Tim Gurule
Tim Gurule has been a guest on Collecting Keys, the real estate investing podcast hosted by Mike DeHaan, Dan Austin and Dylan Koch.
From Army Ranger to Real Estate Millionaire with Tim Gurule
Dan Austin interviews Tim Gurule, a former Second Ranger Battalion teammate who went on to become a firefighter and real estate investor. Tim walks through house hacking with a VA loan, buying a St. Louis fourplex sight unseen, and eventually building a private capital lending business after leaving the fire department over a vaccine mandate. He also details how conservative underwriting and first-position liens protect his private investors.
Key takeaways
- Tim's first rental was a fourplex bought sight unseen with $20K of his money and $20K from a Ranger buddy — a cheap inspection missed foundation cracks, water in the basement and leaking plumbing, and a contract addendum meant he inherited no security deposits while facing 50% vacancy.
- A tenant stopped paying and the COVID eviction moratorium kept him there for two and a half years; after eviction Tim faced a roughly $25,000 rehab on a unit renting for $400 a month, and the city moved to condemn a structure on the property. An arsonist burned the building, and the insurance payout covered the rehab, yard cleanup and reserves.
- Tim turned those mistakes into purchase SOPs and checklists — verifying whether deposits transfer, confirming inspection thoroughness — which he says has saved him money on later deals.
- On his private lending: he underwrites like a bank (IDs, personal guarantees, preliminary title, insurance docs, mortgage statements), only secures loans against real estate (no cars, boats or obscure businesses), stays in first position, and only lends in states where foreclosure is possible. Rule number one is don't lose money.