When Lindsay Barrientos decided to step into the world of real estate investing, the market timing could hardly have looked less favorable. She did not start buying rental properties in the wake of the 2008 financial crash, nor did she catch the historic wave of low interest rates in 2021. Instead, she took her first plunge in late 2022, just as home prices and mortgage interest rates had surged to punishing heights.
Operating out of Los Angeles—a notoriously expensive housing market where a standard single-family home easily commands a million dollars—Barrientos faced an uphill battle. Yet, she understood the long-term wealth-building potential of real estate and trusted the process. Rather than waiting for a mythical "perfect" moment or a massive bank account, she committed to a strategy of buying one house at a time, banking her rental income, and methodically rolling it into her next down payment.
Now, just four years later, that disciplined approach has yielded a 12-property portfolio. More importantly, it has provided Barrientos with the financial flexibility to walk away from a grueling W-2 career, return to school, and launch her own business as a psychiatric nurse practitioner.
Appearing as a guest on a recent episode of the BiggerPockets Podcast hosted by Henry Washington and Dave Meyer, Barrientos detailed her remarkable journey from stressed healthcare worker to accomplished out-of-state real estate investor.
Finding Direction Amid Pandemic Burnout
Barrientos’s path to real estate was forged during one of the most challenging periods in modern healthcare history. Having worked as a registered nurse for over a decade, her life shifted dramatically in 2020 with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a frontline worker dealing directly with surging case numbers, patient tragedies, and immense emotional toll, she experienced severe burnout and depression.
Reaching a crossroads at age 30, Barrientos began questioning her long-term future in nursing. Seeking a way to secure her financial independence and potentially reduce or eliminate her reliance on hospital shifts, she turned to the internet for answers.
"I went to Google and I was just like, okay, what do rich people do? How do they make money?" Barrientos recalled during her podcast interview.
The search engine offered two primary paths: start a business or invest in real estate. At the time, Barrientos was already unknowingly practicing a form of real estate investing. Living in Los Angeles, she owned a four-bedroom single-family home and was renting out rooms to traveling nurses, effectively house-hacking to offset her own mortgage.
When she explored purchasing a second property in Los Angeles to scale her efforts, reality set in. Conventional loans in Southern California required a 20 percent down payment. On a million-dollar property, that meant coming up with $200,000—a sum well beyond the reach of a standard nursing salary. That realization forced her to look outward, leading to the broader discovery that the rest of the country offered significantly more affordable real estate markets.
Shifting Out-of-State and Building a Network
Armed with inspiration from financial books and real estate podcasts, Barrientos began conducting rigorous market research. She sought a location that combined landlord-friendly laws with strong cash-on-cash returns. Because she planned to work temporary travel nursing contracts in Chicago, she naturally gravitated toward surrounding areas within driving distance.
That search led her to Northwestern Indiana, specifically Hammond. Recognizing that investing two thousand miles away from her home in Los Angeles required reliable boots on the ground, Barrientos focused heavily on building a trusted network. Rather than relying solely on traditional advertising, she sought out smaller content creators, active online communities, and transparent real estate investors via platforms like YouTube and Instagram.
Her outreach connected her with active local investors and a WhatsApp group chat comprising dozens of peers sharing firsthand insights on realtors, property managers, and reliable contractors. This collaborative ecosystem gave her the confidence to make her first move.
In late 2022, Barrientos closed on her first out-of-state investment: a three-bedroom, two-bathroom single-family home in Indiana purchased with a 25 percent down payment on a conventional loan at a 6.01 percent interest rate. Rented out immediately for $1,400 a month against a debt service of $880, the property generated steady cash flow and served as her initial proof of concept.
Rather than immediately rushing to expand, Barrientos treated the property like an additional bill for a full year, pocketing the income and building a cash reserve. By the end of the year, she had saved $16,000 and gained the operational confidence needed to scale into rougher, higher-yield markets.
Scaling Through Value-Add Deals and Creative Financing
With one successful year under her belt, Barrientos expanded her footprint into nearby Gary, Indiana—a market often cited for economic challenges but offering exceptionally low acquisition costs. In 2023, she purchased a small, 800-square-foot home for $55,000 that required substantial renovations, including a new roof and new floors. After investing roughly $16,000 into the rehab, she rented the property to a Section 8 voucher holder for $1,100 a month, achieving impressive returns.
Her strategy hit a dramatic test during an attempt to execute a "BRRRR" strategy—Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat. After purchasing a distressed property for $33,000 and investing another $30,000 in renovations, disaster struck just days before her scheduled refinance appraisal. A faulty kitchen light sparked a minor fire. While the home was unoccupied at the time and the fire department quickly extinguished the flames, the high-pressure water hoses caused extensive water and structural damage, destroying her newly finished drywall.
Though briefly discouraged, Barrientos persevered. She invested an additional $11,000 to complete the repairs a second time. When the new appraisal returned at $160,000, she successfully refinanced, recouped all her invested capital from both rehab cycles, and validated the viability of recycling her funds.
As her portfolio grew to 12 properties, Barrientos shifted her acquisition tactics to include creative seller financing. Utilizing a strategy inspired by seasoned investors, she began submitting dual offers to motivated sellers—presenting a lower all-cash price alongside a higher seller-financed offer featuring favorable terms and structured interest rates. This approach proved remarkably effective, allowing her to secure five of her twelve properties through creative financing arrangements.
Achieving Financial Independence
Back in Los Angeles, Barrientos continued optimizing her primary residence by constructing an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU), which she rents out as a mid-term rental for $2,000 a month, while pursuing permits for a second ADU build.
Simultaneously, she completed her education to become a psychiatric nurse practitioner. With her real estate portfolio generating consistent cash flow, her house-hacking strategies lowering her living expenses, and her new practice fully established, Barrientos recently stepped away from her traditional hospital W-2 career.
To help others navigate the complexities of real estate investing, Barrientos has also launched a podcast titled Real Estate Chisme alongside co-host Bileta Sandoval, featuring an online community designed to encourage women and people of color to explore property ownership.
Reflecting on her rapid four-year ascent, Barrientos emphasizes that her success required no extraordinary background or perfect market timing—just a clear plan, calculated risks, and consistent daily execution.
