Podbit · BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast
Rachel graduated with a Master of Real Estate Finance from Texas A&M in 2009 — right into the worst real estate crash in decades. With no development jobs available, she pivoted to property tax consulting and bought a massive fixer-upper duplex, accidentally executing her first live-in flip without knowing the term existed.
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At 1:48 · chapter starts 1:15
Rachel Duck's origin story is a study in making the best of bad timing. She started buying raw land in college, then earned a Master of Real Estate Finance from Texas A&M — a credential designed to launch a development career. But she graduated in 2009, directly into the worst real estate downturn in a generation. Her program director gently suggested she consider other options. Rachel pivoted to property tax consulting work in Austin's active appeals market and simultaneously bought a fixer-upper duplex — a sprawling renovation project she tackled herself at 23. Years later, when she started listening to BiggerPockets, she realized she had already executed a live-in flip and house hack without knowing what either term meant. The strategy that would define her investing career had begun purely by instinct.
Rachel bought her first duplex fixer-upper in 2009 right after graduating with a Master of Real Estate Finance from Texas A&M, inadvertently executing her first live-in flip.
Rachel moved herself and her three children nine times in six years as part of her live-in flip strategy to build her rental portfolio.
Starting over after a 2020 divorce with three young kids and little capital, Rachel Duck chose the live-in flip: buy with 5% down on a conventional owner-occupied loan, renovate while living there, then rent it and repeat. Nine moves and six years later, she owns 10 properties worth $4 million with $2 million in equity.
Factories that replaced coal engines with electric ones in the early 1900s got only 6% efficiency gains. Those that redesigned their entire factory around electricity got a 3x productivity improvement. Swapping AI tools into your existing structure will give you 6%. Rebuilding around AI will give you 10x.
Lebanese terrorists backed by Iran were holding American hostages throughout the Reagan presidency. Reagan had loudly campaigned against negotiating with terrorists — putting him in an impossible position that his team quietly decided to ignore.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the US openly supplied Iraq with weapons, training, and intelligence. At the same time, Oliver North was secretly funneling missiles to Iran. The US was playing both sides of a shooting war.
Oliver North traveled to Iran under the alias 'William P. Goode' with a fake passport. CIA Director William Casey allegedly gave him cyanide pills so he could kill himself rather than be tortured if captured. He returned safely and the deal moved forward.
The Pentagon sold missiles to the CIA for $3,700 each. The CIA sold them to Richard Secord at cost. Secord sold them to Iranian middleman Ghorbanifar for $10,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran even more. The profit — including $3 million in interest in one Swiss account — was diverted directly to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
America secretly transferred 2,000 missiles and missile parts to Iran in 8 shipments over more than a year. Only 3 of 7 hostages were released. Three more were taken. The net result was zero freed hostages and a full-blown constitutional scandal.
On October 5, 1986, a CIA Contra supply plane flew a weapons drop at 2,500 feet in broad daylight. A Sandinista soldier shot it down. The only survivor, Eugene Hasenfuss, had borrowed a parachute from his skydiving brother. He was captured, paraded in front of cameras, and told the Sandinistas everything he knew.
The CIA supply operation used a front company called Southern Air Transport, widely known to be a CIA cover. Crew members of the downed plane carried their Southern Air Transport employee IDs in their wallets. One also had a business card directly linking him to Oliver North's office in Washington.
When the scandal broke, Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall conducted what became known as a 'shredding party,' destroying a day's worth of documents. The full truth of Iran-Contra may never be known because of what was fed through that shredder.
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