Firefighter used $10,000 truck loan to start a real estate portfolio that let him quit the job

Mike Savage, a former South Carolina firefighter and EMT, bought his first rental property using a $10,000 loan against his truck, eventually building a real estate portfolio and a business, SynergyStays, that let him leave the fire department, according to Business Insider.

Savage and his wife, a teacher, started with limited savings but bought their first home in Massachusetts in 2010 using a USDA rural housing loan requiring no down payment, plus an $8,000 first-time homebuyer credit available during the housing crisis. After relocating to Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, for work, they converted that Massachusetts home into a rental and bought a new primary residence.

Worried that their combined incomes wouldn't cover their children's education, retirement savings and the life they wanted, the couple turned to rental real estate; Savage used the $10,000 truck loan to help finance a $49,000, three-bedroom investment property in Charleston, South Carolina.