Why Real Estate is the Most Underrated Form of Leverage

For building wealth and not trading time for money

Welcome to Unfollow the Herd, the newsletter teaching 5K+ readers how to build wealth with real estate and blue-collar businesses.

If you’ve spent any time in the world of business or entrepreneurship, you’ve probably heard Naval Ravikant talk about leverage.

“Fortunes require leverage. Business leverage comes from capital, people, code, and media. Capital means money. People means labor. Code and media are permissionless leverage. They’re the leverage behind the newly rich. You can create software and media that works for you while you sleep.”
— Naval Ravikant

He talks about four modern types of leverage:

1. Labor – having people work for you

2. Capital – using money to make more money

3. Code – writing software that scales

4. Media – creating content that works while you sleep

I love this framework. It’s clean, it’s true, and it explains why some people build wealth way faster than others.

But if you come from where I come from—a trailer park in North Dakota, pouring concrete to building a $60M real estate portfolio—code and media weren’t exactly on my radar.

What I didn’t realize at the time is that I was learning a different kind of leverage.

One that Naval doesn’t talk about as often.

Real estate.

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Real Estate is Leverage Hiding in Plain Sight

When most people hear "leverage," they think of tech founders and hedge fund managers. I thought of wheelbarrows and backhoes.

But here’s the truth:

Real estate is the most practical, accessible, and real-world form of leverage available to people who don’t come from money.

It’s how I went from:

• Dropping out of college w/ 12 credits left

• Busting my ass pouring concrete

• To building a $25M/year construction business and owning $60M in real estate by age 36

Not because I’m special or smart.

But because I stopped trading time for money—and started using leverage that worked while I slept.

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Let’s Break This Down

When you buy real estate, you’re using multiple types of leverage at once:

1. Other People’s Money (Capital Leverage)

You put 20% down. The bank gives you the other 80%.

They give you a 30-year loan at a fixed interest rate. And they do it happily—because they want you to buy that property.

Try asking your bank to give you 80% of a stock portfolio. Or a business idea.

They won’t.

But with real estate, they will.

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2. Other People’s Time (Labor Leverage)

When I started building MAK Construction, I did everything myself.

Now?

I have property managers handling tenants, contractors handling renovations, bookkeepers handling the books, and a team of people who are bought into the MAK vision in construction, development, capital raising, and investing.

My job is to make smart decisions, not do everything myself.

That’s leverage.

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3. Forced Appreciation (Operational Leverage)

This is the magic most people miss.

When I buy a value-add property, I’m not just waiting for the market to go up.

I’m making it go up.

• Raise rents

• Lower expenses

• Improve the property’s value

• Find better tenants

• Create better systems.

That increases net operating income (NOI). And when NOI goes up, the property becomes worth more—sometimes a lot more.

I’ve increased the value of buildings by $500K+ in under a year just by doing this.

You can’t force a stock to go up.
But you can force a building to.

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4. Monthly Cash Flow + Loan Paydown

Every month, my tenants pay rent.

That rent covers:

• Property expenses

• Mortgage interest and principal

• Building equity in my properties

• Funding overhead while appreciation rises

All without me trading all of my hours for more income, equity, and leverage to fund my next deal and the one after that.

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Real Estate vs Other Forms of Leverage

Look—I’m not here to bash the other types of leverage.

Code is incredible.
Media is insanely scalable.
Capital can compound fast.

But let’s be honest:

• Not everyone wants to build an app

• Not everyone wants to become a content creator

• Not everyone wants to manage a team of employees

Real estate?

It’s real. It’s physical. It’s backed by fundamentals.

And if you’re willing to do the work, the upside is massive.

You don’t need a huge following.
You don’t need to be a genius.

You just need to start.

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What This Looked Like for Me

I bought my first commercial property by accident. MAK Construction needed a new office and I decided to own the building instead of rent it.

It wasn’t pretty.
It wasn’t perfect.
But it worked.

That first deal gave me confidence.

So I did another. And another.

Today, my properties:

• Appreciate each year

• Produce consistent monthly cash flow

• Pay down my debt principal and interest

• And continue to grow in value while I sleep

That’s real leverage.

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Final Thoughts

Most people never build real wealth because they never use real leverage.

They keep trading time for money.
They keep hoping the market goes up.
They play small because they’re afraid of risk.

But I’m here to tell you:

Real estate is the most overlooked, most practical form of leverage there is.

It’s what I used to change my life.

And it’s what you can use to change yours.

You don’t need to go viral.
You don’t need to write code.
You don’t need a degree or a $250,000 salary.

You just need to think like an owner, investor, and builder.
And take the first step.

Because once you understand how leverage works—you’ll never look at a paycheck the same way again.

Unfollow the herd.

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That’s all for today. Drop your questions in the comments!

Marc Kuhn,
CEO at MAK Capital

P.S. If you want to learn how accredited investors build passive wealth with multifamily & luxury storage real estate — check out our projects and reach out here to learn more.