From Overtime to a $1M Real Estate Portfolio: How a W-2 Investor Built 9 Units

Millard Thomas (00:00)
Maybe interest rates if I wanna buy something else, like keeping an eye on the market and things like that. But this has been my experience, even like when I bought my personal home, you know, you look at the videos and it’s doomsayers: “Don’t buy, don’t buy.” You know, a fear of it being another period like it was from 2006 to 2008 or 2009. And you know what, I just don’t live in that fear, you know. It’s like—

When is it actually a good time to make a move? You know, it’s like you never get a welcome mat. You gotta make that move and do your due diligence.

Scott Bursey (02:03)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros Podcast, powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Scott Bursey. And today we’re diving into the trenches with Millard Thomas. Millard has been a corrections officer for the last 14 years and has spent the last two years mastering the art of the deal while still working full-time, with a solid nine-unit portfolio hitting the million-dollar mark. Millard is here to show us the grit it takes to build a solid foundation. You can expect to learn how to keep your discipline sharp while scaling and the absolute keys to his strategy. Millard, welcome to the show.

Millard Thomas (02:40)
Hey, thanks for having me, Scott. It’s good to be here.

Scott Bursey (02:42)
It’s awesome having you here, my friend. And to help our listeners get up to speed, please give us the ninety-second highlight reel of how your career ignited and where you’re pouring your fuel now.

Millard Thomas (02:53)
Basically, I used overtime from my job to fund my first deal, and my first two deals just basically came from out-of-pocket overtime being a W-2 employee. And then less than a year ago I went to a seminar where I met somebody, and they weren’t even selling anything. We were just having a sidebar conversation and they introduced me to DSCR loans, and it was an absolute game changer.

Scott Bursey (03:20)
That is incredible. Yeah. Thank you for highlighting that. And you know, Millard, what really caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to navigate in just two short years in this game, that million-dollar portfolio. Looking back, how has your definition of success shifted since you grabbed the very first unit?

Millard Thomas (03:22)
It is. Well, when I got the first one, you know, I was thinking, “I’ll get a property every eighteen months,” and you know, you have to go through a lot, you know, with the bank. And you know, they want to know what your mother ate for breakfast in nineteen eighty-one and stuff like that. It’s like a million questions. And you know, there’s no shortcuts to this, but the DSCR is: Do you have the credit? Does the deal make sense? And do you have the down payment? So it really allows you to scale exponentially. So that’s pretty much how I would sum that up, to be honest. It took me to a whole different level, and I’m like, I wish I would have known about it sooner, but I found out about it when I found out about it and, you know, just took off from there.

Scott Bursey (04:24)
And we love to hear it. Looking at your nine units, what do you consider your biggest internal strength that keeps you operating so efficiently?

Millard Thomas (04:32)
That I’m able to delegate everything. The properties—I strategically have them spaced very close together. So when I—like in six weeks when I’m doing the winter maintenance and everything like that, I can have my guys come through and hit all places at one time. They don’t gotta drive all over town. When I get the grass cut, you know, it’s property on top of property. So just being able to be organized and things like that. And I have good repair people that I work with that I’ve known before I started this journey. I get a call, I call them, they go out there as soon as they can, and I Zelle them and it’s done. And that’s a big relief.

Scott Bursey (06:03)
It’s fascinating to think about. Where do you see the biggest bottleneck for you right now as you move forward?

Millard Thomas (06:09)
Yeah. I don’t wanna say I have any challenges because that does—you know, I’m not gonna say it’s not challenging at times, but the only thing I really struggle with, like we talked about, is the growth paradox. Like, me turning forty-eight last month, you know, like, do I wanna keep working fifty hours a week and then giving this another twenty-five hours a week and looking and hunting deals and, you know, things like that? Cause I could stop right now with my job and be like, “Hey, I’m set the rest of my life,” but I don’t know how fulfilling that would be ’cause I kinda wanna keep going to that next level. So that’s really the only thing I struggle with at this time.

Scott Bursey (06:48)
And staying on that path, how do you find that balance?

Millard Thomas (06:52)
I don’t know, like being a late starter, you know, I started a month before I turned—six weeks before I turned forty-six. And I was like, I’m just gonna sprint until I’m fifty. And then when I’m fifty, wherever I’m at, you know, I’m gonna call it a day. But you know, opportunities and lessons and things you learn all the time—like I know so much more now than I did a year ago. And a year ago I knew so much more than I did a year before that. So you kinda don’t wanna limit yourself, you know, ’cause you don’t know who you’ll meet or what opportunities will arise. So you kinda wanna be open-minded about it. So that’s kinda where I am now.

Scott Bursey (07:29)
Millard, wondering what kind of hidden opportunities are you spotting in the small multifamily space that most investors may be walking right past?

Millard Thomas (07:38)
I’ll say like the advantage, for example, of being a local investor. Somebody from out of town might see a deal on paper. They’d be like, “That’s a nice house. It looks like it’s a nice neighborhood.” They don’t understand the demographics that, you know, maybe this house will alienate a sector of people. So being local, you know, hey, anybody—you know, this will be open to all kinds of people. And it’s just like opportunities that I think some national people don’t probably see about our market. And as you see, a lot of people are starting to—it’s almost like an exodus to the Midwest now because the cost of living is so low. Locally, I think a mistake some people make is they go with quantity over quality. So some people rather say, “Hey, I got 10 properties.” I’d rather have three that I can manage that’s worth just as much or more than those 10, but, you know, you say, “Hey, I got three,” and somebody else says they got ten or fifteen. You know what I mean? So that’s a mistake I see a lot of people make.

Scott Bursey (08:37)
Mm. Are you keeping your dry powder ready to strike when those specific deals hit your desk?

Millard Thomas (08:43)
Yeah, absolutely. Yes. I’m always—I’m always open for business. I mean, just now my realtor’s texting me something about an opportunity, so I’m always open-minded to something.

Scott Bursey (08:54)
And curious to know, what’s the biggest external threat to your portfolio value that you’re most focused on currently?

Millard Thomas (09:02)
I’d say maybe interest rates if I wanna buy something else, like keeping an eye on the market and things like that. But this has been my experience, even like when I bought my personal home, you know, you look at the videos and it’s doomsayers: “Don’t buy, don’t buy.” You know, a fear of it being another period like it was from 2006 to 2008 or 2009. And you know what, I just don’t live in that fear, you know. It’s like—

When is it actually a good time to make a move? You know, it’s like you never get a welcome mat. You gotta make that move and do your due diligence. So that’s pretty much just how I feel about it.

Scott Bursey (09:38)
Wondering, what does your plan B look like if the market or local regs turn against you?

Millard Thomas (10:20)
In the event of a downturn? Well, even now, like the kind of DSCR rate that most people want or shoot for is like 1.2, and mine is 1.6. So like my margins are healthy, and even if they were to decrease some—and I basically run my portfolio off the assumption of never having 100% occupancy. So as long as I have two-thirds occupancy in my units, I’ll cash flow. You know, if we get to fifty percent or under fifty percent, then I’ll have to tap into those reserves. But you know, I kinda have a pessimistic attitude when I budget and when I plan and things like that. So I never budget or plan on everything going right or near perfect. So it always works out so far. Fingers crossed.

Scott Bursey (11:06)
Well, thank you for being so transparent about that. And interested to find out, how do you handle the balancing act between being high touch with tenants and still keeping your day job?

Millard Thomas (11:19)
So one, I have an anchor tenant that—a guy that I’ve known probably six, seven years, a good friend of mine before I got into this, and he has a group home and he has five of my nine units. So he almost has sixty percent himself. So that makes it easy, and we have a direct line to each other. And I have a very careful screening process. So it’s never perfect or a hundred percent, but I have some really good people that are in my places. And you know, I treat them good, they treat me good. We have great relationships. You know, we communicate casually. Like one of my tenants, he’s actually like a local track and field star from the area. He’s a little bit older than me, but we’re supposed to be getting together in the next couple of weeks, getting some wings and watching an Ohio State game. So, you know, it really helps. You’re only as good as the people that are around you.

Scott Bursey (12:16)
Millard, is there a specific tenant-first policy that has saved you the most headache or cash?

Millard Thomas (12:23)
You said tenant-first policy. Is that what you said? I just treat—I just treat everybody with respect because to me everybody has value and everybody matters. You know, no matter where you go in life, everybody matters and counts. And we just really get along, and you know, every now and then you’ll have somebody that, you know, they might not deal with their end of the bargain or something like that. But luckily that’s few and far between, and the people that do far outweigh that. So, you know, that’s pretty much how I—

Scott Bursey (12:59)
Millard, wondering, what does your professional network look like right now?

Millard Thomas (13:03)
Basically non-existent. I know about four people. I met the guy that actually introduced me to the DSCR loan last August. I met about three people through him, you know, just dealing with him indirectly, and that’s basically it. But like my social media is basically non-existent and my networking is non-existent. So that’s actually pretty encouraging because it makes me wonder if I did have some of that, you know, could it help? You know, that’s crossed my mind several times.

Scott Bursey (13:35)
Okay. Well, thank you for that transparency. And what is the one underwriting metric you’ve absolutely mastered that ensures a nine-unit portfolio nets a million-dollar valuation instead of just being a million-dollar debt?

Millard Thomas (13:49)
Well, I believe in—like I plan on holding on to these properties for at least like twelve years. I haven’t pulled no equity out of none of them. And I run the numbers myself. So I’ll start off looking at a hundred houses. By the time I run the numbers, I’m down to eight. So like my realtor loves to hear from me because you know we’re not gonna go on a goose chase, you know, and then from the eight we narrow it down. And then I look at the zip code, I look at the area, and then like an unofficial litmus test I give it myself. I’m like, “Do I like this enough? Would I live here?” And if I like it for me to live in, then that’s the thumbs up to go ahead with it. So—

Scott Bursey (15:11)
Millard, that is some sound advice right there. And really you have given our listeners a lot of good perspective here today. But is there any additional golden nugget or two that you’d like to leave with our listeners?

Millard Thomas (15:25)
I’ll say if you really want to get into it and you’re debating, go and jump into it. Do your due diligence. Don’t jump out reckless. But if you have support or don’t have support, if nobody believes in you, if you believe in yourself, that’s enough. And there’s no age limit to it. I mean, I’m not gonna lie, the younger you get into it, the better. But, you know, if you want to get into it in your late forties or early fifties, go ahead and get into it and do your research and homework. You’ll be able to make it.

Scott Bursey (15:54)
Thank you for that, Millard. And for those of our listeners that want to keep this conversation moving, stay in your lane or collaborate with you on future deals possibly, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Millard Thomas (16:05)
Honestly, probably my email or they can even text me. Either or—I’m pretty old-school. But I do plan on by the end of the year having my social media a little bit more up and running.

Scott Bursey (16:18)
Millard, thank you for joining us today on the Real Estate Pros Podcast.

Millard Thomas (16:21)
No problem. Thank you for having me.

Scott Bursey (16:23)
It’s been an absolute pleasure. And to our listeners, we appreciate you. If you received value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ll be fueling your tanks with a lineup of elite guests, just like Millard Thomas, who are accelerating and setting the pace for the rest of the industry. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.