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From House Hacking to 900 Units: The Multifamily Syndication Blueprint for Financial Freedom

By February 17, 2026Real Estate Pros Show

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Show Summary

In this conversation, Ellie Baxter shares her inspiring journey from a challenging personal situation to becoming a successful multifamily syndicator. She discusses her rapid growth in the real estate sector, emphasizing the importance of mindset, networking, and education. Ellie provides insights into the multifamily investing landscape, comparing it with single-family investments, and offers practical advice on creative financing and raising capital. She highlights the significance of understanding market trends and maintaining high occupancy rates in properties. The conversation concludes with Ellie discussing her current projects and her commitment to teaching others about real estate investing.

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    Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

    Ellie Baxter (00:00)
    Yeah, I definitely wanted to try everything. So I took time to learn every single role because I think it’s important for you to know and understand every single role. But I knew very, very quickly that I’m not a fan of underwriting and I can dissect an underwriting, but I knew that teaching people financial literacy and getting them to invest was one of my favorite things in the world. And then also asset management.

    Those are my two main roles.

    Dylan Silver (01:59)
    Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest, Ellie Baxter is a multifamily syndicator with 11 capital partners investing in North Carolina. She’s based out of Sacramento, California. She’s built a brand teaching people how to create freedom of time. And she shows her students that there’s so much more to life than living for the weekends and hoping that a 401k will be enough when they retire. You can find her on Instagram at Ellie underscore Baxter with two Rs or on 11.

    cpartners.com. Ellie, thanks for taking the time today.

    Ellie Baxter (02:33)
    Thank you, Dylan, for having me.

    Dylan Silver (02:35)
    I would like to start this show by asking you how you got started in real estate. We were talking a little bit before hopping on the show here. I think there’s an interesting story there. How’d you get into the real estate space?

    Ellie Baxter (02:49)
    Yeah, I was 29 and I was, I just got a divorce and I was broke. I was, hated my job. I was doing door to door sales and I was knocking on these like $4 million homes. And I knew at that point, you know, I’m, I’m on the wrong side of the door and I needed to be on the other side. So I needed, I knew that real estate was the way to go. And so I started wholesaling, which then led me into learning how to do commercial real estate. So I invested into my education.

    I learned how to acquire apartment complexes and I now own and operate over 900 units across the US.

    Dylan Silver (03:24)
    Now you got into ⁓ real estate in North Carolina, which for my money’s worth, I haven’t done a deal over there, but that seems to be like maybe one of the best markets. I’m sure there’s a lot of people who say maybe that’s the best market to get started investing for a lot of reasons. How did you get into the Carolinas?

    Ellie Baxter (03:44)
    Yeah. So my first property was 384 units in Jacksonville, Florida, which then led me to a couple of syndicators and sponsors ⁓ from networking because your network is your net worth, right? It’s not about who you know about, it’s about who knows you. Right. And so through that, the, you know, the flood gates open up and I, I met some syndicators who were closing a new property in, ⁓ in Charlotte. And so they asked me, they saw that I, you know, learned how to raise capital and brought in a million.

    on the first deal. they asked me to bring in capital on this deal in Charlotte. And so when that happened, I dropped everything in Seattle, put it into a storage unit that I’m still paying for. And then I moved to Charlotte and I learned how to acquire properties. I learned asset management. I learned capital raising and I acquired a property every single quarter in 2024 just by networking and bringing value in education.

    Dylan Silver (04:40)
    Now, when we talk about diving in a real estate, I mean, this sounds like, you know, rapid growth and a ton of momentum. How did you get into the on ramp so fast and then scale? You mentioned hundreds of units in, you know, less than a few years. How did you scale so fast?

    Ellie Baxter (05:47)
    Yeah. ⁓ it really was realizing that I am worthy of the success. And I think one of the things that we have, that a lot of people are scared is that scarcity mindset and also, you know, complacency. And I had been complacent for too long and I’ve always wanted to create passive income, but I didn’t know how. And I knew that the only way to do it was for me to actually do it and to become extremely actionable with it. So.

    I always say knowledge is not power, knowledge is actual power. And so when I spent the money that I did to get into the mentorship and learn, I was working two jobs and I was like, there’s no way that I can fail. I need to make this happen. And so I changed my habits. I completely changed my mindset. I read the 5 a.m. club. I read Atomic Habits. I started working at 5 a.m. every single morning and I…

    I canceled my Netflix, Dylan. That’s huge, right? I stopped watching TV. I stopped drinking, smoking, going out. All I did was focusing on this business outside of my W-2. ⁓ And I networked. that was what really helped me honestly too, was being around people that had the like-minded mindset, right? So that really was so empowering because it wasn’t like sales.

    where it’s like who can get the first, you know, doored or deal, right? It’s not cutthroat. It’s truly about adding value and teaching people how they can change their life financially. And so when I knew that was, yeah, financial trajectory was a thing, that’s when I knew that I could succeed in this.

    Dylan Silver (07:21)
    Yeah.

    Now, when we talk about multifamily specifically, you know, there’s so many sides to this game. There’s the acquisition side, you know, there’s underwriting these deals, there’s managing projects, right? Just because you can acquire the deal doesn’t mean that you can successfully value add, manage contractors, you know, hold the property for five years while you’re waiting for the exit, right? But then also you have the side of capital raising. And so did you find a niche

    in any one of those places or were you a Swiss army knife of multi-family investing?

    Ellie Baxter (08:03)
    Yeah, I definitely wanted to try everything. So I took time to learn every single role because I think it’s important for you to know and understand every single role. But I knew very, very quickly that I’m not a fan of underwriting and I can dissect an underwriting, but I knew that teaching people financial literacy and getting them to invest was one of my favorite things in the world. And then also asset management.

    Those are my two main roles.

    grew up living in apartments my whole life. So what better person to asset manage a property, right? That someone’s lived in them forever. that’s what my two superpower strengths are, is learning how to teach people how to invest and change their financial trajectory and then asset managing the property.

    Dylan Silver (08:50)
    Now, I want to pivot a bit here and ask you about single family versus multifamily investing. There’s a lot of people who may be looking at getting into real estate investing and are trying to determine, you know, what is the first investment that I make? Do I buy, you know, a long-term, you know, year-to-year lease, single family home, you know, investment property for myself, self-manage it? Do I buy, you know, some small multifamily, whether that’s duplex, triplex, quadplex, or do I somehow find a way to

    find people who will invest with me or maybe invest with others and buy 50 units and hire a property manager and then ⁓ oversee the property manager. What would be your advice for folks who are really trying to piece together where they get started investing?

    Ellie Baxter (09:37)
    Yeah, that’s a great question. So I think that it’s totally great idea for you to start, you know, if you want to do smaller, ⁓ you know, multifamily, I, in my opinion, don’t think starting out in single family is the best idea. And here’s why. If you buy a property or flip it or burr it, whatever you do, right. Or let’s say you do short term rental and let’s say your tenant stops paying rent. Well, what does that do that affects your cashflow?

    But if you buy a property that’s like five units up to 200, 300 units, and let’s say 10 people move out, your cash flow is still very, very strong, right? And so my first thing that I did and what I recommend other people to do, and I’ve actually had some of my students do this, is house hack. So buy a Qualplex, seller financing, owner financing, that’s super attractive, right? Creative financing or small DSCR loans if you have it, or team up with somebody that might be able to help you with that.

    But if you don’t have really a lot of cash down, then you could do seller financing and buy Qualplex, house act, it’s you pay less in taxes, live in it for a year, right? And then you’re not paying your, you’re not paying the mortgage because you have three other people living there. You can self manage it or, you know, charge 2 % for somebody to come in and help you with all of that. And then move out in a year and then get someone else to do that. And if you repeat that quite a few times, I have about four or five people that I know that done this and have become financially independent in five years.

    So if you start out on that single family space, I would try to maximize that single family home as much as you can. If it’s pad splits or, you know, doing something that you can charge for per room or, you know, something like that. That way you’re making a lot more money than just doing a one-time short-term rental or a BRRR. Because it’s like working smarter not harder, right?

    Dylan Silver (11:57)
    Now,

    for folks who are looking at that and say, well, I’ll start with, let’s say a triplex or house hack my way and I’ll live in one unit rent out the other, the other two or the other three. They’ve still got to come up with a ⁓ down payment in order to do that. And that can be very challenging for folks who are already struggling to potentially make ends meet. What advice do you have both, maybe through lived experiences for how folks can…

    get that, you know, whatever it is, three to in many cases 10 % down that they might need in order to qualify for, you know, some of these loans.

    Ellie Baxter (12:39)
    Yeah, I mean, there’s definitely quite a few options. I think the one of the biggest thing is that if you find somebody that could find it for you and they’re just paying them off, essentially kind of like hard money, but really it’s more like just, you know, kind of almost like a joint venture, you would say, and find somebody that you can trust and that trusts you to do it. I’ve had multiple people do that where they come and put down the down payment and then you just pay them off throughout the next year or so.

    Um, and you know, networking is massive. That’s a really great way to do it. I have found, um, uh, you know, so many people that have succeeded doing that. Uh, and so that’s one way, or if your credit is not terrible, could also do, you know, some sort of loan options. There are so many people that are like for you, Dylan, and your real estate agent, there’s a lot of cool ways that now that you could do like 0 % down payment, or you can do a very small amount of down payment. Your mortgage might be a little bit higher, right? But there’s a very

    creative ways for you to do it. So I would say it’s not, can’t do it, how can I? Right? So just figuring out a way to be able to come up with that. But there’s so many options. Those are just a couple of ways to do it. Or you also think bigger and you buy yourself a 50 unit and you find a sponsor and the sponsor will come in and be the Gantor KP. And you don’t have to put any money down because you’re raising it through capital raising.

    Dylan Silver (14:06)
    I mean, that’s one of the benefits of going bigger, right? And people talk about, you know, being able to have management, but then also, too, you have deeper pockets and more sophisticated investors. So there might be some level, certainly is some level of learning curve just in getting in front of that type of person, being able to hold the conversation. But if you have that skill and you’re lacking maybe the nest egg for the investment, bringing that deal to them can, of course, be a win win. I would like to pivot here, though, Ellie.

    Ellie Baxter (14:07)
    We did.

    Dylan Silver (14:35)
    and ask you specifically about the capital raising portion of it, because I know that there’s a lot of people who may be excellent in one area and may struggle with raising capital. What’s your feedback to folks who are maybe already investors, but they’re looking to now start raising capital for larger deals?

    Ellie Baxter (15:37)
    Yeah, so your network is your net worth. Your first impression is huge. ⁓ Fake it till you make it. And ⁓ imposter syndrome. All of these things happen when you’re raising capital. And when you’re starting to do that, it truly is about ⁓ knowing your worth, knowing that even if you say, hey, I’m a multifamily investor and I teach people how to do this, that you’re extremely confident about it.

    because a lot of your friends and family might know you as like just a door to door salesperson, right? When I first started, I was just a door to door salesperson. But I’m so much more than that. And so are you, right? And so having that mindset of that you are truly teaching someone an opportunity to change their financial future, right? And so there’s a couple of times when I’m talking to high net worth individuals that I was like screaming inside, like, what am I doing? You know, I don’t, I don’t, I’m such an imposter. Like am I really, I don’t really know what I’m doing, right?

    but you do and you’re manifesting that and you’re teaching people. So it’s really important that you teach yourself financial literacy. I do actually have my own coaching where I teach people all of the things on raising capital and truly how to find somebody from a Starbucks line, right? And then unfortunately I do drink Starbucks every day all day, that’s my thing. And so getting from somebody, this has actually happened to me before, in line at a Starbucks.

    to bring in capital, right? And so not being afraid to talk to people and really truly finding out how you can add value to them. It’s not about just, you know, trying to gain access to their capital. It’s truly building relationships with these people because we’re all here on this earth together. And it’s like, how can we help each other? And that’s my biggest thing. And take away for somebody who is learning it. It’s not about, you know, how do I ask people for money? No, it’s how can I build a relationship with somebody and teach them how I can maybe

    Dylan Silver (17:23)
    Yeah.

    Ellie Baxter (17:29)
    change their financial future and that right there will make it so much easier for you to give them the opportunity.

    Dylan Silver (17:35)
    Yeah, I agree 100 % with everything you said. And when you mentioned Starbucks and held up the cup, I sometimes laugh because there’s this idea floating out there that, you know, younger people specifically can just stop drinking, you know, high end coffee, and they’ll save up the down payment for a home. And that’s the answer to everything. It’s just pinch pennies. And I’m thinking like, are people aware how much

    penny pinching needs to happen in order to save up several potentially tens of thousands of dollars. That’s not just a couple mornings off, you know what I mean? And not just that, there’s this element which you mentioned perfectly, which is there’s a valuable social component of that time. Let’s take real estate out of it. That could be the one moment of peace that someone has in their day before they head into work and…

    They’re seeing people that they see in line all the time. And so that is valuable to some people. Take that away from them. I think we’re oversimplifying and it’s kind of like saying, well, I didn’t drink Starbucks when I bought my house hour long ago. So maybe if you just didn’t do that, it would be easy for you as well. To me, that’s not exactly the greatest advice that I hear.

    Ellie Baxter (18:53)
    Right. And we don’t even have pennies anymore, so we can’t pinch pennies. So yeah, it’s OPM, other people’s money. That’s exactly how you do it. You don’t need to use your own capital.

    Dylan Silver (18:57)
    Right, which means.

    Now, specifically when we’re talking about multifamily investing, one of the big things that I’ve heard through talking with so many investors and then also through seeing it is how much ⁓ multifamily is going up all across the country. I’m in Texas here investing in North Carolina. I’m sure that there’s a lot of differences, but some similarities. There seems to be multifamily housing going up everywhere, wherever there’s available space in the country. And that

    does a number of things. Number one, it makes it more competitive. Secondly, is that, you know, folks who may have invested five years ago, six years ago, those could be potentially be some distressed investors because they might have taken out variable rate debt. They wouldn’t have predicted this much or this level of investing from competitors. And then two, rents in many cases due to the development are stabilizing or in some cases going down.

    Are you seeing this as well when you’re looking at these deals and how does this affect you as an investor?

    Ellie Baxter (20:09)
    Yeah, wow, great question. ⁓ we do buy specific type properties. So we buy type C properties or type B and we turn them into a B or an A. So when it comes to and typically they’re under market rents. we I am huge in costar. I’m sure you’re familiar with dealing with costar, but it’s the number one market analysis report in the US. ⁓ And we invest in that love and capital invest in this because we truly care about how the market is performing.

    And we look at those things, right? We look at opportunity zones. We look at how many new builds are happening around the area. We’re currently closing our sixth property in Charlotte, right outside of Charlotte. And there’s only two new properties being built around the area. We look at the market trends, not even at the time of purchase, but throughout the entire whole time, which is five years, to see what kind of competition that we might have. But here’s the best part about it, is that when we buy properties that are type C or type B,

    and we renovate them from classic to premium, we are still under market rent because we are force appreciating. So we’re conservatively underwriting it to where we’re increasing rents, you know, so that people don’t just leave and we increase, increase and buy like $200. Right. And so my question to a lot of the people is, know, would you rather move into a brand new apartment that’s completely, you know, class A and spend typically more than market rent or would you rather live in a

    class B property that has been renovated and you’re still paying under market rent, right? So there is a method to our madness and it allows us to be extremely successful and our properties are always at over 90 % occupancy. So our current property is 99 % occupancy. So that has a ⁓ you know, advantage point as well when it comes to competition and opportunity zones and whatnot, because there’s a huge demand for that specific apartment.

    Dylan Silver (22:03)
    We are coming up on time here, Ellie. Any new projects that you’re working on and then also what’s the best way for folks to get in contact with either you or your team?

    Ellie Baxter (22:14)
    Yeah, so we are currently working on a property outside of Charlotte. It is a 506B, right? So I can’t talk about it, but it is a phenomenal opportunity. It’s extremely successful already. So reach out to me for more details on that. And then I also teach people how to raise capital. I teach people how to source. I teach people how to do everything for a lot less than what a lot of the bigger companies do like that 40,000, right? Because I don’t believe so much in that dollar. I believe in the partnership because

    the value that I bring to you can bring right back to me and we can work together in future deals. So if you are looking for an opportunity to get on your first GPTO, you want to be an active partner, you want to make a lot of money and become financially independent, while also simultaneously teaching other people how to invest and make money as well, then reach out to me as well. You can email me, you can text me and call me. ⁓ I think you already gave out all my information in beginning. So it’s my Instagram.

    Can I, I can also give you my number, whatever. I give out my number to everybody. Okay. It’s 984-789-7586. ⁓ if you go on my LinkedIn, my contact information is there too. My LinkedIn is just Ellie Baxter.

    Dylan Silver (23:12)
    Go ahead. Go ahead. Plug it.

    Ellie, thank you so much for coming on the show today. Thanks for your time.

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