Real estate investments are expensive, even if you finance them. That means mistakes are expensive. I already shared some of the real estate investing lessons I wish I’d known when I was just starting out. So I figured I’d open it up to other professional real estate...

G. Brian Davis
Brian Davis is a real estate investor and personal finance writer with over two decades in the real estate and finance industries. After graduating from University of Delaware in 2003 with two useless B.A. degrees and an even more useless minor in anthropology, he fell headfirst into real estate finance by accident.
Then he promptly went on a property buying spree from 2005-2008. It was what you might call a “learning experience,” all of the lessons expensive.
Eventually, Brian tired of landlording and unloaded his own portfolio of rental properties. But he still loved real estate as an investment, and today he owns fractional shares in over 2,000 units.
The difference? Nowadays he only invests passively in real estate.
Along with his wife and daughter, Brian spends most of the year abroad living by his own rules. He loves hiking, cooking, pairing wine with said cooking, scuba diving, and occasionally surfing (badly). And writing: he writes as a real estate and personal finance expert for Inman, BiggerPockets, R.E.tipster and dozens of other publishers.
Most of all, Brian loves showing others how they too can create their ideal lives through real estate investing and lifestyle design.
How to Calculate Rental Property Cash Flow: Know Your ROI Before Investing
I cringe every time I hear a new rental investor say “Well the mortgage payment is only $1,000, and the rent is $1,300, so that’s a $300/month cash flow!” Sound the air raid siren, because that investor’s dreams are going to end in flames. How to calculate rental...
The 3-Step Strategy to Win Your Spouse Over to Real Estate Investing
When I first started dating my (now) wife, she saw me lose money on a real estate deal. As a first impression for real estate investing, it left a lot to be desired. And it’s been a long road since, in warming her to the enterprise of real estate investing. It’s a...
Vacant Unit? How to Write Irresistible Rental Listings
If you want good returns, you need long-term, excellent renters who will pay on time and treat your property with respect. Tenant screening will help you spot the best rental application in your pool of applicants, but how do you attract the biggest, highest-quality...
Retirement with Real Estate at 32: How Leif Did It
“I reached financial independence at 32 with a wife, a house, and two kids, primarily through real estate investments.” Meet Leif Kristjansen. Leif lives a quiet, pleasant life with his family. Except when it’s not quiet, when he and his family run off to Europe for...
10 Rental Property Financing Ideas from Pro Real Estate Investors
Leverage. It’s one of the great advantages of real estate over other types of investments. You can finance 80%, 90%, even 100% of your investment. Ever tried doing that with stocks? Good luck finding a lender. The best you can do is buy stocks on margin, and that’s a...
Unconventional Financing: Exploring IRAs, 401(k)s & More
You can only buy so many properties with conventional mortgage loans, before reaching lender caps. According to most conventional mortgage guidelines, ten properties is a hard ceiling. But even that is generous: most lenders balk if you have four mortgages. If you’re...
Privacy for Landlords and Investors: Finding the Right Balance
“When I was your age, we actually had this thing called privacy!” Is privacy dead? Long live privacy? I’ll let the politicians and data pirates debate that point, but here’s what I do know: landlords and real estate investors are juicy targets...
From Newbie to 12 Rental Units: How Brady Hanna Reached $40,000 in Passive Income
Brady Hanna wanted to get out of the rat race almost as soon as he stepped into it. Six years ago, Brady stumbled across BiggerPockets, and realized he’d found his exit route: rental properties. He read articles on rental investing (sadly, it was before my time...
A Study on Rental Properties: The Best Investment in 145 Years
Cats or dogs? Coffee or tea? Real estate or stocks?Age old questions. And while I’m a firm believer in both, sometimes you have to make a judgment call based on limited cash available to invest.What performs the best over the long term? For that matter, where do...