How to Turn Your “Stuff” Into Cash-Flowing Assets (And Buy More Rentals)

Summary

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Real Estate Rookie Podcast Episode Summary

Episode Title: How to Turn Your “Stuff” Into Cash-Flowing Assets (And Buy More Rentals)
Hosts: Ashley Kehr & Tony J. Robinson
Guest: Kimber Rachu (Air Force veteran, PhD candidate, founder of Pathfinder)
Date: April 20, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode tackles how everyday “stuff” (including vehicles and campers) and creative financing can help rookie investors build a rental portfolio—even across continents. Guest Kimber Rachu shares her journey as a military spouse and veteran who turned basic assets into cash flow, leveraged VA loans, seller financing, IRA lending, and unorthodox hustles to grow her investment portfolio, all while balancing a PhD and relocating internationally. The conversation is packed with actionable advice for those starting or scaling their beginner portfolios, with real talk about the challenges and lessons learned along the way.

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Kimber’s Real Estate Journey: Background & Getting Started

[00:44]

• Kimber joined the Air Force in 2010, bought her first house in Utah at 22 using a VA loan on the advice of a mentor ([00:52]).
• Learned from early trial and error about buying and selling homes, moving multiple times for military assignments (Germany, Korea, England, Utah, and now Virginia).
• Emphasized creatively turning liabilities (like campers and trucks) into cash-flowing assets by renting them out in between personal uses ([02:29]).
• Applies a hands-on, opportunistic mindset to investing: "Anything that we have that I could potentially put to work, like I’m trying to do that." – Kimber ([02:29]).
• Set to close her first mobile home park purchase using home equity and seller financing ([02:29]).

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Portfolio Breakdown

[04:04]

• Utah house: Rented long-term to tenants, close to a military base, purchased with VA loan.
• England house: Also rented, another base-adjacent property, leveraging demand from transient military population.
• Virginia home: Currently owned residence, also with a VA loan.
• Upcoming: Mobile home park in Louisiana via seller financing.
• Additional income: Camper and truck rentals, and recently acquired a Virginia notary certification for side income ([04:04]).

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Lessons in Property Management & Landlording

Transition from Selling to Renting

[05:30]

• Chose to rent out her Utah house after moving, initially used property managers but faced communication issues, ultimately managed remotely with online tools and a trusted local agent for showings and check-ins.

Early Mistakes & Lease Agreements

[06:14]

• Started with a basic lease and later faced tenant challenges:
  "The biggest mistake we made… was not having the best practices in place right away. Like we just had a basic lease and that was a big mistake." – Kimber ([06:14])
• Invested ~$3,000 for a detailed 25-page attorney-prepared lease to protect both landlord and tenant interests ([08:56]).

Key Takeaway for Rookies

• Treat your rental like a business from the start. Don’t skimp on documentation or local legal help—especially when managing from afar.
• Maintain strong local connections: "Having a trusted person there to be able to help us... just have a really good relationship with him and he’s trustworthy. I can count on him." – Kimber ([07:49]).

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Financing Approaches: VA Loans, IRA Lending, and Seller Finance

Using a VA Loan

[19:09], [20:50]

• Kimber debunks the myth that you can only have one VA loan at a time. Multiple loans are possible as long as you stay under the entitlement cap.
• As a disabled veteran, she has VA fees waived, adding further benefits when purchasing ([20:15]).
• Real-world example: Secured a 2.25% interest rate by refinancing, underscoring the long-term value of great mortgage terms.

"I will never refinance that house." – Kimber, on her VA-financed Utah property’s low rate ([21:06])

• Used the proceeds from selling vehicles during a supply shortage to fund a down payment for the England home, advising:
  "Just be creative. You know, like, what asset do you have that you could potentially use to buy a house there?" – Kimber ([22:09])

IRA Lending

[15:12]

• Learned about self-directed IRAs at a mastermind retreat. Moved her retirement funds to Madison Trust, enabling her to lend ~$38,000 at 10% interest for another investor’s real estate rehab ([15:12]).
• Encountered her first default but the IRA custodian managed foreclosure, providing a safety net.
• Takeaway: IRA/401(k) money can diversify, but comes with distinct risks and legal precautions.
• [Memorable Cautionary Tale]
  "The borrower… pretty much ghosted the company and hasn’t been answering anyone… But my money is guaranteed." – Kimber ([15:12])

Seller Financing

[24:59]

• Found a mobile home park deal through peer networking—asked the seller directly about seller financing and negotiated mutually favorable terms:
  "She was willing to seller finance it. I threw a number out there and she countered slightly and yeah, we’re excited." ([26:42])
• Explained seller financing simply for listeners:
  "You may have to put a little bit down like cash to them and then they’re going to finance the rest of it for you. So you’ll just be paying the owner directly..." ([28:34])
• Major benefit: Flexible terms and often easier qualifying than with banks, but puts the onus on the buyer to conduct due diligence (inspections, insurance, etc.).

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Turning “Stuff” into Income: Camper & Truck Rentals

[35:35]

• Purchased camper after re-enlisting in the Air Force and used sign-up bonus to pay for it outright ([38:41]).
• Rented the camper out using multiple platforms (Outdoorsy, RVShare, RVnGO), earning $180–$200 per night, plus weeklong discounts ([37:09]).
• Developed rental agreements, required renters to watch a custom YouTube tutorial for smooth hand-offs.
• Benefit: Minimal monthly costs meant most income (after insurance) was profit:
  "All that cost coming back was almost majority profit." – Kimber ([39:14])
• Also rented out the family truck and pursued a notary public license for additional income streams.

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Time Management as a Military Family & PhD Candidate

[39:43]

• Juggles investing, multiple side hustles, and her PhD studies.
• Credits a strict home routine, late nights, and a heavily supportive spouse; maximizes veteran education benefits (GI Bill, vocational rehab) to subsidize studies.

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Key Actionable Takeaways & Quotes

• Creative Asset Utilization: "My motto... has been turning our liabilities into assets."
• Rookie Landlord Lesson: "Treat it like a business from the very start. Like don’t kind of skimp on anything."
• VA Loan Wisdom: Don’t believe the myth that you can only use your VA benefit once—there is an overall threshold, but multiple VA loans can be open if eligibility allows.
• Seller Finance Mentality: Never be afraid to ask if seller financing is an option—sometimes sellers have incentive to agree, especially for tax reasons.
• Self-Directed IRA Alert: Higher reward does mean higher risk—ensure diligent research and understand what your custodian will do if things go sideways.
• Leverage Your Community: Peer groups, masterminds, and military communities are a goldmine for leads and firsthand advice.
• Multiplying Income Starts Small: Even one camper or vehicle can be a recurring, low-effort moneymaker with the right systems.

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• "Anything that we have that I could potentially put to work, like I’m trying to do that." – Kimber ([02:29])
• "The biggest mistake we made... was not having the best practices in place right away." – Kimber ([06:14])
• "Treat it like a business from the very start. Like don’t kind of skimp on anything..." – Kimber ([07:49])
• "My money is guaranteed. So I’m not freaking out ... They’re handling it all." – Kimber, on self-directed IRA deal ([15:12])
• "Just be creative. What asset do you have that you could potentially use to buy a house there?" – Kimber ([22:09])
• "You may have to put a little bit down ... and then they’re going to finance the rest of it for you ..." – Kimber, on seller finance ([28:34])
• "All that costs coming back was almost majority profit." – Kimber, on camper rentals ([39:23])
• "I stay up late. I have a supportive husband ... I kind of have my own little routine just to make sure I’m up to date on everything." – Kimber ([39:43])

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Segment Timestamps

• Background & Getting Started: [00:44]–[04:04]
• Portfolio Overview: [04:04]–[05:07]
• Managing from Afar; Leases: [05:07]–[09:36]
• Attorney Lease Investment: [08:51]–[09:36]
• IRA Lending Experience: [14:57]–[17:34]
• VA Loan Deep Dive: [19:09]–[24:38]
• Seller Financing Story: [24:43]–[30:36]
• Side Hustles & Camper Rental: [35:14]–[39:23]
• Balancing Investments and PhD: [39:26]–[40:31]

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How to Reach Kimber

• On Instagram: @fndr_investments or search for "Kimber Rachu"

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This episode is a powerful playbook for rookie investors who feel limited by finances, geography, or experience—showing what’s possible with hustle, resourcefulness, and a willingness to turn liabilities into assets.

Transcript

[A]

Most rookies think creative financing means one thing. Getting a deal with no money down. But today's guest has built a portfolio across multiple countries, multiple asset types, and multiple income streams, all while stationed overseas with the military. And she did it without waiting for perfect conditions.

[B]

Kimber Rachi is an Air Force veteran, PhD candidate and founder of Pathfinder. And she's used seller financing, IRA lending, and even her own camper and truck to build cash flow for her family.

[A]

This is the Real Estate Rookie Podcast, and I'm Ashley Kerr.

[B]

And I'm Tony J. Robinson. And with that, let's give a big, warm welcome to Kimber. Kimber, thank you for joining us on the Real Estate Rookie Podcast. Happy to have you.

[C]

Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here.

[A]

So, Kimber, give us the background on who you are, where you are now in life, and how did you get started in real estate?

[C]

Well, I guess I'll start from when I joined the military. I joined in 2010, and. And my first base was in Germany. When I was getting ready to move from there to Utah. At my next duty station in 2013, one of my mentors was kind of telling me, like, hey, you should really just buy a house when you move, because you're already gonna get housing allowance from the military. So when I moved there at 22, I bought my first house by myself, and that kind of just got me really interested in, hey, there's, like, other things I could be doing, you know. So I had my first house. I met my husband there. He's still active duty in the military. And we ended up going to Korea for a year. We were at separate bases there. We ended up coming back to Utah again. We went there to try and go somewhere new, but we ended up right back in Utah. We bought another house there, but I had sold the first one, so unfortunately, like, I didn't get the chance to maximize that. But I bought it with a VA loan, and I didn't have to have any money down, you know, and my mortgage was, like, $700, so it was really kind of easy to navigate. And when we bought our second home, we had our kids and ended up getting out of the military. During COVID I ended up buying an incubator, and I was, like, hatching out chickens on the side.

[A]

At first, I thought you were talking about, like, an incubator business, like a startup business from, like, an incubator.

[C]

I guess it was, you know, it was during COVID and everyone wanted to start their own farm. So I tried to aid that as much as I could. And we bought our camper and when we weren't utilizing it, I was renting it out on other platforms and kind of like my motto the whole time has been turning our liabilities into assets. So like anything that we have that I could potentially put to work, like I'm trying to do that. So we moved to England. We just came back from there. So we moved to England in 2021 and that kind of got us started in a rental. So our Utah house was getting rented out and in 2022 we bought a home in England. You know, a lot of people didn't think it could be done for like one of the five people I know maybe that bought houses over there. And now that's being rented out. We're in Virginia. We've done all sorts of extra, I guess, side hustles, you could say. Like if it's a potential, I'm gonna try it. And right now I have a deal that should be closing in the end of May for a mobile home park. I'm going to be using my home equity to do the down payment and it's. The rest of it's going to be seller financed. So like I'm super excited about that. It just kind of stumbled upon, I saw it.

[B]

I mean you, you've just, you've been in so many different scenarios already. Like you know, incubator England, like all over the place, Utah, Korea. Give us the quick overview. What does your portfolio look like today?

[C]

So to put it in simple terms, we have a home in Utah that's being rented out with long term tenants. They'll actually be sadly moving out this summer because they want to buy their own home. They've been great. And it's on an acre. It does great in the area it's in, it's close to the base. And then we have our home in England that we're renting out right now and that's also close to the base. So like our target is kind of military members potentially because it kind of secures us for the two to three years that they're potentially going to be there. And we bought a home here in Virginia. So the home in Utah, home in Virginia are on VA loans. And then I'm going to be buying this mobile home park. We rent out our camper. We were renting out our truck. Yeah, like there's just so. And I just got my Virginia notary certification. So I'm just like now that we're back in the States, I'm ready to Just go full throttle on everything and just do what I can for my family.

[A]

Well, Kimber, I want to tell you first of all, thank you for your service and your husband's service also. Let's go back to the beginning and let's start with that Utah house. So you made a decision to rent it out instead of selling it. And why, why did you make that decision and how did you end up managing the property and what was it like being a landlord for you to begin with?

[C]

It was, it's like a very complicated story. We ended up having someone interested that wanted to run it out and because they knew we were moving. So we did that and we initially had a couple of property managers, but there was just so many issues and lack of communication and I eventually just kind of took it over. I use online platform for property management for myself, for our property. I have an agent there that I work with that helps with showings and doing like routine check ins every so often.

[A]

What, how was the process? Was it what you expected when you rented it out? Did you find it easier than you thought?

[C]

The biggest mistake we made kind of was not having the best like practices in place right away. Like we just had a basic lease and that was a big mistake. So now I've learned from that and we have a great attorney that put together an amazing lease for this home. Yes, it was a big investment to pay the attorney to do it, but it's paying off and like that's something I wish I would have done from the beginning. But it was a good learning experience and now I can put that to practice with everything else I'm doing.

[B]

Kimber, it sounds like something may have happened that like encourage you to go pay an attorney to build out this new lease. You want to, you want to share with us?

[C]

I don't want to deep dive on to it. I will just say like we had some things happen when a tenant moved out and it has just piled into this long ongoing thing. Hopefully it's going to be over with in the next couple of months. But all of our other tenants have been great and like we haven't had any issues after that.

[B]

Kimber, for. For rickies that are looking to get started because obviously, you know, it sounds like you had a bad experience with the tenant, which is an unfortunate part of being a landlord. And, and usually it's not a matter of if that happens, but just when. Sounds like it happened maybe a little bit earlier for you in your investing career. But for all of the rookies that are listening, whether it's either specifically about the lease or maybe how you screened. What are the lessons you took away from this experience that you would pass down to the folks who are looking to get that first tenant and their first rental.

[C]

What I would suggest is treat it like a business from the very start. Like don't kind of skimp on anything. I guess, like going for the basic lease. Yeah. That fulfilled what we needed. And I didn't know any better at the time. I didn't think about having an attorney go ahead and like do a lease special for our property. So I think that was the biggest thing. And especially since we weren't in the same location, we were overseas, which is like thousands of miles away. You know, it's a long flight to get there. If something drastic happened that I had to go there. So having a trusted person there to be able to help us, and we do have that now. It's a realtor that we've known, he actually sold us the house. And we just have a really good relationship with him and he's trustworthy. I can count on him to be able to be my backup, like my eyes on, on the site when I need it.

[B]

Last question. How much did your attorney charge you for the lease? Just so Ricky's have a sense of what it costs at least, at least in your market.

[C]

Okay, so in our market it was with the revisions and everything. After I reviewed it, it was about $3,000. But it's also like a 25 page lease that covers everything, you know, just not only to cover us, but to cover the tenants as well and making sure that we have everything in accordance with Utah law, like we're good to go on anything that could be questionable. So like if they have any questions about if they can have a pet or if they can paint or you know, make any kind of like modifications like getting permission beforehand and stuff like that.

[A]

When I first started as a property manager, before I had any rentals of my own, the very first day I was put into an office and it's like, here you go, here's a drawer full of police agreements. And it was a one page lease agreement. And I mean, I'd never managed a property. I. I don't think I'd ever even seen a lease. I mean, when I was in college I lived on campus. I probably had to sign some kind of lease, but I don't know, it was just piled in all the documents I had to sign for college. But I knew that this probably wasn't right, that it was just one page and like this was for a 40 unit apartment complex. It wasn't like it was just a single family home. And over time I started to ask people to see their leases and things like that and worked with an attorney to develop an actual lease agreement and not just this one pager, but that. I just think a lease agreement can protect you in so many ways. It can be the bad guy. Every year I send my lease agreement to my attorney and I say, can you review it? My attorney works with a ton of investors, a ton of landlords. I want to know if an issue came up throughout that year that never has happened before, but happened. I want to be protected now when I do all my lease renewals for the year. And it's not very costly once you have the lease agreement built out to have them reviewed every year. I don't even know if I'm getting charged for it. But to get it reviewed every year, it doesn't take that much time to ask for it. So that's something else you guys could put into your asset management list for everyone listening is to make sure that you are updating your lease agreements every single year or if you had something happen yourself too that you need to take care of.

[C]

Yeah, definitely. I'm so glad that we just went ahead and I guess bit the bullet, as you'd say, and paid for it and got it done because like now I have a little bit more peace of mind and like if something happens, like it's already laid out and what, what can and can't be done and you know what happens if something else happens.

[A]

Coming up, Kimber is about to close on a mobile home park through a seller finance deal. We're also going to learn how she's been able to finance her deals. We'll be right back after word from our show sponsors.

[D]

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[A]

We're going to talk about something that most of you are probably wondering about. So Kimber, you were lending money through your ira. First of all, how did you even know this was possible to purchase a property? And can you explain to us how it actually works?

[C]

So I ended up finding a mastermind group and I went on a retreat in 2025. It was a retreat in Tennessee. I met a bunch of other ladies and some of them were talking about they were lending their money out via an IRA to other investors. So I got the name of the lady, she was also like affiliated with the other people in this mastermind. And I just reached out to her and I was like, hey, I'm think I have my money in Vanguard right now, but I'm thinking of switching it over to something so I can lend it out on deals. So I ended up moving all my money over to Madison Trust which is like where you can put your IRA money and lend it out to other people. And they, her company sent me a couple slide decks of a couple different investors that were looking for capital on deals they were doing. And there was one in Tennessee that was a three bed, two and a half bath I think and it was getting renovated. So I ended up lending out 38,000 something dollars and I was getting 10% interest a month. But actually this was my first time doing it and the borrower would when it came time to pay, finish paying out like at the end of the term. He pretty much ghosted the company and hasn't been answering anyone. Multiple chances, reaching out, reaching out, reaching out. Finally the company I'm working with, it got their foreclosure attorney and he just filed all the paperwork to get it going. So basically I mean my money is guaranteed. So like I'm not freaking out because I'm not the one doing all the little details like I normally am. They're handling it all. So they're going through foreclosure. And what's going to happen is if nobody puts a bid on it, that's what like we need to at least get paid out as then it reverts to the company and they'll either wholesale it or they'll finish out the rehab, whatever else needs done and then just we'll sell it at market which could potentially be better for us investors because we could get a bigger payout.

[A]

So this I think is a huge cautionary tale of there is some risk to doing this, but also there can be a lot of upside of investing in a deal. I do have a self directed IRA also. I just did it last year. I rolled money from an old 401k into it and I actually invested in a tech company where it's a lot longer waiting period to actually make any money off of it. But I think it is so interesting is how you can take this money if you have money sitting and you have it invested in stocks and it's your retirement money. You can go ahead and put it into a self directed IRA and actually use it to lend out on other people's deals. If you want to kind of diversify your retirement or your portfolio by investing in other people's deals, there are lots of rules and regulations that you have to follow. Like I can't go and invest in my own deal, things like that. So unfortunately, yeah, yeah. Tony, have you ever done a self directed ira?

[B]

I haven't, no. Yeah, I've, I've never explored it, but there's definitely a benefit to it. I've worked with a lot of my private money lenders who use self directed IRAs or solo for 1,401ks, but never personally.

[A]

So, Kimber, you've been able to do this with your IRA to diversify into real estate. How are some of the ways that you have funded your deals? You did mention a little bit about a VA loan and creative finance. Kind of tell us how you've been able to do all this funding.

[C]

So the first home I bought was VA loan. The second home we bought in Utah was also a VA loan and it still has the VA loan on it.

[B]

Can I ask one follow up question on that? Because, you know, I think there's a lot of.

[C]

Oh, limit.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, there's, there's a lot of confusion, I think, around like the limits around a VA loan where some folks think that you can only have one loan out at one time. But we've interviewed guests who said there's actually like a limit. As long as you're under that limit, you can potentially get multiple properties. So walk us through because it sounds like you, you purchased two properties, both with a VA loan. Did you have to refinance that first, first, VA loan first to purchase the second, or were you able to have two open VA loans at the same time?

[C]

No, you can have multiple VA loans open at the same time. There is like a threshold and I'm not sure of the exact dollar amount. It's pretty high though. But you can have like, even after we're here for two years and say we end up having to move somewhere else and we're going to rent this out, we'll still be able to buy another house with a VA loan.

[A]

Is that because your husband is active military?

[C]

I would still have some benefit left probably. But like he, he also has his benefit as well, but we use mine because since I'm a disabled veteran with the va, I don't have to pay a funding fee. Usually that's the one kicker to the VA loan is there's a funding fee on it, which could be, like, from $3,000, Tina. Like $10,000 or whatever. So that's waived for disabled veterans if you're able to do it. But it gets added onto the loan. It's not like you have to pay it as a down payment or anything like that.

[A]

Isn't there another thing with the VA loan is to, like, the interest rate. It's like RBFL or something where, like, even when you close on the loan after so many months, you can go and refinance it, or you're not refinancing it, but they'll adjust your rate.

[C]

Um, I haven't done that, and I haven't heard of that, but we refinanced our home in Utah, and I'll. I'll actually tell you guys, we have a 2.25 interest rate on our home in Utah, and I'm. I will never refinance that house. We refinanced it, like, after we initially bought it and got, like, a point lower. So we will be keeping that forever. The home in England. So when we moved to England, we had two newer vehicles, and this was in 2021. There was, like, a big thing going on with vehicle chips. Not having enough of the chips for the vehicles. I don't know if you guys remember that. Like, there was a shortage on. Yeah, there was a shortage on new vehicles because they didn't have all these microchips. They weren't being, like, made or something like that during the whole Covid era. So we ended up selling our two vehicles and we actually got more for the one than what we paid for it. And they. Yeah, yeah. So I was like, yeah, well, I

[B]

sold one during COVID as well. And it was the same thing.

[C]

Yeah. So we sold them and then we ended up having, like, a decent amount in our savings when we got to England. And, you know, that's when I started asking in the local community there of military families, like, hey, has anyone bought a house here? And, you know, a lot of people were just such Debbie Downers about it, like, oh, you can't do that. It's like such a long process. You'll never get approved. They don't lend Americans, but obviously they do. Like, we have our home now, and that's where we use the down payment money from. Was from selling our vehicles. So, like, I just. And other people that are there, because I post about it in groups there still to kind of give people info, and people will tag me with questions. So the one thing I try and tell people is just be creative. You know, like, what asset do you have that you could potentially use to buy a house there? Because we were actually going to buy a second home before we left there, but the sellers ended up not wanting to do some fixes to the electrical systems and stuff like that. So the sale, we didn't go through with it. And then we ended up moving, like, shortly after. So we were going to use a home equity from our Utah home to buy or to do the down payment on it.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

So, like, there's always some sort of creative way to get into the home there.

[A]

I. I love how your mind thinks about these things and the creativity of where I always call it, where to find money. You know, like, oh, looking under the mattress, but actually like creative in, you know, factual ways. But, you know, where. What assets can I look at to pull money out of? What liabilities can I sell? Like, things like that. I think that's great. You have that creative rate of mine. I did pull up real quick what that thing is called with the interest rate, and it's irrl. Okay, so whatever. I said there's no F in it or whatever, but it's interest rate reduction Refinance loan with the va. And so you get to refinance your loan. Basically they're just giving you a new interest rate. So if you close down your VA loan and then rates dropped afterwards, you could do this. And it's like a super speedy, quick thing. And I think you get to do it one time after you've gotten the loan. So I don't. I just like quickly glancing at it, I don't see like an expiration date. Like, not that you're going to want to do it for your 2% loan, but. Or be able to do anytime soon at least. But yeah. So it's just like there are such cool benefits of the VA loans.

[C]

No, definitely. And I think a lot of people don't realize they can utilize it.

[B]

Well, the VA is one form of financing. But Kimber, you mentioned you're closing on a mobile home park deal as well, and you used seller financing for that one. So I guess for ourselves. How did you find this mobile home park in Louisiana? And how did seller financing even come into the picture?

[C]

This retreat that I went to last year, I met a bunch of people that I've already seen on the video calls through the classes we've done. And I talked to her and I have her on Facebook and I knew that she owned a Tanning salon. And I saw she sold it to another girl that lives in Louisiana that I also know from this group. And I was like, oh, Michelle, did you buy this? But by her tanning salon? And she's like, oh, yeah, I did. Like, you know, I, I got it from Stacy. And so she commented on there, she's like, oh, I'm also going to sell my house and my two mobile home parks. I was like, oh, okay. I was like, I'm interested. So I started messenger. I got her number. She gave me, you know, all the info I needed to kind of do my, my number crunching and figuring out if it would benefit me, like in a way that I think would be worth it to her and to me. And she told me how much she wanted down. She wanted 20% down. So we worked on a number that worked for both of us on her three unit park. It's on a little over three acres and it has a pond. Three new, three newer units. They're 2025s. And yeah, she was willing to sell her finance it. I threw a number out there and she countered slightly and yeah, we're excited.

[A]

So did she, I have to ask, did she offer seller financing or did you ask her for it?

[C]

Well, when we first started talking, I was like, are you interested in doing that? Because she, she was talking about it. So yeah. And she just said yes. And then I really started getting serious about it because this would be a great opportunity for me to kind of like get into something else other than homes we buy and live in.

[A]

So that's the thing. It never hurts to ask. I one thing whenever I like get face to face with sellers. And I think it's harder to do this with agents when there's agents being the middleman and you're like playing telephone back and forth. But like when you like ask the seller, are you interested in doing seller financing? And then they say no. And it's like. And then I always follow up with, oh, okay, I didn't know if your account or CPA had talked to you about the tax advantages of it. And it kind of just like hopefully sounds a little alarm in their head. And then, you know, they go off and talk to their accountant, their CPA and stuff. And like there was this one guy recently that went to his accountant and talked about and he's like, okay, so I've got a plan. I'll do these three first this year and then next year we're going to do these ones and we're going to seller finance this and do this and everything is like went and laid out this whole plan plan. So it never hurts, hurts to ask at all or to like, especially if their accountant or CPA is telling them to do seller financing because of the tax benefits coming from them, somebody they trust, then someone who's trying to buy their property. It goes such a long way with them too.

[B]

Watch. Let's do two things. First, Kimber, if you can, just for the rookies who maybe haven't heard of seller financing, just break it down for us. And why is maybe seller financing more attractive than a bank loan? And Ash, you know, I would love to hear your perspective on what are the actual tax benefits that those sellers get. But, but Kimber, if you can start first, like what, what is seller finance for someone that's never heard of it before?

[C]

So seller financing pretty much is whoever the owner of the property is that you're looking at or business they're willing to sell it to you by essentially you may have to put a little bit down like cash to them and then they're going to finance the rest of it for you. So you'll just be paying the owner directly basically. And it's super beneficial because one, you might not have to do as big of a down payment as you would if you use like a conventional loan. And the terms are a little bit more negotiable. With mine, I ended up doing a five year balloon payment. So we're going to do it at X percent for the five years and then when the five years comes up, we're going to review it and see if hey, she wants to keep seller financing it. Do we want to change our terms or am I going to, you know, maybe I have something else I cashed out on that I can just pay her the lump sum or refinance it some other way.

[B]

Well, those are the benefits to the seller, right, Is that they're getting the tax benefit, they're getting the additional interest. And obviously for you as the buyer, the benefit is that you can kind of control your terms a little bit more. But there's also some things that banks do, especially for rookie investors that I think are somewhat helpful. You know, like they get an appraisal, right. There are certain inspections that need to be done. You know, there, there are a lot of, you know, there's a lot of paperwork involved. For me, from a seller financing perspective, what are the things that rookies need to watch out for that a traditional bank might normally protect them from?

[C]

Well, doing your own due diligence for sure. And I've already, you know, luckily the one, the one girl that's actually like a boss there, she's getting into so many properties and hotels and stuff. She hooked me up with who she uses for inspections and who she uses for insurance and she's been able to connect me with a lot of contacts. So I'll be getting inspections done and all of that good stuff on my own before we finally close and everything.

[B]

All right, we talked about finance and we talked about buying on different continents and we want to talk about some of the side hustles that Kimber also used to help help her her first deals. We'll cover that right after a word from today's show sponsors.

[D]

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[A]

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[B]

All right, we're back here with Kimber. And Kimber, we talked about you buying on different continents. We talked about you using seller financing. What I want to talk about next is renting out your camper and your truck. Tell us how this started and was this like a calculated decision or something that just kind of happened spontaneously? Walk us through how you. How you came to that decision. That was the right move for you.

[C]

Like I said earlier, I just like to kind of find ways for liabilities that we have to turn it into something that's going to benefit our family more. So after we bought this camper, when I got out of the military, because we want to do, like, camping, we were living in Utah at the time. There's tons of beautiful parks around there. We. The first place we took it to as a family was to Yellowstone. We went to Moab, Bryce Canyon, all over the place, Zion. And obviously we're not going to be using it every single weekend. So rather than it sitting in our gravel driveway, I was like, I'm gonna go ahead and list this. And I had it booked out, like, consistently when we lived there.

[A]

Kimber, where did you list it?

[C]

I listed it on Outdoorsy, rv, Share, RV and go. I think that's it. And then I would like post it on Marketplace with the links.

[A]

Is there, like a property management software? You know, like, for my short term rental, you know, I can link to vrbo, I can link to Airbnb and the calendars, like, sync. Do you have to, like, manually do that on all these different websites? For an rv, they used to not

[C]

have it where you could, like, have an auto link. Now they do. So back when I first started it, I'd have to manually log into each site, and then when someone would book, I'd go block it out on the other platform. That's the only, like, downside of it. But now, now it's up to date.

[B]

And can you just give us, like, the, like, if you remember, like, what are the quick numbers? Like, how much could you rent this thing out for? Someone booked it for a weekend.

[C]

I mean, it really depends it on, like, your size, your camper. So ours sleeps about eight people. It has a bunkhouse in it, which a lot of families like. And it's a travel trailer, so it's a bumper pool. So you don't have to have like the fifth wheel attachment in your truck to be able to do it and all of it when I was doing it was people were just coming and picking it up. I didn't do deliveries. So our unit was anywhere from like $180 a night to $200 a night. It really just depends on the time of the season. Yeah, and rent it out a lot. You know, we do discounts if it was a week or so or a little bit longer. And yeah, it just stayed rented out. What I did to kind of help with it was I had a special rental agreement that I would have the renters sign in conjunction with whatever they signed on the platform to kind of just cover ourselves. And they also had to watch our YouTube video on how everything works, because we would always get people that showed up, and they've never even looked at a camper before. So, you know, you want them to get a little bit of a sense of, okay, this is how this works. So when they'd come pick it up, we'd do a little intro of everything and make sure they know everything's in working order and that they have all the info they need to go back to if they're out in the middle of nowhere with no service, you know.

[B]

And were you. Did you finance the. The camper or did you pay cash for it?

[C]

Since I was in the military, sometimes when you re enlist, you get reenlistment bonuses. And I swear, the Air Force has been so good to my family. Like, they, like, we just get blessings sometimes, you know. And when you reenlist our career field, we were both aircraft mechanics, and they're really short, man, sometimes. So I had. I got a reenlistment bonus prior to that when I reenlisted. So we use that chunk to kind of go ahead and pay for the camper, man.

[B]

So you didn't have really any monthly expenses on this, aside from, like, insurance. So all that costs coming back was. Was almost majority profit?

[C]

Yeah, basically.

[A]

Well, Kimber, during this time, you're all of this stuff that you're doing, you're also pursuing your PhD. So what does that look like? Building your portfolio, starting these different ventures and pursuing a PhD? How do you make time for it all?

[C]

I stay up late. I have a supportive husband, so, like, he helps me out. And, you know, when we were overseas in England, I utilize for any veterans out there. I really utilized the education benefits that we get, and I use my post 911 GI bill, and. And now I'm using the vocational rehab program to do my PhD. So I kind of just try to make time for it every night. I dedicate on getting on my computer and following up on what homework I have for my classes and, you know, periodically checking in on my tenants and everything else we have. I kind of have my own little routine just to make sure I'm up to date on everything.

[A]

Well, Kimber, thank you so much for joining us today and to sharing your lessons, learned, your journey, and congratulations on your accomplishments. Can you let everyone know where they can reach out to you and find more information about what you're doing F

[C]

I n D r investments and you should be able to find me. If not, you can search my name. Kimber Ricci. R A C H U Y well,

[A]

Kimber, thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciated you taking the time to come onto the show.

[C]

Thank you.

[A]

And to all our rookie listeners, thank you so much for joining us every week, three times a week to listen to the show. I'm Ashley, he's Tony, and we'll see you guys on the next episode.

[B]

Hey, rookies, if you're watching this, we want you to apply to be a guest on the real estate rookie podcast. That's right. Ashley and I are looking for amazing stories just like yours to be a part of our real estate rookie podcast. Now look, you don't need to be an expert. You don't need to have done thousands of deals. Even if you've done one deal, your story could help inspire the next listener.

[A]

As a rookie investor, especially if you just got your first deal, it is all fresh in your minds and you are the best person to tell your story, give your experience on how you got it done to help someone else get their first deal.

[B]

So head over to biggerpockets.com guest if you want to be a part of our show again. That's biggerpockets.com guest and we'd love to have you on.