Investing in Rental Property

[chippewastud79]

Originally Posted by SvilleKid

As a teenager, my father owned 15 or so rental homes. It kept me and my best buddy (builder's son) in very good cash flow doing the constant repairs where needed, plus putting every one of the houses back in livable condition when the renters moved out. It was pretty much a given that every vacated home would need plenty of renovations to get them back into lease-able condition.

If you can do some of the renovations yourself, you will be able to keep those cost to at least a manageable level. Just be prepared that most renters will leave a property in worse condition than they found it. I wish it was otherwise!

On the positive side, there's hardly a better time than now to be to be buying property!

I rarely contract out any work, except electrical and plumbing. Having to drill a brand new well pretty much kicked our ass (I don't drill wells either). Also went through a huge debachle of deadbeat renters who lived for 5 months, paid for 2 and cost me another month cleaning up the mess.

[jluck]

The two best tips I have learned.
>Don't rent to family or friends! It just invites awkward and unnecessary problems. Also they seem to feel like on time and full payments are optional.
>Charge a premium and or invest in "better" property's and skip the slum lord route. There are plenty of people looking to rent a house and more all the time with the current foreclosure rates.

I have been involved in the rental business since I was eight or nine years old, My folks have had many rentals and they still continue to be my problem. I have seen some of the grossest nasty things you could imagine (including a suicide) in a rental.....It can be tough.

With decent planning it can be a very lucrative proposition though.

As a side note....with all I have seen I still am trying to purchase another property.....

Originally Posted by jluck

The two best tips I have learned.
>Don't rent to family or friends! It just invites awkward and unnecessary problems. Also they seem to feel like on time and full payments are optional.
>Charge a premium and or invest in "better" property's and skip the slum lord route. There are plenty of people looking to rent a house and more all the time with the current foreclosure rates.

I have been involved in the rental business since I was eight or nine years old, My folks have had many rentals and they still continue to be my problem. I have seen some of the grossest nasty things you could imagine (including a suicide) in a rental.....It can be tough.

With decent planning it can be a very lucrative proposition though.

As a side note....with all I have seen I still am trying to purchase another property.....

I would like to buy decent homes to rent out to families or young couples. Part of making money on this is buying nice homes for bargains and then charging a premium. I know a guy that has made tons of money with his rental property business, however he rents to really bad people. He has TONS of issues with his people, and I know its because he rents out crap property for cheap. He has told me many times he carries his Glock with him whenever he makes stops at his property. I DON'T want that type of property or those people renting from me. I know now is the time to buy property, but I don't have enough cash. 5 years down the road I'd like to have enough.. I want to plan right now to have enough cash when the time comes..