25 Rental Units in 5 Years (After Losing My Job)

Episode #569

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You DON’T need a huge network, online presence, or social media following to invest in real estate. This small-town investor got started the old-fashioned way—picking up the phone and pounding the pavement—which helped him scale his real estate portfolio to 25 rental units in just five years. Want his personal playbook? Then stay tuned!

Welcome back to the “Real Estate Rookie” podcast! When the University of Minnesota Crookston dropped its football program, former offensive coordinator Jared Hottle didn’t know where to turn. After moving back to his home state of Iowa in search of his next career move, a friend introduced him to BiggerPockets. Jared caught the real estate bug, became a licensed agent, and started driving for dollars. It wasn’t long before he had closed on not one but two duplexes—in the same week!

Since then, Jared has scaled to 25 rental units in just a few years. What’s more? He’s done it without a big personal brand, social media presence, or podcast, and prefers to hustle offline and host his own local meetups. In this episode, he’ll share why real estate investing is a “contact sport,” how to use partnerships to grow your portfolio faster, and when to pivot to another investing strategy!


00:00 Intro
00:48 Life Before Real Estate
04:15 Networking 101
08:57 Driving for Dollars
11:54 Sponsor: Baselane!
12:58 Jared’s First Deal
21:19 Numbers on the Deal
26:32 The BRRRR Strategy
31:18 Pivoting to Self Storage
34:22 The Power of Partnerships
38:45 Connect with Jared!