Too good to be true, skill or luck? 25-year old "millionaire"
I came across this article on CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/28/budget-of-millennial-millionaire-who-saves-80percent-of-his-income.html
This guy bought his first house at 23 by using his $19k in savings and a 3.5% FHA mortgage loan ($506k purchase price for the home). He then bought another house 9 months later and continued buying more since then. He claims at 25 years old his net worth reached $1 million.
The article claims he saves 80% of his income. Based on his $150k annual salary from insurance, that would probably be around $80k after tax. Assuming he invested that every year, that's $240k invested in real estate between the time he was 23 and 25. That's if we are being generous, because he claims to have gotten a salary bump (perhaps in those two years).
That implies he made around $750k in rent and capital appreciation in two years (or a shorter time period if you consider they didn't buy a house until 9 months had passed after the first purchase).
Now I know that Seattle home prices have been on a tear for the past few years, but that's a lot of appreciation, right? Let's say he made $100k in capital appreciation on his first home. Sold it and bought a couple more and each appreciation another $100k. Even with these overly generous assumptions, you can't really get to his $1m net worth claim at 25. Also principal pay down over 2 years doesn't really help bridge the gap either.
So are Seattle rental yields just crazy high or what? Or is the story bogus (would have thought CNBC would fact check or something)?