In this episode of That Real Estate Tech Guy, host Jordan Samuel Fleming sits down with entrepreneur and CoLiving operator Sam Wegert to break down why CoLiving is quickly becoming one of the most compelling real estate strategies in today’s “weird” market. Sam shares how he transitioned from building and exiting a martial arts business into scaling a CoLiving portfolio, and why renting by the room can solve affordability challenges while creating strong, consistent cash flow. They compare CoLiving to Airbnb, discuss the economic and social forces driving demand, and unpack what makes a great CoLiving property, including location, size, bathrooms, parking, and neighborhood fit. Sam also explains his A-to-Z turnkey model that helps investors source, renovate, furnish, and manage CoLiving properties across multiple U.S. markets, plus how wholesalers and flippers can use CoLiving as a powerful new exit strategy.

About Sam Wegert

Sam Wegert is the CoLiving King and the #1 Authority in CoLiving Real Estate.

He started his CoLiving journey in 2011 and reached financial freedom with his wife by age 23. What began with just a few rented rooms has grown into a network of over 1,500 CoLiving doors including his own and those of the investors he mentors.

As the founder of Scale Your CoLiving Real Estate and the largest CoLiving real estate mastermind in the world, Sam leads a thriving community of investors transforming traditional rentals into high-performing, affordable housing. His proven strategies turn ordinary homes into wealth-building assets. He has also been featured on top real estate podcasts across the country for it.

Before real estate, Sam founded UpLevel Martial Arts, where he taught thousands of students leadership, discipline, and personal growth. His experience as a coach and business owner laid the foundation for his passion today: helping others break free from their 9-5 and live on their own terms through CoLiving.

Sam is on a mission to solve the affordable housing crisis while empowering others to escape the 9-5 grind. He believes CoLiving is the fastest and most impactful path to wealth in real estate, and hundreds are following his lead.

Important Links

Watch & Listen

• Free Co-Living Challenge – Learn Sam’s model at ScaleYourRealEstate.com
• Connect with Sam Wegert – Instagram: @SamWegert
• smrtPhone – Get 5,000 free minutes with the only phone system built for real estate investors.
• ThatRealEstateTechGuy.com – All episodes, resources, and exclusive tech discounts.

I can tell you one thing. Technology is the single most important aspect of every business that has successfully scaled. It’s time for That Real Estate Tech Guy. It’s your weekly chance to explore how technology can help your real estate business explode. Each week, you’ll hear from real estate investors who have been there and done that, and find out their favorite technology tips.

Listen in as Jordan speaks with tech companies and learns about new technologies and new ideas that will help you scale your business. And now join your host, Jordan Samuel Fleming, CEO of SmrtPhone, for this week’s episode.

Hey everybody, and welcome to this week’s episode of That Real Estate Tech Guy. I’m your host, Jordan Samuel Fleming, and I’m really, really happy about this episode. I’m genuinely pleased to have met Sam. Our guest today is Sam Wingard. He’s built an entrepreneurial life with multiple businesses, and he’s focused right now on co-living, basically converting houses so that seven, eight, nine, ten people can live in them.

It’s a really fascinating conversation. Co-living is something I’m familiar with because I’ve lived in Europe for a lot of years, and it’s relatively common over here. But I know it’s not hugely common in the U.S., and I suspect it’s going to become more common, especially as we talk about the affordable housing crisis in the U.S.

How do we solve that without huge amounts of new inventory? Co-living is one answer. We also talk about why co-living is more accepted in certain cities and states compared to Airbnb. Co-living has long-term tenants and creates affordable housing, and that can be a better option in cities that are cracking down on short-term rentals. Sam also talks about his turnkey solution, and how he can create new exit opportunities and strategies for people who are finding their market a bit weirder than it used to be.

Some exit strategies that worked before maybe aren’t working now. Co-living, and Sam’s structure, is an option that’s fantastic to explore. It’s a different kind of exit strategy than most people think about in a traditional sense, but Sam is clearly switched on. Great guy, really fun conversation, and a great opportunity for you to look at exit strategies in your local market and see if this fits for you.

So let’s dive right into the conversation with Sam.

Okay, and we’re live with Sam. Sam, thank you so much for joining us today. Can you give us a little background on you? You’re a very accomplished entrepreneur. Give us a bit about where you started and where you are now.

Jordan, thanks for the opportunity to be on. I’m super pumped to be here. It’s so cool that we’re halfway across the world and yet we’re chatting today.

My entrepreneurial journey started in martial arts. My mom put me in martial arts when I was really young. I was homeschooled, and she wanted me to have more confidence and discipline. I found that if I dove into business instead of getting a W-2 job, it would be my way of being successful, proving to the world that I could be somebody.

Long story as short as I can make it, I bought a martial arts school when I was 16 years old. My instructor and I bought this small commercial martial arts school, and my parents loaned me some money to buy it. I scaled what I built, and about two years ago I exited a chain of martial arts schools that I had built across a couple of states on the East Coast of the United States.

During that time, I had also been investing in real estate. Thankfully, because when I sold my business, I took some of that cash and invested it in real estate. I was testing different asset classes. Do I want to do Airbnb? Commercial? Wholesale properties? Strip centers? Warehouses? I had friends who wanted to do warehouses.

I landed on a model that we’ll talk about today. It’s new and up-and-coming, at least in the States. It’s called co-living, where you take a single-family residential home and convert it to as many bedrooms as possible. For us, sometimes that’s nine, ten, or even eleven bedrooms, which might sound crazy, but we can get into that. You rent it by the room. Most people will say, “That’s just packing people into homes, there’s no way that’s a good living environment.” But if you do it right, and these homes have real community, it can be one of the highest cash-flowing asset classes in real estate today.

That’s what I’m doing right now. We run a community that has thousands of rooms. My wife and I personally own several hundred rooms.

That’s fantastic. Co-living is fun. And we talked a little before we started about how this isn’t new in other parts of the world. I’ve lived in Europe for 27 years, and that model isn’t unusual to me. Especially when you’re younger, or you’ve just finished college and you’re getting a job, the chances of affording your own place in a big city can be really low.

When I first moved to Scotland, to Edinburgh, one of the first places I looked at was a big house owned by an old guy, and he rented out six rooms. I didn’t end up going there because I found a one-bedroom apartment I could afford, but it’s a totally reasonable model from my perspective.

Tell me a little bit. We’ve seen a lot of people do the Airbnb thing over the last few years. There’s been a huge short-term rental focus. This is a different model. What’s the impetus to go toward this? Why do you think this is important for the next few years?

Jordan, I think it’s based on the math. In America tonight there will be 600,000 people homeless. I’m not saying all of that is because of housing costs. There are mental health issues, and if you pull back the layers there’s more there, but a lot of it is economically driven.

You have people making between $15 and $25 an hour. In every major city there are hundreds of thousands of people in that working-class demographic. Think about everyone who serves you at Target, fast food restaurants, Amazon distribution centers, the tens of thousands of employees who work at an airport in a major city.

Now do some basic math. What does a studio apartment cost in a major city? In Charlotte, for example, it’s close to $1,500 in a decent area, plus utilities. That’s around $18,000 a year, plus utilities, so call it $20,000 a year. Economically, the math doesn’t work for a lot of people. There has to be a cheaper option.

That cheaper option doesn’t exist except for investors like me who are inventing a new price point. I can put a room on the market that includes all utilities. Yes, you share common space and a kitchen, but I can price it at about half the cost of a studio apartment. I’m undercutting the cheapest thing in the city by a significant margin.

Some of it is lifestyle-driven too. I had one housemate who made almost $100,000 a year. He paid about $700 a month. He could afford more, but he was sending money home to his family. He didn’t mind.

There’s also a social element. There’s a lot of isolation right now. When I was 25 and doing my post-grad, of course I lived with people. If you live with decent people, you’ve got a built-in social environment. When you’ve had a bad day, you can go home and talk to someone. If you work from home, it might be your only social interaction.

We also have an older population, 50 to 55-plus. People get divorced, kids move out, someone is on Social Security, and they’re willing to sacrifice some space for community and affordability. They can live for $800 a month and still have money left to actually live their life.

In some ways, it’s a beautiful thing. And if you do it correctly, you can really bring people together. The U.S. Surgeon General has talked about social isolation and loneliness. It’s a real problem.

Europe has done a better job of community, in my opinion. It’s different because the U.S. has a huge drive for homeownership. In parts of Europe, like Germany, the assumption is often renting, and there’s more community living.

I think there’s real power in this business model. The housing market is weird in a lot of places in the U.S., and people need different cash-flow opportunities now than they did before. So co-living may be a new exit strategy for investors who used to focus on Airbnb.

Why would co-living be a better outcome than Airbnb?

Airbnb has had a great run. In the States, COVID made it pop even more. Airbnb was sexy. You could cash flow a $2 million house in the mountains with low money down, and it was fun.

But here’s the question every investor should ask: what do you believe is going to happen in the next five to ten years? I’m placing my chips on the idea that affordable housing won’t be solved in the next five years.

Do you want to invest in something that’s wanted, or something that’s needed? Airbnb is wanted. But co-living is needed. It’s more stable and consistent.

Co-living can produce similar returns to Airbnb, sometimes greater, and it’s more consistent because you’re not running a hotel. People stay for a year or two years, sometimes much longer. We’ve had someone stay eight years. Imagine rent coming in for eight years from the same person.

You can also buy a nice home in a decent area, still get appreciation, and still cash flow strong. This doesn’t have to be in a rough area.

The hardest part is managing the homes and the systems, which is why I created a turnkey program. People come to me and say, “Sam, I get it, but I don’t want to find the deal, rehab it, and then manage eleven people.” So we created a network that can do it in many major U.S. cities. We help people do it A to Z, even if they live overseas.

And I hope wholesalers and fix-and-flippers start adopting this as a new exit strategy. If someone is a flipper in a major city and the price is right, I would put a contract on it even before they buy the property. It’s a massive exit strategy opportunity.

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Back to the show.

I think now is a great time for people to investigate exit strategy options. Exits were easy for the last few years, even the last decade. For a long time, you could mess up your fix-and-flip numbers and still make money. People got sloppy. That sloppiness disappears when things get tighter. Now is the time to look at exit strategies in your market and think about the inventory you want to buy and what strategies are really going to work.

Let me ask you about demographics. Are there specific things you look for or avoid? What’s the process for deciding the best areas?

Big picture: what city needs this most? Pretty much any major city or tier-two city. When we go into a smaller city, we’ll run test ads before buying a property to see if people respond, and at what price point.

Once you pick a city, what area? Three key things. First, commute distance to the employers we discussed. Second, find an area without an HOA. HOAs can shut you down fast. Third, does it fit the neighborhood? If you buy in a pristine neighborhood where nobody parks on the street, you’ll stick out, and neighbors will call the city. We aim for B neighborhoods, B-plus or B-minus, where a work truck and extra cars won’t be a big deal. Parking matters.

Those are the checkboxes. Demand in the city, good location, no HOA, fits the neighborhood, and parking.

In the UK, they cracked down on HMOs, houses in multiple occupation. Does that exist in the U.S.? Is it a concern?

It’s still somewhat the Wild West. Cities and states haven’t fully wrapped their head around it yet. Airbnb is being attacked viciously in many places, but with co-living, we’re seeing more openness. Some companies are lobbying for better regulations.

States like Colorado have taken a strong stance. The governor signed a law limiting local jurisdictions from regulating the number of unrelated people living in a home. Oregon did something similar, and the state of Washington has done similar things too. Some cities are still fighting it and taking people to court, but overall we’re seeing a lot of positive movement. Eventually there will be regulations, and we’re hoping they’re the right ones.

Co-living solves affordable housing with zero government subsidies. Cities are trying to increase density, reduce parking requirements, allow duplexes and triplexes on single-family lots. Co-living increases density without major new construction.

And you made a great point about neighbors. Airbnb is a constant stream of strangers and parties. Co-living is someone’s home. It puts housing back on the market, while Airbnb often takes it off the market.

Now, you mentioned a turnkey solution. How turnkey is it? How much can someone hand off?

Our turnkey service is A to Z. The investor needs to understand co-living at a high level and ultimately buy the property. We help with financing, lenders that understand co-living, and even capital raising if needed.

Our team sources properties in about eight or nine U.S. cities. We underwrite them, lay out where rooms and bathrooms will go, because every co-living property needs some conversion. We negotiate the deal. We have a negotiation tactic that often gets the seller to pay for the rehab. We send weekly updates and video walkthroughs. Then we furnish the common areas, install tech like smart thermostats, digital locks, Wi-Fi connectivity, cameras, and safety devices. We clean, get photos, list it, and then it goes into our management portfolio.

We’ve had people buy multiple homes with us and only visit a couple times. It’s designed to be hands-off.

Now, if I could give three big things in the buy box: location, size, and no HOA. After that, look for homes over 2,000 square feet, ideally 2,500+. Bathrooms matter. We aim for about three people per bathroom. Parking matters too. Our formula is about two-thirds as many parking spots as people.

Another factor is the flow of the house. Open-concept homes are harder to convert. Boxier homes from the 80s or 90s can be easier because rooms are already separated, and you can add walls and closets more naturally.

Wholesalers should take note. If you find something in this buy box, co-living investors will pay a premium. Some will even overpay if it’s a perfect fit because the economics are so strong. Flippers can convert homes to co-living specs and sell for a premium too, with some nuance around financing and keeping a living room visible.

This has been absolutely fascinating. With the affordable housing crisis and the weird market, people need different exit strategies. If listeners want to investigate, what’s the best way?

Probably hit me up on Instagram at @SamWingard. I do a free event once a month, a five-day challenge. It’s live, interactive, and I pull back the curtain on co-living, how to find deals, rehab, manage, everything. You can also register at ScaleYourRealEstate.com.

Absolutely. I’ll put that in the show notes. It’s been a pleasure to have you on, and I look forward to speaking in the future. Thanks so much, and have a great week.

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