Build wealth with real estate

Most people who build wealth with real estate do it through the house they live in. Not a stack of rentals bought with big down payments, but a primary residence bought with a small down payment and then sold or kept when life changes. Every page in this section starts there.

Is real estate a good way to build wealth? In my experience, yes, if the house is one part of a plan and not the whole plan. Equity only helps you when you can reach it, and money parked in one asset is all in on that asset.

Start with the Wheel of Wealth. It is the four-box plan I draw with every client: the home, six months of reserves, retirement, then stocks, repeated each time you move. If you read one page here, read that one.

If you already own a home with a low rate, the second group is for you. Keeping that house as a rental and buying your next primary residence can beat selling, and a home equity line opened while you still live there can fund the down payment. The Blue Collar House Hack is my name for running that cycle on purpose, one door at a time.

The last group covers the other roads: living in a duplex, triplex or fourplex, renting rooms, and the VA version for veterans.

Two rules run through every page. Each home you buy as a primary residence is one you genuinely move into, and your application states exactly what you plan to do with every property. And I am a loan officer, not a CPA or a financial adviser: I teach the order and the mortgage math, and taxes and investments go to the people who do those for a living.