This conversation with Jeff and Lexie Bodenmuller is one of the most real, raw, and inspiring stories I’ve ever had the honor of sharing. From investing in rentals at just 18 years old to facing down medical hardships, financial uncertainty, a pandemic, and even a hurricane, their journey shows how real estate can be more than a business—it can be a lifeline. Whether you’re investing with a spouse or figuring out how to bounce back from life’s curveballs, their story is packed with powerful insights, lessons learned the hard way, and real strategies for scaling while staying grounded. If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s all worth it, this episode will absolutely inspire you to keep going.
For a complete guide on optimizing and scaling your real estate investments, download my Freedom Blueprint! This essential tool walks you through ten key steps for organizing a profitable property portfolio. Click here to get your copy today!
Hey everyone, I am Adrienne Green and today I’m really excited to have with me Jeff and Lexie. Thank you guys for joining me.
Thank you so much for having us.
Yeah. So excited to be here.
Jeff and Lexie have a really great story about their investing journey. They have a lot of grit. They have a lot of real life situations. There’s nothing overly fake or fancy here. It’s just real life how they made it happen, which I absolutely love for them to share. And for all of you who invest with your spouse, they’re going to share a lot of wisdom about that and lessons learned along the way. Buckle up and pay attention as we go through.
And Jeff and Lexie, how did you get into real estate investing in the first place?
So I guess I’ll start. I’m the one who first started investing in real estate. I was 17 when my dad gave me Rich Dad Poor Dad. So I started saving my money. And one night he’s in the kitchen. My mom was really upset because he went out of town to where he was buying rentals and he, to circumvent the four loan limit, he decided to close 11 properties in one weekend. He’s the reason why you have to disclose if you have any other loans. My mom was really upset. I’m sitting at the kitchen counter at 18. I said, can I buy one of them? And he ended up being a co-signer on one of them for me. I purchased my first little long-term rental property at 18. And then fast forward, it took until 2021-ish for Jeff to be on board.
Give me some credit there. So we obviously met and when we were dating, she told me on our first date, she goes, yeah, I have a rental property. And I’m like, what is it? I didn’t really even know what that meant. I’m still trying to figure out my life. I was going through a divorce, but I’m like, wow, this chick’s got it figured out. Obviously she’s 20 years old and already doing these things and I’m still trying to find my life at this point. So I was intrigued at that point. And then for me, I learned a lot with her dad because I lived out on their ranch raising my daughter and stuff like that. I would go with him to help him work on rentals and stuff. I just started picking it up then. I’m like, wow, this is pretty crazy. This was before it got wild, before everyone was doing it and BiggerPockets was a thing. He was learning as he was going and I was learning, watching him learn. That made it really intriguing to me. But I still had this vision for me of going, I was a CHP officer. That’s what I’m doing in life. That’s where the security is. So I did that. But while I was doing that, I would bring home the bacon and she would go out and buy rental properties. And then on my days off, I would help her and we would work on them.
We started with a live-in flip. That first one allowed us to buy the next live-in flip. We rolled that over and then we were also able to purchase two more little long-terms. When we got to the point where Jeff was unexpectedly put on medical leave and we were getting no income, we were living off the cash flow from those. It was about $1,500 in cash every month that we were living on after we went through our savings. That was when Jeff really saw how valuable it could be because it kept us afloat.
We’ve had a lot of struggles before we even met, physical struggles, all kinds of stuff. But together, that’s where a lot of our struggles started happening too. We really leaned on each other to get through those times. We saw the power of real estate, like wow, this is actually legitimate. This is covering us while I’m not getting any income from the state for a year and a half. We were fighting the state on a disability. That was a really tough point in our lives. I was struggling with post-traumatic stress and I was home full time at that point. This is during COVID. The day I reported to work, the next week COVID hit. So all the treatment that I was supposed to get went away.
At the same time, she was trying to figure out what was going on with her, and we kind of had an idea it was rheumatoid arthritis. She was going to the doctors and getting treatment. COVID hit, everything stopped for both of us. She was struggling at home. She couldn’t even get out to walk the dogs. We were in the middle of a pretty large house flip, over 3,000 square feet, a live-in flip in California on the Sacramento river. Beautiful area.
All these things were hitting us at once. We leaned on each other to work through that. Seeing the power of real estate every single month just barely got us through. It was enough to keep us in the fight to go against the state until they finally said, okay, we’ll settle with you.
We should also let people know we did not plan on working with each other all the time. Life threw us a curve ball. Jeff was working out of town for five years. He would go and work four or five days and then come home on the weekends. We went from him being gone for extended periods of time to then being closer to home but still commuting, and then being home all the time.
Not just home all the time, but struggling. Couldn’t sleep. We were in the middle of doing this rehab. We had already done one live-in flip, and this was our second big one. Our daughters at the time were around 15 and 11. They helped us with everything. They helped us roof the house, put windows in, siding, a new deck, all the interior work, electrical, everything. When I came home, I couldn’t do anything. I was out there trying to build the deck and I couldn’t even measure. My brain was fried.
No more cutting the redwood wrong, okay? That was getting expensive. Being patient with each other was probably the single biggest tip. We learned to lean on each other, but we also realized our strengths, what I was good at, what she was good at. After we got a settlement from the state, we no longer had to live there. California is a tough state for business. A lot of regulations, especially during COVID for landlords. We were like, okay, let’s get out of here. We sold the house. During that sale, we bought our first Airbnb in Florida.
It was a two-unit property in Southwest Florida, Sarasota County. We brought all the furniture in. I put up fences, we made it nice. On the day I was flying home, my buddy texted me and said there’s a hurricane coming. I called another buddy who’s a real Floridian. He said there’s an Indian burial ground, the hurricanes always miss us. I landed in Vegas and saw it on the news everywhere. Jim Cantore was in our backyard. Not good. We watched the area get destroyed right after we finished. It was intense.
We had a lot of cleanup, but miraculously the trees that fell didn’t go through the house. No damage. So we cleaned up, fixed the fence, siding, etc. Then we sold our house in California, did really well, and lived in our trailer. We packed everything in our trailer, shipped some cars, and drove across the country with our daughter. It was a cool experience, like a family road trip. We ended up in Florida, lived in the Airbnb while we fixed it again, and eventually bought our house here.
That time really bonded us. It saved our marriage. Struggles either break you or build you. We leaned on each other and really strengthened our relationship. Now we’re doing not just life together, but business too.
Jeff didn’t go back to work. We asked, why go back? Real estate was working. That was when I realized my wife was right. I was there for 10 years in law enforcement. That was all I knew. It was my family. But during my post-traumatic stress, I knew if I reported it to the state, I would be a liability. When I did, they took my badge and gun. That was my wake-up call. My family is here, not the department. I had missed a lot with my daughters and wife.
After leaving, it took six months to a year of feeling lost. Like I was no longer the provider. But then we got into real estate again and I realized, this is my purpose. I started doing deals and it was fun. My wife eventually came on board, even though I can be a wild animal. She’s done so well supporting me and keeping me focused.
That’s hard with real estate investors. There’s always something new. Co-living, that’ll cash flow, let’s do that now. It’s hard to stay focused. But with two of us, we can check each other and say, remember what we’re working on. It was a learning experience, but looking back, those hard times brought us here.
So what does our investing business look like now? We started with long-term rentals. Planned to do that in Florida until we saw short-term rental numbers. Got into that. We now have long-term rentals in California and Florida. We just finished a project we did a lot of ourselves—which we need to stop. We realize to grow and be financially free, we need to have others help us.
We also have the beach bus. We had a trailer, planned to Airbnb it, but it didn’t have the cool factor. My wife found a partially finished bus on Facebook. I was skeptical but it was cool. Now it’s like an RV but a bus. We take it on family trips. It’s fun and now an asset. We have a couple other Airbnbs, and we just got into self-storage with three properties in Georgia and North Carolina.
We’re always in live-in flips. We need to live in a house with equity. There’s joy in doing the work and seeing the difference.
We still have our properties in California. We’re self-managing, but only because we have amazing tenants. We had them in place before moving, which helps. For long-distance anything, good local contacts are key. Same with Airbnbs—a good cleaner makes all the difference.
Tenant vetting is also huge. People can change, but we do our best. We lead with servant leadership. We serve our tenants and employees, give them cards, discounts, show them they’re appreciated. That human connection makes a difference.
As for tools, our go-to is whiteboards. We write down everything to see what we need to do. It clears your brain. When it’s all written out, it feels less overwhelming.
For the book we’re writing, we used poster boards and sticky notes to brainstorm chapters. That was fun and helpful. Software-wise, we love Hospitable for Airbnbs. It does everything.
Advice to our younger selves? Just go do it. Don’t wait. And don’t worry about what others think. That pressure holds you back.
Transformational books? Rich Dad Poor Dad was the start. But now it’s Who Not How. I’m trying to trade in the hammer for the baton. Miracle Morning is another one. Starting your day right changes everything.
If you want to connect, find Jeff and Lexie on Instagram @jeffandlexie (L-E-X-I-E). Or at BodenmullerProperties.com. Everything they post is raw and real. No glitz, just the truth.
They’re also working on a book called SPOUSE, filled with tips for couples who want to work together. It includes a workbook to open communication and build a business as partners. They’re still learning, still growing, and they want to help others do the same.