Ryan Chaw - Retired Pharmacist At 31 From Rent By The Room
Ryan Chaw is a pharmacist turned real estate investor. By investing in 15 properties while working his full-time job, in August 2023 he was able to replace his pharmacist salary and walk away from his job to pursue real estate investing full-time. Growing up, Ryan saw the power of real estate investing from his Grandpa, who was able to acquire rentals and was able to pay for Ryan's college tuition. Wanting to follow in his footsteps, Ryan set out to acquire 1 property per year and utility the rent by the room model. With properties now spanning 3 states, Ryan is able to double or triple traditional rental income in competitive markets with his co-living & student housing model.
In this episode, you will be able to:
- Maximize your real estate earnings with the rent by the room strategy.
- Discover how to build and pass on generational wealth through strategic real estate investments.
- Learn how to transition from a W2 job to a successful real estate investing career.
- Uncover lucrative opportunities in student housing investments.
- Understand the essential legal considerations for successful room rental properties.
The key moments in this episode are:
00:00:00 - Building Wealth through Real Estate Investment
00:01:40 - Real Estate Investing Journey
00:07:29 - Rent by the Room Model
00:11:40 - Facilitating Tenant Comfort and Trust
00:13:40 - Creating a Good Living Environment
00:15:33 - Regulations and Restrictions
00:17:15 - Property Selection Criteria
00:20:04 - Diversifying Investments Out of State
00:26:31 - Overcoming Doubt and Retiring Early
00:28:02 - Focus on Reinvesting and Teaching
00:32:18 - Free Guide and Weekly Updates
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Ryan Chaw
I just basically bought as many as possible on the second home. I did a 10% down, and I did it as a second home just because I, you know, was low on capital. I was using my own money, and eight years later, I was able to actually make multiple six figures and retire from my pharmacy job at the age of 31 because I was able to replace that income that I was making as a pharmacist with the rental income and cash flow from my specific student housing business model that I was doing with my rental.
Mike Swenson
Welcome to the REL Freedom show, where we inspire you to pursue your passion to gain time and financial freedom through opportunities in real estate. I'm your host, Mike Swenson. Let's get some REL Freedom together. Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of REL Freedom talking about building time and financial freedom through different opportunities in real estate. I'm your host, Mike Swenson. And if you want to get started on your real estate and investing journey, check out our website, freedomthroughrealestate.com. that's freedomthroughrealestate.com. we've got lots of great content, videos, podcast episodes for you to be able to watch. So today's episode, excited to talk about rent by the room model. You know, there's a lot of folks out there that are doing it. There's a lot of great advantages to doing it. And so today we've got, our guest is Ryan Chaw. He has 15 units between California, Ohio, Alabama. Was a pharmacist, built up stuff on the side. I love hearing that transition from people, you know, w two type job into real estate, being able to quit their job, replacing their income. So excited to hear your story, Ryan, and have you shared. So welcome to the show.
Ryan Chaw
Thank you so much, Mike. Happy to be on.
Mike Swenson
So, yeah, give us that background. Kind of tell us, you know, why real estate in that transition into, you know, getting that first property, and we'll take it from there.
Ryan Chaw
So, actually, my grandpa was first into real estate. He was an immigrant from China, and he started off buying some properties in San Francisco. Back then, he had a lot of doors slammed on his face because there was a lot of, actually, racism back then in the fifties, but he was able to purchase a set of flats in San Francisco by saving up all this money he was making in the military. I think he probably did a VA loan, and then he bought that back in the fifties when it was very cheap, probably 100,000 or so. And since then, it's gone up like crazy. My parents were able to sell that set of flats for several million dollars. And not only was my grandpa was able to cover his own living expenses from the rent that he was getting from those properties, but he was able to create generational wealth and help cover part of my college tuition and that of my brothers as well. So I knew that real estate was one of the best ways to build generational wealth because it's one of those where you. It's very forgiving, right? Even if you aren't making, like, crazy amounts of cash flow, you still get a lot of money through appreciation that builds your wealth passively. So I wanted to get in as soon as possible, and in 2016, I basically graduated as a pharmacist. Well, 2015, I graduated. I started working out in 2016 and tried to put in as many hours as possible. I worked from 07:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. at night at the hospital. And so basically, I would work all this overtime, save up as much money as possible. And I started investing in real estate because I wanted to build a passive income. So I bought one property a year in California. Back then, my first property was only $262,000 in 2016, and I just basically bought as many as possible. On the second home, I did a 10% down, and I did it as a second home. Just because I was low on capital, I was using my own money. And eight years later, I was able to actually make multiple six figures and retire from my pharmacy job at the age of 31 because I was able to replace that income that I was making as a pharmacist with the rental income and cash flow from my specific student housing business model that I was doing with my rentals.
Mike Swenson
Well, I love that you said generational wealth. That's really important for listeners to get their head around, because a lot of times, people will feel, and obviously, your margins are higher doing student housing. But it's like, I'm buying a house, I'm making $100 a month, $200 a month, $500 a month in cash flow. Like, why am I doing that? And for people to realize there's all these other buckets, too, right? It's the rent, it's the taxes, it's the appreciation, it's the paying down of the mortgage. All these little buckets add up to a big bucket, and it's over time. And like you said, it's forgiving where over time, that stuff's going to build and grow and grow and grow to where your grandpa was able to help pay for you to go to college. That's a really big deal. And so for people listening to this, like, realize you can do that, you don't have to do that, right? You can do it if you want to, but you have the option to be able to do that for future generations or for other people in your family. That's what real estate can really do. And so I'm excited that you got a chance to see that at a young age and see the power of it.
Ryan Chaw
Yeah, definitely. I was definitely very blessed to see it firsthand right at the very beginning. And real estate, like you said, gives a lot of options. And, you know, even if you don't want to quit your job, I could still be working as a pharmacist two or three, four days a week. But I have that choice to make if I wanted to do it or not, or if I wanted to take a step back, maybe be more with my family, raise my kids or whatever in the future. So, yeah, that's what I love about real estate, for sure.
Mike Swenson
So talk a little bit about the rent by the room model. What was intriguing about it? Did you decide right from day one, that's what I want to do, and I'm doing that and that's it. So I'd love to hear kind of why that model.
Ryan Chaw
Yeah. So, well, my friend, my college friend actually did this when he was in college. He was renting out to his buddies. He bought a place very close to the school. I think it was only about a four minute drive away from campus or so. And he rented out by the room. His aunt helped him. I think she co signed on the loan for the property. And not only was he living for free, but he was also making cash flow on top of that while, you know, studying at college. And so I was like, well, if he can do it, I should be able to do it as well. Right? And so back in 2016, I bought my first property at my alma mater, college, where I went to pharmacy school. And I rented it out basically to four students and was able to make a lot of cash flow by renting out per room. So typically what I do now is I rent either five bedroom or six bedroom houses. I think my largest one is actually like nine bedrooms. But when I started out, it was basically five or six. So let's say, you know, you get six students and they're each paying 600 or 700 a month. That's about $3600 to $4,200 in rental income per property that you buy. And those were at the very beginning, it was just single family homes. Now I have, like, duplexes where each side has five bedrooms each. So $650 per room times ten bedrooms. Washington is around, like, $6,500 in rental income. So, yeah, you can definitely make a lot more cash flow with this model. It's essentially doubling or tripling the rental income that you would typically make on a rental.
Mike Swenson
Now, are. Are these groups, and I'm sure it varies a little bit, but do they go into it knowing each other? Do some of them know each other? How do they feel about, you know, doing the rent by the room versus, you know, sometimes college students like, hey, we're getting a house. We're signing one lease, and we're all going in together versus doing the rent by the room model.
Ryan Chaw
So out of my 15 properties, I have at least, I would say, a quarter to a third of them. Where they contacted me, they say, hey, I got a group of five other guys or five other friends. We all want to live at this six bedroom house. It's perfect for us. This is exactly what we're looking for. And so they'll lease it out for a year, two years, sometimes three years, just because they all know each other. Maybe they're in the same, like, a service fraternity, or, you know, maybe they just all met each other in college. And so, you know, that works out very well. I have these one or two year, I mean, like, two year leases with these groups of people. The other type of tenant is they want to live off campus. They want to save a lot of money. Maybe they're an international student or something like this. So they're paying extra money for tuition compared to people in the US. And so they're trying to save as much money as possible on the rent. So staying off campus makes sense for them, where they only pay $600 a month versus on campus, which is like $1,200 a month. Plus they have a lot more privacy. So it's really a high in demand market. I mean, it's a very untapped market. And a lot of colleges, because they. It's, you know, you're charging half the amount and you're providing a lot more for them. It just makes sense for a lot of them. So I kind of pair up some of these students. Some of them will be like pharmacy students or dental students or medical students, and a lot of them are grad students because the campuses don't provide housing for graduate students. They only provide housing for undergrads a lot of times. So I kind of pair them up and, you know, I might have a pharmacy house. I might have a dentistry house, um, law. Law degree house, whatever. Right. And so, um, yeah, I do my best to kind of match them up, uh, based off of the major and what year they are and stuff like that. But, yeah, that's kind of the typical strategy.
Mike Swenson
How do you market these?
Ryan Chaw
Is.
Mike Swenson
Is some of it just come word of mouth from the tenants that are already there, or are you marketing as a specific room, or are you trying to market it as a group of rooms? Hey, get people together. How does that work?
Ryan Chaw
Yeah, so there's definitely some specific sites that I use to market at the very beginning. I will go on to, like, Facebook groups. There's also, obviously something called u Loop, Craigslist. There's apartments.com. there's something called avail, a v a I l. Where you can post it, and it'll blast your listing to multiple different sites, like realtor.com, comma, apartments.com, et cetera. And so you can start marketing there. But what I would say is once you start building your brand and reputation, most of your tenants will come through referrals. Um, they'll basically tell their friends, hey, you know, I got this really good place very close to campus. He only charges $600 a month. You have your own amenities, you have your own furniture, or, sorry, the furniture is already provided. It's very close to campus. It just makes a lot of sense. So what happens is, you know, maybe 50% of the students, they'll stay another year or another two years, and then the other 50%, they'll. They'll bring in their friends, essentially, and they'll say, oh, we have an open room next year. Hey, is it okay if I bring in, you know, my friend Jeremy or whatever, to room with our house, with me, be in the same house with me?
Mike Swenson
Have you run into concerns about living with people that they don't know right out of the gate? Do you try to facilitate, like, a meet and greet before they sign on the dotted line for those that it's not a group of people coming in together, it's, hey, I'm just renting one room. How much you try to help that or help them feel comfortable or just because of the reputation you have, people feel comfortable doing it, and they're okay going into something where they may not know the other people that they're living with?
Ryan Chaw
Yeah, it depends if you're just starting out versus, um, if you've been in it for a while, if you've built up your reputation. A lot of times they just. I mean, I guess I'm pretty popular near, nearby my campus, being known as the landlord who has places very close to campus and provides everything for them. So right now, I kind of just get people, and they already trust me and know me because they trust their friend. And so that trust kind of passes on to you. And one big thing for marketing is that you only people only buy from people that they trust and feel comfortable with. Right. So that trust by word of mouth, it does pass on to you as a landlord eventually, but at the beginning, yes. Sometimes they wonder, who are our other housemates? Who is the landlord? And so a lot of times, I get on the phone with them and explain the situation. I will sometimes get them in contact with each other before they actually move in with each other as well. So I'll kind of ask them permission. Do you want to share contacts, et cetera, that type of thing, and maybe do a group chat. The other thing is, I do open houses, and so I'll have everyone come in on one day, and so they can kind of meet each other as well and get to see the house. And they also get to see that there's a lot of demand for that house because they see, like, three other people. Oh, that person might take the room that I want. So they're like, okay, I better apply quickly. I better, you know, get a signed lease as soon as possible. So, yeah, that's what I do now.
Mike Swenson
For the houses, because you're. You're focusing on by the bedroom, what types of common areas. I know it differs by the house, but just for people interested in kind of this model, common areas. And then how do you work through. Right. Having a lot of folks sharing those spaces? And so what do you try to help provide to create a good living environment for them where I'm. I'm. I'm just thinking, like, as a. As me, as a college students, like, it's the. The fridge space, the, you know, cooking, cleaning, that kind of stuff. How are you able to kind of help make things work well together for that many people in those spaces?
Ryan Chaw
Yeah, definitely. So it's up to you. Um, because you have more cash flow, you can actually hire on regular cleaning services if you wanted to do, like, um, you know, maid cleaning once a quarter, once a month. You know, I provide once a quarter maid cleanings. Um, they charge me $180 per cleaning, but, you know, I basically do it every three months, and that usually keeps the place really clean. A lot of times, the. The parents may help out a little bit as well, that when they visit their kids, they might help clean up a bit and then, you know, you could work out a deal with a local Airbnb cleaner. I, um. That's how I found my cleaners, is I basically went to Terno turno. And basically there's a list of Airbnb cleaners you can kind of vet and. And have them maybe hire them to do a regular cleaning service. But with that being said, yeah, students don't need too much common space as well. That's another thing they kind of stick. They mainly hang out in their own rooms, like, you know, watching Netflix or whatever, or they're out studying. So what's nice is if you have, like, a family room, living room, and dining room, all you really need to do is have one big, nice common space. So let's say you make the dining room or the family room the main common space, and then you can turn the other two into bedrooms. So you can turn the, let's say if you made the living room the common space, then you turn the family room and the dining room into bedrooms that they could stay in. So what's nice about this is most of the times the students spend most of the time in their room rather than the common space. So you can maximize the number of bedrooms.
Mike Swenson
And obviously, the people choosing to live there know what they're walking into. So you're attracting the type of person that's okay with that, right?
Ryan Chaw
Yeah, exactly.
Mike Swenson
Now talk a little bit about is there regulations or things like that that you might run into capacity, you know, fire codes, anything like that, that might be different than the more traditional model.
Ryan Chaw
Yeah, exactly. So you have to make sure you're installing all building codes and all that, especially when you build a bedroom. You can't build a bedroom, for example, that's only six foot in height because that's not meeting the building code. You need at least seven foot in height. You also have to have some sort of egress, so a window or an exterior door, some way that they can get to the outside of the house from their bedroom in case of a fire or something like that. So you have to make sure you meet those codes. Another thing is there are some ordinances in some cities that have restrictions on how many unrelated tenants you're allowed to have. So a lot of the cities, I would say a good amount of them don't have them, but the ones that do, you might have to do something like a change of use permit, a change of use permit to change the use of the house into a rooming house or boarding house. And once that's approved. You know, you can go ahead and do your thing. Another option is something called a zoning variance. Now, zoning variances are a lot more complicated, I would say. So ideally, you don't have to do that, but what I would recommend is talk to a local real estate attorney. A lot of them will do a quick 30 minutes consult for free. And I always do that when I'm getting into a new market to see what are the restrictions, what are the ways we can make sure that we are in compliance with the law. And like I said, there's plenty of options, like change of use, etcetera. But, yeah, you always want to check out for unrelated tenant restrictions.
Mike Swenson
Now, as you're choosing these properties, and I'm sure you've learned a lot over time, you've gotten sharper in picking out the properties. But talk about maybe what you're looking for, like if, hey, I'm interested, picking up my next property in the same city, what are some maybe things you're looking for to decide whether or not to move forward?
Ryan Chaw
Yeah. So there are three things that students care about. The first one is convenience in proximity to campus. So how close am I to my 08:00 a.m. classes, essentially, right. I don't want to be waking up at 06:30 a.m. to commute to my classes. So they want to be as close as possible. The second thing is safety. So you really have to do your research. And a lot of times I go onto Reddit because Reddit is basically the word of mouth for students. And if you think about how students figure out where to stay, they talk to their upperclassmen. Friends, say, hey, where did you stay? Off campus. Right? So you really want to get into the, figure out what the word of mouth neighborhoods, best neighborhoods to stay in is. So, like, for me, it might be like little Italy is one of the buzzwords put out there. So I really want to do my research on Reddit, talk to some students directly, maybe call up the student housing department on campus and ask them, hey, where are some areas that I maybe should stay away from or areas that I should maybe stay for? Off campus housing, that type of stuff. So SAFETY is NUMBER two. And then the third, and I guess one question is, like, if you were to drive from your house to the college, if you were the parents, the parent of the kid, right. And you were to drive from your house to the campus, would you feel safe or would you be passing through neighborhoods you wouldn't want your kids to be passing through? And then the third one is affordability. So obviously we have to make sure what the, what people are charging a rent as the market rent and see what students have as their budget. Because students have very specific budgets. And if you're above their budget, you know, they'll say no to your listing. Even if it's like $20 more than what their budget is, they will say no. So if you're at 650 or let's say you're at 670 and their budget is 650, they will still say no to you. So you have to know what their budget is. As far as houses, though, obviously close to campus, safe area and large enough size that I can put like two or three extra bedrooms in there so I can get it into ideally a six bedroom house that's kind of like the sweet spot. And so I look for at least 1500 square foot or more. And I have a rule of divide by 300. So if you take this total square footage and divide it by 300, that's how many bedrooms you can get a most likely. So if it's like 1500 square foot, divide that by 300, you can get at least five bedrooms in there. For 1800 square foot or more. That's probably at least six bedrooms because 1800 divided by 300 is six.
Mike Swenson
Now, I'd love to hear you talk because you've got some of these out state, where I'm already thinking here in my questions is going out of state. How are you kind of finding some of these properties and vetting them out? So talk about getting outside of California and looking at some other states to find some good opportunities with that model.
Ryan Chaw
Yeah. Alabama and Ohio in addition to California. And what I did to find these colleges is I basically looked at the top colleges on like the us news World Report. And I really want to look for colleges that have a lot of graduate programs, a lot of opportunities for higher education. So for example, MD, like medical doctor, pharmacy, dentistry, law degree, JD. Right. MBA, which is, you know, the business degree, engineering degrees. Right. So I really look for colleges that have a lot of opportunities for these students, especially for graduate students, because most of the campuses cannot provide enough housing for graduate students. They provide for undergrad, but not so much graduate students. So you have these 3000, 4000 grad students at some of these colleges that have no on campus housing available to them. So they have to live off campus. And so, you know, it's a really good market. It's a really good tenant base. I like to have these people who are studying for their medical degrees and law degrees and et cetera because they're really focused on their studies and they're not there to throw a wild house party or animal house party or whatever. Right. So that's where I start, is I look for the top colleges
Mike Swenson
Did you travel to those states before you picked out those properties? Did you find somebody boots on the ground or how were you able to, to acquire those?
Ryan Chaw
Yeah, I actually did buy my first couple properties, site unseen. I eventually did travel to Ohio. Probably around the third property. Yeah, on the third property to actually visit it. But a lot of this. Yeah, you can actually purchase as long as you do the research necessary. And there's a lot of technology out there. So, like, for example, to see the property, you can just do a zoom room with your agent, and they can do a full walkthrough. And, you know, you can pick out all the issues with the property just from doing, you know, zoom walkthroughs. And you can even have them drive around the neighborhood and show you kind of what the neighborhood looks like. Right. And drive from the house to the school to see if there's any bad areas that you're passing through, that type of stuff. So, you know, I do rely a lot on the technology available. And you don't necessarily have to be on campus in order to market your bedrooms. Right. Because a lot of students will be on Facebook groups. They will be on these affiliate groups with the university, some of these off campus affiliate groups that the university offers. So, yeah, you really don't need to be there in person. And a lot of times, just like Airbnb, if you need somebody to enter the property, you provide the lockbox code, and then they can get in, get out, do what they need to do. And then, like, let's say it's a handyman, they send you a bill and then you just, you know, pay them electronically through zelle or through a check or whatever. Right.
Mike Swenson
Was the thought process on maybe diversifying outside of an existing market to be able to see, you know, is there maybe a place where I could hit better numbers or is it just, hey, if I find a couple ones that work, maybe I'll grow, you know, grow more in Ohio if Ohio tends to be more lucrative or, you know, what was kind of the thought process there?
Ryan Chaw
Yeah, I do like pushing myself outside of my comfort zone, and I was like, if I just do, and I was obviously, I was very scared of actually investing Allstate. I've never done it before. It was a big leap for me. So I said, I basically have to just decide on doing it. Otherwise, I'm going to be stuck in California forever. I wanted to be able to invest in all different markets and diversify, like you mentioned. And so I was like, I just got to do this. I think it was year five or so. I was like, okay, this is the year I'm going to buy at least one out of state one and see how it goes. Right? And so that's what I did. My first one was in Alabama, and then, you know, I decided on Ohio. And basically it was running the numbers, seeing what, you know, what college there was out there, the majors, the nearby hospitals as well, because the one I invested in, it's nearby Cleveland clinic, which employs a lot of hospital workers. So I not only get students, but I get, like, medical residents and medical fellows. And so, you know, that's kind of how I started investing out of the state is the cash flow was really high because the mortgage payment was a lot lower. I was able to buy houses in $200,000 ranges and low $300,000 ranges. And these are huge houses. You know, like I said, one of them I bought for 367,000, and it was actually, it's actually technically ten bedrooms, but I had nine people live in it. So, um, yeah, you know, there's, there's a, there's a lot out there, for sure.
Mike Swenson
And talk about that transition of moving from, you know, working a job, trying to do all this stuff on the side, to then saying, okay, I'm. I'm good. I can quit my job.
Ryan Chaw
Yeah, it was a lot. Well, I guess it was an eight year journey, essentially. But at the beginning, I didn't think I would be able to quit, necessarily. I was just trying to build my wealth and have an additional income source. But eventually, around year six or seven, I realized if I just had two more properties or so, I would have basically covered my pharmacy income. So at that point, if I'm already making enough for my rentals to cover the full pharmacist income, minus vacancies and expenses and all that, if my net is above my pharmacy income, then I can go ahead and quit. Why not, right? And so I kind of molded over, and I was like, okay, I'm going to set a quit date. And so I just aimed for that quit date, and when that came, I ended up retiring.
Mike Swenson
I'm curious, how much were co workers aware of what you were doing? Like, did they know that? Did you talk about it or not?
Ryan Chaw
Yeah, a lot of them didn't believe me. They're like, he's not going to do it. They kept saying, you know, Ryan's not going to do it, he's just talking. But no, yeah, some of them knew me more well and they're like, yeah, I know Ryan's going to do it. So, yeah, time came and I, you know, through a retirement party at Ruse Chris Steakhouse, I treated everyone. Actually, I think the bill is like 3000 or something. But yeah, I just treated everyone and then, you know, I retired and I was, it was great, it was fun.
Mike Swenson
And then you just handed out your business cards and say, hey, do you want to do the same? Here we go.
Ryan Chaw
Not real. Actually, I did have one of my former co workers sign up as a, you know, mentor for the mentorship that I do now. But yeah, other than that, no, I wasn't like handing out cards. But yeah, there were some people were kind of interested.
Mike Swenson
Of course, yeah, the people that know you, that's the, that's the best testimony right there. When they see you quit and throw a retirement party for yourself.
Ryan Chaw
Yeah, boom.
Mike Swenson
I want to do that too.
Ryan Chaw
Yeah. So, yeah, one of my co workers, she was actually my pharmacy technician, she has a place in Texas now, Houston, Texas, and they have their place rented out with students at University of Houston. So it's great. Yeah, she was able to, you know, get, get a good property and I was able to show her everything.
Ryan Chaw
Nowadays I just focus on, of course, reinvesting the cash flow. My goal is to get to, I mean, it didn't used to be like this, but I like to push myself. My goal is to eventually get at some point in my life to like 100 student rentals because I just love doing it. I love providing that service I personally can relate to these college students. I had one college student who was in pharmacy school, and he was like, wow, I heard you got into Kaiser Hospital as an infectious disease pharmacist. I would love to learn from your story. Do you have any tips for what I should be doing in college? And I was able to get on the phone call with them for like an hour and a half and answer all their questions. It's very rewarding to be able to kind of connect with those tenants. Right. And because you went through it, you know what they're going through. So I like providing that service and of course, providing really good housing for them so that they can use their time to focus on their studies rather than having to worry about a beat up house or a lot of pest infestations or whatnot. Right. So I like providing that service, and I just want to continue to expand that. I also teach others how to do this. I've taught over 60 clients so far, and we're in pretty much all, like, a lot of the different United States out there. So there's like, Florida, Georgia, Washington, California, obviously, North Carolina, Washington, Texas. There's a ton of different states that they're investing in. And you can do this locally. Um, I've never found a state where the numbers don't make sense using this model. Um, so, yeah, I continue to teach people through this whole process.
Mike Swenson
Well, that's the thing. I think whatever model it is, people are always thinking like, well, what's the, what's the one place where I can go and do this? Or what's the best place in the United States? And the reality is, is it's everywhere, right? There might be some where certain cities, certain states might tend to lean more towards a better opportunity, depending on the model. But you can do it anywhere, right? The numbers might be better. And so I think for people listening, like, start where, you know, start where you're comfortable, look at some numbers and see, and then maybe pick one or two or three other places, see if the numbers look better than that or worse than that.
Ryan Chaw
Right.
Mike Swenson
But you're not going to know until you get started. That's what I really encourage people to do, is pick a spot, see how the numbers work out versus this paralysis by analysis thinking like, there's only one place in the US where this might work.
Ryan Chaw
Yeah, exactly. Totally agree with that. I think a lot of people think they're looking for the perfect place, but there is no, like, perfect place. Right? There's. There's obviously a lot of factors you want to look into, but, you know, just get a good enough property for your first property and get started, right. And then the second one, now you know a little bit more about renting out to people and, you know, to students and then you can just improve on it a little bit every time because at the beginning, the first property, there's going to be a lot of hidden stuff that you don't know and you're never going to be aware of until you actually buy your first property. Right. So just get that first one. It doesn't have to be perfect.
Mike Swenson
And for little teaser here for people that are going to reach out to here, people are going to look into you. Your website's got a great, I don't know if it's horror story, but a great example of how you've gotten better, right? You've learned from mistakes, you've learned from challenges and grown and gotten better. So I enjoyed reading some of those difficult things that you had to work through and get there. So absolutely, you're going to go through challenges regardless of what you do.
Ryan Chaw
Yep, definitely. It's a journey. Every journey has challenges and you take them one step at a time and you get through them and you become a better version of yourself throughout the process. That's the one thing that, you know, nothing can take away from you is, you know, you become a better person throughout it. And so you get, you know, better and better and master the skills you need to, to continue to invest and make money in real estate. And so it's a never ending process.
Mike Swenson
Well, Ryan, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story. For people that want to reach out to you, learn more about this model. Learn more about what you're doing. How can they do so?
Ryan Chaw
Yeah, so you can reach out to me. I provide a free PDF guide on how to do this student housing, my specific strategy, some of the obstacles that I encountered and mistakes I made, etcetera. And you can get that at www.newbierealestateinvesting.com guide. That's www.newbierealestateinvesting.com guide. And newbie is spelled newbie. And I also send out regular updates, weekly updates on, you know, some new lessons I learned throughout my journey, maybe a mistake I made and learned from, and, you know, some of the numbers behind the strategy as well, how to run the deal analysis and all of that type of stuff. But yeah, it's a really great strategy. It's really underutilized and, you know, you typically double or triple the rental income simply by getting to six bedrooms and renting each bedroom out for 600, 700 a piece.
Mike Swenson
Absolutely. I agree. I run numbers on stuff like this, and so you've got a nice little niche there. And so congrats on what you're doing and excited to see what you continue to build and see you get to that 100 units.
Ryan Chaw
Appreciate it. Thank you, Mike.
Mike Swenson
Well, thanks, Ryan, for coming on and sharing your story, and best of luck to you in the future.
