Offerin' Real Estate Insights

The Surprisingly Simple Real Estate Strategy That Turned One Investment Property Into Generational Wealth

• OfferIn.io • Episode 8

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What does it really take to build wealth through real estate and is passive income just a myth?

In this episode of the Offerin' Real Estate Insights Podcast, Darrin sits down with seasoned investor and real estate coach Ben Walkley to explore the highs, lows, and long-term strategies of real estate investing. From humble beginnings in law school to managing over 120+ rental property units, including everything from apartment complexes to land investing, Ben shares how one investment property changed the trajectory of his life.

You’ll learn why sustainable investing isn’t about quick flips or viral hacks, but about long-term investing rooted in character, service, and intention. Ben unpacks how his commitment to eviction prevention and treating tenants like family has created not just steady cash flow, but generational wealth. He also drops practical real estate tips on screening tenants, fixing units that actually attract top renters, and why saying "no" to 90% of applicants is part of his winning real estate strategy.

Whether you're wondering how to start investing in real estate, looking to expand your real estate units, or curious how to build truly passive income without burning out, this episode is a must-listen. It's a masterclass in building wealth with purpose and proof that when done right, real estate investing isn’t just about properties… it’s about people.



👉 Discover how Offerin helps agents win more deals, save time, and look like heroes to their clients. Visit Offerin.io to learn more or schedule a demo today.

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Hey, your friend family, welcome back for yet another episode of The Offering podcast. Today we've invited Ben back to chat a little bit more. He's super deep into investment and specifically real estate investments. So we want to dive into, some of that today and what what motivates him and what are some things to think about when investing in properties? So without further ado, let's dive in. Thanks for having me. Ben. So glad you're here. So glad you're back. You know, so today we want to talk about investing. So what in the world? Got you started in this. What is like, what is the the moment you had that you said, this is what I'm doing with my life. I was 23, and I was in law school. Okay. And I had bought my first house, and I was sitting in those. I don't know what it was. Intro to something. Law or whatever. Okay. And it was the last place I wanted to be in law school. I while my dad was an attorney my whole life, I said, I'm going to be an attorney. Everybody said, oh, you're good at being argumentative. You should be an attorney or whatever. And, all I could think about was going to work on that investment property. And, and at that moment, also, I was excited about. I was like, I think I actually can make money at this. Like that was like, this is exciting. It was a it felt like a treasure hunt. I was like, oh, there's there's opportunity here. And that was after I had probably just got done negotiating that horrible deal. I didn't know it was a horrible deal. I thought I had done a great job or whatever, but yeah, it was. And my degree is in accounting and finance. So there was like a lot of money stuff involved. There. Construction. I had put myself in college. I had paid for a lot of my college by running a tree trimming service. So it was just outside with my hands. You know, whatever. It just seemed. And I also had this I this is a this is probably like this was like, I would say a negative that's like a positive. Negative. I don't know, I had this thought like, oh, I don't I want to work really hard and invest in something. So one day I don't have to work hard. I think that is horrible, by the way. But that was definitely in my brain. Okay. That kind of played out in like I would advise myself. Now I'd be like, oh, you're doing this for all the wrong reasons. Like, that's a trap. You're going to wear yourself out. Like, this is a long anyways. This is generational. Like owning property is generational. It's not just for yourself to, like, hurry up and, like, do whatever the heck you want. Oh, we're going to dive into that a little bit more. So I was thinking, You know. In my whole life, my professional life have been around careers, my career coach, you know, helping people understand, like, what it takes to, like, get a new job. But there's always something there, like a push pull factor. Okay. Right. So do you feel like law school was pushing you out, or do you feel investment investing was pulling you in. 100% pool? Okay. So you had this pool, but what again? What was it you said? Was it the money opportunity or was it just to use your hands? Was it. You know what I'm saying. What what was there? I would say the treasure hunt. The treasure hunt combined with this idea that maybe I wasn't going to have to work as hard one day. Yeah. Isn't it interesting looking back, like, 20 years ago? You're like, what? You knew of the world. And then today, looking back, what you do know, and you're like, oh, man. Yeah. I had so much to learn. And then thinking, like, the next 20 years. Yeah, it's still there's still so much more to learn. That's amazing. So you've invested for the last 20 plus years? Yeah. Since I was, Well, I guess since I was 21, I said 23. It was actually when I was 21, when I bought my first house. Okay. Yeah. So it's been a while. 21. I'm 33. So 22 years. So how many units to. Your 126? Okay, so the variety is it all one thing. But apartment buildings. Okay. Office buildings, trailer park, Airbnbs, farmland. And I've owned other kinds of things. Like inner city rentals, suburban rentals. Yeah. So something that stood out was trailer park. But when I think of an investment, I'm not thinking of a trailer park, but. But tell me, what's the lure? What's the lure? What is it? Why in trailer park? When I think of investors, I don't think of trailer parks on a mobile estate. Mobile? Okay. That's much better. Never mind. Yeah, my mind is a race. I do think of that. All right. There was an opportunity. Okay. That was the right opportunity for me to jump in on something and. I like doing different things in real estate. There are some people that have all of the same kind of real estate. I love trying new things in real estate. And I, I coach people. You know, 1 or 2 a year, people that are interested in getting into real estate. So I love having the diverse understanding. It it's interesting to me the people are, you know, multifamily properties like there's a whole pathway to understanding all of that. So that part is pretty similar across the board. Yeah. But dealing with mobile homes, moving in and out or not going out, how? That's a different it's different than, you know, apartments. You don't have to fix the mobile homes. You know, you're really renting land. Okay. Which is pretty nice. You're taking care of some water lines and some sewer lines and some roads, which are all kind of like big infrastructure, but you're not having to deal with like, hey, my furnace went out. Wow. Now, that's. Really interesting to think about from a land perspective. Me not investing in, you know, the mobile estates. Yeah. I didn't think about that. And in fact, McDonald's, they say, hey, we're not necessarily a restaurant investor. We're right. Yeah, it's the real estate. Yeah. And then, we just happened to have, A restaurant on there. Yeah, a fast food space. Yeah, in that mobile home space, though, you know, having people that own their own, having a community of people that own the properties is, is very important. Yeah. It's very different than owning a park where you are renting units out. Those are not the same kind of parks. Yeah. So. So, in my time, I've met a lot of investors, different types. You see some when big, with big egos, you some see, some lose, you know, the other side. But for you, you've been doing it for over 20 years. What is the one thing that sets you apart? I believe that one thing is. Probably the the Bible verse. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Like that idea of providing a space that I would want to live in for someone else, like that goes through everything I do. So instead of trying to go super fast and try to have all the numbers and whatever, my wife and I are constantly thinking about, like, what is it like for the person living or renting our space? And are we providing them what we would want someone to provide for us? Well, and the the result of that is I have a currently I think we just rented the one unit that we have available. I haven't had I haven't gone to eviction court in 6 or 7 years. I haven't missed a payment of rent all through Covid all throughout. I didn't miss this, one guy, actually, it was a police officer who, like, just bailed on me. Just moved out, like. Oh, that's kind of weird. Yeah, but, we're. We rented that unit out. Maybe had a family or something or other. It was just weird, but all paid? No. You know, just like we've had just this, like, wild run of people honoring us back by paying their rent. Wow. Well, that's. That kind of blows my mind. I see that is different. I don't ever hear that. Yeah, it's phenomenal. I mean, I and there's like an order of events to it, but it is. So you providing that space for someone that you would want if you. Were there, you know, a lot of time somebody that's renting properties might say like, oh, it's they say these words, it's just a rental. To me I'm like no it's a, that's that person's home. Like that's their dwelling. Like that's like so for example an apartment life. We're very strict about who we let into our apartment complexes because you know we had the thought early on like well, you know, take a person who has had, a criminal history. Is that person bad? No. They just they had like, they went down the wrong road and they're having to figure out which way to go now. Well if they have a tendency let's just say that could be destructive. My opinion is that person needs to be in like a single family house. Like there's one culture there. I don't want to put that person next door to somebody in an apartment complex scenario where they might have, you know, the temptation to, do the wrong thing and put other people in harm's way. So just like understanding something simple of, like, well, if I was living there, would I want the landlord to put somebody who has a deep criminal history right next door to me? I wouldn't want them to do that. I would want that. I would want that kind of feeling of like, no, like the neighbor is a very similar, you know, circumstance. And I'm safe in this environment. You said a couple things that kind of stand out to me. You, you mentioned going back a couple, a couple minutes ago, we talked about 6 to 7 years that you haven't had to go to eviction court. Yeah. How do you do that? Like, that's that's not normal. Especially over the span of 120 plus units, right? Yeah. How do you do that? Okay. Like, because that sounds like a different. Yeah. Yeah. All right, so there's a couple key elements to that. Number one element. Fixing the properties up so that 100% of people want to rent them is a big deal. Right. So, like, if you make your, if you like, renovate your properties really well and make a beautiful and you're asking a reasonable rent for it, everybody's going to want it because it's like, wow, this is a fair price. It's a beautiful unit. Everybody's everybody's going to want it. Sure. Second part is having an actual criteria, an actual ability to tell people now so that you're basically looking, let's just say like for the top 10%. I always say this to people, there are great people at every income level. There's phenomenal people at every income. This isn't about income. There's jerks at every income level. Right? So so what we're looking for is this like top 10% person or providing a top 10% product. Now we're going to say no to everyone who doesn't fit in that top 10% category, right? It's going to be we're going to set our limits that way. Well, it takes a little bit of faith to go ahead and put the money out to make your units nice. Takes a little more faith to tell everybody. No, if they don't fit the criteria that you've set for the place until the person comes along. Yeah, once they're there now, you got to keep them there, right? So to keep them there, you have to offer a very high level of service. Like you, we actually tell our tenants, hey, if you have stuff breaking and you don't call us like that is grounds for eviction. Well, versus, hey, you're here now. All I want is the money. Please don't call me because I don't want to fix stuff, which is actually a common thing you would hear amongst tenants. Another thing. So so when you provide that high level of service and you're like, no, this is my property. Like this is my job actually to take care of this. Please respect it. Don't don't damage it. But like this is my job is to take your job is to pay me rent. It's your job to do a good job at. I'll do a good job. You do a good job. So when you when you kind of get that understanding with people, they don't. It is challenging to find landlords who talk about this stuff the way I'm talking about. They're out there. There's people that get what I'm talking about. Tenants love a good landlord. Why? Why do they love it. It's their life. It's their existence. So like imagine you have a problem and your landlord is not like got it on it. Done. Fix like you're moving forward. Yeah. That means something that says that you are valuable. You are valuable for me to respond quickly to your problem. It also means that I'm like, hey, I'm also valuable. So when the first comes around, it's time for you to pay me. Like, don't stop for a second and think, I'm not going to value myself back because I'm going to. So if you can't pay me totally fine. Leave. Like I don't care. I'll find the next person who's going to come in there and want to rent this beautiful space. Yeah. That's intense. I thought investing was all about money. Like, can you make money? Because, yes, you can make money. I guess the question is more like, I guess, I mean, yeah, if you want to go, go for that, you know, can you make money? Because I think of, you said fixing it up. That takes money. It takes capital to fix up a unit and make it better or a better place to live. You're talking about telling people no. Like you're taking. Potentially your 10% roles, like 90% people don't fit only that 10%. So you might have a vacant unit for a longer period of time until you find that person. Yeah. Well, that's losing money. Is that bad business or how do you how do you overcome that? Okay, so what's so if you take the approach that that this life is all about you and in a short time period, you need to hurry up and get the money. Like, you got to make decisions that are like, if I don't get these done soon, then I'm going to miss out. Sure, sure. If you are making decisions that are like, I'm building momentum, I'm building something for my grandchildren. You're not trying to just build wide. You're building deep. You're building a rhythm. You're building a team. You're building a staff. You're building a life. You're building a business, a momentum that you're right up front. Yeah. It's costly. You don't make as much up front. But you're planting an oak tree. You're not growing a weed. So that by the time those grandkids come around and you're about dead, like you've changed the course of your name because like you decided to do something for these people down the road. It's very motivating because they're like I don't I'm not I don't have to be in a hurry and I can do things well. Well, how do you get started? So, so. Like, here's the thing. Like, people need money to live. Even the investor. Yeah, yeah. We talk to real estate agents all the time. We've had. You know that other podcast you talked about getting started as real estate agent. You take months or years before you even make any money. Yeah. For your break even. Yeah. Investing. You still need to eat. Yeah. Still need care for your family. How you get started? Where is it? Don't you need to have money to make money? Need to have money to make an investment. Do you believe that, that. No. Why not? If I will say it, I mean, why not? If you took everything away from me right now. Yeah. I have no money. I have, I have to keep my mind. Okay, great. You can have your mind. And I'm not emotionally distressed because I'm. Everybody's gone. I'm, like, happy still or whatever. Like. And I have nothing I can make back what I have. How? Okay. So the the most people think money is the big problem. Okay. But if you look at it objectively, the government just prints off money. They just they just they print it whenever they don't have enough. They just do a bill and they're like, oh, it's a $5 trillion. I think somebody once said, like, if you stacked $1 bills, I mean, think about how thin those are.$1 bill from like here to the moon. That's like 1 trillion or something like that. It's like some ridiculous example, right? So the for all of us, like normal people, like we're looking at money as it this like scarce thing when in reality it's just this like wildly common abundant thing. Right. It's not even. Real. It's not even, well, kind of know. I mean, you're real. I'm real. It's like it's a piece of paper that we all agree is like the thing, but. But all around the world, it's like. It's like so much focus on the money. When in reality, what do they say the more rare or something is the more valuable it is. Right. Everybody agrees with that principle. Yeah. So money is not rare. It's not rare. It's not valuable. There's one of you on the entire planet. The absolute maximum value is you. One of you. One of me. Right. So as soon as you understand that, you're like, whoa, the guy in front of me is, like, super valuable. Right. So in order to be a great real estate investor, you actually have to understand that it's actually about being a great operator. I told you that the other day about the Navy or, Aiden told Aiden about being a Navy Seal. The government invests millions of dollars into a guy, a an operator, a frogman, or whatever, because that guy knows what to do under pressure. He knows how to make decisions. He knows how to take down the bad guys. He's the thing of value. The money was just there to build up him. So the reason why you don't actually need any money to be great at real estate investing is because you actually need to sometimes having a lot of money as a real estate investor who doesn't have who's not an operator can be devastating. And that's where you get people that screw things up. Yeah. This is all about understanding that you becoming an operator is the thing of value. And once you have that and listen, operators learn from other operators. There's others like, you know, Master Chief, you teach in all the guys like this is how you do it. And like once you get that, there's always like new weird nuances. But like the core of this stuff is it's pretty simple. Yeah. Simple but not easy. Yeah. There you go. Well, guys, we're going to wrap it up for today. Ben, thanks so much. Again, we could talk for hours on this stuff and, appreciate your wealth of knowledge. I love the difference, too, between, you know, just approaching it from, it's not the money is not the object. It is the person behind the money. Yeah, the money is the byproduct. Money is always the byproduct of something working well. It's working well at all. If it's a business or whatever, it's going to produce money. Great. Yep. Well, our friend family. Hopefully you enjoyed this conversation today. You know, as always, we appreciate any comments, thoughts? If you guys have thoughts for Ben, please add the comments below as well. And, you know, like and subscribe. That's how the algorithms work, you know? So, we'd love to continue to create content like this. Thanks. Keep hustling.