5 Lessons You Can Learn from Brian Burke’s Real Estate Journey from $0 to $800 Million

Have you ever wondered how successful investors built their empires and what lessons they learned along the way? 

I recently had the chance to chat with Brian Burke, the CEO and President of Praxis Capital, to hear his story and take on real estate investing.

In this post, I’ll uncover five valuable lessons he has learned throughout his impressive 30-year career in real estate. 

From starting with nothing to acquiring over $800 million worth of real estate, Brian's journey is nothing short of inspiring. 

So, let's dive in and discover the secrets behind his success!

Lesson 1: A Little Entrepreneurial Spirit Goes a Long Way

You know how when you’re starting something new, people always say, “Just dive in with two feet and you’ll figure it out.” 

Well when Brian decided to get into the real estate business he did exactly that.

And to be honest, if he had had any additional feet he would’ve added them to the dive, no questions asked!

At age 20, with no money, no connections, no friends in the industry - just a bit of knowledge that he had picked up from reading a few books - he started flipping houses.

He told me, “I figured I was perfectly set up to be a real estate investor, because I wasn’t really perfectly set up to do much of anything else.”  

And lo and behold, after a few years of gritting his teeth and figuring out the messy world of real estate investing in the 90’s, he had built his business up to flipping a couple of dozen houses each year.

After that point, business really started booming, and by 2009 he was doing over 100 houses per year!

It has to be said that there are lots of reasons why Brian found all of this success, but at the essence of it all was his entrepreneurial determination and ruggedness to make things work and keep moving forward. 

After all, you can’t flip your 1000th house without flipping your first!

Lesson 2: Get Creative

I think creativity and entrepreneurship go hand-in-hand, but I’ve got to say, Brian got pretty creative on his journey up!

And in his case where he was starting with little to nothing, it was absolutely necessary.

For instance, to purchase his first piece of property he got a finance company to finance 80% of the purchase, and he convinced the seller to finance the other 20% and give him a closing cost credit.

You’re probably thinking, “That’s not outrageously creative, just downright smart!”

And I completely agree with you, but listen to this…

On another occasion he applied to every credit card offer that came in the mail, then he took the stack of credit cards to the bank, handed them to the teller, and said, “Cash them all to the max and give me a cashier’s check.”

Brian says that the teller looked at him like he was crazy, and rightfully so, he adds - but in the end he walked out of the bank with enough to buy another property to flip.

Nobody in their right mind is going to tell you that this was a good idea, but hey, it worked for him because he knew that if he could just get enough for the next property, he would make it work.

So the lesson here DEFINITELY isn’t to over-leverage credit card debt.

But this example DOES do a good job of demonstrating that there are many ways of doing something if you’re willing to think outside of the box.

Lesson 3: Do What’s Best for YOU

I think that anybody who is reading this can agree with me in saying that real estate investing is an extremely powerful tool for building wealth.

But Brian makes a really important point that everybody’s personal situation is a little bit different. 

And that unique situation is going to determine where your priorities lie and how you evaluate risk.

For example, he’s seen that lots of high income earning investors are often in it for a tax and appreciation play.

In the case of retired investors, the name of the game is cash flow.

And young people typically try to prioritize appreciation, because they want to build an asset base that will generate cash flow when they’re older.

But whatever the case is, it’s important to look internally at your own situation and determine what your true goals are.

Lesson 4: Adapt and Learn

The market is always changing, so if you’re going to keep up, shouldn’t you be doing the same?

Brian’s answer to this is always going to be a resounding YES!

He’d also say that being able to adapt and learn has been one of the single most important aspects of maintaining a thriving career over the past 30 years.

I mean, this is a guy who left his job as a police officer and, with no formal technical training, learned to code so that he could write his own software that would allow him to better track information related to foreclosure auctions.

And the reason for this?

He was attending all of these foreclosure auctions on the steps of the California courthouses.

And upon experiencing the chaos of everybody trying to keep track of very tedious information using physical file baskets with manila envelopes, he thought to himself,

“There has to be a better way of doing this.”

So he learned, and he wrote code, and to this day he still uses that same software.

He applies this same way of thinking across all aspects of his business, too.

It’s why he made a shift to purchasing multi-family properties around ‘05.

And why, around the same time, he started buying out-of-state properties when he realized that the California market had become completely oversaturated. 

And now, nearly 20 years later, he’s acquired over 800 million worth of real estate.

So stay open to what the market is saying and asking of you, and the market will be yours in the long-run!

Lesson 5: Strategy is Key

There tend to be a couple of things that you hear when it comes to talking about timing the purchases of your investments.

The first being, “Buy low, sell high.” 

And the second, “Just buy real estate and wait.”  But you can’t just buy any real estate and wait! There is a way to buy real estate in every market cycle, just not the same strategy for all market cycles. And as long as you have the ability to hold on to the asset (the right debt with a cash flowing asset when you have adequate buffers), you can weather any storms. 

Both are right, and Brian and I get that.

It takes having been through several cycles of seeing how the market reacts to different stressors and building intuition and theses for finessing your strategy and stress testing.

In his career, Brian has successfully navigated to 2000’s “.com” bubble burst, the financial collapse around ‘08 and the climb out, and most recently, the COVID run up.

It goes without saying that he’s been around the block.

But with every consecutive cycle that you get through, the more you learn.

So endure, and you’ll be left with more experience that will serve you in the long run.

I hope you find these 5 lessons useful and that they help you think about what it takes to build a real estate empire.

I had a hard time choosing just 5 lessons from the wealth of wisdom and insight that Brian shared.

So if you’re interested in hearing the full conversation between Brian and myself, go to YouTube to watch the video version, or my website/Spotify/Apple Podcasts for the audio only version.

You can also learn more at www.PraxCap.com, or check out Brian’s book, The Hands-Off Investor.

Interested in learning more about taking back control of your time and income by building your real estate portfolio the right way? Get on the waitlist for the next cohort of Creating Generational Freedom here: https://www.generationalwealthmd.com/real-estate-investing-101

Get notified about upcoming opportunities to invest with us passively in Multifamily apartments by filling out this form: https://www.generationalwealthmd.com/Passive-investment-Multifamily-Syndication

Want to stay connected to a supportive community of like minded professionals also trying to creating meaningful passive income? Join us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/generationalwealthmd

Love the Generationalwealthmd podcast? Then please consider Rating and Reviewing the show! This helps me support more people -- just like you -- accelerate to financial freedom and move toward the life they desire. Rate with Five stars, and “Write a Review.”

Be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!