At just $5 a unit per month, it's worth checking out shukrentals.com or booking a live demo in the show notes. https://calendly.com/oliver-theshuk/shuk-demo — Use discount code TCREI20 for 20% off.

🎙️ About the TCREI Hosts

Adam Tafel – Investor, Realtor, and host of Twin Cities Real Estate Investing. Adam has helped hundreds of clients buy, sell, and analyze investment properties across the metro. He works daily with local investors and is passionate about building wealth through smart real estate strategies. 📩 adam@UpsidePropertySales.com

Tim Swierczek – Mortgage lender and experienced investor who helps clients structure financing to maximize returns and long-term wealth. Tim brings a practical, numbers-first approach that makes deals work in the real world. 📩 tim@timswierczek.com

💡 We’d love to meet with you and hear about your investing goals. Book a time with us here: TwinCitiesRealEstateInvesting.com/schedule

Ryan Luthi has been investing in the Twin Cities since 2013, starting with a house hack in North Minneapolis that laid the foundation for everything that followed. He shares how that first duplex allowed him to live affordably while building momentum, eventually purchasing a single-family home that turned into a successful live-in flip. Through smart, budget-conscious updates, Ryan and his wife were able to create significant value—using the profits from that sale to help build their dream home.

In this episode, Ryan dives into his experience investing in sober homes, including the opportunities, recent challenges, and some of the real-world drama that comes with that niche. He also talks about his work helping buyers navigate contract for deed deals, offering insight into a less common but impactful path to ownership. Ryan’s story is practical and honest, showing how strategic decisions and adaptability can compound into long-term success.

If you got value from this episode, share it with someone who’s thinking about getting started in real estate investing, and don’t forget to subscribe for more conversations with local investors.

At just $5 a unit per month, it's worth checking out shukrentals.com or booking a live demo in the show notes. https://calendly.com/oliver-theshuk/shuk-demo — Use discount code TCREI20 for 20% off.

🎙️ About the TCREI Hosts

Adam Tafel – Investor, Realtor, and host of Twin Cities Real Estate Investing. Adam has helped hundreds of clients buy, sell, and analyze investment properties across the metro. He works daily with local investors and is passionate about building wealth through smart real estate strategies. 📩 adam@UpsidePropertySales.com

Tim Swierczek – Mortgage lender and experienced investor who helps clients structure financing to maximize returns and long-term wealth. Tim brings a practical, numbers-first approach that makes deals work in the real world. 📩 tim@timswierczek.com

💡 We’d love to meet with you and hear about your investing goals. Book a time with us here: TwinCitiesRealEstateInvesting.com/schedule

Corey Wright returns to the show to talk about what he’s been working on lately, including his new Legacy Wealth Group project aimed at helping investors connect and build stronger networks within the real estate community. Corey shares why building relationships with other investors can make such a big difference, especially when markets get tough or deals get harder to find.

We also talk about practical mindset tricks for staying motivated and organized as an investor, along with a candid discussion about the pros and cons of off-market deals and working with wholesalers. It’s a wide-ranging conversation about the mental side of investing, staying consistent over the long run, and building the kind of community that helps investors keep moving forward.

At just $5 a unit per month, it's worth checking out Shuk Rentals or booking a live demo in the show notes. https://calendly.com/oliver-theshuk/shuk-demo — Use discount code TCREI20 for 20% off.

🎙️ About the TCREI Hosts

Adam Tafel – Investor, Realtor, and host of Twin Cities Real Estate Investing. Adam has helped hundreds of clients buy, sell, and analyze investment properties across the metro. He works daily with local investors and is passionate about building wealth through smart real estate strategies. 📩 adam@UpsidePropertySales.com

Tim Swierczek – Mortgage lender and experienced investor who helps clients structure financing to maximize returns and long-term wealth. Tim brings a practical, numbers-first approach that makes deals work in the real world. 📩 tim@timswierczek.com

💡 We’d love to meet with you and hear about your investing goals. Book a time with us here: TwinCitiesRealEstateInvesting.com/schedule

In this episode, we sit down with John Zilverberg, a Minnesota investor whose journey into real estate started with a bold first deal: a beautiful duplex just two blocks east of Lake Calhoun (Bde Maka Ska). John bought the property in 2020 and went all-in on a DIY value-add renovation, essentially gutting much of the building and learning a long list of lessons the hard way. The risk paid off when the property appraised far higher than expected, allowing him to refinance, unlock a large amount of equity, and pull out cash to fund his next moves.

John used that momentum to pivot into out-of-state short-term rental investing, where his engineering mindset turned out to be a huge advantage. Running STR properties across the country requires tight systems, data, and operational discipline—exactly the type of challenge John enjoys solving. Today he owns five short-term rentals in different markets, and in this episode we take a deep dive into his first out-of-state deal in Sedona, Arizona, breaking down how he chose the market and what he learned along the way. For Minnesota investors dreaming about owning a property somewhere warm, this episode offers a practical look at how to make that jump.