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Hey RE Rockstar,
Madusanka here from RE Riches.
Lindsay Barrientos is a nurse practitioner in Los Angeles. A house in her own city was out of reach, so she looked at the map. Since 2022, by her own account, she has bought 12 rentals in northwest Indiana, about 2,000 miles from home, and five of them with the seller carrying the loan. The part you can use this week is small: give the seller two offers. All figures are hers, from two interviews 17 months apart, and we mark where they disagree.
WHAT WILL YOU GET TODAY?
✔️ How a nurse in LA found a market where a $135,000 house rented for $1,400 — and why she picked one within driving distance
✔️ The "proof of concept" year — she let house number one run for 12 months before she bought another
✔️ The two-offer trick — one offer in cash, one on her terms
✔️ The fire two days before the appraisal — and the insurance choice she made afterwards
INVESTOR SPOTLIGHT OF THE DAY
Meet Lindsay Barrientos.
Most of us shop for property where we live,
She did the maths on LA,
20% down on a $1 million house is $200,000, her figure,
And she went looking somewhere her money went further.
HERE'S THE BREAKDOWN
2019.
Lindsay was a nurse in Los Angeles. She bought a house for $600,000 with 10% down, and got the down payment by liquidating her 401(k). She calls that "not very FIRE-friendly" herself.
She rented spare rooms to traveling nurses for roughly $500 to $1,000 a month, and a 2020 refinance cut her payment from about $3,500 to about $3,000. A house hack, before she knew the word.
2020.
The pandemic put her on a hospital floor, and she started asking what else there was. She Googled it. Real estate came up.
2022.
She wanted a landlord-friendly state, and one near Chicago, where she might take a nursing contract. If it's easy to drive to, you actually go.
She followed two small creators who showed their down payments, rates and cash flow, emailed both, and got answers. Then she joined a WhatsApp group of investors in the same area who shared the same few agents, property managers and contractors.
Her first Indiana house: $135,000, a conventional loan with 20% down, and a tenant the week after closing at $1,400 a month. Her payment, with taxes and insurance, was $880.
Our arithmetic: $1,400 − $880 = $520 a month, before the property manager, repairs and empty months.
Then she did nothing. She called that first house a proof of concept, left the profit alone, and waited a year.
Next: a $55,000 two-bedroom that needed a roof and floors, about $16,000 of work (her 2026 account), rented for $1,100 to a Section 8 voucher holder. When the cash ran out, she took a HELOC on her LA home to fund the next purchases and rehabs, and planned to repay it on each cash-out refinance.
Then the fire. Her third Indiana house was a BRRRR (buy, rehab, rent, refinance). The refinance was set up; the appraisal was two days away. Her property manager rang: a fire. Faulty kitchen lighting, empty house, nobody hurt. Most of the damage came from the hose and from the firefighters forcing the door.
LINDSAY'S BLUEPRINT TO SUCCESS
Three ideas carry the story, and only the first is her signature move.
Make the seller two offers. She learned it from a creator who buys in Fresno. Her example: a house she'd buy for $60,000 in cash. Offer one: $50,000, cash. Offer two: $60,000, on her terms, such as a lower rate or less down. The seller picks. She says it works "when the market is like this and the sellers are motivated", and that the sellers who say yes are usually former investors. She has never talked a seller into it who'd never heard of seller financing.
Watch what people have closed, not what they say. She compared agents and property managers in the group by recent transactions and what they were willing to negotiate. "You can talk to me on the phone for two hours, but let me see how many transactions you closed in the last month."
Prove it on one house first. One house, one year, profit untouched, then the next. She says that year is what made her brave enough to go to Gary.
BACK TO LINDSAY'S STORY
By her 2026 count she owns 12 houses, 11 single-family and one duplex, in three zip codes, and the last one with 0% down. Her agent sent seller-finance offers on listings that had sat 120 days or more, and an investor in her group who wanted to sell his portfolio connected her; she bought three houses from him that way (2025).
At home in LA she built an ADU, which she says rents midterm for $2,000 a month, with another in permitting.
And she left her hospital job. She became a nurse practitioner, then a psychiatric nurse practitioner, and says she is now fully off W-2 and running her own practice. The episode's headline credits rentals. In her words, it was a year-long plan, with her LA rental income and a new profession alongside the Indiana houses. She gives no income figure for the practice, so we don't claim the rentals replaced her pay.
Three disclosures, in the body. Lindsay has a YouTube channel where she shares her numbers, a podcast called Real Estate Chisme, and a free online school community with a co-host. She also credits her agent and property manager heavily. She gains when you follow her, which is a reason to weigh her advice, not to ignore it.
LESSONS FROM A SELF-MADE MILLIONAIRE
LESSON #1: OFFER THE SELLER A CHOICE
A low cash price or a higher price on terms,
Same house,
Different motives,
The seller tells you what they want by what they pick.
LESSON #2: A FIRE IS A LINE ON THE BUDGET
A second rehab of about $11,000,
An appraisal she had to postpone,
A lender who said "call me when it's done",
Ask your lender now what happens if a property is damaged before the appraisal.
LESSON #3: A SMALL PROOF BEFORE A BIG PLAN
One house,
Twelve months,
Then Gary.
Prove it small, then scale it.
LESSON #4: KNOW WHAT THE PORTFOLIO IS FOR
She planned a year ahead to leave her W-2,
Kept her LA home and built an ADU,
And added a plan for appreciation next to cash flow.
Decide the job of the money before you buy the next door.
Her record is unusual for a reason: a nurse who cashed out her 401(k), borrowed against her own home and bought houses in a market where $55,000 got a rentable house. But those are her numbers, from two interviews, her 2022 to 2023 Indiana prices are not coming back, and a cashed-out retirement account, a HELOC secured by your home, a seller-financed note you didn't read and a rehab that burns can each cost you real money. Copy her questions, not her year.
How Did You Find Today's Edition?
💰💰💰💰💰 | Loved it |
💰💰💰 | It was fine |
💰 | Not for me |
So here's this week's question, and nobody publishes the answer.
If you've ever made a seller two offers (cash and terms), hit reply with the price gap and which offer they picked.
I'll add up the replies and show the split in a future edition, only if you tell me I can use yours, and without your name.
To your steady success ahead, — Madusanka, RE Riches
RE Riches is educational and informational only. It is not financial advice, it does not sell investments, and nothing in it is a prediction. Real estate carries risk, including the loss of the money you put in. Cashing out a retirement account, borrowing against your home, buying with seller financing, or renovating a house that is then damaged can each cost you far more than the property earns. Seller-financing and landlord rules differ by state: check yours. Figures are as reported by the subject in public interviews (2025 and 2026) and have not been independently audited; calculations marked as ours are our own arithmetic. Do your own research or consult a qualified professional before investing.
