At 19 years old, Cody Davis purchased his first rental property. Before turning 22, his portfolio included 81 units.
In an interview with David Greene and Henry Washington on the BiggerPockets Podcast, Davis walked us through the steps he took as a bold 19-year-old real estate agent with little to no income and not a single W-2 form, to owning 81 units across eight deals within three years.
How He Purchased His First Apartment Complex
Davis started work as a real estate agent in the Seattle, Washington region after he turned 18 years old. As an agent, he wasn’t successful and rarely made sales.
However, he was good at staying connected with the other agents at his brokerage. A deal for a seller-financed 22-unit apartment complex came across his desk one morning after it fell through with another buyer. The head of his brokerage pushed him to pursue it, despite lacking the financials, experience, and know-how. They assured Davis that other agents at the office would help fund the deal if he could get the seller to leave the table happy.
When Davis approached the seller, he was flat-out rejected. The seller felt they were being dragged along for far too long and pulled the listing altogether.
Davis was crushed and frustrated. But he had caught a virus: the investing virus.
As a real estate agent, Davis had access to the multiple listing service (MLS). After getting shoved away from the last deal, he filtered listings with “seller financing” and found several properties. One, in particular, was a ~$1.2 million 12-unit apartment complex that had been on the market for 560 days.
Davis contacted the listing agent, cunningly explained that he just had another deal fall through and was looking to make a purchase, asked how they wanted to write up the contract, and began the purchase. The original asking was 20% down with 80% seller financing. Davis came in at 15%, went back and forth, and finally went under contract.
While under contract, Davis negotiated his…