Latest news with #JeremyBarker
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
An investor who built a multimillion-dollar real estate portfolio by buying 'pigs' explains how he finds overlooked properties
Jeremy Barker started buying real estate when his startup needed a bigger headquarters. He's scaled to more than 30 properties that bring in seven figures in annual rental income. Barker's strategy involves finding and buying overlooked properties. Jeremy Barker stumbled into real estate investing when his startup outgrew its original space, prompting him to look into large commercial properties. He bought a bigger space than he needed, leased nearly 80% of it to tenants, and started generating rental income from his new headquarters. What's more, he said the building has more than quadrupled in value within the past decade. From there, "I just rinsed and repeated," Barker told Business Insider. The entrepreneur, who started his business Murphy Door to supplement his $1,600 a month firefighter paycheck, has grown to more than 30 commercial and residential properties that generate seven figures in annual rental income. BI confirmed his property ownership by reviewing his 2024 property tax notices and lease agreements between him and his tenants. One key to his real estate strategy is buying overlooked properties. That's how he scores deals and, ultimately, sees millions of dollars in appreciation. Barker is looking at buildings that most people aren't. "I like to look for pigs," he said — meaning, something that's dilapidated or doesn't look nice, but has potential. "We could put lipstick on it and make it look really pretty." For example, while driving through his market in Utah, he noticed a 90,000-square-foot call center right off the highway. The old office space, which was still littered with desks, chairs, and servers, had been empty for a couple of years. "The property is just dilapidated," he recalled. "The outside's ugly, the landscape's overgrown, the trees are too big, the inside looks really overwhelming because it's a lot of square footage with a lot of stuff." While most investors wouldn't even do a walkthrough, Barker saw an opportunity. "Coming from a construction background, I'm like, I could cut down the big trees, get the yard cleaned up, paint the exterior for cheap, put new LED on the outside, gut all the cubicles, sell those for some kind of money, and then I can do new flooring," he said. He knew he had leverage, since the building had been sitting on the market for years. It was listed for about $3.4 million, and Barker said he initially offered $2 million: "It came back to $2.9 million, and then I found about $500,000 or $600,000 worth of deferred maintenance issues that they credited me at close, so I ended up buying this for $2.4 million." Before closing, he put a "for lease" sign up outside the building and landed his first tenants before even putting any money down. Within 12 months of purchasing the property, it was fully leased. Barker isn't just looking for dilapidated buildings that have potential. He has specific location criteria. "I tell my realtor, 'Find me something that is in a good spot. It doesn't have to be the best spot. It just has to have some lower vacancy rates in the area. It has to be pretty accessible to business, so good highways next to it.'" Barker has two tried-and-true strategies that help him land deals. "First and foremost, the secret is: How long has it been on the market? How desperate are these guys?" he said. "The long market tells are important to me." Chances are, he'll have more negotiating power on a building that's been vacant for more than a year than one that just came on the market. Next, he's looking for companies that are moving out of their office space. "This is kind of my secret recipe: If I can find companies that are selling their main office. Usually, it's single-tenant occupants held by the corporation that are now moving to a different headquarters." This type of seller is usually not looking to lease the space — they just want to sell, explained Barker: "If you can find a single company that's leaving, they put it for sale only and it sits there for four or five years because everybody sees the building for sale, but it never says 'for lease.' Most people aren't going to buy the whole big building." That's where he'll come in, sign a purchase and sale agreement that allows him to immediately put up a 'for lease' sign before closing, and "all of a sudden, your phone starts blowing up," he said. "So if you can get it to where you're the future lessor, and you get the calls when the sign transfers from 'for sale' to 'for lease,' now you can see demand." Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
A former firefighter went from earning $1,600 a month to owning over 30 properties. He explains how he used creative financing to land his first $3 million deal with $30,000 in savings.
Jeremy Barker started a hidden-door company, Murphy Door, to supplement his firefighter income. The company grew rapidly, prompting him to look into large commercial spaces. He bought a $3 million building with just $30,000 of his own money and expanded his portfolio from there. Jeremy Barker spent much of his career bouncing between construction, working as a paramedic, and working as a fireman, as well as experimenting with startups. "I kind of played ping-pong for the first 35 years, trying to decide what it is that I loved, which was fire," he told Business Insider. "Unfortunately, it doesn't pay. I didn't want to live on $1,600 take-home a month." Unwilling to give up his firefighter career completely, he decided to supplement the modest salary with a side hustle. He started making hinges for hidden doors — an idea inspired by a DIY home theater project for his kids — and called the company Murphy Door. "That escalated quickly from 2013 into 2016," he said. "We signed Home Depot. It just grew really fast." While Murphy Door created an additional revenue stream, he put most of the profit back into the business. It wasn't until he stumbled into real estate that his wealth started to snowball. Besides his primary home in Utah, Barker had no experience buying real estate. But as Murphy Door took off and outgrew its original space, he and his real estate agent started looking at larger buildings. His agent found a deal on a 90,000-square-foot building that he told Barker was too good to pass up and pitched it as a space the company could grow into. It was listed for $3 million. "I looked at him and I'm like: 'Are you freaking crazy? $3 million? I work at a fire department. I have no idea how to get a loan.' My mortgage was difficult enough," Barker said. "He goes: 'You sign this LOI. I'll help you figure out the money.'" That night, Barker turned to YouTube to learn about financing commercial real estate. He learned a couple of things: One, he'd need to raise capital. His $30,000 in savings was a start, but not enough for a down payment. Two, he could lease a large portion of the space, about 70,000 square feet, that he didn't need for Murphy Door. Once he understood how letters of intent, or LOIs, and purchase and sale agreements, or PSAs, worked, he realized he could take advantage of the time between signing one and the closing date to get a head start on leasing. After some back-and-forth with the seller regarding terms, he got the green light to list the building for lease before closing. "I had to sell them a little bit," he said. "I said: 'Look, I only use a small space, but if I could put it up for lease, you're not committed to anything. I'll let everybody know early that it's not bought yet, but there's a 90% chance it closes.'" He signed the PSA, put a "for lease" sign outside the building, and, "within 24 hours, I had my first tenant that was like 22,000 square feet," he said. "Within the next couple of days, I got another big tenant, and before I closed, I had a full package of lease rent roll equivalent to about $140,000 at that time annually in that space." The lease agreements helped him secure the rest of the capital he needed — a couple of hundred thousand dollars — for the down payment, as he was able to show investors the expected net operating income. It also helped secure a loan. "I went back to Bank of Utah, and I said, 'Here are my rent rolls.' They did the first mortgage," he said. "Within 12 months, I retabled it over to Golden West Credit Union and pulled $2 million out — and I'd only put in $30,000." He said he paid his investors back within 24 months, and the building's value has more than quadrupled over the past decade. Recognizing the tremendous wealth-building opportunity in real estate, Barker "just rinsed and repeated" from there, he said. He's fine-tuned his strategy, but it's not dissimilar to his first deal: Find an overlooked or undervalued property — ideally a building that has been on the market for years in order to gain negotiation leverage — and build a long enough closing period into the terms with the seller in order to have time to set up lease agreements with future tenants. As of June, Barker owns more than 30 commercial and residential properties. BI confirmed his ownership by reviewing his 2024 property tax notices and his lease agreements. Barker, who said he faced bankruptcy twice early in his career, didn't have much savings to work with when he started buying real estate. "I knew that I had to think outside the box," he said. What he didn't have in capital, he made up for in research. His edge, at least in the beginning, would be understanding his market better than anyone else, and using that knowledge to pitch investors. "Spend a whole bunch of time understanding the marketplace," he said. "I've learned about buildings. I learned what rent goes for around here. And you don't have to get complicated. I'm looking at: What is the average rent rate? OK, it's going for $12 to $15 a square foot. If I buy this property, my hard costs are going to be $4 a square foot." Once you find a deal that you're confident will work, start pitching to any prospective investors within your networks. Barker said he'd frame it as: "I don't have any money to bring to the table, but you have all my time. I'm willing to give away X% of the equity to just pull off my first deal." Pitch with confidence, not arrogance, he added. "I would understand the market really well and talk at a super basic level, not to sound like you're smarter than you are," he said. "Just be confident. You don't have to talk outside your scope." Barker said he reached financial independence years ago, thanks to his real estate portfolio, which brings in about $2.5 million in annual revenue. It's freed him up to spend his time exactly how he wants: in the fire department, where he still works part time, and at Murphy Door. When it comes to real estate investment, "we get stuck on the reasons not to do it rather than figuring out how and why to do it," he said. "Quit saying, 'I can't because I don't have money.' Or, 'I can't because I've never done it.'" "I think we have to just do the homework and spend a little time to reverse engineer stuff, think about pricing, and think about 'what is the opportunity?'" Barker said. "When other people see a lack of opportunity, a different lens could probably see some opportunity there." Read the original article on Business Insider Sign in to access your portfolio
Business Insider
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
A former firefighter went from earning $1,600 a month to owning over 30 properties. He explains how he used creative financing to land his first $3 million deal with $30,000 in savings.
Jeremy Barker spent much of his career bouncing between construction, working as a paramedic and as a fireman, as well as experimenting with start-ups. "I kind of played ping pong for the first 35 years, trying to decide what it is that I loved, which was fire," he told Business Insider. "Unfortunately, it doesn't pay. I didn't want to live on $1,600 take-home a month." Unwilling to give up his firefighter career completely, he decided to supplement the modest salary with a side hustle. He started making hinges for hidden doors — an idea inspired by a DIY home theater project for his kids — and called the company Murphy Door. "That escalated quickly from 2013 into 2016," he said. "We signed Home Depot. It just grew really fast." While Murphy Door created an additional revenue stream, he put most of the profit back into the business. It wasn't until he stumbled into real estate that his wealth started to snowball. Financing a $3 million space with $30,000 in savings Besides his primary home in Utah, Barker had no experience buying real estate. But as Murphy Door took off and outgrew its original space, he and his real estate agent started looking at larger buildings. His agent found a deal on a 90,000-square-foot building that he told Barker was too good to pass up, and pitched it as a space the company could grow into. It was listed for $3 million. "I looked at him and I'm like, 'Are you freaking crazy? $3 million? I work at a fire department. I have no idea how to get a loan. My mortgage was difficult enough,'" said Barker. "He goes, 'You sign this LOI. I'll help you figure out the money.'" That night, Barker turned to YouTube to learn about financing commercial real estate. He learned a couple of things: One, he'd need to raise capital. His $30,000 in savings was a start, but not enough for a down payment. Two, he could lease a large portion of the space, about 70,000 square feet, that he didn't need for Murphy Door. Once he understood how letters of intent (LOIs) and purchase and sale agreements (PSAs) worked, he realized he could take advantage of the time between signing one and the closing date to get a head start on leasing. After some back-and-forth with the seller regarding terms, he got the green light to list the building for lease before closing: "I had to sell them a little bit. I said, 'Look, I only use a small space, but if I could put it up for lease, you're not committed to anything. I'll let everybody know early that it's not bought yet, but there's a 90% chance it closes.'" He signed the PSA, put a 'for lease' sign outside the building, and, "within 24 hours, I had my first tenant that was like 22,000 square feet," he said. "Within the next couple of days, I got another big tenant, and before I closed, I had a full package of lease rent roll equivalent to about $140,000 at that time annually in that space." The lease agreements helped him secure the rest of the capital he needed — a couple of hundred thousand dollars — for the down payment, as he was able to show investors the expected NOI. It also helped secure a loan. "I went back to Bank of Utah, and I said, 'Here are my rent rolls.' They did the first mortgage," he said. "Within 12 months, I retabled it over to Golden West Credit Union and pulled $2 million out — and I'd only put in $30,000." He said he paid his investors back within 24 months, and the building's value has more than quadrupled over the last decade. Recognizing the tremendous wealth-building opportunity in real estate, from there, "I just rinsed and repeated," said Barker. He's fine-tuned his strategy, but it's not dissimilar to his first deal: Find an overlooked or undervalued property — ideally a building that has been on the market for years in order to gain negotiation leverage — and build a long enough closing period into the terms with the seller in order to have time to set up lease agreements with future tenants. As of June 2025, Barker owns more than 30 commercial and residential properties. BI confirmed his ownership by reviewing his 2024 property tax notices and his lease agreements. How to get started in real estate with little to no savings Barker, who said he faced bankruptcy twice early in his career, didn't have much savings to work with when he started buying real estate. "I knew that I had to think outside the box," he said. What he didn't have in capital, he made up for in research. His edge, at least in the beginning, would be understanding his market better than anyone else, and using that knowledge to pitch investors. "Spend a whole bunch of time understanding the marketplace," he said. "I've learned about buildings. I learned what rent goes for around here. And you don't have to get complicated. I'm looking at: What is the average rent rate? OK, it's going for $12 to $15 a square foot. If I buy this property, my hard costs are going to be $4 a square foot." Once you find a deal that you're confident will work, start pitching to any potential investors within your networks. He'd frame it as: "I don't have any money to bring to the table, but you have all my time. I'm willing to give away X% of the equity to just pull off my first deal." Pitch with confidence, not arrogance, he added: "I would understand the market really well and talk at a super basic level, not to sound like you're smarter than you are. Just be confident. You don't have to talk outside your scope." Barker says he reached financial independence years ago, thanks to his real estate portfolio, which brings in about $2.5 million in annual revenue. It's freed him up to spend his time exactly how he wants: in the fire department, where he still works part-time, and at Murphy Door. When it comes to real estate investment, "we get stuck on the reasons not to do it rather than figuring out how and why to do it," he said. "Quit saying, 'I can't because I don't have money.' Or, 'I can't because I've never done it.'" Instead, "I think we have to just do the homework and spend a little time to reverse engineer stuff, think about pricing, and think about 'what is the opportunity?' When other people see a lack of opportunity, a different lens could probably see some opportunity there."
Entrepreneur
30-05-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
How a Firefighter's 'Hidden' Side Hustle Led to $22M in Revenue
This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features Jeremy Barker, 50, of Ogden, Utah. Barker was working as a firefighter and paramedic when he started his company, Murphy Door, which sells "hidden" home furnishings, including bookcase doors and Murphy beds. Responses have been edited for length and clarity. Image Credit: Courtesy of Murphy Door. Jeremy Barker. Want to read more stories like this? Subscribe to Money Makers, our free newsletter packed with creative side hustle ideas and successful strategies. Sign up here. When did you start your side hustle, and where did you find the inspiration for it? I started Murphy Door in December 2012 while I was still working as a firefighter. The inspiration came from wanting to build a home theater for my kids, which sparked the idea for hidden storage solutions. I believed I could change how the biggest hardware stores approached storage solutions and create a new category in the market. Related: She Started a Creative Side Hustle While Working 'Dead-End' Jobs — Then Grew It From $10,000 to Over $50,000 a Month: '[It] Became Magnetic' What did those early side-hustling days look like? I kept Murphy Door as a side hustle while working in fire services. In 2012, our first year in business, we only made $30,000, but I kept pushing forward. The real breakthrough came when I took the business online in 2013 and got advice from Architectural Digest to think beyond just hidden doors and focus on multifunctional storage solutions, turning wall space into functional storage rather than just secret compartments. Image Credit: Courtesy of Murphy Door Are there any free or paid resources that have been especially helpful for you in starting and running this business? I have some amazing mentors that I've worked with: Don Blohm (operations), John Porter (human capital coach), Brandon Dawson (business systems) and Grant Cardone (sales training). But honestly, the best mentor we could have is our customers. I also believe young entrepreneurs should actively seek out mentors — most successful business people want to help. If you could go back in your business journey and change one process or approach, what would it be, and how do you wish you'd done it differently? I wish I had better banking support early on. Utah needs a better banking system — banks are quick to say no, but don't tell you how to get to yes. I faced bankruptcy twice, once in my early 20s, then the next time in my 30s; better financial guidance could have saved me a lot of headaches. When it comes to this specific business, what is something you've found particularly challenging and/or surprising that people who get into this type of work should be prepared for, but likely aren't? Manufacturing equipment lead times can really slow you down. Our German equipment has 6-12 month lead times, which makes the ability to forecast demand with manufacturing capacity accurately a must; it is also why it makes expansion challenging. Balancing creativity with practicality [is also challenging] — you need to ensure innovations are feasible, cost-effective and meet genuine needs. Can you recall a specific instance when something went very wrong? How did you fix it? In the early days of Murphy Door, my team showcased our hidden doors for panic rooms at a major trade show. We soon realized that although the product was intriguing, it catered to a limited market. This realization led to the broader concept of hidden storage doors, which had mass appeal. The lesson? Embrace feedback, no matter how unexpected, and be prepared to adapt. Related: She Quit Her Job at Trader Joe's After Starting a Side Hustle With $800 — Then She and Her Brother Grew the Business to $20 Million How long did it take you to see consistent monthly revenue? How much did the side hustle earn? It took about four years to see consistent revenue that I could rely on. I started Murphy Door in 2012 while still working as a firefighter, and in our first year, we only made $30,000. I kept it as a side hustle, reinvesting everything back into the business. The real turning point came in 2016 when we hit a $5 million revenue trend: That's when I finally felt confident enough to leave firefighting and take my first paycheck from the company. So it was a four-year journey of building it nights and weekends while maintaining my day job for financial stability. Image Credit: Courtesy of Murphy Door What does growth and revenue look like now? The growth has been incredible, especially since Covid. We entered Covid with $7 million in revenue and then saw explosive growth: $7 million to $14 million to $22 million. We're currently maintaining 70% year-over-year growth, which makes us the fastest-growing mill department in the U.S. We now have 102 employees across multiple manufacturing facilities: our headquarters in Ogden, Utah, a plant in Kentucky, and we're opening a third plant in Plano, Texas, at the end of the year. Our reach has been massive — we've had over one billion organic views on social media and have completed 200,000 unique installations. We've worked on high-profile projects, including for Lionsgate and Only Murders in the Building, done unique build-outs for celebrities and athletes, and collaborated with a Grammy-winning artist. What do you enjoy most about running this business? I love the innovation rush of creating something new and watching it succeed. It's about proving you can build something significant, creating jobs in America and competing with anyone in the world while solving real problems for people. The combination of innovation, impact and building something lasting — that's what gets me up every morning. Related: This 34-Year-Old Was 'Wildly Un-Passionate' About His Day Job, So He Started a 9-Figure Side Hustle: 'Be an Animal' Build fast, break faster, then refine. Too many entrepreneurs wait until something is perfect. That's a death sentence. I believe in rapid prototyping and getting a version out, then fixing it based on real feedback. With Murphy Ladder, we didn't wait for perfection — we built a working prototype , then tested it in the real world. What we learned in the field made the final product strong enough to win awards.
