441: House Hacking as an NFL Player? How Former Tight End Hakeem Valles Grew His Real Estate Portfolio

BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

When most people think of professional athletes, they usually think of superstars being paid millions every month (or even every week). Most people don’t come to realize that for everyone on an NFL team, that pay grade isn’t as high. That too, is what Hakeem Valles found out after being signed on by the Cardinals.

Hakeem wasn’t making a lot, and realized that he was essentially throwing away $2,000 a month on rent. After one season with the team, he decided to go on BiggerPockets and ask around for agents and leads in the area. Hakeem ended up with a LOT of responses and found a great agent who helped him close on a fourplex, which he house hacked while practicing with the team.

It’s hard enough to house hack when your tenants know you’re the owner, but it can be even harder when your tenants know you’re an NFL player. Hakeem’s advice: be a tenant of your own property and don’t let the other tenants know that you own the place. Doing this can help reduce some awkward encounters you may have.

After retiring, Hakeem went on to do bigger real estate deals and partnered up on a 40 acre farm! He also owns Perspective Global Media, where he counsels other real estate professionals on how to grow their reach through social media platforms like TikTok and LinkedIn. Hakeem drops some gems towards the end of this episode on how you too can use TikTok to gain followers, clients, and partners!

In This Episode We Cover:

• Why even professional athletes need to have multiple streams of income
• How a shocking event in Hakeem’s life changed his outlook forever
• Fighting income creep and keeping expenses low
• When renting does and doesn’t make sense for your financial situation
• The biggest mistake Hakeem made when living in his fourplex
• How to fight the fear of getting into real estate (and making mistakes)
• Using social media to leverage your personal brand and grow followers and clients
• And So Much More!

Links from the Show

• BiggerPockets Podcast
• BiggerPockets book store

Books Mentioned in this Show:

• Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner
• The Go-Giver by Bob burg
• The 1 Thing by Gary Keller

Click here to check the full show notes: https://www.biggerpockets.com/show441

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