How I'm Climbing Towards Financial Freedom With Real Estate

The Graduate Nashville Hotel

For as long as I can remember, I've been obsessed with this idea of financial freedom, i.e. not being stressed about money. I think it started back in 2017, when I first discovered minimalism. Through paring down to just the essentials and living on a budget, minimalism focuses on getting rid of what you don't need so you have time and money for what you want. I've been an avid practicer of minimalism for my entire adulthood, but this lifestyle took a new shift when I discovered the FIRE movement a few years back.

Financial Independence/Retire Early (FIRE) is a movement that's all over the likes of Reddit, Instagram, and just about every other social media platform. The idea is to create enough passive streams of income that one can quit their 9-5 and live life the way they want. I think this concept would be intriguing to most people, and my entrepreneurial brain was mesmerized by the idea.

Since then, I've tried to find ways to achieve this. Having worked a W2 job since I was 16, I had no clue how I could make money without actively "working". I tried many side hustles, such as eBay selling and horse treat making, but none of those were sustainable enough to work long-term. It wasn't until I was faced with an expensive dilemma that the lightbulb clicked in my brain.

In early 2023, I experienced the loss of my father. Around this same time, my mother and stepfather were planning to sell their small horse farm and move elsewhere. At this point, I had been living in the old single-family house that I had purchased on my 24rd birthday for a year. When I was presented with the offer to purchase my mother's house (I was an avid equestrian who had always dreamed of owning a horse farm), I knew I had to find a way to make it work.

My first thought was to sell my house and use that money to buy theirs. The only problem was, I had no equity. Having only owned the house for a year and purchasing it with no down-payment (USDA loan), I would actually have to pay to sell it. Since that was not a viable option, I had to think about alternatives. Sure, I could pay cash for my mother's house using the funds I inherited from my father, but then I would have to be a landlord. And that job sucked, right?

My first house while it was being renovated

Since I knew that buying the farm was too good an opportunity to pass up, I went ahead and purchased it. I decided I would give the land-lording thing a go, since I really had no other choice. I spent a good chunk of change on flooring and paint before I secured a tenant, but after that things weren't too bad. I still have that tenant, and have since rented out to several more.

At this point in early 2025, I have 6 tenants and 8 rental units (2 are unfinished) in 3 properties. Between high interest rates, vacancies, and repairs, I cannot live off of this rental income. However, it has afforded me many luxuries. Since 2023, I have been living for "free". Subtracting from renovations and maintenance costs, I have not had to pay my own mortgage, insurance, utilities, etc since I started investing in real estate. I might not be rolling in cash, but I am saving money and having my houses paid-down every month.

How am I doing this, exactly? While there are dozens of ways you can invest in real estate, I focus on two main strategies: multi-family properties and house-hacking. My first two properties were neither of these things, but as I've grown more experienced I have been able to convert one and purchase another. My first home stays a single family, and it cash flows a few hundred a month. My second home (also my primary residence) was a single family home with a detached pole building/garage that I converted into a 1 bedroom apartment. I now live in the garage, and I rent out the main house.

2 of my boys in my garage apartment

I also have a 2 stall horse barn on the property that connects to almost 2 acres of fenced pasture. Since I don't have horses at the moment, I lease the barn and pasture space to a tenant with other farm animals, and this grosses several hundred a month. All-in-all, this property grosses $2,500 a month. Within the next few years, I will buy another property and rent the garage out, so in total this property will eventually gross me about $3900 a month.

My focus now is purchasing multi-family homes. I prefer these for many reasons:

1. If there's a vacancy (which there will be), all the income is not lost since there is still at least one other unit making money.

2. I can buy a multi-family using a 3-5% down loan only available to owner-occupied buyer. I live in one unit for a year and then rent it out when I buy the next property. Not only do I not have to pay the mortgage, but once I move I'll make double the money.

3. These properties are often the same price, if not cheaper, than single-family homes and often have less competition when buying.

4. You can likely save time and money by buying a few multi-family homes over double the amount of single-family homes. Less properties = less expenses. But since they're multi-units, they'll still make money.

   
   

The idea is to be creative, and this is why I love house hacking. I turned my single-family homes that I would have been paying thousands for a month into multi-leased properties that can make me thousands. Real estate is not a get-rich-quick game, but in time these assets will pay off.