In partnership with
1,000+ Proven ChatGPT Prompts That Help You Work 10X Faster
ChatGPT is insanely powerful.
But most people waste 90% of its potential by using it like Google.
These 1,000+ proven ChatGPT prompts fix that and help you work 10X faster.
Sign up for Superhuman AI and get:
1,000+ ready-to-use prompts to solve problems in minutes instead of hours—tested & used by 1M+ professionals
Superhuman AI newsletter (3 min daily) so you keep learning new AI tools & tutorials to stay ahead in your career—the prompts are just the beginning
If I Were 25, This Is What I'd Do
The best investing lesson I learned came from a government employee.
When I moved back to the Atlanta area in 1999, I met a guy named Danny who invited me over to his house one evening. Danny had a decent government job, but as I drove into his neighborhood, something didn't quite add up. The homes were considerably nicer than I expected. I knew his wife stayed home with the kids, so I found myself wondering how they were affording a house in that area.
Eventually I brought it up as tactfully as I could.
Danny laughed.
"This is actually my third house."
Then he explained his strategy. Every few years he bought a fixer-upper, moved in, and gradually improved it. He wasn't hiring expensive contractors to do everything. He was learning skills, doing what he could himself, hiring help when necessary, and steadily increasing the value of the property. After living there for a few years, he would sell, take the profit, and roll all of the equity into the next house. Each move put him in a better neighborhood and a nicer home than the one before.
What struck me most was how ordinary the plan sounded. There was no secret financing strategy, no complex business structure, and no massive windfall. He simply used the house he needed anyway as an investment vehicle.
Two years later, I visited Danny again.
He had moved.
This time it was a 5,500-square-foot mini-mansion.
Over roughly a decade, Danny had worked his way from modest starter homes into a million-dollar property while carrying a surprisingly small mortgage. His plan was to have the entire thing paid off within a couple more years. He hadn't inherited money. He hadn't won the lottery. He had simply compounded sweat equity, market appreciation, and patience.
I've never forgotten that lesson.
When people ask me how to get started in real estate investing, they're often expecting me to talk about rentals, wholesaling, creative financing, or fix-and-flips. Those are all viable strategies, but if I were twenty-five years old, reasonably handy, and had flexibility about where I lived, I would seriously consider following Danny's blueprint.
I'd buy a fixer-upper and move into it.
Owner-occupant financing is usually more favorable than investor financing. The down payment requirements are often lower. The interest rates are often better. Most importantly, you're already paying for a place to live. Why not direct those housing dollars toward a property with upside potential?
The beauty of this strategy is that it teaches nearly every skill an investor needs. You'll learn construction. You'll learn budgeting. You'll learn how to evaluate repairs. You'll learn when to do the work yourself and when to hire professionals. You'll learn which improvements add value and which ones merely cost money. Every project becomes an education as well as an investment.
Over the course of two or three years, you'll benefit from whatever appreciation the market provides, but you'll also be creating your own appreciation through repairs, modernization, and improvements. Investors often call this "forced appreciation" because you're actively increasing the value of the property rather than waiting for the market to do all the work.
When the project is finished, sell it and move to the next one.
Then do it again.
There are certainly faster ways to make money in real estate, and there are flashier strategies that generate more attention online. But very few approaches combine education, experience, favorable financing, and wealth-building as effectively as using your primary residence as your first investment property.
If I were twenty-five and starting over today, that's the blueprint I would follow.
You may be well past 25, but I'll bet you know someone who isn't. Danny's strategy changed the way I thought about getting started in real estate, and it might do the same for a young person in your life. If someone came to mind while you were reading this, hit the share button below and send it their way.
If expired listings and FSBOs are part of your business, the data quality is everything. Vulcan7 invests up to 11x more on data than competitors — daily-updated leads, whitelisted phone numbers to protect your answer rates, and a built-in dialer that loads today's leads automatically. No juggling tools, no importing lists. One listing will pay for a year’s subscription. Get started.
Coffee & Contracts is a monthly membership that gives real estate agents everything they need to show up on social media, without the burnout. Members get a full content library every month: captions, graphics, Reels scripts, emails, and more. It's designed for agents who want to post consistently, attract clients, and build a brand, even when life gets busy.
Resources
Vetted tools, services, and resources for real estate professionals. We only list what we'd use ourselves. More tools, more resources — browse the full library here.
🛠️ Tools & Tech
🛠️ Carrot — The investor website platform that actually generates leads. Roger has used it personally for years. Get Started
🛠️ FlipperForce — Project management software built specifically for house flippers. Track budgets, timelines, and profits in one place. Start Your 30-Day Free Trial
💬 LiveChat — Add a live chat widget to your website and never miss a lead who wasn't quite ready to fill out a form. Start Free Trial
🎬 InVideo AI — Turn a script or prompt into a polished video in minutes. Property tours, market updates, social content — done before lunch. Get Started
📧 AWeber — The email marketing platform that's been in the game since 1998. Reliable deliverability, simple automation. Get Started Free
🎬 VEED — Browser-based video editing with auto-subtitles, transcription, screen recording, and AI tools built in. No software to install, no learning curve. Start Editing Free
🎬 Descript — Record, edit, and publish video and podcast content by editing text, not timelines. Start Free
🛠️ Typli AI — 187 AI writing tools for creating blog posts, emails, property descriptions, social captions, and SEO content in minutes. Get Started
🛠️ CallRail — Know exactly which marketing channels are driving your calls. Call tracking built for real estate professionals. Get Started
📱 Visible by Verizon — Add a dedicated business line to your existing phone. Professional, affordable, no new device needed. If you are paying more than $25 for your cell phone — why? Sign Up
✍️ Handwrytten — Real handwritten notes, sent at scale. Your clients get a card that looks like you sat down and wrote it. Readers get 10% off. Start Sending
📂 Google Workspace — Professional email, shared drives, Docs, Sheets, and Meet under your own domain. Get Started
🛠️ MortaCalc 9000 — Blazing fast mortgage calculator. Plug in any three of the four key variables and MortaCalc solves for the fourth. Free Forever
🛠️ Quick Rehab Estimator — Using construction costs from all 50 states plus insight from 1,700 fix-and-flips, get a preliminary rehab estimate in 30 seconds. Always Free
🛠️ Property Perception Index — Not all property features are easily quantified. The PPI helps you evaluate the intangible features of a prospective property and provides a letter grade. Free Tool
💼 Also Today — Professional Services Top Picks
Full Professional Services appears Friday.
💼 KBKG Cost Segregation — Accelerate your depreciation deductions with a cost segregation study from one of the most respected firms in the business. Get a Free Feasibility Analysis
🔄 Deferred.com — The only 1031 exchange intermediary that charges no fee to the investor. Schedule A Call
💼 MVO CPAs — Cost segregation studies that accelerate your depreciation and cut your tax bill. 100% IRS acceptance rate. Get a Quote
🛡️ NREIG — The nation's largest real estate investment insurance program — month-to-month coverage for vacant, renovation, and tenant-occupied properties across all 50 states. Request a Proposal
🎓 Education and Training
🎓 Oceanview Commercial Lending — Start your side-hustle as a Commercial Loan Broker. Schedule an Exploratory Call
🎓 Teachable — Build and sell your own online course. If you have knowledge, Teachable helps you monetize it. Start a Free Trial
🎓 Kaplan Real Estate Education — Pre-licensing, CE, and continuing education for real estate professionals nationwide. Get Started
📚 House Flipping in Ten Days — The Amazon #1 International Best Seller. Learn everything you need to know in just ten days. Start flipping houses like it's really done — not like what happens on TV. Order here
💡 Negotiation — A fast, practical mini-course for agents, investors, and anyone who talks to people. No scripts. No pressure tactics. Just the four negotiation skills that actually make a difference. Now just $19. Enroll Now
🏠 FlipStarter — The everything-included course on flipping houses. Bonus interviews, forms, documents, and the exact process Roger used to flip more than 2,000 houses. Huge Discount for Quick Start Readers
🛠️ Quick MAO — Get your cash offer in seconds with just a few inputs. Data can be fed from the free Quick Rehab Estimator. Forever Free
Off Market Properties
🏢 Multi-Family Apartment Complex, 189 Units, Oklahoma City, OK.
🏢 Build out this apartment complex in metro Atlanta. Appraised at $11M. Price reduced to $5.9M. Click for details.
Agents, bring your investors! You’re protected. The link will download our preliminary analysis.
🏠 Six packages of Single Family Homes in Atlanta. Can be bought together or separately.
