What if you didn’t have to fully replace your W-2 income before quitting your job?
In this episode, I sit down with Miller McSwain — a former nuclear rocket scientist who walked away from a six-figure W-2 after realizing that just 7 properties and 51 rooms could create enough momentum to leave his job and build a co-living empire in Colorado Springs.
Miller breaks down how he engineered his co-living model to produce over $10,000/month in cashflow, why he was willing to let his income temporarily drop to almost zero, and how he used partners, VAs, and automation to do it without burning out. We also dive into his BiggerPockets book, Co-Living Cash Flow, and how he’s now building software (Co-Living Pro) to solve the exact problems he faced scaling his own portfolio.
If you’ve ever wondered how to:
- Quit your job before fully replacing your income
- Manage dozens of tenants without hating your life
- Use co-living to turn “meh” deals into cashflow machines
— this episode is going to hit hard.
In this episode, we cover:
- How Miller went from rocket scientist to co-living operator
- Why he quit his six-figure W-2 before fully replacing his income
- How 7 properties / 51 rooms now generate over $10K/month in cashflow
- The exact filters he uses to find great co-living properties (square footage, parking, location, tenant demographic)
- Turning 3-bed houses into 8-bedroom co-living monsters
- The garage conversion unlock: turning break-even deals into $16K+/year positive cashflow
- How he self-manages 51 rooms using cleaners, handymen, cameras, and systems
- Hiring VAs the right way (what he did wrong the first time and how he fixed it)
- Why you should define the role and build the SOPs before you hire
- How Miller uses Zapier, Gmail filters, and simple automations to eliminate constant tenant messaging
- Boundaries: batching notifications, shutting it down when his wife gets home, and avoiding burnout
- Why networking (not spreadsheets) was the #1 habit that changed his life, landed him internships, deals, and his BiggerPockets book
Connect with Miller
📖 Grab his book, Co-Living Cash Flow: co-living book.com
📸 Follow Miller on Instagram: @millermcswain
Connect with Brian / The Builder Nation
📸 Instagram: @thebuilderbrian
🎧 The Builder Nation Podcast
🌐 Learn more about ADUs, development, and Builder Nation: hkdevelopmentgroup.com
