The Big Long: How Going Big on an Outrageous Idea Transformed the Real Estate Industry

“This peek into (Wiel and Brien’s) story will fascinate entrepreneurs and investors alike.” —David Meerman Scott, WSJ bestselling author In 2008, with housing prices in free fall, even experienced investors wouldn’t touch the single-family rental (SFR) home market. It was too unmanageable, too hard to scale. According to the experts, SFR wasn’t even a real asset class. But Doug Brien and Colin Wiel looked at the homes of the Bay Area’s working class communities and saw something else. They saw an opportunity not just to build a profitable business, but to transform residential real estate, establish SFR as a legitimate institutional investment, and restore devastated neighborhoods. The Big Long is the story of how two friends defied pundits, doomsayers, and house-flippers to “go long” on a revolutionary business idea. Through FBI investigations, financial reversals, and a pandemic, they persevered to build the SFR industry’s pioneering company, Waypoint. The Big Long shows that wealth and success don’t come from short-sale thinking and meme stocks but from committing to a vision and going BIG.