He Bought 80 Condos During COVID and Here's What Happened

Join an active community of RE investors here: WELCOME TO THE REAL ESTATE INVESTING CLUB 🏡 Host Gabriel Petersen sits down with Yuval Golan, co-founder of GetWaltz.com, for one of the most globally expansive real estate conversations the show has ever featured. Yuval has invested on multiple continents — from China to Greece to Brooklyn — and built a strategy centered on passive income and long-term financial freedom. Whether you are a seasoned investor or just getting started, this episode delivers real, actionable insights on finding deals, selecting markets, underwriting properties, and using technology to build wealth through real estate. 🌍 HOW ONE INVESTOR SPOTTED A ONCE-IN-A-GENERATION OPPORTUNITY 📈 When COVID-19 hit, most investors froze. Yuval did the opposite. After leaving China in December 2019, he immediately recognized that a global shutdown of construction materials and labor would create a severe housing shortage and a historic buying window. He traveled to seven countries, ultimately buying Brooklyn condos at peak COVID and a hotel in Greece, proving that bold, contrarian real estate investing remains one of the most powerful paths to building long-term passive wealth. 💰 WHAT SMART REAL ESTATE INVESTORS LOOK FOR IN A MARKET 🔍 Yuval shares the exact criteria he uses to evaluate every real estate deal. He targets properties at least 15 to 20 percent below market, seeks high-median-income areas with 70 to 80 percent owner-occupancy, keeps vacancy rates under 10 percent, and sticks to post-1980 construction. He also studies FRED historical appreciation data to avoid markets that have dramatically outpaced national averages and are primed for a correction. This disciplined approach to real estate is precisely what separates those who build generational wealth from those who simply get lucky. 🔑 THE BEST STATES FOR REAL ESTATE INVESTORS RIGHT NOW 🗺️ Yuval is unambiguous about where he puts his money: Florida, Texas, Georgia, and Arizona. These landlord-friendly states protect your investment and give you legal recourse when tenants stop paying. He shares a cautionary story about a publicly traded tenant that used Greece's slow courts to avoid leaving his hotel property, causing major financial damage and reminding every real estate investor that understanding local landlord rights before closing a deal is not optional — it is essential to protecting your cash flow and your returns. 🚫 HOW AI IS REVOLUTIONIZING REAL ESTATE INVESTING 🤖 Yuval founded Waltz, a fintech platform that works like the Amazon checkout experience for real estate investment. Waltz uses AI agents to handle identity verification, LLC formation, business banking, insurance, and mortgage financing all in one streamlined workflow, closing deals in as few as 14 days at competitive lending rates. For any investor who has watched a deal fall apart because of paperwork delays, GetWaltz.com is exactly the innovation that makes scaling a real estate portfolio faster and far less painful. 🏦 Want to learn more about our guest? Connect here: Want to learn more about the REI Club Podcast, how to invest with Gabe at Kaizen, or join our community of active real estate investors on Skool? Visit the podcast website at or click here: Send us Fan Mail Join the Online Community here: Support the show

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He Bought 80 Condos During COVID and Here's What Happened is an episode from The Real Estate Investing Club by Gabe Petersen.

This episode is 29:28 long.

This episode was published on Mar 5, 2026.

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