He Sold His Car to Buy His First Property: Now He Owns 40 Rentals!

Henry Washington (0:00)

Today's guest owns 40 rental properties, producing thousands in monthly cash flow, and he's only been in real estate for a few years. Before real estate, Larry Guerguis thought he'd be spending the next 40 years of his life working on Wall Street. But one conversation with a regretful investment banker changed his trajectory and set him on a path toward financial freedom through real estate. Larry knew he wanted to buy rentals, but how? He was a college student living in California with no W-2 income, so he couldn't possibly buy a rental property, right? But Larry wasn't taking no for an answer. He sold his car, scrounged together a down payment, and bought a duplex in a Midwest market he could actually afford. Then, with proof of concept and a few hundred bucks lining his pocket each month, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he has built a real estate portfolio of 40 single family homes and counting. Today, he's sharing how he bought deal after deal without qualifying for traditional bank financing. From focusing on low price but high cash flow rentals to locking in higher rents with Section 8 investing, Landlord Larry has found a formula that really works today.

What's going on, everybody? I'm Henry Washington, co-host of the BiggerPockets Podcast. Today, we have an investor story with Larry Guerguis. You might know him as Landlord Larry on Instagram and TikTok, so let's bring him on.

Lawrence Guerguis, better known as Landlord Larry. Welcome to the BiggerPockets Podcast, my friend.

Lawrence Guerguis (1:38)

Thank you very much for having me. Appreciate it.

Henry Washington (1:40)

We'd like to start off by learning a little bit about who you are, what you do, and how you even got into real estate in the first place.

Lawrence Guerguis (1:47)

My name is Larry or Lawrence. Some people call me Landlord Larry on the Internet. I'm from California, Southern California. And I started investing in Section 8 real estate particularly during my junior year in college. And I did take a big leap from Southern California, from the people that are from there. They know it's a very nice place to live. And I moved to the Midwest to do it full time right after college. So thank God, it's been a blessing to do it. And I've been doing it for a little over three years now.

And it's been great.

Henry Washington (2:16)

What even sparked the interest in real estate? Because college is not that path.

Lawrence Guerguis (2:22)

No, college isn't that path. And it wasn't always real estate for me. It was originally investment banking. I thought I was going to be the typical finance bro. Finance bros. Yeah, that was going to be my path. Living in New York, working crazy hours. It's a pretty funny story. I was actually just out at the bars with friends during my junior year of college, my first semester. And like I said, I went to college in San Diego. It's a fun place to be. But we were at a bar and then we went to a pizza parlor right next to it. And you know, there was some guy sitting next to me, looked a little down, you know, he was just kind of on his own.

And I was like, hey bro, everything all right. And he was like, don't talk to me. I only get two weeks out of the year off.

I was like, okay, what do you do by chance? And he was like, I'm in investment banking.

Like, I'd love to talk to this guy. Okay, let's, let's hear it. So I ended up talking to a guy in that pizza parlor. My friends leave for like an hour and a half.

And he gave me some pointers. The thing that really stuck with me from that conversation, he asked me if I loved money. You know, not liked, not enjoyed, you know, spending it loved. And I said, no, no, I don't love money. Money's great. I think everyone, you know, enjoys having a little bit more of that, but loving is something different.

And I didn't love it. And he said, forget about investment banking. Forget about anything finance, because that's what you need to have to work these crazy hours and you make great money. But he says, you know, he doesn't even have the time to spend it. And I was like, all right. So after that day, I was like, we're gonna, we're gonna figure out this real estate stuff now, you know, before we graduate so that we have like some sort of path coming out of college.

Henry Washington (3:58)

All right. Okay. So you got tapped on the shoulder and you took it seriously. So how did you go from that moment to actually taking action and working towards your first deal?