Real Estate Pros · November 12, 2025 · 17 min listen

From Bankruptcy & 380 Credit Score to Real Estate Comeback | Reike Plecas in Des Moines

With Reike Plecas

Show summary

In this conversation, Reike Plecas shares his journey from a flight attendant to a successful mortgage broker and real estate investor in Iowa. He discusses his early experiences in real estate, the challenges of balancing multiple businesses, and the lessons learned from personal hardships, including bankruptcy and family loss. Reike emphasizes the importance of resilience, community support, and the intersection of his work in collections and mortgages, ultimately highlighting his commitment to helping others achieve their dreams.

Key takeaways

Buy direct and skip wholesalers if you understand the market: Reike drove by properties, spotted distressed ones himself, and made offers directly to owners rather than going through wholesalers.
His first deal in 1993 cost $17,000, needed a $54,000 rehab loan from his mother after a fire, rented at a loss for 5 years, then at $2,000/month for 10 years total, and eventually sold for $188,000.
Stop hiring friends and family for rehabs or property management; after being taken advantage of by people he knew, he switched to finding skilled tradespeople, including ex-convicts, through Facebook Marketplace.
Cross-sell adjacent businesses: he used collection-agency mailers ('paid off? need a mortgage now?') to generate mortgage leads, which he routed to his loan officer team to avoid conflicts of interest.
A Chapter 13 bankruptcy filed to stop foreclosure after an estate was mismanaged dropped his credit score from 800 to 380; one year after discharge he rebuilt it to 685 using the same credit/collections principles he applied professionally.
Set a clear return target on rentals: he aimed for roughly a three-year return on investment through rent before considering a hold a success.
Diversify income while investing: he ran real estate alongside a 90-110 hour per week schedule across collections agencies and mortgage lending, plus later nonprofit consulting work for reentry housing programs.

In this episode

About Reike Plecas

Reike Plecas is a mortgage broker and residential real estate investor based in Iowa, with properties including in the Riverbend Sixth Avenue corridor of Northern Des Moines. He previously worked as a flight attendant and co-owned three collection agencies, and has consulted for nonprofits doing transitional housing and reentry work for formerly incarcerated men in Jacksonville, Florida and Chicago. He survived a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, a 380 credit score, the deaths of his mother, father and brother within six months of each other, and a brain surgery in May 2025, and is now hired by investors to turn around distressed properties.

Listen to the audio

“My credit score had gone from an 800 to about a 380. I'm now back on the uphill swing at about a 685 a year after discharge. And next year I'll be sitting at about a 770 applying the same principles.”
Reike Plecas

“I may be fat but I'm not lazy. Well now I've lost 176 pounds over the last three, four years. I'm not fat and I'm still not lazy.”
Reike Plecas

“I kind of applied a biblical principle that I am a king's kid and that I own everything on the side of the hill, including cattle. And so I would set out to buy that property and I would make an offer that they wouldn't refuse unless they just wanted to die in that property.”
Reike Plecas

Des Moines, Iowamortgage brokeringdistressed property rehabChapter 13 bankruptcycredit repaircollections industrybuy and hold rentalsnonprofit reentry housing

Questions answered in this episode

How did Reike Plecas get started in real estate investing?

He bought his first property in 1993 for $17,000, which then caught fire. His mother loaned him $54,000 to rehab it, and he rented it at a loss for about five years before raising rent to $2,000/month and holding it for ten years total. He eventually sold it for $188,000, paid back his mother, and used the profit to buy more distressed single-family homes.

Did Reike Plecas use wholesalers to find deals?

No. He said he never worked with a wholesaler because he already understood the wholesale side of the mortgage industry (prime and subprime) and wanted to cut out the middleman. Instead he drove by properties himself, spotted ones he considered a 'diamond in the rough,' and made direct offers to owners.

How did he find reliable contractors for rehabs?

He initially hired people he knew personally, but they took advantage of him, so he stopped hiring acquaintances. He then turned to Facebook Marketplace to find ex-convicts who had trade skills like tile work, framing, and roofing, and gave them steady work rehabbing his properties.

How did his collections and mortgage businesses feed his real estate investing?

He and his ex-wife owned three collection agencies, and he worked in residential lending. He sent mailers with collection-paid-off notices asking 'Need a mortgage now?' which generated mortgage leads; those leads were handed to his loan officer team (not written by him directly, to avoid conflict of interest) and the resulting income and industry knowledge funded his acquisition of distressed single-family homes, a duplex, and a 10-unit property.

What happened to his credit and finances after his family's deaths?

After his mother, father, and brother died within six months of each other, a third-party estate executor mismanaged and allegedly embezzled the estate and turned his brother's children against him, stripping the family business. To save his properties from foreclosure, he filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy, which dropped his credit score from 800 to about 380. A year after discharge he rebuilt it to about 685 and expects around 770 the following year.

What is Reike Plecas doing now?

After a brain surgery in May 2025, he has been headhunted by investors to turn around their distressed properties while still managing his own real estate portfolio. He also mentioned giving away 1,000 toys at Christmas to kids across 230 doors in a multi-language community with an investment partner.

Resources and links

Full transcript

Reike Plecas (00:00)

My credit score had gone from an 800 to about a 380. I’m now back on the uphill swing at about a 685 a year after discharge. And next year I’ll be sitting at about a 770 applying the same principles. And people were like,

Reike you have gone through hell. And then to throw another loop at me, I had a brain surgery in May this year, May of 2025. And I’ve been headhunted by investors to turn their distressed properties around for them.

Dylan Silver (02:04)

Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest, Reike Plecas is a mortgage broker and residential investor in Iowa, including in the historic Riverbend Sixth Avenue corridor of Northern Des Moines. Reike, welcome to the show.

Reike Plecas (02:21)

Thank you, thank you very much. Glad to be here.

Dylan Silver (02:24)

It’s great to have you on here. We chat quite a bit before hopping on here and we’re talking about a number of different topics and you’ve got really a diverse range of experience in addition to real estate. You are a flight attendant. You also own several companies. Before we dive into everything that you got going on in Des Moines, I want to ask you how you got into real estate.

Reike Plecas (02:48)

You know, my mother used to work in the medical industry, the financial side of it, and she always dabbled in commercial real estate herself. And so I guess it’s kind of in my blood. And so I bought my first ⁓ POS, basically. We’re going to keep it kind.

for $17,000 in 1993. And I put $35,000 into it and boom, it caught fire. And so my mother loaned me $54,000 to rehab it. And it’s when the market kind of went to the pot. And so I rented it out at a great loss for about five years. And then…

I got rid of that tenant because of unforeseen circumstances in her life. And I rented out again at two grand a month. So I did that for like 10 years. And then I sold it. Sold it for $188. So I made sure that I made back my investment and paid my mother back the mortgage loan that she created. And then I sold it at a great profit. I bought another one.

And so I just started buying up distressed single-family homes and applying what I knew in the mortgage industry. And I used to be in the third party arena called collection agencies. We made a finer term called we work in accounting. But my ex-wife and I used to own three collection agencies. And so I applied what I knew from credit and collections and the banking mortgage industry to put together a model.

that made sense to create a very lucrative business model and platform for myself but also leave it as a legacy for my two children.

Dylan Silver (05:23)

I want to ask you about that first property that you got into. Were you at that point in time doing real estate full time? Did you have the collections agencies? What was your day to day like at that

Reike Plecas (05:35)

It was the collection industry and residential lending.

Dylan Silver (05:39)

Okay, so you were ⁓ focused in two different spaces. The lending space, you’re ⁓ giving people their money to buy properties, and the other space you might be chasing people down for what they did not pay someone else. At that point when you were acquiring these properties, they were single-family homes, I’m assuming.

⁓ Were you spending a lot of time looking on market, off market, with wholesalers? you calling distressed leads yourself?

Reike Plecas (06:08)

I did not work with a wholesaler at all. I knew the wholesale side of the industry being in the mortgage brokerage arena ⁓ on prime and subprime. And I just wanted to cut out any middleman. And I had dabbled with getting my real estate license at that time, but I just had too much on my plate. And so I would drive by a property, look at it, and…

see a diamond in the rough and say, I’m going to buy that property. And ⁓ I kind of applied a biblical principle that I am a king’s kid and that I own everything on the side of the hill, including cattle. And so I would set out to buy that property and I would make an offer that they wouldn’t refuse unless they just wanted to die in that property.

And so that’s how I bought them. And then I rehabbed them. I made sure that I had a three year return on investment through renting it out. And that’s how I got into it. And then from there I bought a 10plex, I bought a duplex. And I just kind of followed what my mom did in creating a book of business for myself while working a 40 hour, 90 to 110 hour a week career.

Dylan Silver (07:05)

Yeah.

I want to ask you specifically about balancing that. That’s not an easy feat and it deters a lot of people, right? So you’re talking about multiple single family properties as well as small multi-family and having to deal with the tenants and the potential churn, all the issues that come with with renting these deals out. While you were still very much ⁓ focused on two other businesses, what was the

day to day like and were there times where it was overwhelming? How did you manage the properties while also being involved in two other businesses?

Reike Plecas (07:57)

I never rented to a friend, a family member, or an acquaintance. Just wasn’t gonna work. In the collection arena, always, my mother raised us saying you get more with honey than you do vinegar. So I trained my staff that they would apply the same principle. So that if you had a $8,000 medical bill.

You work with that person with arrangements and you review those arrangements every six months and you increase them by eight to 10 % each year. And then I decided, God, I’m also in banking. I’m gonna send out a mailer with every collection done notice saying, need a mortgage now? Let us show you how.

And so people started contacting me in the mortgage arena. And ⁓ at that time I was straight commission and I just started writing loans like this in the subprime market. And so I started dealing with ⁓ real estate agents that I knew. And then I was like, God, if I could do this in the mortgage side and the collection side, then I’m going to do this for myself. And so I really started hopping in.

Dylan Silver (08:51)

Hmm.

Reike Plecas (09:05)

full-fledged finding those distressed properties that I wanted to get acquire and rehab and I made some mistakes I hired people I knew to do the rehab and they saw the big picture and they took advantage of me so I stopped hiring people that I knew and ⁓ I turned to Facebook marketplace thank you Zuckerberg and and looking for

And I’ll just tell you, ex-cons that knew how to make their own trade, they just knew how to make a hustle. And so if they knew how to lay tile, if they knew how to sling a two by four and do framing, if they knew how to reroof a house, I hired them. They deserved to make a living. They were, I could judge them whether or not they were doing well or not because I had already done this and I had seen ⁓ new startups, new frame ups being in the mortgage side, working with builders and such.

that I was applying the same principle.

And so I was actually able to start working with ex-cons and help supply them a really good living in doing so. And then, thrown another towel, I had a pastor who…

served at the Penn and we’re not talking about the White House. However, he did come to work for the White House. He hired me as a consultant for a nonprofit in Jacksonville, Florida to raise money and raise goods to create a transitional living quarters for men coming out of incarceration. So ⁓ I worked with, it was called Noah’s Ark in ⁓ Jacksonville, Florida.

Dylan Silver (11:11)

you

Reike Plecas (11:16)

contacting businesses, local philanthropists, and colleges to create this, ⁓ I think they were 28 beds at the time, Transnational Living Quarter. And then I was hired in Chicago for the same type of thing. It was called Project Hood, helping others obtain destiny. And so my mind shift was changed from the collection arena.

to helping nonprofits ⁓ with their startup and their philanthropy, their fundraising. Then I was headhunted by Ben Carson for president. And so I was like, man, why am I doing a nine to five, nine to midnight career?

Dylan Silver (12:00)

Yeah.

Reike Plecas (12:01)

and start working in my own book of business and working for nonprofits. And so I was going through a divorce and my mindset was shifted from helping you make money to me making money to them making money in the nonprofit industry. And so that’s when I said I could do this for myself. And then a couple of years back,

Unfortunately, my mother, my father, my brother all passed away within six months of each other. And I was thrown this book of business and my brother’s children, his ⁓ children, my nephews, they’re his children, his ⁓ offspring, they didn’t want to work in the industry. They didn’t want me to manage the industry. So I said, okay, I wash my hands of it. They… ⁓

We hired a third party estate ⁓ executor and we were taken advantage of greatly and he turned my brother’s kids against me and what was a great empire for the middle class was stripped from all three of us. ⁓

I was thrown a bone and I didn’t know what to do and so I had to apply my day to day principles from the collection industry, from the banking industry, from real estate and how to save what was left for myself and for my children. And so I had to file chapter 13 bankruptcy to get an automatic stay in place because he had squandered my mother’s estate, he had mismanaged or you can say embezzled ⁓ that estate and ⁓

I had to save my properties from foreclosure with a bankruptcy. And so I did that. And so now five years later to throw me into today, I qualified for a loan to pay off that bankruptcy, get it discharged.

And I just thank God every day for grace and for trust for some really great investors that have seen the big picture that they are allowing me to turn their properties around.

Dylan Silver (14:44)

I want to ask you about something you mentioned when you were talking about the intersection between collections and mortgage. ⁓ You had mentioned when people had paid off their collections, sending out mailers. Were you then providing them mortgages after basically they were leads? Is that accurate?

Reike Plecas (15:47)

they were leads, I didn’t write their mortgages, my team did, because that was a conflict of interest for me. So I handed those mortgages off to my team, and of course, when I met quota, I made more money. And ⁓ I had divulged the information to ⁓ the bank that I was working for, and I wrote ⁓ basically a non-disclosure with them that I…

Dylan Silver (15:52)

out. Okay.

Reike Plecas (16:15)

would not write underwrite, not influence. ⁓

those decision making skills. It was all based off of my mortgage originators. And they had to work. They had to tell people, look, once we get you this mortgage loan, do not go out and buy a new car before we close. Don’t buy all new furniture before we close. And it was really a mind shift that I was actually written up in the Des Moines business record years and years ago. I want to say.

1995, the ⁓ collection agent who’s educating consumers to par down debt. And so I had to educate my mortgage originators in that mindset that not only are we helping them par down debt, we’re helping them get into the American dream to get into a home, get into their first investment property. And so ⁓ I got a lot of kudos for that. And ⁓ I’ve just enjoyed it.

so much that this is where I am and I applied the principles of my grandparents, my immigrant grandparents, that I’m kind of like a farmer. I put my hands to the plow and I just don’t look back. And I dealt with morbid obesity my entire life and I always used to have this motto, I may be fat but I’m not lazy. Well now I’ve lost 176 pounds over the last three, four years. I’m not fat and I’m still not lazy. So I just, whatever I put my mindset to, I’m gonna make sure that I achieve it.

Dylan Silver (17:44)

It’s an incredible story. know, there’s so much to unpack there. ⁓ You know, I am actually very intrigued on that intersection between the distressed credit, right? And then on the rebound. And then also you’ve experienced it yourself. So it’s interesting. It almost came full circle in a way. We are coming up on time here though. Where can folks go to learn more about what you’ve got going on in Des Moines or reach out to you? How can folks get in contact with you?

Reike Plecas (18:14)

I am found on LinkedIn. There’s actually two LinkedIn pages for Reike, R-E-I-K-E, Plecas. One is from my flight attendant career. The other one is from my real estate portfolio. One of my biggest things that was really a good five star behind my name was last year, the investment group that I worked for, I afforded an opportunity to 230 doors that my partner and I were able

to give away a thousand toys at Christmas to international kids. There was 11 different languages to focus that property. So if they go to my right plecus LinkedIn page for real estate, they’ll see a news clip from the local news stations that we were the dynamic duo giving away toys at Christmas. And I just love whatever I put my hand to and I want to make sure that it comes to fruition.

Dylan Silver (19:02)

Reike, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.

Reike Plecas (19:06)

Thank you, I appreciate it.