The Twin Cities Real Estate Investing Show

Episode Title: How 27-Year-Old Ford Wagner Flips 36 Homes a Year

At just $5 a unit per month, it’s worth checking out shukrentals.com or booking a live demo in the show notes.

Adam Tafel – Investor, Realtor, and host of Twin Cities Real Estate Investing. Adam has helped hundreds of clients buy, sell, and analyze investment properties across the metro. He works daily with local investors and is passionate about building wealth through smart real estate strategies.

Tim Swierczek – Mortgage lender and experienced investor who helps clients structure financing to maximize returns and long-term wealth. Tim brings a practical, numbers-first approach that makes deals work in the real world.

💡 We’d love to meet with you and hear about your investing goals.

Ford Wagner is only 27 years old, but he’s already built real momentum in Twin Cities real estate. After an early attempt at being a traditional realtor, Ford found his way onto a development team, got connected with wholesalers, and learned the business through trial and error. That hands-on experience led to a huge year in 2025, where Ford completed 36 flips while continuing to sharpen his systems and decision-making.

In this episode, Ford breaks down what actually goes into running high-volume flips at a young age—what worked, what didn’t, and the lessons he learned the hard way. We also talk about his first BRRRR, why he’s excited to do more, and how he’s built a 14-door portfolio across the Twin Cities. Ford brings a lighthearted, honest perspective to the realities of scaling, making mistakes, and building real experience early in your investing career.

At just $5 a unit per month, it's worth checking out shukrentals.com or booking a live demo in the show notes. https://calendly.com/oliver-theshuk/shuk-demo — Use discount code TCREI20 for 20% off.

🎙️ About the TCREI Hosts

Adam Tafel – Investor, Realtor, and host of Twin Cities Real Estate Investing. Adam has helped hundreds of clients buy, sell, and analyze investment properties across the metro. He works daily with local investors and is passionate about building wealth through smart real estate strategies.

Tim Swierczek – Mortgage lender and experienced investor who helps clients structure financing to maximize returns and long-term wealth. Tim brings a practical, numbers-first approach that makes deals work in the real world.

💡 We’d love to meet with you and hear about your investing goals. Book a time with us here:

This week on the show, we sit down with Bruce Brunner, an independent landlord who began investing later in life—at a stage when many people assume the window for building real estate wealth has already closed. Bruce proves otherwise. With a sharp focus on Minneapolis, he has built a portfolio centered on value-add opportunities and small multifamily properties, showing that deep local knowledge and disciplined investing still create outsized results.

Bruce is a hands-on operator with deep expertise in duplex-to-triplex conversions, the 4d tax program, Minneapolis Section 8, and navigating the realities of owning rentals in a highly regulated market. Rather than scaling endlessly, he’s intentionally kept his portfolio small and self-manageable—while still building significant wealth and educating countless other landlords along the way. This episode is packed with practical insight for anyone investing in Minneapolis or looking to build a durable rental portfolio without turning landlording into a second full-time job.

At just $5 a unit per month, it's worth checking out shukrentals.com or booking a live demo in the show notes. https://www.rpmviking.com/ and click "request assessment", let them know we sent you for $300 in free maintenance. 

At just $5 a unit per month, it's worth checking out shukrentals.com or booking a live demo in the show notes. https://calendly.com/oliver-theshuk/shuk-demo — Use discount code TCREI20 for 20% off.

🎙️ About the TCREI Hosts

Adam Tafel – Investor, Realtor, and host of Twin Cities Real Estate Investing. Adam has helped hundreds of clients buy, sell, and analyze investment properties across the metro. He works daily with local investors and is passionate about building wealth through smart real estate strategies.

Tim Swierczek – Mortgage lender and experienced investor who helps clients structure financing to maximize returns and long-term wealth. Tim brings a practical, numbers-first approach that makes deals work in the real world.

💡 We’d love to meet with you and hear about your investing goals. Book a time with us here: TwinCitiesRealEstateInvesting.com/schedule

Episode Description

James Faillettaz came into real estate with a massive vision and the ambition to build something far bigger than himself. Early on, he designed an elaborate investment structure where people could buy into his company based on a future valuation tied to him continually adding units—a creative and uncommon approach that came with both advantages and real challenges. Over the years, he’s moved from small duplexes to small commercial to larger multifamily, built vertically integrated service businesses to support his portfolio, and expanded into representing clients as an agent. Throughout it all, he has been unusually open about what worked, what absolutely didn’t, and the lessons that reshaped his strategy.

What makes James compelling is how sharp he is paired with how candid and humble he remains. Today he runs a real estate sales team, a property management company, a commercial leasing arm, and continues to acquire new units while raising capital for his fund. He talks openly about mistakes, pivots, personal growth, and the systems that actually sustain momentum. It’s a rare conversation with someone who has built a wide-reaching ecosystem in real estate—and is still hungry, thoughtful, and improving.

At just $5 a unit per month, it's worth checking out shukrentals.com or booking a live demo in the show notes. https://calendly.com/oliver-theshuk/shuk-demo — Use discount code TCREI20 for 20% off.

🎙️ About the TCREI Hosts

Adam Tafel – Investor, Realtor, and host of Twin Cities Real Estate Investing. Adam has helped hundreds of clients buy, sell, and analyze investment properties across the metro. He works daily with local investors and is passionate about building wealth through smart real estate strategies.

Tim Swierczek – Mortgage lender and experienced investor who helps clients structure financing to maximize returns and long-term wealth. Tim brings a practical, numbers-first approach that makes deals work in the real world.

💡 We’d love to meet with you and hear about your investing goals. Book a time with us here: TwinCitiesRealEstateInvesting.com/schedule

Michael Williams—known on Instagram as @651michael—is a St. Paul developer working directly in the trenches of affordable housing. His pathway into development is unconventional and shaped by firsthand experience with the communities he serves. Michael brings a grounded, real-world understanding of the neighborhoods, the families who need housing, and the complexity of St. Paul’s attempts to make affordability actually happen.

This episode is not a clean “how-to become a developer” blueprint. Instead, Tim and Michael get deep into the weeds on down payment assistance, the structure of St. Paul’s affordable housing programs, and the gap between what these programs are designed to do and what they actually deliver. They break down where incentives help, where they fail, how red tape slows good projects, and why the system often leaves both families and developers frustrated. If you want an honest, unfiltered look at affordable housing in St. Paul from someone who builds it, this episode hits the mark.

At just $5 a unit per month, it's worth checking out shukrentals.com or booking a live demo in the show notes. https://calendly.com/oliver-theshuk/shuk-demo — Use discount code TCREI20 for 20% off.

🎙️ About the TCREI Hosts

Adam Tafel – Investor, Realtor, and host of Twin Cities Real Estate Investing. Adam has helped hundreds of clients buy, sell, and analyze investment properties across the metro. He works daily with local investors and is passionate about building wealth through smart real estate strategies.

Tim Swierczek – Mortgage lender and experienced investor who helps clients structure financing to maximize returns and long-term wealth. Tim brings a practical, numbers-first approach that makes deals work in the real world.

💡 We’d love to meet with you and hear about your investing goals. Book a time with us here: TwinCitiesRealEstateInvesting.com/schedule

Eric Eickoff has carved out a unique and respected lane in the Twin Cities investment world by combining hands-on experience, sharp analytical instincts, and a grounded understanding of what makes small-to-mid-scale multifamily successful. In this episode, Eric walks us through his evolution as an investor—what he learned early, where he made strategic pivots, and the key insights that helped him build a durable and highly intentional portfolio. Whether you’re scaling from your first duplex or repositioning larger assets, Eric’s story offers a clear blueprint for sustainable growth.

What stands out most about Eric is his mindset: he’s methodical, calm under pressure, and focused on fundamentals instead of hype. He brings a level of humility and thoughtfulness that makes his advice instantly usable—especially around underwriting discipline, team building, and knowing your identity as an investor. This conversation is rich with practical takeaways, but it also highlights the human side of investing: the patience, the setbacks, and the long-view thinking that separates long-term winners from everyone else.

Adam and Tim would love to meet with you! Book a private consultation at TwinCitiesRealEstateInvesting.com/schedule. 

At just $5 a unit per month, it's worth checking out shukrentals.com or booking a live demo in the show notes: https://calendly.com/oliver-theshuk/shuk-demo — Use discount code TCREI20 for 20% off.

🎙️ About the TCREI Hosts

Adam Tafel – Investor, Realtor, and host of Twin Cities Real Estate Investing. Adam has helped hundreds of clients buy, sell, and analyze investment properties across the metro. He works daily with local investors and is passionate about building wealth through smart real estate strategies.

Tim Swierczek – Mortgage lender and experienced investor who helps clients structure financing to maximize returns and long-term wealth. Tim brings a practical, numbers-first approach that makes deals work in the real world.

💡 We’d love to meet with you and hear about your investing goals. Book a time with us here: TwinCitiesRealEstateInvesting.com/schedule

From Waiting Tables to Owning the Block – Lisa Van Horn’s West Side Story

This week, Adam sits down with Lisa Van Horn, a single mom and longtime restaurant veteran who turned her West Side grit into a thriving real estate portfolio. Lisa started with heavy-lift renovations funded by hard money (shout-out to Sean Bloomquist), learned construction from the ground up, and built her confidence deal by deal.

Today, Lisa owns and self-manages a mix of small multifamily and single-family homes across St. Paul’s West Side (not West St. Paul) while still working at the same restaurant where she and Adam first met years ago. Her story is one of persistence, creativity, and belief in her neighborhood — proof that you don’t need to leave your roots to build wealth through real estate.

At just $5 a unit per month, it's worth checking out shukrentals.com or booking a live demo in the show notes. Use discount code TCREI20 for 20% off.

🎙️ About the TCREI Hosts

Tim Swierczek – Mortgage lender and experienced investor who helps clients structure financing to maximize returns and long-term wealth. Tim brings a practical, numbers-first approach that makes deals work in the real world.

💡 We’d love to meet with you and hear about your investing goals.

This week, we sit down with Twin Cities investor Dumisani Thomsen, who—together with his wife Kaylee—has built a portfolio of five small multifamily properties and a townhome rental, many of which they acquired while house hacking as a growing family. Their story is a great look at how everyday people can scale into meaningful ownership by taking smart, incremental risks, staying patient, and learning from each step. Dumi shares how their investing journey evolved over time, including the strategies that worked early, the pivots they made as their family changed, and how they approached financing and management along the way.

Dumi opens up about recent challenges, what he wishes he’d learned sooner, and how he and Kaylee think about their next phase of growth. We also discuss Adam’s recent experience raising private financing on his hoarder-house BRRRR project, and how creative capital can help newer investors unlock bigger opportunities. Keep an eye out for next week’s episode featuring Dumi’s wife, Kaylee, who will share her perspective on investing and doing life + business as a team.

Adam and Tim would love to meet with you! Book a virtual or in-person meeting at TwinCitiesRealEstateInvesting.com/schedule.

At just $5 a unit per month, it's worth checking out shukrentals.com or booking a live demo in the show notes. https://www.youtube.com/@TwinCitiesRealEstateInvesting

Book a meeting with Adam and/or Tim - go to TwinCitiesRealEstateInvesting.com/schedule

At just $5 a unit per month, it’s worth checking out shukrentals.com or booking a live demo in the show notes. https://calendly.com/oliver-theshuk/shuk-demo — Use discount code TCREI20 for 20% off.

🎙️ About the TCREI Hosts

Tim Swierczek – Mortgage lender and experienced investor who helps clients structure financing to maximize returns and long-term wealth. Tim brings a practical, numbers-first approach that makes deals work in the real world.

Guest – Mike Hilborn

On this episode, Mike brings us behind the scenes of how he built his business, embraced mission-driven hiring (especially giving opportunities to those reentering society), and leveraged his real-estate/restoration background to talk about the future of urban housing, investment, and community revitalisation in the Twin Cities.

check out TwinCitiesRealEstateInvesting.com/schedule to book a meeting with Adam and Tim!