He Started Investing in His 40s, Now He’s on Track to Retire with Rentals

Ashley:
What if the thing that finally pushed you off the sidelines into your very first real estate deal was not a market shift or a perfect opportunity, but was actually gaining custody of your granddaughter and realizing the path you were on was not going to be good enough.

Jonathan:
And what if you did it while working a full-time job, serving in the military, and learning a very expensive lesson about property taxes that nobody wanted?

Ashley:
This is The Real Estate Rookie Podcast. I’m Ashley Kehr.

Tony:
And I’m Tony J. Robinson, and our guest today, Brent Beard, is a real estate investor and an agent in the Kansas City area. Brent bought his first duplex in 2025 while still working in W2, still serving in the military and raising his granddaughter with his wife. Now, he’s not here with a polished success story. He’s here with a real one. So Brent, welcome to the Real Estate Rookie Podcast.

Jonathan:
Thanks for having me on. I’m excited to be here.

Ashley:
So Brent, let’s start off with what changed. You mentioned gaining custody of your granddaughter really shifted everything for you, how you thought about income, time, and just the future in general. So take us back to that moment and tell us what exactly changed for you.

Jonathan:
Yeah, so my wife and I, we have always kind of skated by on our salaries. I work in the tech industry where I lead an engineering calibration lab for a leading tech company here locally. She works in the banking industry as a customer service agent. And we’ve always just kind of gotten by not rich, but not poor enough to pay the bills and keep the fridge stocked. And back in late 2023, we realized after a long drawn out court battle for custody of our granddaughter, we were awarded custody and it was kind of like, whoa, we can no longer coast on our salaries like we used to and I need to figure out what I need to do to provide more. So at that point was when I went and I finished my bachelor’s degree because I was looking for that corporate promotion and started dabbling around in entrepreneurship is when I came across real estate and bigger pockets and ultimately what led to that shift.

Tony:
Why real estate, Brent? What was it about real estate that made it feel like that was the right thing to layer on to give you some of that additional, I guess, cushion in life that you were looking for?

Jonathan:
So just the early part of this journey was spent in education, educating myself. And based on what I’ve found out on podcasts and books, reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad, that’s kind of the starting journey for a lot of investors. I felt like real estate is more practical. It’s something, sure, it could be more capital intensive, but it’s more appreciating wealth over time.

Tony:
And I know that this was a bit of a journey that you were kind of going on your own. It sounds like you were consuming the podcast and reading the books, but how did you get your wife on board with this idea that real estate was also the right vehicle? Because I think there’s a lot of folks who are listening right now, a lot of Rickies in the audience who have listened to … We’re on episode 700 and I think you’re like 36, right? They’ve listened to all 700 episodes that they’ve drank the Kool-Aid, they’re excited, but their spouse hasn’t quite gone down that same path. What did that conversation look like between you and her to also get her on board?

Jonathan:
Yeah, there were definitely some reservations there in the beginning, especially when the numbers of investments started to become a little more clearer and real. But my wife likes to, she likes to call me nerd and she said, “You’re smart, you’re business oriented,” and she pretty much just had trust in me. And so it was kind of the way that she bought into it.

Ashley:
Now, Brent, you’ve already told us a bunch of stuff that you have going on. You have a full-time job, you’re part of the National Guard and you’re raising your granddaughter. How have you actually made time for real estate investing without any of those core elements falling apart in your life?

Jonathan:
Very carefully. It’s very deliberate. I get to see my family probably five to six hours per day per workday, Monday through Friday. Weekends are open unless I have to go be all I can be. But it is with that understanding that none of this is going to be easy per se and it does require some level of involvement analysis, but there have been sacrifices and there’s more sacrifices that’s ongoing now because I’m also in school to be a dual licensed realtor in the states of Kansas and Missouri. So tonight I have my qualifying final for Missouri. Then it’ll be on to Kansas. Well,

Ashley:
Good luck.

Jonathan:
Thank you. But hopefully things just kind of slow down. But yeah, my wife is fortunately very understanding of kind of what I’m trying to build here.

Ashley:
Now along the lines of building, tell us about the first property that you ended up purchasing.

Jonathan:
Yeah. So the first property that I purchased was a duplex in Leavenworth, Kansas. It was full disclosure. It was kind of outside my buy box in terms of what I was looking for. I was typically looking for side by side, two car garage, plenty of parking, things like that. But I kind of stumbled across this. It was on the MLS and I looked at the list price and ran some numbers and it cash flowed at list price, but came in at about 10% less on the offer, might’ve been 15. I think we kind of landed on a 10% discount and ultimately closed on it. So it was your typical boring MLS, nothing fancy, no creative financing. It’s PennyMac, 30 year fixed, locked in at 6.99%. I did inherit a resident on one of the units and then I leased up a one-year lease at the end of the year and currently I’m in the process of vetting local property management firms because I’ve been self-managing and I’ve kind of learned the ropes.
The longer I self-manage, the more that I realize I don’t want to self-manage and I want to find one property manager or one property management firm who can scale with me as I increase in my portfolio. I just want one property manager, not one managing this property, one managing that property, so on and so forth.

Tony:
Britt, you said that the property didn’t initially meet your buyer box, but you decided to move forward because the numbers looked so strong. Just quickly walk us through, what did your underwriting process look like? What data sources were you using? What tools were you using to actually run the analysis? And when you say the numbers look strong, was it maybe the appreciation play that you liked the most? Was it just a pure cashflow? What was the actual data point that made you say, “This is a deal that’s worth pursuing”?

Jonathan:
Yeah. So what I did, I used kind of a culmination of tools. I built my own spreadsheet that had editable fields for assumptions and then formulated fields for the calculations. I utilized the BiggerPockets calculator and a lot of my source of truth came from my agent when I asked, “Hey, what is the market rent for? ” I have a two bed and a three bed. Well, the two bed is already rented at 850 and he’s a little bit on the lower end of the market rent. The range for the three bed one bath was about 1,200 to 1,350. What I did, I listed it at 1,100 because it still cash flowed and I wanted to get it rented. Appreciation, I think the last decade it experienced I think a 7% overall appreciation. Of course, everything appreciated ridiculously in 2020 and 2021, but just looking at the next 10 years, I’ll predict about 3%, just being conservative, probably looking at about an 80,000% increase in value just organically.
But it was the cashflow that really struck my attention as pending that that second vacant unit did rent at $1,100, which it did. That was bringing with property management baked in at 10% with 20% going towards CapEx vacancy and maintenance plus all the expenses. It was a little bit over an 8% cash on cash return.

Tony:
Pretty good for just like stable, long-term rental, not having to do a whole heck of a lot. Well, we’re going to take a quick break, but when we come back, Brent is going to share the tax story and this is when every rookie investor needs to hear before they close their first deal. We’ll be right back after this.

Ashley:
Okay. Welcome back. So Brent, I want to hear about the property tax mistake and the lesson that you learned from this. You underwrote for eight to 15% increase on the property taxes, but you got hit with nearly 100% increase. So what happened, what did it cost you and how did you recover from this?

Jonathan:
It was 100% operator error and a complete oversight on my end. So when looking at the historic taxes, year over year was being the taxes would increase your 5%, 10%, 15%, whatever the case may be. So when I was underwriting my deal, I was expecting that 15% increase in tax year over year. But one thing that I failed to realize was the amount that the property was being assessed at. And in the state of Kansas, I’m not sure if it’s like this in every other state, but it’s something I’ll definitely keep in mind to look at. In the state of Kansas, whenever you buy a property, the purchase price at which you buy that property is now the new market value for that property. So what had happened was it was being taxed at this amount and was purchased up here. So now when I got the new tax bill, I’m now being taxed at this new amount.
So it was about an 87% increase in taxes. Fortunately, I underwrote the deal so conservatively that I’m just naturally able to absorb that impact and not really have to pivot and change my strategy or anything like that. I

Ashley:
Think one really big important lesson there is that how taxes are assessed changes from state to state, sometimes even county to county. So I think that’s something to really understand. In New York, we have a star savings and this is if it’s your primary residence and there’s some other qualification criteria, but if you’re just getting from your real estate agent what the property taxes are and you say, okay, yeah, maybe they’ll increase a litle bit when they do the next assessment, but you’re not realizing that you’re using this as an investment property, you’re not going to qualify for the star savings. Maybe they’re also a veteran and they’re getting that exemption on the taxes and then you’re going to get, once you become the owner of this property, all of those exemptions and savings are taken off and now you understand what the real basis is.
So I think really looking at the property tax bills too and understanding how it’s actually calculated for the property that you’re buying because it’s so easy to just look what the agent is telling you that they are or to pull up the amount but not actually reading the bill of the property tax.

Jonathan:
And it’s also important kind of in my situation where the Kansas City metropolitan area encompasses two states. So you have Kansas on one side, Missouri on the other. You have to understand the laws, regulations, taxes and everything across both states. My next property might be in Grandview, Missouri, which is right across the state line.

Tony:
Well, on that note, Brent, I mean, you’re a licensed agent in Kansas City. How has being on the agent side changed the way you think about investing and how do you use that position to your advantage as a buyer?

Jonathan:
Well, I’m not licensed yet. I’ll be licensed pending and passing the exams here in probably four weeks. So the strategy behind being an agent is it’s kind of an extension of the investor lane. One thing that I did kind of experience was agent speed. Sometimes I wanted to put an offer out and that offer didn’t get put out for 24 or 48 hours and I probably missed out on five or six deals because of that. So that gives me some flexibility once I become licensed. When I want to make an offer, I can just make the offer right then whenever it’s convenient. The second strategy is it’s going to help alleviate some of the closing costs if I represent myself as the buyer’s agent. But I think the biggest perk that I see is the networking side of it. Being able to get to know the people that I need to know, like your general contractors, your lenders, your property managers and things like that.
So I’ve tried to kind of scale and build that team organically, but as you know, I have a lot going on and it’s just hard to make some of that stuff happen. So I think that’s going to be an agent and living in that real estate agent space will help find those, get to know those networking people that I need to know.

Tony:
I’ve actually never heard anyone say that networking is like one of the bigger benefits of becoming an agent, but man, it’s such a true and valid point. I think about some of the most connected people that I know and a lot of times it’s the agents, right? They know the contractors, they know the title and escrow companies, they know the property inspectors. They’ve got sometimes the biggest Rolodex of folks in a market. So you’re absolutely right, man. Sometimes just the network of people that you meet, there’s so much value in that. And for a rookie investor, what better resource than a larger network as you’re looking to get started?

Jonathan:
Yeah. I mean, even if you don’t want to be an agent, at least get to know a good agent and be close with him or her. Because my agent, I wanted my sewer line scope. “Hey, I know a guy. Hey, I need some patching work done.” “I know that guy.” Or, “I know that girl.” Yeah, it’s definitely a walk and roller dex.

Ashley:
Now, Brent, with building your portfolio, you have made it clear that you don’t want to move fast just to scale fast and to scale big. You want to actually build something solid and something that’s sustainable. So what do the next two to three years look like for building your portfolio?

Jonathan:
Yeah. So my long-term vision is kind of like the Chad Carson small and mighty investor model, make as much money as you can with the least amount of properties as possible. Next two to three years, definitely plan on at least getting at least two. My short-term goal is one more property by October of this year, which would mark the one-year mark from my first property. I would like to stay on the pace of on property per year for the next several years and then at some point in the next decade, hopefully I’ll be at a position where I can analyze and see what properties I have, what are my high performers, what are my low performers, why are they low performers, make those modifications prune where needed and keep it relatively small and mighty, just kind of like what Coach Carson calls it. That’s two to three years.
I mean, I have a long-term plan. I have a 20-year plan. I’m 42 now planning on retiring in the next 10 years. It’s a 10-year plan, but until then I’ll continue working at my W-2 job where as long as it’s practical, being a W-2 employee makes me very bankable. Lenders love giving money to folks who have a consistent paycheck every week or two weeks, but use those agent commissions to fund more down payments on rental properties.

Ashley:
Well, Brent, I just have to take this moment to fangirl over Chad Carson because I’m also a huge fan of his strategy of keeping it small and simple. And I actually found something out this morning that relates to him is that he was actually announced as one of the keynote speakers for BPCon this year that’s going to be in Orlando in October. And Tony, you’re going to be excited about this. I don’t think you know this either, but one of the other keynotes that was announced was the author of the Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel, I think, right? And you love that book.

Tony:
I do. That’s a great book, man.

Ashley:
Yeah. So if you guys want to come to BiggerPockets and fan girl with me and Tony over the keynote speakers, you go to biggerpockets.com/conference.

Jonathan:
Well, I have not had the opportunity to go to BP Con yet. It is definitely on my to- do list at some point in the future for sure.

Ashley:
Yeah. Well, we’d love to have you there sometimes.

Jonathan:
Yeah. I went to a workshop in Overland Park, Kansas a couple months ago and it was hosted by a local real estate firm and it was a BER workshop and there were a couple investor agents that were leading this workshop and this was the tipping moment that really was like, yeah, this is the space I need to start transitioning to for sure. Because I was in a room full of people who were smarter than me, your contractors, your agents. And it’s leadership 101, you want to position yourself to be the dumbest person in the room and just being able to surround myself with people who are so much more knowledgeable than me, that was kind of an eye opener and that’s kind of one of many elements of what BPCOM really is enticing to me.

Ashley:
Well, we have to take one more quick break and then we are going to close it out with advice that Brent would give to someone who is exactly where he was a year ago, sitting on the sidelines with real responsibilities and wondering if it is even possible. We’ll be right back. Okay. Welcome back. So Brent, you had said the biggest mistake for real estate investing for you is not starting and this could be somebody that’s listening to this episode right now, not even realizing that by not getting started that this is a mistake for them. So how did you overcome your fears? What would you say to that person that’s sitting on the sidelines right now?

Jonathan:
Sure. First and foremost, get started for sure. Don’t worry about the interest rates or anything. If interest rates are at 6%, get in at six. If rates go down, you refinance. If rates go up, it’s a good thing you got in when they were at six, but educate yourself, but there comes a point where you’ve educated yourself enough. I would say back in May, May 2025 is when I was really kicking the tires of real estate investing and I kind of came to the conclusion of, this is a pretty capital intensive venture. Let me kick this can down the road. Let’s focus on that corporate promotion and I’ll circle back to this here in the next few years. That was in May 2025. July 2025, I read Rich Dad Poor Dad and about halfway through that book, I’d already made the conscientious decision that I’m no longer interested in an MBA or Six Sigma certification.
Real estate’s the way to go. October I closed on the duplex. So definitely educate yourself, but also there’s going to come to a point like with me, if I would listen to a certain podcast, read a certain book or a certain guest came on a podcast and they were starting to talk about a topic when I got to the point to where I was more like, “Yeah, I’ve heard all about this topic five or six times already.” When you find yourself doing that, it’s time to put some things into action because as long as you … I kind of go by, I think it’s either a 70, 30, 75, 25 rule or if you know at least 75% of fundamental stuff, you’re going to learn the rest of it with hands-on. You have to get hands-on. You have to make those mistakes. Hopefully no one to make the same tax mistake that I did, but now I know it didn’t bring me to my knees, but it made somebody else, so hopefully that doesn’t happen.
But yeah, just get in there and don’t just buy anything, be strategic and practical. Understand your goals and your strategy. Where do you want to be? What are your milestones to get there? Sometimes it’s better to work backwards than forward. And

Tony:
Brent, for someone who’s listening and say that they are at that point where they are maybe understanding or they already know 75, 80% of what they’re hearing, once they get to that point, what do you think their first steps should be? Is it analyzing a bunch of deals? Is it talking to an agent? What do you feel is the right first step for a Ricky investor once they’ve gotten to that point?

Jonathan:
First things first, you need to talk to a lender, understand what you’re capable of buying. And then you may have to modify your buy box a little bit. After that, after you’ve talked to a lender, you’ve got your pre-approval, you could reach out to an agent first. That’s what I did. But then once you know how much you’re approved for, if you need any approval, then reach out to an agent. What I did is I used the BiggerPockets investor friendly agent finder and that’s kind of the route that I went. And after that, once you got a lender and you know what you’re approved for, you have an agent now you need to develop your buy box if you haven’t already. What type of property do you want? How many beds, how many baths, what amenities? HOA, no HOA. That’s all personal preference. I prefer no HOA.
And then you can give that information to your agent who can be able to help identify some of those properties that you’re looking for within your price range and what your preferences are on amenities.

Ashley:
Now, Brent, you had mentioned earlier in the episode that you were actually vetting property managers right now for your property. So why did you decide to start out with self-managing and now make the pivot to actually hire a property management company?

Jonathan:
Well, I decided to self-manage at first because I kind of wanted to learn the game, learn the steps. What’s a lot of the feedback that the residents are giving you? What kind of things do they want fixed? What are some typical maintenance items that pop up? And I’ve been able to coordinate plumbing, regular lawn maintenance, pest control and I’m about an hour away from my property and it’s the only property I have, but it’s not a huge deal for the most part. My residents, they pay their rent and they leave me alone, knock on wood. But I kind of feel like, yes, I’m learning more about property management, but I feel like I’m doing my own self a disservice by not having someone who is a professional property manager kind of oversee all those items. And being that I don’t come from a property management background, I’ve never managed a property outside of my own primary residence.
This is what they do every day and the long-term plan is to scale and have more properties. So I want to go ahead and build that relationship now with the property manager who I’m going to work with and who’s going to scale with me as I scale my portfolio.

Ashley:
Well, Brent, thank you so much for joining us today on Real Estate Rookie. Where can people reach out to you and find out more information about your investing journey?

Jonathan:
Yeah, you can definitely … I’m on Facebook. I have an Instagram, but I don’t get on it, but I’m sure once I get my realtor’s license, I’m going to be all over social media. So for now, feel free to email me at [email protected].

Ashley:
Well, Brent, thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule and everything that you have going on to share your experience and your journey with all the rookie listeners. Tony and I had a great time learning about your journey and we love getting rookie investors on the show. It’s fresh in your mind as to how you got that first deal to help somebody else. So if you are a rookie listener and you just got your first deal, please go to biggerpockets.com/guest and fill out an application to be on the show. I’m Ashley. He’s Tony, and we’ll see you guys on the next episode.