From Fitness Instructor to Rental Arbitrage to Full Time Real Estate

[Jake Mercer]

In 2020, I was a fitness instructor with zero real estate experience and $10k saved up.

In 2023, I bought 3 investment properties and 7 acres of land.

I wouldn’t have been able to do this if I didn’t start with rental arbitrage 3 ½ yrs ago.

It’s a powerful strategy.. if used correctly.

Here is how I used $10k to build a $500/k yr. Airbnb business (down emoji) and buy investment properties and land of my own....

I started with a 3br/1ba in March, 2020. I only had $10k to my name.

My rent was $1795/mo and I agreed to a 2 year lease. I was ~ $12k all in with furniture, security deposit, first month rent and maxing out my personal credit cards to get it ready with photos.

That $12k provided me with an airbnb profiting me $1.4k/mo in profit. Not a killing but it was a start! 

I learned quickly how important it was to provide value and a unique experience to stand out from competition and to make more profit. I also learned the opportunity to scale with rental arbitrage. My properties were making my original investment back in profits within 6-8 months max and I was able to reinvest my profits into the next property fairly quickly.

In 2021, I got my second unit. A 3br/3ba luxury apartment near a major university.

Rent was $2950/mo and it made me $1600/profit per month.

With two units and within 2 years, I was making $4k/mo in profit from 2 airbnb’s I didn’t own and I only started with $10k.

I replicated this process until I brought on a business partner and hired a full time operations manager and we scaled to a 17 property portfolio between rental arbitrage units, management deals and properties we bought.

I did this strategy in my early 30’s and I’m 33 yrs old now. I’m no longer a fitness instructor and I’m full time running our Airbnb business and I know I can achieve my goal of being a millionaire by 35 yr. old.

It wasn’t always easy and it certainly wasn’t “passive” but just like any business, you go through those pain points and obstacles to develop your product, systems and services so that you are able to create the lifestyle you want. 

As of 2023, for every $1500 dollar spent in the world $1 of that is spent on Airbnb. Airbnb is a million hosts away from matching up with the current demand of people needing short term rentals when traveling.  Yet, people think this opportunity is a “bust”. This is a great opportunity to get started in your real estate investing career.

If you got value from this post, please: 

Follow me, share this post or comment below! Happy to connect with anyone getting started in Airbnb's or Rental Arbitrage

[JD Martin]

Quote from @Jake Mercer:

In 2020, I was a fitness instructor with zero real estate experience and $10k saved up.

In 2023, I bought 3 investment properties and 7 acres of land.

I wouldn’t have been able to do this if I didn’t start with rental arbitrage 3 ½ yrs ago.

It’s a powerful strategy.. if used correctly.

Here is how I used $10k to build a $500/k yr. Airbnb business (down emoji) and buy investment properties and land of my own....

I started with a 3br/1ba in March, 2020. I only had $10k to my name.

My rent was $1795/mo and I agreed to a 2 year lease. I was ~ $12k all in with furniture, security deposit, first month rent and maxing out my personal credit cards to get it ready with photos.

That $12k provided me with an airbnb profiting me $1.4k/mo in profit. Not a killing but it was a start! 

I learned quickly how important it was to provide value and a unique experience to stand out from competition and to make more profit. I also learned the opportunity to scale with rental arbitrage. My properties were making my original investment back in profits within 6-8 months max and I was able to reinvest my profits into the next property fairly quickly.

In 2021, I got my second unit. A 3br/3ba luxury apartment near a major university.

Rent was $2950/mo and it made me $1600/profit per month.

With two units and within 2 years, I was making $4k/mo in profit from 2 airbnb’s I didn’t own and I only started with $10k.

I replicated this process until I brought on a business partner and hired a full time operations manager and we scaled to a 17 property portfolio between rental arbitrage units, management deals and properties we bought.

I did this strategy in my early 30’s and I’m 33 yrs old now. I’m no longer a fitness instructor and I’m full time running our Airbnb business and I know I can achieve my goal of being a millionaire by 35 yr. old.

It wasn’t always easy and it certainly wasn’t “passive” but just like any business, you go through those pain points and obstacles to develop your product, systems and services so that you are able to create the lifestyle you want. 

As of 2023, for every $1500 dollar spent in the world $1 of that is spent on Airbnb. Airbnb is a million hosts away from matching up with the current demand of people needing short term rentals when traveling.  Yet, people think this opportunity is a “bust”. This is a great opportunity to get started in your real estate investing career.

If you got value from this post, please: 

Follow me, share this post or comment below! Happy to connect with anyone getting started in Airbnb's or Rental Arbitrage

First, congratulations on whatever success you've had.

That said, doesn't it seem kind of presumptuous to you to declare yourself a "real estate coach" when you have only 3 years of real estate experience, and less than 1 actually owning anything yourself? You've never been through any kind of economic cycles and at best have served a few dozen guests. I assume your "coaching" is for profit, and wouldn't you feel bad giving advice to people that, based on your inexperience, might turn out to be flat wrong, especially for money?

It takes a long time to really learn real estate, especially knowing this stuff well enough to take money from other people to teach them. I've been doing this a very long time - over 20 years - and I still find myself learning things all the time that I didn't know. Deals aren't a good substitute for time in the business, because a lot of things happen with the turning of calendar pages.

Just my perspective. I hope you continue to do well.