BiggerPockets Podcast 456: 126 Multi-Family Units On a Military Salary with Erika Sleger

Anything over 100 units tends to scare many investors, especially rookie investors. How do you even get to 100 units when it’s already challenging enough to get one? That answer is simple: stack them slowly over time. That’s exactly what today’s guest, Erika Sleger, did. Erika heard about house hacking from a lecture in college, so once she graduated she decided to buy a fourplex, live in one unit, and rent out the others.

She learnt some valuable skills from that first fourplex and later sold it for a nice profit, 1031 exchanged it into an 18 unit, and started collecting rent. From there, she used her equity on the 18 unit to buy a 64 unit. Another 16 units here, some more units there, and before she knew it Erika had over 120 rental units. She acquired all of these properties through 1031 exchanges and pulling cash out via refinances for down payments.

Managing over 100 units isn’t easy, it took Erika a while to find management that worked, and she was still managing her managers. Even with the best due diligence, Erika talks through the challenges of filling and managing so many units. That’s why Erika sold her multifamily properties and moved her money into commercial real estate.

Now she owns “amazon-proof” commercial spaces for coffee shops, a daycare center, and even a car maintenance shop. These leases are triple net, and give her the flexibility to move wherever she wants in the world, without having to over-manage a property manager. This is what “the stack” done correctly looks like!