Rental Property Income: 5 Real Estate Investors' Numbers (House Hacking, BRRRR, Fundrise Returns)

Real estate investing success stories often skip the starting point. The five below include it: a rejected mortgage application, a lab tech salary, a single mom's 5% down payment. Here's how each built rental property income — and one honest look at crowdfunding returns.

How to start real estate investing with little money

Deandra McDonald was turned down for a mortgage while earning $28,000 a year as a lab tech. She spent 18 months paying off debt and rebuilding credit, bought her first house on the same salary, rented out a room to cover the mortgage, and scaled into multifamily properties — replacing her W-2 income within five years.

House hacking success stories

Rachel Duck, a single mother working full-time, bought homes with 5% down, lived in each for about a year while renovating in the evenings, then moved out and rented it. Repeating that for six years gave her 10 properties and a net worth over $2 million.

BRRRR method results and co-living

Joe Crocker, who travels constantly for his job, used the BRRRR method — buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat — to buy four rentals off the MLS in eight months, generating over $6,000 a month in cash flow with family helping manage them. Andres Martinez, a former waiter locked out of a mortgage in 2023, cold-called hundreds of listings a day to learn creative financing and focused on co-living. Within three years he owned 10 rentals producing over $13,000 a month.

Fundrise returns: a real five-year record

If you'd rather not own property directly, real estate crowdfunding is the hands-off option. Financial planner Jeff Rose put $5,000 into Fundrise in 2018 and published every year's return, including a -10.7% year in 2023. His five-year annualized return was 6.9% after fees, turning $5,000 into about $8,056.

How many rental properties do you need to retire?

In these stories, the answer ranged from four properties ($6,000 a month) to ten ($13,000 a month), depending on cash flow per unit. Leverage cuts both ways, and these are individual results, not financial advice — talk to a licensed professional before taking on property debt.