#284 - Building Wealth Across Real Estate Asset Classes for Long-Term Freedom - Brandon Rickman

Joining us on this episode of Living Off Rentals is someone who turned grit, experience, and strategy into over 500 successful home flips and now uses that same knowledge to build long-term wealth through long and short-term rentals, and self-storage. Brandon Rickman is a seasoned real estate investor based in Atlanta who scaled his flipping business to over 100 deals a year. He now owns 865 self-storage units, short and long-term rentals, and a private lending company.  In this conversation, Brandon walks us through his journey from learning construction with his dad to building scalable, freedom-generating real estate systems. Listen as he breaks down the evolution of his strategy, what made him pivot into self-storage, how to raise private money effectively, and why time freedom, not just financial freedom, is the ultimate goal.  Whether you're just getting started or looking to scale sustainably, this episode offers a playbook for building wealth without burning out. Enjoy the show! Key Takeaways: [00:00] Introducing Brandon Rickman and his background [02:17] Getting into real estate and his first deal [05:10] Brandon on being a cop and doing real estate on the side [08:14] Just take imperfect actions; you are not going to have all the answers [09:52] Hope is never a good strategy [10:16] Why short-term rentals became more viable than long-term rentals [16:19] Recognizing the risk of transactional businesses  [19:10] Why self-storage offers time freedom and lower maintenance headaches [24:19] Market demand, square footage per capita, and self-storage resiliency [28:09] His advice for people raising private money for the first time [33:34] How Brandon raises 100% of funds without using his capital [35:36] The non-paid marketing [40:53] Structuring a flexible real estate business around family and lifestyle [42:49] Financial freedom is a great thing, but time freedom is even better [45:35] Connect with Brandon Rickman [46:41] Outro Guest Links: Website: https://www.theflipgenius.com/  Email: brandon@theflipgenius.com  Show Links: Living Off Rentals YouTube Channel – youtube.com/c/LivingOffRentals  Living Off Rentals YouTube Podcast Channel - youtube.com/c/LivingOffRentalsPodcast  Living Off Rentals Facebook Group – facebook.com/groups/livingoffrentals  Living Off Rentals Website – https://www.livingoffrentals.com/  Living Off Rentals Instagram – instagram.com/livingoffrentals  Living Off Rentals TikTok – tiktok.com/@livingoffrentals