Burned by Crypto, Built by Real Estate: My Journey from Rock Bottom to 10+ Deals/Year

[Taylor Georges]

Hello BP!

First off, I want to express my gratitude to BiggerPockets and all the hosts, guests, and contributors who have shared their knowledge. Over the past two years, this network has been instrumental in shaping my real estate journey.

This is my first post in the BP forums, though I’ve been an active podcast listener since discovering real estate in the summer of 2022. At that time, I was living in Puerto Rico with a lifelong friend, both of us riding the wave of our crypto investments with big dreams of building sustainable shipping container home communities. The problem? We knew absolutely nothing about real estate—haha. Then the crypto crash hit, and we lost 90% of our funds. With what little we had left, we made a last-ditch effort to pivot into real estate by splitting the entry fee into a private investment group in Columbus, OH (our hometown), which also happened to run the largest public real estate network in the state, The CREAM.

My friend bowed out early, but I stayed in, showing up to every single weekly call. I was easily the least experienced person in the group, but I never let that stop me from asking questions—lots of them. There were moments when getting into real estate felt impossible. I had little W-2 income after spending years “retired” on crypto, and traditional financing wasn’t an option. But I refused to let those barriers stop me. Instead, I focused on finding creative solutions and pushing forward.

All that being said, it is now 2025, and last year I completed over 10 real estate transactions, earning over three times my W-2 salary while only focusing on real estate part time. That included my first fix-and-flip, which burned down right before completion (ironically making it much more profitable). Right now, I’m working on my first luxury flip, have another flip under contract, and just picked up my first mobile home.

One of my most unique experiences was my first deal, which I negotiated with a seller who was in prison. It was far from a normal transaction, but I made it work, and it gave me the confidence to keep going. On another deal, I faced a major hurdle—a tenant with a two-year lease who wasn’t exactly motivated to leave. After exhausting every other option, I ended up paying them $25,000 in cash for keys just to get the deal moving forward. A painful check to write, but necessary to keep the deal profitable.

One thing I’m especially proud of is that for every flip I’ve done, I’ve never had to bring my own money into the deal or have been able to fully reimburse myself through the use of capital partners and private money. This approach has allowed me to scale quickly and take on opportunities that would have otherwise been out of reach.

My goal this year is to significantly increase my deal volume and finally quit my full-time job. I know that with more time and focus on real estate, I’ll be able to generate even more opportunities and far exceed my W-2 income.

Which brings me here! While I currently operate statewide in Ohio, I’m looking to expand my network both within the state and into new markets. If you're investing in Ohio or have insights into other strong markets and are looking to do deals, I’d love to connect.

Looking forward to engaging with the BP community and continuing to grow!

[Maranda Tucker]

Burned by Crypto, Built by Real Estate is such a good subject title. Bravo. 

Do you have plans to buy and hold? Or primarily focus on flips in the near future?