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Most new investors try to do everything at once. Flips, rentals, networking, analysis, all while keeping a W2. Colin and Jenny both learned the hard way that focus is what separates the investors who close deals from the ones who stay busy without getting anywhere.

Colin grew up managing flips with his dad in Milwaukee since he was six years old, spent three years in UW Madison's number one ranked real estate program in the country, and has been working acquisitions and asset management on flips since high school. Jenny Buell accidentally became a landlord in 2012 when she couldn't sell an underwater condo in Madison, moved to northeast Wisconsin, chickened out for a few years, and came back in 2018 to build a portfolio that includes a single flip that netted her over six figures.

What's covered:

• How Colin learned to evaluate rehab costs just by spending time at Home Depot, and why that knowledge protects you from contractors who take advantage of investors who don't know their numbers
• Why flipping and holding rentals are two completely different businesses and why trying to run both at the same time while keeping a W2 almost guarantees you get average results in both
• How Jenny went from a Craigslist rental and a downloaded lease to pulling six figures on a single flip in Green Bay's Indian Trails neighborhood
• The seller psychology lesson Corey uses on every appointment: price is never actually the most important thing, and the flip phone analogy that makes it click
• Why Jenny set up her HELOC before she had a single property under contract and how that preparation let her move fast when the right deal showed up
• How Jenny raises private money through relationships built over years of showing up to the same rooms and doing what she said she was going to do
• Colin's zero deal summer: what happened when he tried to do acquisitions, networking, and analysis all at once and why he would do it completely differently now
• How Jenny structured a rent-back arrangement with a 70-year-old seller who was still living in the property, and what that deal taught her about solving problems for sellers instead of just throwing a number at them

Get off-market deals every Monday at 6am: WisconsinDiscountProperties.com

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Two completely different sides of real estate, same goal: building wealth the right way in Wisconsin.

Mason Clark, chief investment officer at Park Place Holdings, breaks down how he and his partner built a commercial portfolio worth well over nine figures, almost always with little to no cash down. He walks through real deals including an office building they bought for $2.5 million that appraised at $9.5 million, and the negotiation tactics that got him there.

Fran Bourassa, owner of Vantage Point Property Group and the man who manages all of Corey's rental properties, started as a self-managing landlord before building one of the largest property management companies in northeast Wisconsin. He breaks down exactly what to look for when interviewing a property manager, what self-managing actually costs you in time and money, and why he thinks northeast Wisconsin might be one of the best cash flow markets in the country.

What's covered:

• How Mason structures commercial deals with little to no cash down, using bank financing and seller credits instead
• The office building Mason bought for $2.5 million that appraised at $9.5 million, and how he negotiated the seller down from a $17 million ask
• A seller who wrote Mason a $150,000 check just to get out from under her property
• How Mason recouped nearly $1 million of his purchase price by selling half a vacant building to a church
• What Fran says is the number one issue investors have with their property management company, and the questions to ask before hiring one
• Why Fran believes northeast Wisconsin has some of the best cash on cash returns in the country, after researching 180 markets nationwide
• The eviction timeline difference between Brown County and southern Wisconsin, and how it compares to states like New York and California
• Fran's near miss with a tenant over a broken window screen, and why he eventually stepped back from self-managing

Get off-market deals every Monday morning: WisconsinDiscountProperties.com

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Most people wait too long. They wait for more money, more experience, more certainty. These two didn't.

Carter Crowley dropped out of UW after one year, grinded as a buyer's agent for five years, and made the call during Covid to go all in on flipping. He now does around 50 flips a year in the Fox Valley, buying most of them with just closing costs out of pocket thanks to a community bank relationship he spent years building. Carter and his dad started with a $65,000 deal financed by family, a credit card, and a lot of sweat equity. Today they're financing at 85% of after repair value through a local lender who knows and trusts them.

Connor DeRenne graduated college in Milwaukee, started at Wisconsin Discount Properties two weeks later, and closed on his first investment property less than a year out of school. He bought a duplex nobody else made an offer on for $245,000. It appraised at $290,000 on day one. Thirty thousand dollars in equity just from buying right.

In this compilation episode you'll hear both of them break down exactly how they got started and what they'd tell anyone sitting on the fence right now.

What's covered:

• How Carter went from $65,000 family loan and a credit card to financing flips with just closing costs out of pocket
• The community bank relationship that changed everything for Carter's business and how long it took to build
• How Connor approached his dad as a private money partner, what he showed him to overcome the fear, and how they structured the deal
• Why Connor's goal went from 50 doors in seven years to 100 doors in one conversation with his dad
• Carter's profit per month formula and why it determines whether he does a full rehab or just cleans and relists
• Carter's exact offer formula: ARV times 90%, minus rehab, minus profit margin
• What Corey learned the hard way putting a manufactured home on a Jackson County property with surprise costs that blew the budget
• Why losing on a deal isn't the problem. Never doing another one is
• What Connor told himself in the two-hour window after his offer got accepted when he almost talked himself out of it

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If you're sitting on the sidelines right now, not buying deals, there's a good chance the real reason isn't the market, the interest rates, or the deal flow. It's that your financing options are thin and you've been telling yourself a story about why that's okay.

Corey sat down with ten investors at a recent REI Success Meeting in Green Bay and asked a simple question: when was the last time you did a deal? Most of them hadn't bought anything in far longer than they realized. And when he dug into why, almost every answer came back to money. Not a lack of it. A lack of organized access to it.

In this solo episode, Corey breaks down the four buckets of capital every Wisconsin investor needs to have ready before the right deal shows up.

Hard money: what it costs in northeast Wisconsin, what loan to value you can expect, and why it should be your last resort but your first call to set up.

Home equity lines of credit: why dead equity in your house is the most overlooked funding tool in real estate, how to get one at 90% loan to value, and how to recycle it across multiple deals in a single year.

Private money: the exact conversation starter Corey uses with family and friends, how to structure the deal so your lender is protected, and why baby boomers are sitting on more capital right now than at any point in history.

Community banks: how Wisconsin investors get after repair value loans at the time of purchase, why this is nearly impossible to find in most other states, and what it costs to get started.

If you can build at least two options inside each of those four buckets, financing stops being an excuse. This episode shows you exactly how to get there.

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Most investors think they need a briefcase full of cash to build a serious rental portfolio. They don't. They just need to understand how to recycle the same dollars over and over again.

In this solo episode, Corey breaks down the BRRRR method from the ground up, with real numbers, real deal examples, and a clear picture of what this strategy actually does to your wealth over time.

What's covered:

• Why buying turnkey on the MLS locks up your capital and slows your growth
• How to force appreciation, pull your money back out, and go do it again
• A $300,000 ARV example with zero appreciation that still produces $206,000 in equity after 15 years
• What 4% annual appreciation does to that same deal: $446,000 in equity
• Why the interest rate difference between 5.5% and 7% barely moves the needle on wealth building
• Why buying today at 7% might be smarter than waiting for rates to drop
• The real math on replacing your W-2: two BRRRR deals per year for five years gets you to $170,000 in tax-free income
• Corey's 16-unit deal where he pulled $240,000 tax-free two years after closing without ever cash flowing a dollar
• What happens when an appraisal comes in low and how to fight it
• How to find contractors as an out-of-state investor using Facebook and the WDP network

Plus real deal walkthroughs including a mobile home on 8.4 acres in Oshkosh nobody else wanted, and a duplex Corey just got a low appraisal on and is actively fighting.

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Two Wisconsin investors. Two very different scales. One common thread: they both figured out how to move fast.

Zach Morgan is 28 years old and holds 52 long term rentals, almost all of them BRRRed, after going solo just two years ago with 13 units and a low overhead lifestyle. Ryan Gray started a licensed assisted living business out of his college house at UW Eau Claire, parlayed those business reps into real estate, and hit 700 units of multifamily in seven years without ever doing a syndication.

In this compilation episode you'll hear both of them break down how they actually did it, including:

• How Zach scaled from 13 to 52 doors in two years using community banks and the BRRRR method almost exclusively
• The 40 unit creative finance deal that changed Ryan's entire trajectory, where he showed up to closing and got a check instead of writing one
• Why Zach started Caffeine and Cash Flow, now running at five Wisconsin locations, and what intentional networking actually looks like
• How Ryan self-manages 700 units with a head PM, four admins, and five maintenance guys, and why he says it's the only way at that scale
• What Zach's first duplex looked like, two hoarders not paying rent with the city already involved, and why he's glad he bought it
• How Ryan thinks about partnerships, what goes in the operating agreement up front, and why the exit conversation matters more than the entry

Want the full conversations? Links below.

Zach Morgan full episode: 
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/18cvfsldDCtcgAx0SAdBZX?si=8f770020c0b44e39 
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/28-years-old-and-52-rentals-zach-morgans-real-estate/id1773166436?i=1000695847364

Ryan Gray full episode:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2u05Oh5U4nZVAq2p363ieC?si=c0120644d8c04124
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/college-rental-to-700-units-in-7-years-ryan-grays-real/id1773166436?i=1000719624600

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Two families. Two completely different paths. One result: freedom through Wisconsin real estate.

Matt and Katie Fihn out of Port Washington went from both working day jobs with two young kids at home to Matt walking away from his W-2 after just one completed flip. Katie followed shortly after, leaving a 19-year career to run the business full time alongside him.

Greg Newman built a 50-door rental portfolio in the Northwoods over a decade, almost entirely while working full time. No outside partners, no big money raises. Just savings, lines of credit, and a slow methodical approach that eventually made quitting unavoidable.

In this compilation episode, you'll hear both stories back to back, including:

• How one conversation at a playdate changed the Fihn family's entire financial trajectory
• What Matt and Katie used as their trigger to pull the plug on the W-2
• How Greg accidentally discovered the BRRRR method and built from there
• Why Greg stayed in one lane for 12 years while resisting every shiny object
• The 20-30 deals the Fihns missed while juggling jobs and young kids, and what that cost them
• How Greg brought 38 Northwoods doors back in-house after property management fell apart at scale
• What both families say about the fear of walking away from a steady paycheck

Want the full conversations? Links below.

Matt and Katie Fihn full episode: Spotify: https://bit.ly/4diIWkO Apple: https://bit.ly/3PpdpVb

Greg Newman full episode: Spotify: https://bit.ly/4dykkDv Apple: https://bit.ly/42KN4E0

Get off-market deals every Monday morning: WisconsinDiscountProperties.com

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Most new investors follow the same playbook and wonder why they can't compete. The ones who break through faster are the ones who figure out where they already have an advantage before they ever buy their first deal.

Reese breaks down how to identify your niche in real estate, why it has nothing to do with knowing everything, and why your first deal is supposed to be messy.

What's covered:

• Why copying someone else's blueprint is the fastest way to stay stuck, and what to do instead
• How a trades background, a corporate career, or even a sales job gives you a built-in edge in real estate
• Why your first deal's profit per hour is going to look rough, and why that's actually fine
• The three types of leverage that matter more than hustle: money, people, and systems
• How experienced investors run seven or eight projects at once without losing their minds (and how you get there too)

Reese also shares how he got his foot in the door early by flying drone footage for realtors for free. No construction experience, no capital network. Just a skill plugged into the right relationship.

If you're getting started and feeling behind, this one's for you.

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Most investors default to hard money because it’s simple.

But what if that’s actually costing you more than you think?

In this episode of The Wisconsin Investor, Reese Brown sits down with commercial lender Chad Miller of Bristol Morgan Bank to break down the real differences between hard money lending and commercial lending, and when each one actually makes sense for your deal.

They walk through real examples, numbers, and scenarios that show how commercial lending can sometimes require more upfront capital, but actually leave you with less money in the deal over time.

Here’s what you’ll learn:
 • The key differences between hard money and commercial lending
 • Why commercial loans are more relationship-based, and why that matters
 • What “85% of project cost” really means and how it works
 • How draw schedules and rehab funding actually play out
 • Why some investors end up with less cash in a deal using commercial loans
• When it still makes more sense to use hard money
• How to build a banking relationship that unlocks better terms over time

They also dive into how community banks evaluate deals, what new investors should do before reaching out, and how experienced investors can get more flexible financing as they grow.

One of the biggest takeaways? The best loan option isn’t always the simplest one, and understanding both can completely change how you structure your deals. 

If you’re flipping houses, building a rental portfolio, or just trying to figure out how to fund your next deal more efficiently, this episode is packed with practical insight you can actually use.

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Is the real estate market finally cooling off… or are investors just getting nervous?

In this episode of The Wisconsin Investor, guest host Reese Brown sits down with commercial lender Kolten VanElzen to break down exactly what’s happening in the Green Bay housing market right now, using real data, real trends, and real investor insight.

They dig into what most people are feeling in today’s market versus what the numbers actually show. From rising days on market to tight inventory and steady price growth, this episode separates perception from reality.

Here’s what you’ll learn:
 • Why listings are slightly down, but not in the way people think
 • What rising days on market really says about today’s buyers
 • Why affordability is becoming the biggest factor in deal flow
 • How new construction pricing is shaping the entire market
 • What interest rates are likely to do over the next 12 months
 • Why Northeast Wisconsin continues to outperform most U.S. markets

One of the biggest takeaways? Even with global uncertainty, higher rates, and affordability challenges, deals are still happening and prices are still trending upward in Green Bay. 

If you’re an investor waiting on the sidelines or trying to figure out your next move, this episode gives you a clear, data-backed look at where things stand and where they could be heading.

The market hasn’t stopped, it’s just shifting.