Pace Morby: From Zero to Empire — Building Wealth and Freedom Through Creative Real Estate
What if you could build a real estate empire without ever qualifying for a bank loan or putting your own money at risk? That’s not a hypothetical — it’s exactly what Pace Morby has done. On this episode of The REI Agent podcast, Pace sat down with Mattias to break down how creative financing strategies transformed him from broke to controlling over 1,000 properties and $150 million in assets. He’s the founder of the SubTo community, host of an A&E television series, and author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Wealth Without Cash. His story is a masterclass in what’s possible when you understand the mechanics of creative real estate deals.
Pace’s approach to investing flies in the face of conventional wisdom. While most investors spend months improving their credit scores, saving for down payments, and building relationships with lenders, Pace bypasses all of that by structuring deals where the seller’s existing financing stays in place or the seller becomes the bank. It sounds too good to be true until you understand the mechanics — and then it makes perfect sense.
How Did Pace Morby Go From Zero to a Thousand Properties?
Pace’s origin story isn’t one of privilege or lucky timing. He grew up in Ogden, Utah, and his early career was in construction and contracting. He was doing physical work for modest pay, and the idea of building a real estate portfolio seemed about as realistic as going to the moon. He didn’t have capital, didn’t have credit, and didn’t have connections in the real estate world.
What he did have was relentless curiosity and a willingness to learn strategies that most investors either don’t know about or are afraid to try. Creative financing — specifically subject-to deals and seller financing — became his gateway into real estate because these strategies don’t require traditional bank qualification. They require negotiation skills, deal structuring knowledge, and the ability to solve problems for sellers.
Pace’s first deals were small, imperfect, and educational. He made mistakes — some of them significant — and he’s been open about sharing those failures as learning opportunities for his students. But each deal taught him something new about how to structure transactions, manage properties, and build systems that could scale. Within a few years, he went from zero properties to a portfolio that now includes over 1,000 doors and has crossed the $150 million mark in assets.
The compounding effect of creative deals is what makes the growth trajectory so dramatic. When you don’t need cash or credit to acquire properties, the only constraint on your growth is your ability to find and negotiate deals. Pace removed that constraint by building a community of thousands of investors who share deal opportunities, strategies, and support.
What Is Subject-To Investing and Why Does It Work?
Subject-to investing is the cornerstone of Pace’s strategy, and he explained it on the show with the kind of clarity that comes from having done thousands of these deals. A subject-to deal is one where the buyer acquires a property “subject to” the existing mortgage staying in place. The seller deeds the property to the buyer, but the seller’s loan remains on the property with the seller’s name on the mortgage.
This works because the buyer gets the property without needing a new loan. The buyer takes over the mortgage payments, and the seller gets relief from a property they no longer want to manage. It’s a win-win structure that solves real problems for motivated sellers — people going through divorce, job relocation, financial distress, or simply tired of being landlords.
The economics are compelling. When you take over a mortgage at a 3% or 4% interest rate that was locked in years ago, you’re acquiring financing that would be impossible to replicate in today’s market. The monthly payment is lower than what a new loan would cost, which means better cash flow from day one. And because you didn’t need to bring a down payment or qualify with a bank, your out-of-pocket cost to acquire the property is minimal.
Pace was quick to point out that subject-to investing isn’t without risk. The due-on-sale clause in most mortgages technically gives the lender the right to call the loan due when ownership transfers. In practice, Pace explained, this rarely happens because lenders care about receiving their payments, not who owns the property. But understanding and managing this risk is critical, and it’s one of the things he teaches extensively in his SubTo community.
What Role Does Seller Financing Play in Building Wealth?
Beyond subject-to deals, seller financing represents the other major pillar of Pace’s creative acquisition strategy. In a seller-financed deal, the property owner agrees to act as the bank, allowing the buyer to make payments directly to the seller over time rather than getting a traditional bank loan.
Seller financing opens up an entirely different category of deals. Many property owners — especially those who own properties free and clear — are happy to sell with seller financing because it provides them a stream of income, often at a higher interest rate than they’d earn from a savings account or CD. For the buyer, seller financing means no bank qualification, flexible terms, and often lower closing costs.
Pace structures these deals in ways that create value for both parties. He might offer a seller above-market purchase price in exchange for favorable financing terms — low interest rate, long amortization, no prepayment penalty. The seller gets a premium price and reliable income. The buyer gets a property that cash flows from day one without tying up capital.
The real power of seller financing, Pace explained, is that it allows you to engineer deals that simply don’t exist in the traditional market. You can negotiate payment structures that match your investment strategy — interest-only periods, balloon payments, graduated payments, or any combination that makes the numbers work. When you’re the one structuring the financing, you have creative control that traditional borrowers never have.
How Did Pace Build the SubTo Community?
One of Pace’s most significant contributions to the real estate investing world is the SubTo community, which has grown to include over 3,500 students who are actively doing creative financing deals across the country. The community model reflects Pace’s belief that real estate investing doesn’t have to be a solo endeavor.
SubTo started as an educational platform where Pace taught the specific mechanics of creative deals — how to find motivated sellers, how to negotiate subject-to and seller financing terms, how to structure the legal paperwork, and how to manage properties acquired through creative methods. But it quickly evolved into something more: a deal-sharing network where members collaborate on transactions, share leads, and partner on deals that would be too large for any individual member.
The community aspect is what separates SubTo from typical real estate courses. Instead of consuming content in isolation and trying to figure things out alone, members have access to a network of practitioners who are actively closing deals and willing to share their experiences. Deal flow within the community creates opportunities that individual investors would never find on their own.
Pace’s education philosophy is grounded in implementation. He’s less interested in teaching theory and more interested in getting students into deals quickly. The courses are structured around action steps rather than passive learning, and the community provides accountability and support that keeps people moving forward when the inevitable obstacles arise.
What Can Investors Learn From Pace’s Biggest Mistakes?
One of the things that makes Pace’s teaching so effective is his willingness to share his failures alongside his successes. He talked openly on the show about deals that went wrong, systems that broke, and decisions he would make differently if he could go back.
His biggest mistakes, he noted, weren’t about individual deals going bad. They were about scaling too fast without adequate systems and team. When you’re doing creative deals at volume, the operational complexity increases exponentially. Managing subject-to mortgages requires tracking payments on loans in the seller’s name, maintaining insurance, and monitoring property performance — all across hundreds of properties simultaneously.
Pace learned through painful experience that the skills that get you to 10 properties are completely different from the skills that get you to 100 or 1,000. At smaller scale, you can manage everything personally. At larger scale, you need technology, processes, and people who can execute consistently without your direct involvement. Building that infrastructure while continuing to acquire properties is one of the hardest transitions in real estate, and Pace was transparent about the growing pains involved.
The takeaway for listeners was clear: start building systems from day one, even when you think you don’t need them. The habits and structures you put in place with your first few deals will determine how smoothly — or how painfully — you scale beyond them.
About Pace Morby
Pace Morby is a real estate investor, educator, and entrepreneur who has built a portfolio of over 1,000 properties valued at more than $150 million using creative financing strategies. He is the founder of the SubTo community, which has trained over 3,500 students in subject-to and seller financing techniques. Pace is the host of the A&E television series Triple Digit Flip and author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Wealth Without Cash. He also hosts the Get Creative with Pace Morby podcast.
Find Pace online:
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Subject-To Deal Structuring
- Seller Financing Fundamentals
- SubTo Community and Education
- Wealth Without Cash by Pace Morby
- Due-on-Sale Clause Risk Management
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