Hannah HammondFounder & CEO, HB Capital & The Firm RE · CEO of HB Capital | Helping CRE Developers & Investors Fund Deals Nationwide | Host of The Hannah Hammond Show

One Of The Safest Ways To Start Investing In Real Estate—And The Exact Method I Used 12 Years Ago

Name: One Of The Safest Ways To Start Investing In Real Estate—And The Exact Method I Used 12 Years Ago
Uploaded: 2026-06-20T01:48:55+00:00
Duration: 1 min 10 s
Channel: Hannah Hammond
Description: In this video Hannah Hammond explains a conservative, repeatable real‑estate investing method she began using in 2014. The core idea is to purchase a…

20 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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In this video Hannah Hammond explains a conservative, repeatable real‑estate investing method she began using in 2014. The core idea is to purchase a primary residence, live in it for at least two years while making improvements, then either rent it out for cash flow or sell it after the two‑year occupancy. Because the homeowner meets the IRS 2‑out‑of‑5‑year rule, they can exclude up to $250,000 (single) or $500,000 (married) of capital gains, effectively avoiding tax on the appreciation. By repeatedly applying this cycle—live, add value, rent or sell tax‑free, then buy the next primary residence—investors can compound wealth and turn what is typically a liability (a home) into a productive asset.

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One of the safest, most conservative ways to invest in real estate, and what I did when I started investing back in 2014, is you can buy a primary residence, live in it for 2 years, fix it up while you're living there, then you can rent it out for the next 3 years if you want and cash flow it, or you could sell it after, after 2 years that you live in it, and then you don't have to pay any capital gains tax on up to $250,000 if you're single or $500,000 if you're married. As long as you lived in it 2 out of the last 5 years. And so you do this and you rinse and repeat. You can literally do this over and over and over and compound your wealth by actually turning your property that you live in into investment. If you're not doing this strategy, then the property you live in really isn't a great asset. It's more of a liability because it's not actually putting money in your pocket every month or making you money. But if you use this strategy, you can make your primary resident a great investment by living in it 2 years, adding value to it while you live there, and then renting it for the next few years or selling it and doing it again and repeating the process.