In this interview‑style YouTube episode, host Cody talks with real‑estate investor Solea (known from the Instagram brand Lattes and Lisas) about how she acquires out‑of‑state properties with little or no cash down. Solea explains that she funds 100 % of purchase price and renovation costs through private money lenders, using the BRRRR (Buy‑Renovate‑Rent‑Refinance‑Repeat) model to refinance the debt and retain ownership. She describes typical private‑money terms—initial three‑year, 7 % loans, later 9‑month, 9 % loans with no points or fees—and how these terms are negotiable and flexible when relationships are strong. The conversation covers risk management, including loan extensions, handling budget overruns, and the importance of transparent communication with lenders. A real‑world example of a 10‑unit project that doubled its budget illustrates the need for openness and secondary exit strategies, such as converting a stalled flip into a rental. Cody and a co‑host reinforce that seller financing is simply another form of private capital, emphasizing storytelling, clear math, multiple exit options, and leveraging low‑down‑payment structures to accelerate portfolio growth.
Chapters
Hey YouTube, this is Cody. I'm here with Christian and our good friend Sole, who's buying a ton of real estate out of state. And not only out of state, low to no money down. Sole, welcome to the channel.
Thanks for having me. I guess I'm back for the—
I think we're number 4 or 5. Our Shorts creator puts you all over our channel, so this is like the bajillionth time you're back. But YouTube, we're talking today about buying real estate with low to no money down because I've managed to do that for the majority of my rentals, $23,000 down on a total of $20 million in real estate. And Sole has bought a ton of real estate and she's under contract on a ton of real estate that she's buying out of state, not only out of state, but with low to no money down. Sole, can you tell us a little bit about how the heck you even think about buying real estate without any money?
Yeah, so I primarily, I guess I can introduce myself really quickly. So if you haven't watched the past videos, maybe go back and watch the past videos. You might have a little bit more context. But I am Solea. You might know me from Instagram, Lattes and Lisas. I invest in Ohio and Georgia primarily using private money. So a lot of my deals, all 30, almost all 31 units that I have right now have been purchased with 100% private money, meaning I have to come to the closing table with $0. So we can talk a little bit more about how I do that in this today here. But basically I use the BRRRR strategy in order to refinance out those debt partners and own those properties without money.
Are you just using family money for 100% loans on your deals? How the heck does that work?
Yeah, I come from a trust fund. Just kidding. No, no trust fund.
Okay, there we go. Problem solved.
There we go.
No, I— my family does not come from money. I've only raised money from my family once, from my mom, who was my very first private money lender. But honestly, I didn't even realize that she had money to invest until she asked me if she could invest. Um, past that, it has mostly been from my social media platforms that I have, you know, built my brand, exposed, shared all my projects, and built a lot of relationships with people who want to invest in deals.
That's awesome. And so are they just doing a private loan for the majority of it and you're bringing a little bit of money down, or are you go getting a bank loan and then having them fund the down payment?
100% of, of all purchase and renovation, actually. So kind of like a hard money lender would— like, typical hard money terms are they will lend 90% of purchase and 100% of renovation, but you have to go through a bunch of like hoops of— I don't know if you guys— have you guys had a hard money loan?
Oh yes, Christian has for sure. Yeah, financing.
Yeah, they're easy, but they're, but they're expensive, and they're also like, you have to pull scopes of work, like it takes 14 days to close, like it's all sometimes 21 days to close. And so, and it's, it's more institutional money, so it's not as flexible as like an individual's money. And so I, um, fund projects 100%. I don't bring any money to the table. Sometimes even like closing costs and those type of things are covered by private lenders, and then they also cover the renovation. So into all of these deals literally $0. And then the thought is to renovate them, increase the equity, force the equity, and then refinance them, pay back the lenders who are debt lenders, not equity lenders, and retain ownership of the property.
So I'm thinking about this as a viewer right now. How expensive is the money you're borrowing? And how long is the term? Because that sounds like you're getting no money in. But is that risky? Like, what's the debt look like?
So what's awesome is it's 100% negotiable, you can negotiate anything you want. So my very first private money loan was at 3 years for 7%. And after that, because I was, you know, friends and family money, it got a little more expensive. I was giving like 12% for 9 months or a year. And now pretty average right now is about 9 months, 9%, no points, no fees. So it's not expensive.
That's great. What does it look like if you miss your timeline? Let's say you get through 9 months, 12 months. Can you pay to extend it? Like, what happens right now?
I've actually been playing with like adding a paragraph in there that is a, like a one-time extension of 3 or 6 months depending on what I need. But what's awesome is it's also just like a relationship-based game. They want you to succeed because they want to make their money back. And so if you can just communicate some of the issues that you're running up against, maybe it is like delayed cabinets, or like really whatever it is, as long as you communicate it, they are actual people and they're really more flexible than banks, and usually they're willing to extend it.
Now, if you don't mind sharing, because going— I try to share all the things that go wrong for us on our channel. Have you had any of these where you, you've raised private capital, it's, it's coming due, and you had a project that had a significant problem? Like, is there any real-world examples you can give us?
Um, I'm working on a 10-unit right now where the budget doubled, and that wasn't super fun, but it was all— it was funded with a commercial loan and the down payment and the renovation was funded in private money. And thankfully the person has a pretty deep wallet and was understanding of the deal, has a lot of room in it, bought at a really good price. And so we're not going to be losing any money when it's done. It's just taking longer and it's more expensive. And so they were willing to contribute more capital to that. But I think it really comes down to just like open, like open transparency conversations in a relationship. And if you can curate that with your lenders, they're going to be, you know, open to— they're gonna be thankful that you share the transparency with them and probably more willing to work with you.
And I've seen a lot of people do that wrong. One of our earlier mentors, that was something he did, was complete lack of communication when things went wrong. He would just disappear and go dark or send really weird cryptic emails.
Not good.
Not good. You nailed it right on the head. Stuff will go wrong. With private capital, it's all about relationships. And if you can let people know, like, they're part of the deal. And I've found, we learned this the hard way when we didn't let someone feel like they were actually part of our project. Your investors want to be invested in your projects. More often than not, they're looking for more than a return. They want to be part of your story and part of your adventure. And so when you have that communication of like, look, some stuff's happened, this is not going exactly as I planned, I do have a game plan. Don't just come with them with problems. Of course, that would be, that would be alarming. But you're like, hey, I have a plan. Here's the changes, and I want you to know what's happening. That transparency makes all the difference in the world, and you almost always will get some grace from people, which is really helpful.
And it's also— sorry— to have like secondary exit strategy. And so like one of our properties was supposed to be a flip, and it went over budget, and the market kind of shifted. And everyone knows the market shifted, interest rates increased, there's a lot more inventory in the market. And so it took a little bit longer than expected, but we were able to turn it into a rental and just like burrow out everybody's money. And it was okay at the end of the day. But I think having that secondary exit strategy really helped because it wasn't just like, oh shoot, don't know what to do with it. I'm going to take a huge loss on a flip.
And I think that's fantastic just to show people that you don't just have to play the seller finance game to do zero money down. There's so many different ways to do it. Seller financing is one strategy, but you don't have to do that to scale. I mean, you've scaled to what most people are satisfied as building a 10, 20-year portfolio. You got 31 rentals and office. You don't just have to play the seller finance game. You could play the bank box or just private money. So really well done.
Yeah, absolutely incredible. Amazingly put together. That's what we have time for today. On our buying zero money down. Short and sweet. We do so much on seller financing. Last thing I'm going to say is seller financing is private capital, just your private lender happens to be the person who owns the property. So you tend to get preferable terms because they're also selling their asset. There's more pieces. However, it's all private capital. Like, if you don't like the box of banks and 20 to 30% down, then you have to get creative and you just involve other people. It It has to do with telling your story the way we do, the way Soley does. Great communication. Share your story. Do your math. Have multiple exit strategies. These are all takeaways that you need to have if you're playing with private capital. You do this right, you can multiply money so much faster. It's easier to multiply 5%, 10%, 0% down than it is to multiply 30% down on a big asset. Yeah, that leverage point is how you're going to multiply money quickly in real estate. So, Sully, you're playing the game fantastically. So fun to see you succeed.
If you've made it this far in the video, make sure to subscribe to Sully's YouTube channel, Lattes and Lisas. Also same on Instagram, Lattes and Lisas. And we'll see you guys next time.
