I recently had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with my friend Brea Burger, and trust me—you don’t want to miss this episode. Brea’s story is anything but ordinary. She went from a dream career in academia to an unexpected pivot into tech, and then—through what she calls an “accidental landlord” moment—she found herself on a transformative path to building a multimillion-dollar real estate business. We talk about the realities of the BRRRR strategy, navigating growth with family as business partners, hitting ceilings and breaking through, and what it really takes to stay grounded when everything changes. Whether you’re dreaming of investing or deep in the trenches, Brea’s journey is filled with relatable lessons, powerful mindset shifts, and unshakable inspiration.
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Hey everyone, welcome back. I’m Adrienne Green and today I’m sitting down with my friend, Brea Burger. Get ready for some amazing insights to help you build wealth and freedom through real estate. Let’s get started.
Hi, thanks Adrienne for having me.
I am excited to hear more of your story. What is so interesting to me and to our listeners here is Brea loved school so much. She earned a PhD in bio-behavioral health. She had a dream job as an assistant professor. She had what felt like the perfect life. She could travel, impact, freedom. Life was amazing. And then it all changed…
Yeah, so I think what happened to me is actually really normal and unfortunately isn’t talked about a lot. Just how life can take you on these different trajectories. I had this dream job. I was on the tenure track path at a school on the East Coast. I built in travel by specializing in global health and was able to take students to South Africa, Panama. I took a faculty trip to Costa Rica. So it was fantastic. And during that same time, I was in a significant relationship with someone. We had been together for 10 years. And the relationship ended.
And so that really got me questioning about what I wanted from life and the situation that I was in. At the same time, I had an opportunity to take a role in tech in the Bay Area. And so all of these changes were happening in my life. And I was like, OK, I guess I’ll take the job. So I took the job. I left my teaching position, took the job, went to go work for Apple as a researcher for them.
And corporate was so different than academia. I would say academia is more like being an entrepreneur. You’re your own boss. You can lead your research studies. You can set up your lab how you want it. But corporate, I had bosses telling me what to do, where to be at certain times. So at the same time, before I had left to move to the Bay Area, I had bought a primary residence in Pennsylvania. And I had just bought it. I lived there for maybe a year.
And I was like, I don’t want to sell this. So that’s how I accidentally fell into real estate. I became an accidental landlord because that’s what people do when they don’t want to sell. They rent it and gave myself six months to learn as much as I could about real estate and bought another property.
Amazing. And now we are where we are now—real estate is your whole life.
Yeah.
Wow. Okay. And so we know your first deal was then effectively keeping that primary and renting it out. Where did it go from there?
Yeah, so after six months of learning and reading all of the things on BiggerPockets, listening to all of the podcasts, one of the themes that came up was this whole idea of analysis paralysis. A lot of first-time investors just get stuck in this, have to consume as much information as possible, and they never take action. So that’s why I gave myself a deadline—six months to learn and then I’m going to go out there and I’m going to buy in the market that I know, which was Pennsylvania, Allentown to be more specific, which was a great market to be buying in at the time. I got lucky there. And so I bought myself a duplex. I had learned all about the BRRRR method and I was like, I’m going to do this. This sounds easy, right? You just buy something, renovate it, get it rented out, refinance, pull all your money out and repeat. Yeah, right. I learned so many lessons. It took a year to rehab the property.
I fired two contractors, I fired three property managers, and I was doing this all from California while I had a full-time job. I also had a statistical consulting company, and I was continuing to teach online classes for Penn State at the time. So all of those things going on.
But you know, I made it through and over the next two years, I made it to about 20 rentals before I really hit the ceiling where I could not keep doing it by myself any longer.
All of those years, I had been talking incessantly about real estate to my sister, Boston, and my brother-in-law, Logan. At that time, they weren’t quite ready, but around 2020, they were ready to jump in. Logan started partnering with me first, and we both knew Boston would be a great addition. She initially only wanted to do one property a year—and I was like, yeah, right. Eventually, she got tired of all the post-it notes and came in to help us get organized, streamline operations, and really build a scalable business. She’s the gear that keeps the ship moving.
That transition helped us grow from 20 units to about 160–175 units across five different states. We’ve added other strategic partnerships along the way too.
So what does your strategy look like now?
Every year we have a goal-setting meeting. Right now, our focus is simplification—getting our processes tighter. Two years ago, we were chasing shiny objects. Now, we want boring and consistent. We’re also focusing on strategic partnerships to increase capital. Real estate cash flow is great, but having more capital gives you power when opportunities arise—especially in a downturn.
We’re partnering with flippers to generate capital in chunks while maintaining that steady monthly income. And we’re branching into a franchise—Alloy, a small group personal training gym. It’s only 1,500–2,000 square feet. All three of us have health backgrounds: Boston ran a gym, I have a PhD in health, and Logan is a strength and conditioning pro with 15–20 years of experience, including with special forces. He works in certifying strength coaches now.
And we’re applying everything we’ve learned in real estate—how to use VAs, take notes, manage people—to this franchise.
How do you approach worst-case scenarios?
Whether it’s BRRRR or Alloy, we always ask: “What’s the worst that could happen?” For BRRRR, maybe we leave 20% in a deal. That’s acceptable. For Alloy, worst case? Logan works on-site until we find someone. That mindset helps with fear. When we actually assess the worst-case, it’s rarely as bad as we fear.
Can you speak more to the fear and mindset piece?
Totally. Everyone experiences fear and self-doubt—even seasoned investors. I play the CEO role in our business, and that comes with a lot of pressure. Am I making the right calls? Underwriting correctly? Raising enough capital?
Three things help me:
- Mindset Coaching – I’ve worked with a business mindset coach, Liz Carroll, for years. She helps me reframe problems and build unrelenting confidence.
- Community – I’m part of GoBundance Women, a network of high-level entrepreneurs, and “The Club” mastermind by Paul Sparks. Both provide community and frameworks to make smart decisions.
- Reframing Fear – Fear is constant. But I have to check myself: Is this a real threat or just doubt? That shift helps me keep going.
You’ve also got location freedom. How did you build that?
I wasn’t great at it at first. When I had 20 units and a job, it was hard. But being an out-of-state investor from the start forced me to build systems. Now, with strong processes and communication, I can take two-week trips and not worry. Our VAs manage a lot, and we give property managers a heads-up when we’re traveling.
Time zones matter—Spain was hard. But we still stayed on top of things.
What’s a transformational system you’ve implemented?
Meetings. I used to hate them—so anti-meeting. But now, we meet weekly with key property managers, go over metrics, maintenance, rehabs. It keeps things moving. We also have internal meetings—me, Boston, Logan on Thursdays; just Boston and me for process-focused catch-ups.
We hired a full-time VA and a part-time VA. One handles all our social media—thank goodness. The other supports Boston on ops: leases, utilities, admin. We also brought on a fractional CFO to help us look forward financially, not just backward.
What’s your go-to operations tool?
I love AI. We use Notion with AI features for notes, ChatGPT for strategy, and Monday.com to track progress with VAs. Our social media VA built a content calendar I can just review and approve. I delegate to people who know better and empower them to build the systems.
How long do your meetings take?
About 30–60 minutes weekly per property manager. When onboarding a PM, I ask how they prefer communication, which opens the door for that expectation. If we only have one property with a manager, we’ll do a monthly check-in instead.
What’s a book that’s been transformational for you?
I’ve shifted from “how-to” books to autobiographies. I wanted mentors, so I started reading about incredible people:
- Hedy Green – richest woman of her time; inspired our decision to hire a fractional CFO.
- Rockefeller – unemotional decision-making, big on documentation and partnership.
- Isidore Sharp (Four Seasons) – values-driven leadership and culture.
Autobiographies give me perspective and lessons from people I can’t call on the phone—but can still learn from.
How can people connect with you?
Come find me on Instagram: @brea_reiforfi (that’s real estate investor for financial independence). Or follow my sister @familyofrei. Send us a DM—we love connecting and talking real estate.