At 21, he was a broke college kid, driving DoorDash orders to cover rent. A few years later, he'd built a real estate portfolio worth about $15 million, owning 100+ properties and hundreds of units, without relying on his own cash the way most people assume you have to.
What stood out most wasn't some magic market timing. It was a repeatable system: obsessive deal flow, tight buy and rehab math, heavy follow-up, and a team structure that let him scale without living in the passenger seat of a contractor's truck.
From DoorDash math to real estate momentum (and a lot of failure upfront)
The origin story is simple and honestly kind of relatable. While doing DoorDash, he got fixated on time and money, and how small choices changed hourly earnings. Things like driving distance, restaurant wait times, order size, and time of day. That same thinking carried over to real estate fast: if small inputs change outputs, then consistency wins.
What people usually skip, though, is the ugly middle. Early on, he had his first 11 deals fall apart in about three months while working as an agent. Later, he's had hundreds of deals fall through overall. Instead of treating that like proof it "wasn't for him," he treated it like reps.
One quote that stuck was the idea that he kept putting unqualified sellers and unqualified buyers together and expecting a clean closing. Something always blew up. So the fix wasn't motivation, it was qualification. Better questions, better screening, better expectations.
That's also why rejection stopped bothering him. After 111,387 cold calls, it becomes pretty clear that most "no"s aren't personal. They're timing, stress, confusion, or the seller just not being ready yet.
If you're curious where he's active as an agent and investor, his public profile shows his market focus and transaction volume: Josh Janus real estate agent profile.
The "monster duplex" renovation: foreclosure deal, stolen materials, and city permitting pain
One of the biggest projects featured looks like a small apartment building, even though it's technically a duplex. It's roughly 100 to 120 years old, and the strategy is to rent by the bedroom to college students, with keypad locks on each door for privacy.
The deal numbers (and how the timeline blew up)
Here's the deal breakdown exactly as described, and it's a good example of why "budget" and "actual" rarely match on heavy rehabs.
Before the table, the headline detail: he bought it from a bank after foreclosure, and a week before closing someone stole about $50,000 of materials that were already inside.
| Item | Estimate / Reality |
|---|---|
| Purchase price | $160,000 |
| Rehab budget (original) | $100,000 |
| Rehab cost (actual) | ~$150,000 |
| Timeline (original) | ~4 months |
| Timeline (actual) | ~1 year |
| Total basis (incl. holding, debt service) | ~$310,000 |
| After-repair value (when finished) | ~$450,000 |
| Layout | 10 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms |
| Rent plan | $700 to $750 per bedroom per month |
The big takeaway: the deal can still be strong even when things go wrong, but only if you bought it with enough margin.
The condemned list lesson (and why "my contractor said he knows" isn't enough)
This property was on the city's condemned list. That means it wasn't legally habitable until it passed the city process. The painful part is what happened next: he relied on a contractor who claimed he knew how to handle permits, drawings, and submissions. He didn't verify.
By the time the rehab was around 70 percent complete, they had to redo work because the proper process wasn't followed. A new team had to come in to fix it and finish the job.
That one mistake also hints at his risk tolerance. He didn't just buy one condemned property. He bought five like this at once, then repeated the process across the other four. High risk, but he also clearly expects problems and prices his time around it.
When it comes to profit targets, his general benchmarks were straightforward:
- On flips, he tries to net about $50,000.
- On larger rehabs like this one, he expects over $100,000 if he flips it.
- If he holds a property, he wants at least $200 per unit per month in true cash flow after all expenses.
The "no water line" surprise near a major hospital expansion
Next stop was a property near Metro Hospital in Cleveland, close to a large expansion project. The building had been vacant for decades. The setup is unusual: a duplex in the front plus a single-family in the back, and the attic was finished. In his words, this "duplex" is bigger than what many people picture in other cities.
The most expensive lesson here wasn't design. It was basic utilities. After finishing a renovation, the water still didn't work. Then they realized there wasn't even a water line. Fixing it meant digging and installing a new line, and he called it a $15,000 due diligence lesson.
It's a clean reminder that rehab risk isn't just kitchens and bathrooms. Utilities, permits, and hidden infrastructure can swing the whole deal.
His sourcing approach also stayed consistent: focus on neighborhoods where he already owns, then call owners, cold text, work with wholesalers, and talk to agents. The filter is always the same question: can I add value and create equity through renovation?
If you want to see how other investors think through BRRRR projects in Ohio markets, there's a lot of candid, messy detail in discussions like this: BRRRR experiences in Ohio forum thread.
Also Read: How One Immigrant Built a 100-Car Luxury Rental Startup in Miami ($250K/Month)
BRRRR explained the way he actually runs it (timelines included)
He uses BRRRR as a repeatable loop: Buy, Renovate, Refinance, Rent, Repeat. The detail that matters is how fast he tries to recycle the same cash.
Here's the process as he laid it out:
- Buy: He tries to close in 1 to 2 weeks, depending on title work.
- Renovate: Bigger projects run 6 to 9 months, smaller ones can be 1 to 3 months.
- Refinance: Often about a 30-day process.
- Rent: He rents after refi in his flow (the order matters to him).
- Repeat: He aims to reuse the same cash at least three times a year, which implies a four-month average cycle.
He also mentioned two different "exit" paths using the same deal.
One example: buy around $100,000, put in about $80,000, then sell for about $240,000. That's a flip profit around $60,000 (roughly, based on the numbers shared).
If he keeps it instead, he can refinance, pay back the investor who funded the purchase and rehab, and still hold the building for a few hundred bucks a month in cash flow, with none of his own money left in the deal.
Cold calling at scale: why follow-up beats talent
He didn't romanticize cold calling. It's mostly repetition, timing, and not getting rattled. He said many rejections happen because you're not the right person at the right time. So the real job is staying in touch until it becomes the right time.
He even referenced the idea that you need to contact someone seven times to get something done, and he agrees with it. He's also seen people scream on the phone, then act completely normal six months later when life changes and selling suddenly makes sense.
You only need a handful of "yes" deals to make all the calling worth it.
That mindset also shapes how he handles rejection: don't take it personally, stay efficient, move on, and keep your pipeline full.
Buying deals without your own money (even if you only have $5K)
Someone asked the obvious question: if you've got $5,000, what's the most realistic path to a first deal?
His answer was unexpected: you don't need the $5,000 at all, at least not as the main limiting factor. Instead, treat the business like a triangle:
- resources and team
- cash and funding access
- deal flow
If cash is low, pour your energy into deal flow and people. Find deals, then find money.
A simple structure he mentioned: bring a money partner who funds the deal, split it 50-50, and you handle the work, finding the deal, managing construction, and running the exit (sale or refinance).
For funding sources, he talked about private lenders and people who want passive involvement. If you can offer a strong return (he referenced 12 to 15 percent over about six months for a rehab loan), many people would rather fund than do the day-to-day themselves. He also named places to meet them: forums, some Facebook groups, and local networking events.
That lines up with why communities like BiggerPockets keep coming up in these conversations: BiggerPockets real estate investing forums.
Scaling comes down to team structure, not hustle
His portfolio mix is mostly single-family homes, lots of two- to four-unit buildings, and some commercial properties. He aims to keep about 70 percent of what he buys, and he sells the rest to manage taxes and keep liquidity for down payments and surprises.
The day-to-day management of stabilized rentals sounded almost boring, which is kind of the point. Once tenants are in place, it's a few meetings a week and maintenance coordination. The real time sink is construction and deal flow.
He described weeks where construction management takes 20 to 40 hours, plus another 10 to 20 hours managing the people finding deals. The way he got out of being the bottleneck was hiring a project manager, someone who used to be his contractor, then grew into overseeing multiple general contractors who oversee subs.
That shift mattered because it moved him from doing "GC babysitting" to running a system.
He also brought construction in-house because outside contractors delayed other investors, and those investors weren't the contractor's priority. With an in-house team, he became their priority, and quality improved because incentives were clearer (fewer inspection marks, better outcomes).
The three beginner mistakes he sees over and over
He didn't pretend beginners fail because they're lazy. He made it sound more like people misjudge risk, misjudge rehab spend, then get burned by people problems.
Here were his top mistakes, in plain terms:
First, people take on too much risk by buying properties without knowing what they'll be worth, what the comps say, or what the rehab truly requires. Second, overspending shows up in sneaky ways, like pouring money into things tenants and buyers won't pay for (he gave the example of a $20,000 concrete patio). Third, beginners underweight relationships. It starts as a numbers game to get a deal, but once you close, it turns into a relationship game with contractors, leasing, and property management.
His own failure stories backed that up.
One deal looked perfect on paper: a $12,000 house rented to a Section 8 tenant at $600 a month. Six months later, the tenant moved out without telling him, someone stripped copper, smashed windows, and dumped 200 tires in the yard. After an insurance claim, he sold it to a neighbor for $10,000, and the neighbor bulldozed it and built a garage. His takeaway was blunt: just because the numbers work doesn't mean reality will cooperate.
A few quick moments that show how he thinks
Some of the lighter "rapid fire" parts still revealed useful stuff.
The weirdest DoorDash delivery was a 1.5-hour drive with $350 of catered food, set up on the customer's table, with no tip. That story matches his obsession with efficiency, and also why he takes disrespect and rejection less personally now.
His must-watch movie pick was The Big Short, because it helped explain the kind of office culture he started around, and how markets can look stable right up until they aren't.
He also described a risky deal where he bought a house at the bottom of a hill, and only noticed after arriving that it sat across from a steel plant with heavy wires nearby. He still made a little money (bought around $90,000, put in $40,000, sold around $155,000), but he expected $200,000. The lesson was oddly practical: pay attention to elevation and what the map photos don't show.
Where I tripped up, and what I'm taking from this approach
I've watched enough real estate content to know the usual advice, "find a deal, then find the money." Still, hearing the ugly details made it land differently. The stolen materials, the missing permits, the surprise water line, that's the real stuff. It's also the stuff people tend to ignore while they daydream about "passive income."
If I'm being honest, I tend to over-trust "confidence" early on. Someone says, "Yeah I know the city process," and a part of me wants to believe them because it feels like progress. This story pushed me back toward verification. Ask for the permit plan. Ask what drawings are needed. Ask who's done it before, and where.
The other thing I'm stealing for my own life is the notebook habit. Not because paper is magic, but because it forces a daily audit. Am I doing tasks that make money, or am I just staying busy? That question stings a little, which is probably why it works.
And yeah, the follow-up piece hit home too. I've given up on things after one or two tries, then later realized it wasn't a "no," it was a "not now." The idea of calling back six months later feels awkward, but it also feels like the adult move.
Conclusion
This story isn't about getting lucky with one property. It's about building deal flow, tightening your numbers, and setting up a team so growth doesn't depend on you running around all day. The BRRRR loop works best when you treat it like a cycle you can repeat, not a one-time win. If there's one theme that keeps showing up, it's patience, the kind that survives 11 failed deals and keeps dialing anyway.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Is the BRRRR strategy still viable in 2026? Yes, but the margin for error is slimmer. With fluctuating interest rates and high construction costs, the "Refinance" step requires a very accurate After Repair Value (ARV) and a tight rehab budget to ensure you can pull your initial capital out.
2. Can you really start real estate investing with $0? Technically, yes, but it requires "Sweat Equity." As seen in this story, if you don't have cash, you must bring the deal or the hustle (like cold calling and finding off-market properties) to a partner who has the funding.
3. What is the biggest risk in a BRRRR deal? The biggest risk is the "Rehab" and "Appraisal" phase. If the renovation costs blow up (like the missing water line issue) or if the bank appraises the property lower than expected, your cash gets "stuck" in the deal, preventing you from repeating the cycle quickly.
4. How many cold calls does it take to find a deal? There is no fixed number, but the investor in this story made over 111,000 calls. It’s a volume game. Consistency and follow-up (contacting a lead at least 7 times) are more important than the initial pitch.
5. Why did the investor focus on Cleveland? Market focus is key. He chose a market where the entry price is lower (like $160k for a duplex), making it easier to scale compared to high-priced coastal cities where the "Buy" phase requires massive capital.