In this vlog, Cody recounts his path from discovering Rich Dad Poor Dad at age 14 to becoming a multi‑unit real‑estate investor before turning 21. He describes early influences, setting a concrete goal to own a duplex by 21, rapidly obtaining his real‑estate license at 19, and closing his first commission‑earning deal. A pivotal moment occurs when a 22‑unit off‑market deal falls through, prompting his mentor to suggest owner‑financed purchases. Cody then acquires a 12‑plex at 19 through seller financing, repeats the process six months later to add another 12‑plex, reaching 24 units by age 20. He emphasizes the repeatability of owner‑financed multifamily deals, the freedom from traditional college or student‑loan debt, and his desire to teach other Gen Z and millennial investors via a YouTube channel that will post twice weekly, covering renovations, deal analysis, and step‑by‑step guidance.
Chapters
Hey YouTube, this is Cody. Just sitting in the office today, wanted to film a video on what sparked my interest in real estate, what got me started learning about real estate as young as 14, being a Gen Z investor. And with that said, let's dive in. So where all this started, I was age 14, just another freshman at Wilson High School. Got home after sports, there's a book on the table, and a family friend of my mom's was sitting on the couch and he just said, hey, There's this book on the table, you should go read it. I went over, picked it up, and saw it was Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. And I was just thinking, what's it about? He said, it's about real estate, about finances. I said, what? I had no idea what he was talking about. I understood a little bit about finance, but it's not something that we ever talked about in the house. And he said, if you read that book, you're going to learn things that might make you wealthy someday. I said, what's that mean? Granted, I wasn't the best student in school. And he said, if you learn how to master what's in that book, you'll be good with money. And I was thinking, okay, that sounds really fun. So I read the book over the weekend, it just blew my mind. I was thinking, whoa, this is really cool. And I stuck with it. I was thinking, wow, this is gonna be great. I'm gonna get into real estate, I'm gonna make a lot of money. And then I realized I was 14 and I kind of just forgot about it. So there I am 4 years later, age 18, just graduating high school and my family plays the Cashflow board game. And it reminded me of that Rich Dad Poor Dad book. And I was just thinking, whoa, the real estate thing is still here. It hasn't gone away. And at the time, I had been working at the local YMCA as a gymnastics coach for a few years. I'd been saving money. I didn't spend money on a lot of things. I was living very frugally, just saving everything that I could, putting money aside in the bank account and forgetting about it. So I was thinking, wow, I've got a job. I got some money. I'm gonna read that book again. So I read the book. I came up with this goal. By age 21, I want to have a duplex. I'm going to go to college. I'm going to become a chiropractor. And I am going to be able to get a duplex at age 21. I'm going to house hack. I'm going to live for free. And then I'm going to do that repeatedly over and over and over until I can retire at age 35. I was just thinking, whoa, that would be so cool. And then I could start using other people's money. And I had all these ideas and I wanted— duplex. That duplex meant everything to me. So I started picking up side hustles, started painting people's houses. And one of the gals that I ended up working for, helping out, she knew what I was doing, why I was working these extra jobs trying to get money. And she invited me into an online real estate group. And so I made a post, and I wanted to get some encouragement, get folks saying, wow, that's awesome. I wanted that lift up because I didn't have anybody in my family who had done this before. It was all brand new. There wasn't really all that reassurance that, hey, this is possible, you can do this. They were very supportive, but there wasn't that level of comfort knowing that they had done it before. So it was all just brand new. I had one guy who reached out and said, hey, I own this real estate firm in downtown Tacoma. If you're interested, you can make better money here without working as many hours as you would at Safeway and Target and being a handyman. I was all on board. I was thinking, wow, that sounds pretty easy. So I came in, I met with him and a gal that worked at the firm at the time, and we just chatted. They told me what they do. They shared with me how they focus on multifamily apartments. I was just thinking in my head, whoa, this is super cool. This is what I want to do. I want to do a duplex. Maybe I could even do a fourplex. But I still had that goal of owning one duplex at age 21, and I had that clear vision. He said, if you can get your license in 1 month or less, I will pay for all of your tuition for online real estate school. And I was floored. So I just started working away, working away. That was my sole focus. And I got my real estate exam just 2 weeks later. I passed that after I got all my 90 hours, and I hung my license. So there I was, 19 years old at the time. I was still going to Tacoma Community College. I was trying to be a real estate agent. I had no contacts. It's absolutely brutal. 6 months, didn't close a single deal, thought about leaving multiple times. But then I just had one text. It was 10:30 at night. Still remember, I've still got it saved in my phone. A buddy of mine from the YMCA reached out and said, hey, can you help us buy a duplex? And I said yes, texted him back right then. And within a month, I had closed my first deal, my first real estate deal. And I thought, wow, I actually made some money. I actually did this. And that commission wasn't a lot of money, but it was enough to get me fueled up for the next one. And I ended up closing my next deal just a month and a half later, and I saw it started to snowball. So there I was, 19 years old, and I've done a couple deals now. And a few months later, that September, I came across a 22-unit deal off market. The owner was willing to seller finance, meaning they act as a bank. I will go into that more in a future video. But they were going to act as my bank for a client that I was representing. And so we had the offer written up and the deal fell apart. The buyer couldn't come up with the money and it just fell apart. I was saying, that would have been amazing. That would have been the biggest commission. It would have been mind-blowing. At the time it was $30,000. It was a just astronomical commission that would have completely changed my world and it fell apart. I was thinking, wow, that's too bad. And my mentor said, why don't you buy this? It had never crossed my mind that I could buy that because it was way out of my budget. So we talked about it and the seller said, oh, I don't want to sell right now. So that kind of got me down. I was thinking, okay, well, that deal fell apart. It was a sad moment in that time. And just over the next couple of days, I knew, okay, well, if I don't need a budget, what could I do if I wanted to do it? And I found another deal on the market at the time. The seller was willing to owner finance. They were going to be my bank for me, so I just had to come up with the down payment. I got an offer on it within the next day. I got it under contract and I started figuring out, okay, what do I need to do? This was a 12-plex. I closed the deal within a month and a half. I will talk about how I did that in future videos. But here I was, 19 years old, I had a 12-plex. I had 12 tenants paying me rent every single month. And that was mind-blowing to me. I realized I never have to go back to college. I never have to go become a chiropractor, take out student loans. I can make this a full-time career if I use my mind. And that absolutely blew my mind. I shared it with my family, told everybody I knew what I did, and that kind of helped launch my real estate career and where I'm at now. So I get through the year, get through December. I just turned 20 in December. And I was thinking, wow, that was pretty cool. I'm a Gen Z investor. I had acquired 12 units. How do I do it again? Because one day I want to help a lot of people do the same thing. So I thought to myself, if I can repeat this just one time, I can show that it's possible to do again, then maybe I can help some other folks do it. And maybe that'll help my real estate career and help a lot of people make a lot of money. I started looking at deals. Started running numbers a lot every single day. 6 months later, I found a 12-plex. Same scenario, seller wanted to act as my bank. They wanted to help me out. They saw I was a younger investor. They said, sure, I'll act as your bank. You just got to come up with this down payment, and you can make payments to me every single month. That helped me because I would not qualify for bank financing. We'll talk about that in a future video. I closed on that deal just 1 month ago. Which got me to 24 apartments. And it clicked. This is repeatable. If I can do it, anybody can do it. And it led me to wanting to start this YouTube channel on all the steps that I am taking, what I am going to be doing from here on out. And it opened up my mind that I just need to keep repeating this so that I can help a whole bunch of people in my age demographic, newer investors, Gen Z and millennials, start getting ahead and making wins with money so that we can get rid of all those labels that boomers are giving us. So anyways, stick around. I'm gonna be making more videos. I'm gonna be trying to post 2 every week. Going through a renovation right now, so I will be sharing some more details on that in the future. Stay tuned, and I'll see you guys next week.
