Cruz recently purchased an 8,200-square-foot home in the quiet Belle Meade neighborhood for nearly $18 million. His new four-story waterfront mansion includes a dock for his 100-foot, $5 million yacht and 14-car garage to store his McLaren, Lamborghini, and three Rolls-Royces.
Not to be confused with his phonetic doppelganger Tom Cruise of Top Gun fame, Cruz says he has amassed a fortune by renting to low-income tenants who are subsidized by Section 8 vouchers through the federal government. After finding a winning formula, he says, his portfolio has expanded to 700 properties, the majority of which are Section 8 housing spanning four states — North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, and Tennessee.
Cruz, who made the move from North Carolina, has amassed 1.2 million followers by sharing advice on how to make it big in the Section 8 housing market and providing glimpses of his luxurious lifestyle. His unapologetic approach to being a landlord has elevated his social media persona, which he uses to further market his brand and Section 8 coaching. He unsparingly talks about evicting "garbage tenants."
"Guys, we are buying in the Midwest and the Southeast. Out here, if you evict a tenant, it takes three weeks, between $150 and $200 in court fees to get them out. The sheriff goes over there, forcibly kicks them out to the street. Change the lock, and you never have to worry about the clowns again," he boasts in one video.
After a user asked if he has ever evicted a single mother from his properties, Cruz proclaimed in an August video, "Oh yes, on multiple occasions. Guys, there is no one is protected in my portfolio — the elderly, the disabled, the single moms." If he were to go easy on tenants and word spread about it, he claimed, his business would be in trouble.
He went on to share how he evicted "Miss Carla" from one of his properties three months prior. He claimed she was two months behind on rent and stopped responding to his property manager's requests that she vacate the unit and accept a refund of her security deposit.
"We sent her an eviction notice. Three weeks later, $200 in legal fees, and she is out on her ass with an eviction on her record," he said.
@tcruznc Replying to @Kendrick Murphy Single moms arent safe either. #cashflow #investor #realestateinvestor #invest ♬ original sound - Tom Cruz
Cruz made headlines in 2021 for a viral video about his friend group's "Forbes Friends List" that ranks each of them by their income.
"From Shawn, my top earning friend who makes $5 million, to who we call 'Broke Bobby,' who makes $125,000," Cruz said in the video.
Despite his sometimes ruthless comments, the influencer started "F Evictions Fridays," a recurring TikTok segment wherein he invites struggling tenants to share their story (and follow him on social media) in exchange for ponying up rental payments to help them stave off eviction.
New Times chatted with Cruz to learn more about his Section 8 housing business, his growing popularity on TikTok, and the infamous "Forbes Friends List." He said he moved down to Miami to try something new after spending much of his life in North Carolina but currently has no plans to expand his business to South Florida.
The conversation below has been edited for length and clarity.
New Times: How did you get started in the real estate business?
Tom Cruz: I went to the University of North Carolina Wilmington and graduated in 2010. After I graduated, I started wholesaling some properties to start with, and eventually after wholesaling some properties, I discovered single-family properties and the Section 8 program. I started buying properties in North Carolina and Wilmington, meeting partners, raising money, and putting together some larger deals.
What made you get into Section 8 housing in particular?
I realized like, "Hey, If I get a $200,000 house, it's going to take a lot of money for a down payment, and I can only buy one every few months." It just wasn't scaling, so I went and bought a much cheaper house in downtown Wilmington for $55,000, and after I closed on it, I was told that it was a Section 8 property, and I was thrown into the deep end. I got lucky because my tenant's rent was paid for in full by Section 8, so I basically got the full rent from the federal government every single month.
I knew what it was like to go chasing rent, so now I have these rents instantly deposited and all I had to do is manage the properties and make sure they're being taken care of. So that's kind of when I had the light bulb moment to start getting into Section 8 and systemizing it. I eventually got a property manager, and then I created my own software to manage the properties for Section 8 specifically. I started posting content on social media about Section 8 and I got a ton of questions about that. I created a course. Now, I'm doing an education platform and I do consulting.
TikTok landlord and newly arrived Miami resident Tom Cruz shows off his luxury 14-car garage.
Screenshot via TikTok/@tcruznc
What do you want to say to people who assume Section 8 landlords are slumlords?
Section 8 requires annual inspections where regular rentals do not, so you cannot be a slumlord. You cannot neglect your properties because if you do not take care of them and they do an inspection annually, and they fail it, they stop paying you, so it becomes a lot more expensive if you are a slumlord. I do quarterly inspections. I have my property managers look at all my properties.
When did you start posting on TikTok?
It was completely by accident. In March 2020, my sister got me on TikTok, and then, of course, I got stuck in a four-hour rabbit hole on it, and I was like, "Man, I got crazy videos that I could post from my camera roll — let me just see what happens." Three months prior, I bought my dad a brand new car for Christmas, and he got really emotional about it, so I posted his reaction, and I got like 12 million views overnight. Right off the bat, I was like, "This is different than Instagram and Facebook. Like, let me give this some more time." So, 40,000 followers later in the first week, I started gaining traction. Then I started posting car content, real estate content, and funny tenant story content. It started resonating.
What drove you to become TikTok's Section 8 housing expert?
I talk about it every day, in all my content. People love to hear about it because no one else is really talking about it. There are obviously a lot more investors that own a lot more property than me, but they're generally older and more private. They gatekeep. They don't want to talk about it. They're chilling on the sidelines, crushing it having these multifamily apartment complexes all on Section 8.
Real investor Tom Cruz points to the dock outside his new Belle Meade mansion.
Screenshot via TikTok/@tcruznc
What is the idea behind the infamous spreadsheet and who came up with "Broke Bobby"?
First of all, I knew that was going to happen because it's very polarizing. It's just a list that we keep, not as active recently, but a couple of years ago when that launched, it was a practicality thing. A lot of my friends were from college and we all went our separate ways, so being able to see like, "Hey, we want to do a trip this summer, who's available? Who's got what money to spend?" Instead of trying to do all these group chats, we could just look at the spreadsheet instantly. A lot of that was also just simply for fun and also very motivating when you have friends that are a few levels above you.
[Bobby] came up with that name. When he looked at the list when we first came up with it, he's like, "I guess I'm Broke Bobby."
Has the list shuffled around at all?
Bobby has actually come up, I think a couple of spots. He could be making more than me and we'll still call him "Broke Bobby."
