

Like, for me, it took a lot of time. I went to a lot of banks. I went to actually private lenders that offered to buy my project. They offered to give me 200k on top of what I paid. I refused.

[Dave Meyer]

Well, that's annoying. But that's a vote of confidence, right? You're like, I'm on to something. If they want to buy, then I'm probably doing something right.

[Dina Onior]

So I had to figure out, two years from now, how am I going to qualify for $2 million loan? I had to go pick everyone's brain, talk to people, increase my income, start the property management for family and friends.

[Dave Meyer]

Wow. So you have like eight jobs at.

[Dina Onior]

This point, but they're like small jobs that require very little time. You know, like, you have to press this but button.

[Dave Meyer]

Well, that's good. I mean, you've clearly made it sustainable for yourself, even though you have a lot of things going on.

[Dina Onior]

Yeah, yeah. So figuring out the finances was the fun part.

[Dave Meyer]

Glad you call that fun.

[Dina Onior]

So I wanted to build for myself. So I call this primary residence house hack, like a development house hack that I created on my own. I found the bank that would land me as a construction primary residence for two family or less with very special terms. Amazing terms that I've never heard of. When we went to the closing, bank paid me.

[Dave Meyer]

Wait, what? Tell me more about that. How does that work?

[Dina Onior]

Cash to close to borrow $113,000. Because they do two appraisals. When you come to the closing, they do Aziz appraisal and they do future appraisal. So I bought it for 740. In two years, it appreciated to 1.2 million. After that, after the construction, when the building is ready, they do future appraisal value. And that came in at 3.725.

[Dave Meyer]

Okay.

[Dina Onior]

So the equity that I was generating in that project was $1.5 million.

[Dave Meyer]

Oh, my God. That's insane. Oh, my God. Wow. Congratulations. That's so cool.

[Dina Onior]

Yeah, I know.

[Dave Meyer]

Wow. So it's like $1.5 million on one deal.

[Dina Onior]

Yes.

[Dave Meyer]

Oh, my God. That's so cool. And you didn't even like, you bought this as a primary residence. So cool. What a great story.

[Dina Onior]

Yeah. So my plan is to move in and rent the other apartment and I'm going to house hack. I'm going to probably only pay 10 to 20% of the mortgage.

[Dave Meyer]

Perfect. Amazing. Congratulations. Super cool. So that's probably one of the bigger equity pops I've ever heard of on this show, which is saying a lot because we hear some pretty cool stories. That's one of the coolest ones I've heard. So amazing. Are you addicted to development now? Are you looking to do it again?

[Dina Onior]

It's very risky too. So when we were excavating, we found the ledge on the ground and that costed me an additional $70,000, which is a change order that we didn't account for. So could be a lot of stuff. Then when you're doing a construction, you know, you can bump into that you know you didn't account for and bank is not going to give you the money. You have to have your own savings and you will be able to pull it off. And the market changes a lot.

[Dave Meyer]

There's just a timing risk with it too, because it took you how long? Three years? Basically two and a half years.

[Dina Onior]

Yeah. Like we are almost done. And yeah, from the time when we bought it, development, like all those, you know, regulations, permits, until we broke the ground, it took three years with 1.5.

[Dave Meyer]

Yeah, yeah. So obviously everyone, you know, you could see the upside of development. But in my mind, there's sort of this spectrum of real estate investing strategies like rental property investing, single family homes and small multifamily is like low risk but solid return. So that's like one side of the risk spectrum and then developments on the other side. There's a lot of upside. There's amazing opportunities, but there's also a lot of risk. And so it's great to hear this $1.5 million pop. But I'm glad that you called out the risk to it as well because it's not just like something easy and you have to find great deals and there are risks in timeline and market conditions changing from the time you start a project to the time you end the project. You got to think about all of that. But obviously by Dina's story, we know that there, that it can be very, very worth it.

[Dina Onior]

Yeah.

[Dave Meyer]

So, Dina, what's next for you? What's your plan for and your goals for your portfolio over the next few years?

[Dina Onior]

Yeah, well, right now it's very hard. The prices are very high, interest rates as well. So I'm continuously looking just. You have to, like I listen to your podcast. It's like you have to find opportunities, you know, you have to create them yourself. And that's what I'm looking at right now. In Massachusetts, we have this new law that's been passed recently, adu, an accessory dwelling unit, which you can add to the single family homes, but you have to be like a primary. I believe you have to be like a primary residence for you. But I'm looking to continue looking for different opportunities where you can create square footage or where you can, you know, maybe partner up with someone and do adu. So I love the game. I know how to play it, I think. Yeah, you have to be comfortable to win and lose.

[Dave Meyer]

So for sure.

[Dina Onior]

And that's what I'm. That's what I'm comfortable with.

[Dave Meyer]

Awesome. Well, good luck to you. If your track record is any indication, I'm sure you're going to find more ways to find upside in this new changing era of real estate investing that we're in. But Dina, thank you so much for joining us today and telling us your story. This is a lot of fun.

[Dina Onior]

Thank you. Thank you, Dave. Thank you for having me.

[Dave Meyer]

Of course. And thank you all so much for listening. We appreciate it.

[Brandon Turner]

Make sure to share this story if.

[Dave Meyer]

You know someone who might want to get into real estate investing but doesn't know how to do it or thinks that they can't. Dina's story is such a great example of how you can figure it out. Hustle your way, work hard to build a great portfolio, find financial freedom through real estate. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you again soon for another episode of the Biggerpockets Podcast.

[Brandon Turner]

Thank you all for listening to the 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 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.