I’ve been doing a lot of research on real estate investing. I know one way to do this is to become a landlord. I was curious if there is anyone in the community who owns and rents out homes, apartments, etc.?
If so, can you share any advice you have around getting started?
Is there anything you know now that you wished you would have known when you first started?
And, if you’re not a landlord but invest in real estate in other ways, I’d love to hear about your experiences too. Hoping this can be learning for us all!
We have a friend who invests heavily in real estate and he is a landlord of many houses. He buys these houses really cheaply, he negotiates very well (mainly inner city) fixes them up with good quality furnaces, a/c, appliances, roofing, The quality hardcore necessities create a low maintenance environment for him concerning rentals. In other words, he is not constantly bringing in repair people to fix problems. As he buys 1 house and rents it out when ready, the income from that house provides income to buy and fix up another. Right now he has 16 houses being rented. If the tenant does not pay the rent by the 6th of month, he starts the eviction process which the tenant pays for, if the tenant pays up, he stops the eviction process, this is written into the contract.
He is skilled at this process, he is going to teach classes, btw, he takes many cruises each year.
Hi @maryann. I own a rental property that I bought in 2012 (resulting from a tidy little sum I got from an inheritance). I didn’t want to blow through the money so I put some in my IRA and decided to buy a property outright. My sister and I had been discussing this for many years. I really knew nothing about it, but I learned and am continuing to learn (I had hoped to take equity out this year to get another, but…Pandemic!). My sister is up to two rental properties already.
Here are a couple of resources that have been very helpful:
There are lots of books on the topic, but what I like about these sites (particularly Bigger Pockets) is that you get so many tips such as creating fool-proof leases, choosing the right tenants, etc. The Comments sections are worth their weight in gold. Good luck.
@sthom Just checked out both of the links you shared. Wow, I’m going to be busy this week just reading through it all. Great information! Thank you for sharing.
