I buy apartment buildings and run them like the business I built.
Before real estate, I took an e-commerce company from zero to $20 million in sales in under five years. I rolled the profits into $34.9 million of buildings I still own. Now I buy Boise apartments with investors, my own cash in every deal. Here's how I operate.
The record
I bought my first house in 2009, rented it out, and kept going. The business gave me the capital for commercial real estate, and since 2021 I've built the portfolio below. Two properties are owned with investors; the rest is my family's own balance sheet.
| Property | Location | What it is | Size | Since | The story so far |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multifamily | |||||
| The Aspenwith investorsInvestor overview | Boise, ID | 12-building apartment community | 45 units | 2026 | Bought at a 5.63% cap, 100% occupied. Targeted 20.2% IRR, 7.5% avg cash-on-cash to LPs |
| North Riverwith investorsInvestor overview | Boise, ID | Value-add apartment community | 16 units | 2025 | $250K seller credit won in diligence; 100% occupied, rents running ahead of plan |
| Burnaugh Building | Enterprise, OR | 1916 mixed-use: apartments over ground-floor retail | 11 units | 2022 | Bought 60% occupied, repositioned, 100% occupied today, laundromat added |
| Alder Street Townhomes | Joseph, OR | Townhomes I developed ground-up, 2023 to 2024 | 5 units | 2023 | Vacation rentals at $250 to $300 a night all summer, built all-in for about $1.65M |
| Government-leased office, single tenant | |||||
| Baker City | Baker City, OR | State of Oregon, leased through 2031 | 19,326 sq ft | 2021 | $429K cash in returns $155K a year, a 36% cash-on-cash; lease renewed to 2031 |
| Idaho Falls | Idaho Falls, ID | National-laboratory contractor, leased through 2032 | ~62,000 sq ft | 2022 | Bought at $4M with a fresh 10-year lease, carried at $11.3M today; $602K cash in returns $286K a year, a 47% cash-on-cash |
| Enterprise | Enterprise, OR | State of Oregon, leased through 2029 | 11,103 sq ft | 2022 | Bought with 94% seller carry at 5% fixed; $116K cash in returns $78K a year, a 67% cash-on-cash |
| Land and ranch | |||||
| Ranch and land holdings | Wallowa County, OR | Working ranch ground and commercial land | ~590 acres | 2016+ | Cell-tower ground lease, CRP contract, and a house rental |
Fixed-rate, long-dated
Most of the portfolio sits on fixed-rate debt with maturities running out to the 2040s and beyond. Debt gets sized to each deal's plan; what never changes is that I know exactly when every dollar of it comes due.
Leases renewed, terms extended
Each government building's lease has been renewed at higher rent, with stronger escalators and years of term added.
Before buildings, a business
I grew up in my family's pool and spa business, fourth generation. So I knew the problem firsthand: a hot tub takes five or six different chemicals, on a schedule, and nobody could find them all on Amazon.
LeisureQuip was built on one idea: everything a hot tub owner needs, in one kit, on a subscription, with an instruction booklet I wrote myself. One click instead of six. It grew to about 10,000 subscribers, a warehouse I stood up from scratch, and ad spend I managed personally.
An apartment building is the same business. A customer with a recurring need, a product that has to show up every month, and an operator who either drives demand or waits for it. I rolled the profits into the buildings above, and the playbook came with them.
How I look at a building
Anyone can buy a building. The money is in what you see before you buy and what you do after. Four real examples.
The systems
First pass is deferred maintenance, in order, every time. The things that cost six figures to get wrong:
- roofs
- siding
- paint
- asphalt
- concrete
- HVAC
The tenant's eyes
Then I walk it again as the customer. Would I be proud to live here and have friends over? Even a Class C property can get to yes. Rents follow that answer.
The roofs that weren't new
The offering said the roofs had been replaced. I put AI agents through every document in the data room. The invoice pricing and square footage only covered two-thirds of the roofs; the broker had gone off what he'd been told verbally.
The pro forma test
Two managers pitched budgets to win the contract. I asked both to put their commission on the line: lower fee if you miss your own pro forma, bonus if you beat it. One revised their numbers down the moment I asked. The other said "we believe our budget, let's go."
Terminate, then re-offer
Diligence surfaced real deferred maintenance, and the seller wouldn't move because my earnest money was about to go hard. So I terminated on the last day. The next morning I came back with a price that covered the repairs, my money back in hard, immediately.
Four vacation rentals, repositioned
I underwrote four apartments as vacation rentals during the COVID boom. Then the market slumped. I repositioned them to long-term rentals myself, down to hauling the furniture out and selling it on Marketplace. Back near the original underwriting now. Still a little off, and I'll tell you that too.
I don't wait for renters. I go get them.
Most operators list a vacant unit on Zillow and Apartments.com and wait. That's listing on a marketplace, exactly like listing a product on Amazon, and I learned there that the sellers who win drive their own demand.
Foothold is my renter-facing brand for the Boise buildings: its own site, its own lead capture, marketing that pushes qualified renters to my properties. Vacancy is one of the largest expenses in a building, and this is the machine built to compress it. The metrics, in order:
It's early, and I'll publish the numbers as they come in, either way.
What owning a building with me looks like
The syndication paperwork is the easy part. Operating the building and taking care of the people who trusted me with their money is the actual job.
Monthly, in writing
Monthly report, monthly distribution, monthly update. The property manager's full report alongside my own.
A signed business plan
Every property gets a written business plan the property manager signs. They keep the engine running; I steer against the plan.
It runs, it doesn't walk
I can't control everything, and I won't pretend to. I run out with the bad news and walk out with the good news.
My cash beside yours
At least 5% of my own money in every deal, well above that so far. Same terms, same risk.
Stress-tested before you see it
Every presentation carries a downside case: flat rents, higher vacancy, higher expenses. Want another scenario? Ask. I'll run it.
Call me
Schedule a call anytime, before you invest or after. Fees are stated in the documents before returns are discussed in the deck.
Aspen Apartments
Property Management Business Plan
02Property overview
03Business plan summary
04Year 1 operating budget
05Renovation program
06Preventive maintenance
10Reporting: the monthly box score
14Sign-off
The plan is a real document, and it gets signed.
That's the actual table of contents from The Aspen's plan: budget, renovation program, preventive maintenance schedules, the lender's operating requirements, and the service levels each side commits to. My property manager signs it, and so do I. When something is ambiguous mid-year, nobody argues from memory.
Investors see the plan for their deal before they wire a dollar.
Every dollar I've raised so far, $3 to 4 million, came from people who know me or were vouched to me by someone who does. I'd rather you get to know me the same way: slowly, with questions.
Don't invest with me if
You need the money back soon
These are illiquid investments. If you might need this capital in the next year or two, don't put it here. That's not a disclaimer, it's advice.
You want a guarantee
Every return figure I'll ever show you is targeted, not promised. Real estate can lose money. If someone's pitching you certainty, keep your hand on your wallet.
You'd rather not look closely
I want you to read the documents and ask the uncomfortable questions before you wire anything. If that sounds like friction, we're not a fit.
Start with my homework, not my pitch
The Boise deal memo
A glimpse behind the scenes of how I think about an opportunity: what I paid for a 45-unit Boise deal, how I financed it, what I think it does, and where it could go wrong.
Or just talk to me
Thirty minutes, no deck unless you ask for one. We can talk about whatever you like:
- a deal you're looking at, mine or anyone else's
- where my underwriting could be wrong
- whether you should buy a building yourself instead
- hot tub water chemistry (fourth generation, genuinely hard to beat)
- airplanes, if we run long