I was just updating my portfolio spreadsheet and I noticed that our equity position for our portfolio just surpassed the 4 million dollar mark (the majority of which is split between a partner and me). When I saw that, I sat back and pondered the last 4 years that it took to build up the portfolio and I thought to myself that I am grateful, thankful, and blessed.  

I started with access to about 300k of equity 4 years ago, and along with an awesome partner, a rockstar assistant, some mentors, and the BiggerPockets community, we have built up a real estate portfolio of over 13 million dollars, with 150 properties, and about 30k in monthly cashflow (most of which gets reinvested still at this point).

I'd like to share what I consider were the key factors in spring boarding us from 300k to 4 million in 4 years.

1. 1. Watching some shows on HGTV and talking with my wife and saying, "We could do that."
2. 2. Partnering up with a buddy of mine who is a realtor and who had a lot of experience investing in real estate but had lost everything in the crash of '08 and '09.
3. 3. Going to one of those expensive real estate "guru" courses and making connections with the presenters.
4. 4. Coming across BiggerPockets in 2016.
5. 5. Going to another "guru" who teaches about lease options and deciding to switch from flipping properties in 2016 to doing lease options in 2017.
6. 6. Getting the contact of the banker of one of the presenters at the first "guru" program, making the connection with that banker, and getting approved for 16 loans (1.6 million dollars) in 2017.
7. 7. Networking with other investors at lunch, listening to podcasts, and combining ideas that lead to the BRRRLO model.
8. 8. Attracting private money lenders from people who wanted to learn from us.
9. 9. Starting a meetup in Mesa, Arizona which enabled me to attract more private money lenders.
10. 10. Getting on the BiggerPockets podcast #287 which enabled me to get onto more podcasts and attract more private money lenders.
11. 11. Making more connections with bankers which enabled me to continue to get loans on properties and transition to portfolio loans and pay off the private money lenders.
12. 12. Starting to buy mobile home parks in December of 2018
13. 13. Switched to a new assistant that is incredible and is able to handle everything we threw at her.
14. 14. Starting a mastermind group in January of 2019 and another one in March of 2020.
15. 15. Continued growing and Stabilizing our portfolio and building up cash reserves to handle the pandemic.
16. 16. Coaching other investors on the BRRRR method and BRRRLO model.

The last 4 years hasn't been without challenges.  Here is a list of things that occurred over the past 4 years that we have had to overcome on our journey.

1. 1. Lending to a flipper in Phoenix who overestimated the ARV and wasn't able to sell the flips where I was his gap lender. I had to take back the properties, finish the rehabs, and drop the prices in order to sell them. The total loss was about 80k and it took about 9 month back in 2016 and 2017.
2. 2. I had a contractor whose life started to fall apart and he used my rehab money to try to salvage it.  I ended up losing about 85k with him among 5 properties in 2018.
3. 3. My original assistant started having difficulties in her life and was not able to complete many of her assigned tasks which slowed us up incredibly.
4. 3. Bankers that said that they would lend in a few month but then they suddenly decided not to and ghosted me. 
5. 4. Hard money lenders that committed to lending on deals but then started going through personal challenges and backed out of deals right before the closing table.
6. 5. A tenant in our mobile home park who was evicted but kept coming back and started one of the mobile homes on fire.
7. 6. One of our tenants got deep into drugs and then rented out the bedrooms in the place he was renting from us and then we had to go through the whole eviction process for everyone but they kept coming back.  We were super lucky to get the eviction done right before the moratorium freeze.

In truth, it has been a wild ride.  I am grateful for those I have met and those who have helped us along this journey so far.  And especially I am grateful for the connections and associations that I have met through BiggerPockets.  It would have been very difficult to have done this without this great platform.  Thanks BP.