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Hey RE Rockstar,
Madusanka here from RE Riches.
Lawrence "Landlord Larry" Guerguis sold his first car for about $16,000 while still in college in San Diego, and used it toward a $65,000 rental in Peoria, Illinois, that he never visited. He had no pay stubs, so the bank could not qualify him. The property had to. Today, by his own account, he owns about 40 rentals. The part you can use this week is the sequence: let the property qualify, then buy rents that were never raised, then check the rule that lets you raise them. All figures are his, from one interview, and we mark what we could not check.
WHAT WILL YOU GET TODAY?
✔️ The loan that ignored his pay stubs — and how he found a lender for a loan under $100,000
✔️ The first rental he bought without seeing it — a handyman from a Facebook group gave a thumbs up
✔️ The duplex whose rents had never gone up — and the housing-authority rule you must check first
✔️ The partner who paid for six down payments — 30% of the equity, and what Larry says he would change
INVESTOR SPOTLIGHT OF THE DAY
Meet Lawrence Guerguis.
Most students wait for a salary,
He sold his car,
And found a loan that asked about the rent,
Not his income.
HERE'S THE BREAKDOWN
Junior year.
Larry planned to work in investment banking. A stranger in a San Diego pizza shop, an investment banker, told him he got two weeks off a year and that Larry should skip it unless he truly loved money. Larry decided he did not, and set out to learn real estate before he graduated.
He searched Zillow and Redfin with a $70,000 price cap. The results were Midwest and Southern states, so he picked Peoria, Illinois, joined local Facebook groups and found a handyman to look at one house. "I pretty much just needed a thumbs up or thumbs down."
He bought it for $65,000 and put in a couple of hundred dollars of paint.
The loan. With no pay stubs he applied for a DSCR loan, one that qualifies on the property's rent. The hard part was a lender for a loan under $100,000. He found one by asking on BiggerPockets during class.
The tenant. It took a couple of months. He tried Zillow listings and screening sites, then advertised for Section 8 voucher holders, because "the government never misses a payment". The tenant paid nothing; the housing authority paid the rent, about $1,400 a month, against a payment of $480-something.
Our arithmetic: $1,400 − about $480 = about $920 a month, before repairs, vacancy and any management. He calls it his proof of concept.
Next. He crammed extra credits to graduate on time. Then the money problem: he had spent his savings.
The partner. He pitched people in online crypto communities to move money into tangible assets, and a younger investor agreed after a Canva pitch deck and a barbecue dinner in San Diego. The deal: 30% of the equity in each house and a 50/50 split of the rent, with Larry's cash to close on each of six houses at $17,000 to $20,000. He says he later bought the partner out.
LARRY'S BLUEPRINT TO SUCCESS
Three ideas carry the story, and only the first is a loan trick.
Let the property qualify. A DSCR loan compares a property's rent to its monthly payment instead of looking at your pay. Lenders usually want the rent to cover the payment with room to spare (a ratio above 1; many want 1.2 or more). Our arithmetic: $1,400 ÷ $480 is about 2.9 on his first house, but the lender's payment may include taxes and insurance, so the real number is lower. Expect the loan to cost more than a conventional one.
Buy rents that were never raised. His first Cleveland deal was a duplex at $88,000 with two Section 8 tenants of 16 and 11 years, each paying about $650. The units were three-bedroom, but the vouchers were for two bedrooms. He says no previous owner had filed a rent increase, so he did, and within three months both rents rose to about $1,200. Our arithmetic: against his $675 payment, that is $1,300 − $675 = $625 before and $2,400 − $675 = $1,725 after, before water, sewer, repairs and vacancy. Check first: under HUD rules the housing authority must find the new rent reasonable compared with similar units, and an owner cannot raise the rent during the first lease term. Rules and forms differ by authority.
Learn the houses before you move. Before relocating to Cleveland he called about 50 listing agents, asked for video tours and asked what everything in the video was: electrical panels, water-heater age, basement cracks. His first week there, he toured 60 to 70 houses and picked the agent who could answer the mechanical questions.
BACK TO LARRY'S STORY
He moved to Cleveland at the end of July 2024. By his count he bought six houses in six months, his goal having been six in a year. One needed work and he did the painting himself, with no primer, and tried to sand a floor "and it didn't go out right".
Today he says he owns about 40, all single-family except one duplex, mostly in Cleveland with a few in St. Louis through a college friend. He reinvests rather than taking money out. His biggest regret, in his words: losing deals over $1,000 or $2,000, which he says would have been about $5 a month. Deals have also gotten more expensive.
He also posts daily on Instagram as landlord.larry and says it brings connections to lenders and wholesalers, not many direct deals.
Three disclosures, in the body. Larry is a content creator with a social-media brand, runs a wholesale list and a Discord, and has been in real estate a little over three years. He gains when you follow him. He does not give one clean income number, so we print none, and we do not repeat the "thousands in monthly cash flow" headline.
LESSONS FROM A SELF-MADE MILLIONAIRE
LESSON #1: IF YOU CAN'T QUALIFY, LET THE RENT TRY
No pay stubs,
One rental,
A loan that looks at the rent,
It also costs more, so the numbers must clear it.
LESSON #2: THE CHEAP RENT MAY BE THE OPPORTUNITY
Long-term tenants,
Rents that had never moved,
A rule that says the new rent must be reasonable,
Ask the housing authority before you pay for the upside.
LESSON #3: WRITE THE EXIT BEFORE THE MONEY ARRIVES
30% of the equity,
Half the rent,
An exit he says he should have written down first,
Taking money from others for a share of profits can be a security. Talk to a lawyer before you do it.
LESSON #4: KNOW YOUR WALK-AWAY NUMBER
A deal lost over $1,000 or $2,000,
He says it would have cost $5 a month,
But a rent that fails the math costs more,
Decide your number before the negotiation, not during it.
His record is unusual for a reason: a first rental at $65,000 sight unseen, six houses in six months and a Cleveland and Midwest market where $65,000 to $88,000 bought a rental. But those are his numbers, from one interview, and a DSCR loan, a partner who owns 30% of the equity, a house you never visited and a tenant whose rent depends on a housing authority can each cost you real money. Copy the questions, not the prices.
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 bought with a DSCR loan, hit reply with the loan amount, the rate type (fixed or adjustable) and whether the rent covered the payment.
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. DSCR and other investor loans usually cost more than conventional loans. Buying a property you have not inspected, relying on voucher rent, and taking money from partners for a share of profits can each cost you far more than the property earns, and sharing profits with investors can be regulated as a securities offering: ask a securities lawyer. Housing-authority rules, rent increases and payment timing differ by authority: check yours. 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.
