From Broke and Living in Grandma’s Basement to Real Estate Millionaire

TL;DR

Dave Meyer built a million-dollar rental portfolio starting with zero dollars by creatively partnering, house hacking, and investing in Denver's path of progress.

Key Points

• 1.Dave started in 2009 with literally $0, waiting tables in Denver, and secretly moved into a friend's grandmother's 55+ retirement community to save money — living there for 3+ years nearly rent-free.
• 2.His first deal was a 4-unit Victorian in Denver bought for $462K in 2010, split four ways with partners. He borrowed his $26K share from a partner at 7% interest and repaid it by managing the property for 10% of rents.
• 3.Second deal in 2014: a 3-unit listed as a 2-unit for $720K — he discovered a hidden, fully permitted 1-bedroom apartment that wasn't in the listing, house hacked it for 2+ years, and still owns it today.
• 4.Third deal was his only cold call ever: he attended city planning meetings, identified a Denver neighborhood getting a light rail station AND a new park, cold called one owner, offered $430K, and the owner said yes on the spot.
• 5.That $430K property is now worth approximately $800K with zero renovation — pure path-of-progress appreciation.
• 6.Joining BiggerPockets in 2016 was a turning point: he learned about refinancing equity, off-market deals, and data-driven market analysis, accelerating his portfolio growth significantly from 2016–2020.
• 7.Moving to Amsterdam in 2020 forced him to hire professional property management and stop self-managing 10+ units, which opened him up to nationwide investing, syndications, and private lending funds.
• 8.His current portfolio is split in thirds: ~1/3 stock market, ~1/3 directly owned rental properties, ~1/3 passive investments including multifamily syndications and private credit lending funds.
• 9.His current focus is improving at value-add investing by doing flips — not to become a flipper, but to build construction skills for larger BRRRR projects, calling it the one real estate strategy that works regardless of market conditions.