Robots are moving into factories, warehouses and hospitals faster than most people realize. When a new industry takes off like this, the instinct is to buy a basket of names and hope one of them hits.

The trouble is that baskets dilute your winners. In a lot of booms, a single company ends up taking the lion's share, while everyone holding the other six watches from the sidelines.

Our report names the one robot company we think comes out on top, and explains why. It normally sells for $19.99, but today it's free. Opt in and we'll also text you alerts on the stock, so you don't miss a move.

Get the #1 Robot Stock

Madusanka here from RE Riches.

Lucas Teague was a high-school graduate earning about $11.95 an hour in 2012. A year later he bought a HUD foreclosure listed at $50,000 for $8,000, after a month of being told no. Today, by his own account, he owns three rentals and a paid-off home, and still works his day job. The part you can use this week is the method: let a spreadsheet pick your offers, then make them. All figures are his, from one interview, and we mark what we could not check.

✔️ The $8,000 offer on a $50,000 listing — it took a month of "no" and three offers

✔️ The spreadsheet that ranks the whole MLS — sorted by cash-on-cash return, then he offers the price that hits his number

✔️ What he did when the deals dried up — he paid down debt instead of buying

✔️ The land grant he says paid about $1,000 an acre — and why we checked it against a published rate

Meet Lucas Teague.

Most beginners wait for the right listing,

He made offers until one said yes,

And then he ran the numbers on every listing,

Because an offer beats no offer.

2012.

Lucas was 18, working an hourly job at a pharmaceutical company. He worked out that stocks would take him about a century to reach the income he wanted, and that houses in his area sold for $20,000 to $30,000 and rented for $300 to $400 a month. So he saved $10,000 in a year.

2013.

A HUD foreclosure listed at about $50,000. He and his agent put in offers on the auction site, one a week: $6,000, then $7,000, then $8,000. After about a month the owner said yes at $8,000.

He put in about $2,600 and did the cosmetic work himself with online videos. He sold it in early 2014 for about $60,000. Our arithmetic: $60,000 − $8,000 − $2,600 = $49,400, before selling costs, interest and tax.

Then a triplex. About $45,000, financed, 150 years old, two empty units and one tenant paying nothing, which meant an eviction. He moved into each unit in turn for three or four months, renovated it, and rented it. The work was about $5,500. Rents went from about $400 to about $700 a unit, or $2,100 a month in all.

He sold it in 2015 for $100,000, a full-price offer. He was 19 or 20, the area was rough, and he says the cash meant more to him than the $2,100 a month.

2017 and 2018.

He wanted long-term rentals at a 15% cash-on-cash return, and he was willing to wait for them, one a year or one every three years. He bought a house to live in and fixed it up on nights and weekends. His two-year target was deliberate: if you own and live in a home for 24 of the last 5 years, the IRS lets you exclude up to $250,000 of gain ($500,000 for joint filers). He sold his first house after about a year, so that rule was not his.

The spreadsheet. He exported the whole MLS into Excel and calculated cash-on-cash for thousands of listings at once. He sorted the column and looked at the top five or ten.

2019. A house listed at $150,000. He offered $110,000, and it was accepted. It rents for $1,350 a month, which is 1.23% of the price a month (our arithmetic). 2020: another at $120,000, rent $1,525, 1.27% (our arithmetic). Rates then were under 3%, he says.

Three ideas carry the story, and only the first needs courage.

Today he says he owns three rentals and a primary home. He says the home and land are paid off, and the publisher calls him "almost completely debt-free". He still has his day job and is a licensed real estate agent, and "financial freedom" is the publisher's phrase for him, not a figure he gives.

In 2022 he bought 66 acres for $378,000, with about 50% down on a 15-year land loan at 3.7%, and a construction loan for the house, finished in June 2023. He says he has paid both off since. He also made a mistake: no internet or fiber where he lives, so he works from satellite.

The grant. He says a USDA conservation program paid him about $1,000 an acre over three years to remove invasive plants, about $66,000 across the land, and that he split it 50/50 with a crew that did the work. We could not confirm that figure. The one published Indiana schedule we found, for 2018, paid $72 to $430 an acre for woody invasives, only after the work passed inspection, and never more than the contract. Rates change by state, year and practice. Do not plan around his number: ask your local conservation office for current rates.

Three disclosures, in the body. Lucas is a licensed agent, has built an AI tool for local market trends that he uses with clients, and works full-time. He says the tool led him to a recent purchase, but it is too soon to tell on appreciation. He gains when you use an agent, which is a reason to weigh his advice, not to ignore it.

LESSON #1: AN OFFER BEATS NO OFFER

A bank does not take it personally,

He heard no for a month,

He got one yes,

The only offer you can't win is the one you never make.

LESSON #2: LET THE SHEET DO THE FIRST PASS

Thousands of listings,

One sorted column,

Five or ten to look at,

Decide your number first, then offer to meet it.

LESSON #3: SKIP A YEAR BEFORE YOU OVERPAY

Nothing met his number from 2021 to 2026,

So he put cash toward debt,

Not a house that missed his return,

No deal is a decision too.

LESSON #4: CHECK THE FREE MONEY

A grant he says paid $1,000 an acre,

A published Indiana rate of $72 to $430,

Same program, different numbers,

Always ask the agency for the current rate in writing.

His record is unusual for a reason: a first house at $8,000, a triplex at $45,000 and rentals at $110,000 and $120,000, in a market and a rate era (under 3%) that is not coming back. But those are his numbers, from one interview, and low offers, foreclosures, evictions, live-in renovations and paying down loans with cash you may later need can each cost you real money. Copy the method, not the year.

How Did You Find Today's Edition?

So here's this week's question, and nobody publishes the answer.

If you've made an offer well under the asking price, hit reply with the asking price, your offer and what happened.

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. Low offers, foreclosure and HUD purchases, renovating while you live in a property, evictions and using cash to pay down a loan can each cost you far more than the property earns. Tax rules depend on your situation: ask a tax professional. Government program rates and eligibility change: check with the agency. Figures are as reported by the subject in one public interview (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.