I Came For the Real Estate, Stayed For the Weirdos

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In This Article

There’s nothing like the looming threat of a Category 5 hurricane to test a real estate investor’s priorities. As Hurricane Milton swirled off the coast last year—about as uncertain as interest rates—BPCON 2024 in Cancún pressed on. Flights got shuffled, contingency plans flew into action, and the patio furniture remained completely unbothered.

And yet, the energy? Unshaken. The vibe? Resilient. The water? Bottled. The investors? Fully present—and stuffing all the free food into their bigger pockets (or at least I was).

Key Highlights

Codi Sanchez kicked off the keynote by taking a swipe at real estate investors—you know, the ones proudly cash-flowing $112 a month on a $475,000 single-family. Apparently, we’re not building wealth—we’re just trying to win some masochist Olympics. I scoffed, obviously.

Then she said something that landed: We’re the builders, the unemployable. Not broken. Not crazy. Just wired for something else.

I’ve been saying that about myself for years—half-joke, half-warning. But hearing it from a speaker like her, on a stage that big, with thousands of heads nodding? That was different. That was home.

Not Who I Expected

I was genuinely surprised to be chosen as a speaker. I hadn’t retired to a beach off the cash flow from an Airbnb portfolio and have a course to sell you, so you can, too (wink). I’m not a private equity bro, and I constantly make fun of myself. And I try really, really hard not to take myself too seriously.

So when I got the invite last spring, I confirmed before they realized their error—figured I’d sneak in before they changed their minds.

But what surprised me even more was realizing I wasn’t the outlier. The other speakers? They were just regular investors. Approachable. In the trenches. Still making mistakes and learning and figuring it out as they go. People like me. Like you.

Nobody was floating above the crowd on some influencer cloud, waving down from early retirement. They were right there at lunch. At the pool. In the lobby. Open, real, and sharing what they knew without ego.

Why I Really Go to BPCON

I spend most of my time talking about real estate. Like, all my time. I even tried striking up a conversation with the cashier at Aldi—but she scanned everything so fast I don’t think she caught any of it.

But the truth is, I’m not that different from most investors. We’re all a little obsessed. And when I go to BPCON, I don’t show up to brag about what I’ve done.

I go to bring my problems—the stuff I’m stuck on, the things that make this squirrel brain race—and I look for people whose perspectives stretch beyond my own. And when you’re at BPCON, there are thousands of people equally obsessed, who don’t try to escape from you, and who have so many ideas and perspectives that you can contribute to and take from. It’s kind of like the take-a-penny, leave-a-penny tray at the cashier—but less grubby.

This time, I got to spend real, unhurried time with a few local investor friends. We’d connected before—but in Cancun, something clicked. We talked about goals and how our strengths complemented each other. Now? We’ve got a multifamily property under contract together.

Also, someone literally held a staff meeting on speakerphone while pooping in the main conference bathroom—during Codi’s keynote. So, no, not everyone stayed for the whole session. But somehow, even that felt on-brand. These are my people.

That didn’t happen because I went looking for a win. It happened because I showed up with questions, not answers.

See You There

If you’ve made it this far, there’s a good chance you’re one of us—the kind of person who thinks talking about cap rates is a good time, whose brain runs on ideas, who probably also scared an Aldi cashier once.

BPCON isn’t just a conference. It’s a gathering of the unemployable, the obsessives, the spreadsheet lovers, the gut-feel risk-takers, and the quietly brilliant. You don’t have to have it all figured out. Just show up. Bring your questions. Bring your weird. Bring your squirrel brain.

Because I’ll be back at BPCON 2025—probably saying something I shouldn’t into a microphone that no one asked me about—and if you’re smart, you’ll be there too. Not to be perfect. Just to be in the room.