All Forum Posts by: Layth Alrikabi

For me it was a mindset shift. I had always wanted to buy a house early and do rentals because my parents owned 1 rental growing up, so it made sense to me. And I had learned a bit about the value real estate can bring you, but I bought my first house and house hacked (before I knew what it was called) but just sat at that point with decent income and free housing due to the house hacking. Then when I got married we decided to buy a more comfortable house and rent out the old one fully. Around that time one of our house hack renters was a buddy of mine who wanted to get into real estate. He wanted to do a deal together and because of him, I started attending a local meetup, listening to bigger pockets podcast and getting really into it. We ended up buying a duplex together and then less than a year later I bought another one by myself. So I went from owning/house hacking a single family home for almost 5 years with no other moves, to buying a second single family and 2 duplexes in under a 2 year timeframe while also getting my real estate license.  

If I had had the same mindset I have now when I bought my first house, I would likely already be able to live off my rentals. But I just wasn't thinking about scaling, expanding, or how to make more deals happen. So I didn't make more deals happen for almost 5 years. 

A couple mindset shifts:

1. Rich dad poor dad. Basically shifting from employee mindset to business owner mindset. 

2. Real estate doesn't have to be hard. Its hard when you don't have the right contacts to buy the deal and manage it right. Most of my stress initially came from not knowing the right people. Once you have the network, which takes time to build, you'll have a solid foundation. The ways to shortcut this would be either paid masterminds or showing up to a lot of real estate events. I prefer the latter and you can build your own community. There's certainly advantages to both. 

3. you can save more than you think. I'm not saying to be incredibly cheap but you can really accelerate your journey when you save quickly. At least 20% of your income is a good start and reasonably doable with a good salary and house hacking. 

I've felt as though my "break through" has come in steps...

I first bought a single-family and I had a break though; I was finally in the game...

We then bought a six-unit, and again we had a break through; we realized the opportunities and benefits of multi-family investing...

Next, we bought a 26-unit, and again we had a break through; we bought a substantial property and for the first time we felt like serious real estate investors...

At each step, I've learned and developed more than I could ever hope for, which makes me incredibly excited for my next break through moment in real estate!

In 1993, when my wife and I purchased a new house, deciding to keep the condos we each owned as rentals instead of selling them.

Love this question—it’s so true that those breakthrough moments really shape your journey.

For me, the real shift happened when I started working closely with out-of-state investors who were struggling to manage their properties from a distance. That’s when I realized how powerful the right local team can be. It wasn’t just about collecting rent or coordinating repairs—it was about creating peace of mind and helping people scale with confidence.

That perspective completely changed how I approached property management and real estate in general. It became less about transactions and more about building systems and trust—whether it’s someone’s first deal or their tenth.

Appreciate you starting this thread. Can’t wait to hear what others share too.

@Layth Alrikabi 

Love this question.

For me, the breakthrough wasn’t a single moment — it was realizing this is a business, not a side hustle. I stopped chasing the next deal and started building systems: leasing, maintenance, accounting, screening, etc. That shift — treating every rental like a long-term asset that needed professional management — changed everything.

Painful lesson? Early on, I trusted a tenant without verifying income. They looked great on paper but were gaming the system. After that, I started using tools like VeriFast and Plaid. Game changer.

Biggest mindset shift: delayed gratification. Wealth in real estate comes slow, then all at once.

@Layth Alrikabi I never had an "ah-ha" moment, I had an "OH-SH!T" moment. 

I was in the trades, and had worked my way up the ladder to being one of the best.

I had golden handcuffs. 

For years I had been interested in the investing side of things. I bought the books, got the programs, the meetings.... Yes I was one of "those people"; always learning, always just about ready but, but, but..... I was a but-person. Because nothing was ever "perfect". 

And then the music just stopped....... 

At first a little down time was nice, for years taking a week off in summer was just not a thing. And then..... 

By month 2 it was nothing but doom & gloom, end of times kind of stuff. I was in my 4th, 5th, 7th whatever "coffee & talk" with former colleagues where somebody would ask everyone to get together to talk how paddling poo-creek was going or would go. 

And I just kind of snapped...... 

It was so much negativity, just doom and gloom fests over n over n over. I just blurted out "I refuse to participate"..... 

Everyone stared. I was supposed to be complaining or ranting how so-n-so is to blame, this idiot, that idiot, whatever and I just blurted out none-sense....   

I took a second, because I also confused and shocked myself. I thought it through. I looked around and reiterated "I refuse to participate in a down economy". 

Blank stares of confusion. They thought I lost my marbles, lol. 

I told em I was over it. Here we sit bitching and complaining and where's it get us, nowhere. I come in miserable, I leave miserable, and every week we get a bit more miserable and poor. This sucks, that sucks, well F-IT, if were all doomed and F-d well then what have we got to loose. 

"What are you gonna do?"; I have no fkng clue..... so I'll figure it out, can't be any worse then this circle jerk of misery. 

And I just got up and left. My friend jumped up following. So, we got a beer and a burger. We literally made the business plan on napkins..... 

I'm a rock-star renovator, I know what people want like the back of my hand. So ok, homes getting dumped and stripped, everyone needs a roof over there head so F-IT, let's find train-wreck dumps so I can do what I do, we make em awesome and make money.    

Ok, how do we afford all this? Aaaaaaahhhh, I don't know. I don't know, how do other people do that? Great, you don't know either..... ok, well, rich people are rich, so, yeah, let's just find some rich person and ya-know, yeah, something, that could work, maybe, I think, I don't know. 

Ok, where do we find rich people? Good question...... I don't know...... 

This whole chain of conversation & thought literally sums up my entire first 3/4 years of things. I knew diddly-squat, but I refused to do nothing, so we just thought things up and threw em at the wall. 

How'd I find my first deal? Well, we were idiots so we did idiot stuff. SMART idiot stuff. We picked out an area that seemed right, and we knocked doors. Lol yes, we literally knocked doors and asked if people were curious about selling as-is or new of a neighbor that was, or a place that needed work. And really the conversations spun all over the place because again, we were idiots so we just churped with anyone/everyone who'd have a conversation with us about it. Day after day, hour after hour made total jack-azz's of ourselves knocking door to door. 

But guess what, it's how we meet our first wholesaler. And private-$ guy. And got our first deal, 2nd, and 3rd.... And, and, and.... 

It was the absolute refusal to accept a world and thought of "can't" an that "I don't know" was always followed with "YET"...... Every road block was just a chance to try something. No matter how hair brained or never gonna work it was, we tried, because a a million to 1 shot is better than a guaranteed nothing. 

Every thing just kept evolving up. Until one day it just started happening that people were coming to me. 

"Ah-ha" was a journey, not a place. 

My breakthrough was punching through. Still is. Still do. 

I think for me it was reading the book. I was doing my business all wrong. I haven't closed on any "good deals" so to speak, quite yet. But am really looking forward to changing my business to be more efficient as described in his book! 

@Layth Alrikabi 28 years ago a friend got me to partner in 2 small owner financed multi family real estate deals. It turned out to be a disaster but I was hooked.

I bought the Carlton Sheets CD system and learned all about real estate.

After one more bad real estate deal I quit for 20 years. This is truly my one regret in life this far.

If there had been a Biggerpockets network at that time I could have gotten the encouragement I needed to dust myself off and keep going.

But now I’m 5 years back investing and doing great and learned a lot during those 20 year. I built up courage and confidence and a network of solid people to help me.

Lesson learned is to never give up your dreams. Keep dusting yourself off and trying again.