The Small and Mighty Real Estate Investor: How to Reach Financial Freedom with Fewer Rental Properties

by Chad Carson

Discover exactly how to buy, finance, and manage a SMALL portfolio of rental properties that gives you all the flexibility you need! You don’t need to build a massive real estate empire to achieve financial freedom, and you don’t have to sacrifice what matters to build wealth. Rather than chasing a goalpost that always moves, a small and mighty investor keeps their strategy simple to maximize flexibility and build the life they want. Chad Carson (aka Coach Carson) intentionally built a small rental property portfolio to give his family full financial independence while requiring less than two hours per week of his time. In this book, he shares practical, step-by-step strategies for real estate investors who want more freedom, not another job. Whether you're new to real estate or hoping to downsize, this practical guide will show you a simpler, safer, and faster path to building cash flow with rental properties—so you can get out of the financial grind and do more of what matters in your life. Inside, you

Genres: Business, Finance, Audiobook, Money, Personal Finance

384 pages, Paperback

Published August 22, 2023

Reviews

[Lloyd Preece · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really well written well rounded book. Lot of RE books out there are focused on growth and creative financing, this gives perspective and focuses on scaling up but also on how to wind down within your ender phase , when enough leverage is enough and honing in on the investment phase when to understand that you’re done

[Morgan Potter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good real estate book. Offers a different perspective for keeping a small but mighty portfolio. Less to manage and without debt less risk and higher cash flow. The middle of the book was your normal real estate advice, with some new knowledge gained. My main takeaway is building systems to automate your business, ie working on your business and not in your business and considering the hassle and risk profile of your portfolio.

[Kent Carpenter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the first 2/3. The rest of the book is simply things to refer to for practical implementation on due diligence, financing etc. - so I did not finish.

Great resource and after reading I feel like I’d only want to rent out properties I’ve purchased to live in and then am moving on from.

[Cory Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book fits into my investing philosophy and it was great the Coach Carson put it into words in his book every small and mighty investor should read.

[Denny Troncoso · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good book fully encompassing on how to invest in real estate and he the author has a lot of experience starting to invest pre-great recession and going through it and surviving as an active real estate investor for over 15 years and having conducted millions of dollars of transactions, I can attest that he knows what he’s doing and he’s also Freely sharing it in his book for $20. I would say that’s really sharing cause there’s books that I’ve read and people just don’t give you the medium and potatoes. It’s very superficial when they’re selling something. This is not the case in this book now the reason I’m not giving it a five star review is because he got away from the main theme, there were only about two chapters where we talked about the small and mighty main theme how to have less properties and Basically have a successful real estate investing career. He talked a little bit about it at the beginning and then a little bit at the end, but I really would’ve like to see more of his thought process there. It’s kind of a simple thing you know your own less properties you pay them off and that’s it but I just felt like there was just so much in the book and that theme that he did didn’t give it that much to it. I think it could’ve been probably one to two more chapters just in that theme alone because it would be good to see his stop process but never let us. I highly recommend it especially for beginners because he covers A-to-Z, but then on that other part of the theme I don’t know. I just would like for him to give a little bit more on that, but still definitely a four-star no question.

[John Cajucom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This such a well written book about building the right amount of real estate portfolio to create and support your lifestyle. It walks you into having a specific goal and building just enough and let’s go of the “more is better” attitude.

The book itself walks you through knowing your financial independence number, to picking the right strategy, to finding and making deals, to financing, and to prune and payoff your real estate investments. It has a lot of good information and I personally could read it another time so I can retain more of the information.

If you’re an aspiring real estate investor like myself this is a great place to start and has valuable lessons from front to back of the book. I highly recommend it.

[Katherine Kehres · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really practical and easy to understand advice, yet at the same time, it also included some of the finest details and perspectives and situations that were dug into and analyzed. Overall, this book should help others avoid pitfalls and mistakes. Lots of great ideas I hadn't even considered. When we are ready to be landlords again and/or want to consider more investment properties, I feel like I'll need to re-read this to really ensure we go in to making the best decisions to allow us the most peace of mind. I've always been fascinated with real estate and with finances and this was like the perfect blend of both, even had some Dave Ramsey theories in it!

[Kathryn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introductory book on the topic, this book shares both useful information and interesting stories. There are two things which would have made it more powerful: 1) one of the most common things talked about in the industry is "cap rate" (he never uses this term although he uses the same calculation), and 2) an index at the back so that people can quickly look up information to make it easier to use as a resource once they've read it. Note: there is additional information provided if you read the book, however, the index would still be beneficial.

[Cole Oraham · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a real estate professional and investor, I’m constantly asked by people who know me about getting started in real estate investing. It’s hard to give blanket advice because people come from all different walks of life. Chad does a fantastic job at making the complex simple. Definitely recommend for anyone at any step of their real estate investing journey.

[Zara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly a great read. Coach Carlson doesn’t disappoint. The book is very easy to read and packed with advice. I really enjoyed the idea of buying properties in the starter phase and paying off debt in the Ender phase. I’ve used this strategy with my portfolio in order to maximize passive income and have peace of mind

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall good book with some good details, especially if you are new to the topics within real estate investing. His main points of being small and mighty really don't come until the 2nd half of the book, particularly the last few chapters.

[Jordan Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

A refreshing BP read with a more conservative approach to REI. Loved the FI exercise in ch. 3.

“Your ideal financial destination isn’t the most properties, it’s to have enough. With enough, you can spend your time doing whatever matters most to you.”

[Mallary Kineman · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best real estate investing books I’ve read! It’s comprehensive to share all the different pros/cons of the different strategies. Highly highly recommend for anyone considering investing or already investing in real estate.

[Greg Hutchins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I already knew most of the principles the book teaches. What I liked the most was the focus on life design and not buying more real estate just because but making sure your strategy aligns with your life vision and what you actually want

[John Appleby · Rating 1 out of 5]

A lot of words to say buy a small number of rental properties to enjoy a less stressful life and maximize time. Better to read Your Money or your Life.

[Justdom · Rating 1 out of 5]

4.5

[Gabby kampman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chad Carson just seems like an awesome guy. Awesome tips to build your portfolio to suite your life

[Mikayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book with loads of practical advice!!

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and plan to re-read several times. I'm at 3 rental properties and want to stay small so I can enjoy this life I've built.

[Caleb Genry · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was some decent information, but way too much general real estate investing information. It wasn't focused like I hoped it would be.

[Hunter Ferrari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book on maintaining a healthy real estate portfolio without always having to focus on growth.

[Amber Field · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of really good information, especially if you're just starting out.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish this book existed back when I started investing in real estate! It's an awesome all-encompassing guide to real estate investing. It's not just for beginners though - there's useful information and tips for intermediate investors and also for those at the end of their real estate investing careers. I actually haven't come across a book that goes over what to do when you want to stop investing - usually books just focus on how to do more, more, more. But eventually you have to stop, right? I found it really insightful. The author advocates for a "small and mighty" strategy rather than encouraging readers to be real estate moguls, which I really appreciated. This book is going to be my new REI playbook!

[Lawrence Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Hoopla) Very, very informative book. Author walks the reader thru the nuts and bolts of real estate investing, from the folks you will need on your investing team (eg realtor, title company, real estate attorney, insurance agent, handyman and contractor) to how to find and finance the purchase of the property to using technology to manage HVAC thermostat, lighting and utilities remotely in short-term and mid-term rentals.

As an investor with three single family rentals, many things the author said resonated with me:

: finding good deals is the most challenging part of real estate investing (because it is so difficult, it is challenging to do a 1031 exchange where you sell a property and find a motivated seller that will part with his property within the 6 month time limit)

: follow-up is the key to converting initial rejections by agents or sellers to acceptances

: after buying the property, screening for the ideal tenants is probably the most important skill as a rental owner

: if any work is required by a team member (eg handyman, contractor) pay the person quickly, so they will make you a priority the next time you call

I also learned a great deal:

: somewhere between 4 and 10 fixed interest rate mortgages, the banks will stop loaning you money, so the small investor will have to secure a DSCR (debt service coverage ratio) loan (those loans can only be secured on income-producing properties)

: use technology to both find and screen tenants

: the criterion for selecting regions to invest in include those sections of the country where employment opportunities are expanding, populations are growing, houses are affordable, state rental laws are favorable to landlords, etc.

The only thing I disagreed with was the author’s contention that you need to build a huge marketing machine that generates 100 leads in order to get to purchase 1 property. If I am a small investor it seems like a poor use of time/energy/resources to build this marketing machine to purchase 4-6 properties, IF that is all the properties that I want to self-manage as a small and mighty real estate investor. Everything else made the book necessary reading.

[Nico Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple yet effective. Loved this book! Coach Carson gives tremendous value with this book for a newbie investor like myself

[Frieda Sewald Weigle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good intro into how to get into real estate investing, what to do, gotchas, etc.