Buy 3 Rentals. Pay Them Off. Financial Freedom.

Lucas Teague’s path to financial freedom centered on buying distressed properties cheaply, improving them himself, and using the gains to build a small, durable portfolio rather than chasing scale. He said he got started after seeing a parent lose a job after 30 years, which pushed him toward an asset that could replace W2 income. His first deal was a HUD foreclosure: he offered $8,000 on a house listed at $50,000, put about $2,600 into it, and sold it for about $60,000.

He then repeated the live-in rehab model with a triplex, moving between units as he fixed them up and increasing rents from roughly $400 to $700 per unit. Rather than keep expanding fast, Lucas later focused on long-term rentals that met his target of 15% cash on cash return, using spreadsheets and, more recently, AI to screen listings and local market trends.

As the market tightened, he shifted toward paying down leverage instead of buying more. That helped him reach a simpler position: three rental properties, a paid-off primary residence on 66 acres, and enough income to cover family expenses. He also described using a USDA-related grant program to remove invasive species from his land, turning the property into another source of value while reducing complexity.