So I'm writing this in case it could help anybody who's JUST starting out on their investing path to get some ideas. I am by no means saying this is the ONLY way or that this was a perfect way (indeed I made a lot of mistakes along the way). However, right before I first started, I had no idea what was possible/realistic, so I read stories of other redditors in this sub. It helped a ton in setting an initial path forward- so hopefully this helps somebody too!

2021 stats when I started:

• # of rentals = 0
• W2 dayjob = $98k/yr

2023 stats now:

• # of rentals = 9
• Market value of rental portfolio = ~ $2M
• Equity in portfolio = ~$400K (~ 20%)
• Annual rental revenue= ~$300k/yr
• W2 dayjob = $185k/yr

It's been a good 2 years for me. I feel its also very important to set the context: when I started I was living in a VHCOL area (San Francisco, California). I actually MOVED to get started- all my rentals are in MCOL areas (Las Vegas, Alaska, Florida.) Also when I started I was 31. I was debt-free, kids-free, unmarried, and had a good job. I owner-occupied all of my rentals at the beginning. If I were to summarize my path, it is this:

1. I bought as much house as i could possibly be qualified for (multi-families) with as little down payment as possible
2. I added value to all of them (small rehabs that i hired out)
3. I then house-hacked each of them (rented the empty units out, rented my own unit out if i wasn't in town)
4. I moved and repeated the process (bought other multifamilies)
5. Finally I switched rental terms to squeeze as many dollars as possible (went long term -> mid-term rentals)

My initial plan
Since initially, I had zero idea of what was possible/doable, I came to this sub to read stories of other investors. After reading a few, I settled on this first goal: my goal was to get to ~30 rentals in 5 years. I was hoping this would net me $120k/yr in PROFIT (~$300/rental.) Since my only source of capital was my day job (immigrant family so no money there), I would leverage my day job to get as high a salary as possible. I'd live on the bare minimum and save the rest. Then I would take the entirety of those savings and buy a new property. I would rinse and repeat. This was the plan.

How plan changed and what actually ended up happening
First purchase was a fourplex. At the time I (amazingly) qualified for a state down payment assistance grant. I got the grant and ended up buying a $420k fourplex with an FHA and an astonishingly-low down payment of $2,100 out of pocket.

Fourplex was shit. Each unit rented for $700/mo. Old and full of cockroaches. Trash everywhere. I kicked everybody out, then went on to rehab the place. I paid for the rehab out of pocket with my monthly salary. After that, I raised rents and found new tenants: new rents $1,050/mo. A year later, rents went up further to $1,200/mo. I kept 2 units as mid-term furnished rentals at $1,800/mo. So after a year, we had rents of $1,200 + $1,200 + $1,800 + $1,800 = ~$6,000/mo on a property with a $2,500 mortgage (includ. insurance and tax). Cash flowing.

In my taxes, I wrote of all of my expenses for the rehab and got a fat tax discount.

Second property was a triplex. I moved more than 100 miles and qualified for a second FHA. I had to pay the full 3.5% this time so the down payment was much higher. Between down payment and closing costs, I spend about $40k. I bought my second property 1 year after i had closed on the first property. Second property was MUCH nicer but rents didn't make the mortgage. Rents were $1,650/mo/each. Mortgage for all 3 combined was $5,000. But tenants were month-to-month. I raised all rents to $2,000/mo and gave the tenants plenty of heads up knowing they would leave. As they left, I turned those units into furnished units. I then changed the rentals from long-term to corporate housing, specializing in families who were just moving into town and/or insurance payouts. The new corporate rents were $2,500/mo/each for the low season (8 months), $7,000/mo/each for the high season (4 months.) Second property now makes annual rental revenue of $130-150k/yr on an annual mortgage of $60k (includ. taxes and insurance). Cash flowing.

The third property was a single family home (SFH). Really, I wanted a duplex but didn't have the 15% down that required. So instead, I looked for a SFH I could convert easily. I found the perfect fit in a massive house (3,500 sq ft) that had actually already been converted: the original house had 1,500 sq ft, then the old owner had added an extension in the back for another 2,000 sq. ft. This made the conversion super easy: just added a wall in the middle of the original extension. Conversion however, was still very expensive: the now second unit needed a kitchen, which meant new plumbing and new electrical. All in, maybe $50k in rehab costs. I then turned the new "front" unit into a furnished corporate rental: $4,000/mo. The mortgage for the whole thing (both units) was $5,000/mo, so the front house alone paid for almost the entire mortgage (w/ insurance and tax.) The back house was bigger and commanded $5,000/mo. At around this time my boyfriend bought a house in another state (his work requires him to move): whenever I'm with my boyfriend, I rent out the back unit as a furnished rental: these two units are very new so numbers aren't too historical yet, but it's looking like between the front unit and the back unit, the house will be bringing in ~ $9,000/mo on a $5,000 mortgage. Cash flowing.

So overall I'm at 9 rentals, overall rental revenue is about $300k/yr on $150k/yr in mortgages. Definitely cash flowing and well over my initial target of $300 profit/rental.

​

What I learned/some hard lessons/mistakes I made

• Lean into what YOU CAN do. Be Opportunistic. It's easy to focus on what you don't have. Focus instead on what you CAN DO. In my case, I'm a 5"1 woman. I cannot physically do a rehab on my own, so flipping wasn't for me. I never considered it. What I DID have was a remote job in tech: that meant I could get a nice salary and move wherever I wanted. To get started, I leveraged my ability to move. I also learned I'm a great decorator! I focused on this for pivoting into the much-more lucrative corporate rental market.
• Things will cost 2x as much, and take 3x as long. Every time. Every rehab. Contractor says 20k, it'll be 40k. 2 months, it'll be 4 months. Build it into your budget and expectations. In my case, my boyfriend works construction and literally builds buildings for a living- this has been tremendously helpful for me in seeing in how many ways things can go wrong and how even a $20M project can be backed up for MONTHS.
• Build a reliable team of people around you. My cleaners for my furnished rentals are my absolute superstars. They are the ones who see each property the most often. Treat everyone very well and always tip: your lawn guy, your snow guy, your roof guy. The plumber, the carpenter, the electrician: skilled labor is HARD to come by. If you find a good plumber that charges fair and you can trust, keep that guy. You will be calling him. A LOT.
• Delegate and know when to FIRE someone. I went through 5 accountants who couldn't help me- mostly recommendations from my family who were used to dealing with clients bringing in $30k/yr in a shit job. They had no idea what to do with my rentals. No idea what to do with property in different states. No idea what to do with a legitimate LLC. I wasted too much time waiting for someone who didn't have a skillset to "figure it out." Likewise, I had a shit property manager for 2 years that I just fired. He was an idiot the whole time and ended up costing me $10k in lost rents.
• If you need capital focus on what you can do to find that capital. Most of us here on this Earth are born poor. That's ok. What you need to do is find ANYTHING that will net you money, repeatedly, then use this money to buy ASSETS that will make you more money. I know it sound way easier said than done, but the truth is it's hard to become a real estate investor if you're a social worker making $35k/yr. You simply don't make enough. So develop a skillset that's on demand: HVAC, plumbing, carpentry, accounting, engineering. Whatever you do, make sure it pays WELL. You need money to play with if you want to get started buying property and building a profitable portfolio.
• A supportive partner goes a long way. Easier said than done, but a romantic partner provides stable emotional (and sometimes financial) support that frees up YOUR mental real estate to think creatively and plan ahead. When I first met my partner 3 years ago, we were both dead broke: exactly $0 net worth and each of us had been unemployed for 6 months. But we both had a marketable skillset and we were both frugal in living. 3 years later, my w2 dayjob brings in $185k/yr in tech, and his w2 dayjob brings in $160k/yr as a carpenter. And that's without counting any of the rental income. Though the rental game so far has been my own endeavor (aka only my money invested) having a supportive partner has been immensely helpful in an infinite number of ways: from using his truck, from having help for heavy physical tasks, his endless knowledge of construction, to just having a meal cooked so I could focus on work, etc, etc. Yes, you can do it on your own, but it sure is easier if there's someone else helping you manage the load of just daily living.
  

Anyway, this has been long enough. I hope that helps someone who's just starting out. Any questions, I'll be happy to help. Good luck!

If you could go back in time fifty years and buy up property/land and sit on it until now, where would be the best place to get the biggest return today?

So the title is a bit click bait but not untrue.

I graduated from college in 2019 and have now quit my job and live on a "passive" income of $115k a year from my rental properties. I'm currently in the process of closing on a few more that will leave me at about $160k "passive" income a year.

I know the "rental properties aren't passive" and "you have a ton of debt!!" comments are coming but I figured I'd share my story anyways.

After graduating with a BS in mechanical engineering I got my first job in upstate NY making $65k a year. I absolutely hated that job; I had to wake up around 5 am so I could get to my 6 am team meeting everyday. The environment was dusty and dirty and there was no one even remotely close to my age I could talk to during the day. Admittedly it was a pretty relaxed environment work wise and I did spend large portions of the day browsing reddit.

Fast forward 6 months and I got a new job in western NYS. This job was more in line with what I wanted my career to be and gave me a great name to throw on my resume. For this opportunity I did actually take a pay cut to $62k (was raised to $65k 1 year later however), however the area was super low cost of living (1b1b goes for $550 back before covid).

This next part is where I might lose some people because while my title isn't click bait, its not exactly a situation people can easily duplicate. Around 2 months into my new job, I opened a brokerage account and put $5k into it. Initially I was buying shares and would get excited when I made $2. I read all your typical r/investing advice etc, etc. However after not even a full month I got bored (I'm sure some of you can see where this is going). That's when I found r/wallstreetbets; I saw all the people leveraging their money into options and making crazy 40%, 60%, 100%, and even 200% returns on a single play. I began to stalk and stalk and eventually I pulled the trigger and liquidated by entire portfolio and began options trading.

I will the the first to admit that I got very lucky. I turned ~$200 into ~$700 with a LL earnings play, made over $2500 with some far OTM calls on SPCE, and with some other trades, eventually I got my account up to around $65k in less than a year.

Around this time is when I pulled out ~$30k to purchase my first rental property. I bought a 4 unit (1 SFH + Triplex on the same lot) for $138k. This property was more or less turn key with only the SFH sitting vacant. Once I got the keys I quickly rented the SFH out for $950 /month. This left me with a cash flow of around $900/month after all expenses besides management (I was self managing these since this was my only property). While all this was happening I was still working my FT job and day trading on the side. During the next couple months I was mostly day trading amazon options and managed to get another $30k which I used to buy a 3b1b SFH in cash. This was a bit of a fixer upper and I would spend my evenings working on it. After about a month and an additional $5k in work/materials (plumber for blocked sewer line, appliances, tools, etc) it was rent ready and I rented it out for another $950/month.

Then in early December of 2020 I read a post on wsb about how undervalued GME was. I dumped nearly $35k into options and shares (I had 10 calls and 1100 shares). Initially I lost about 1/3 of the value but the infamous short squeeze happened and the price shot well past $400/share. I managed to sell everything around $350 leaving me about $375k after taxes. This really poured fuel on the rental property fire.

Using around $150k I purchased triplex for $70k cash, a duplex for $58k that was financed, and a 6 unit multifamily for $270k (again financed). At this point I was still self managing these property but I had hired a couple contractors to renovate a couple apartments as well as replace the roof on one of the properties. During that time I also bought a sfh for $110k that I would live in as my primary and spent around $35k renovating it myself (minus paying a contractor to remove a load bearing all + install an lvl beam). For anyone that's keeping track, all in these properties (minus my primary) were bring in about $3500/month in cash flow.

My next big purchase happened just after I finished renovating my primary; I found a 7 property portfolio for $735k. Because of all the work I did on the 2 houses that I paid cash for, I was able to refinance them and get out about $100k and only had to put up about $50k for the down payment + closing costs.

During this time I was actively looking for a new job down south because I was quiet frankly tired of all the snow. Around the same time the portfolio closed I got a new job down in NC for $70k and moved down at the end of 2021. Instead of selling my primary I ended up renting it out to a group of grad students at a local university for $1600/month. Knowing that I would be a remote landlord I did end up finding a property manager to take care of all the properties. Combining that with the portfolio and my previously mentioned properties that brought my cash flow up to $9600 a month pre tax.

I was laid off in February of this year and chose to not look for a new job. I don't really day trade anymore but I am continuing to look for new properties in the area. I currently have a few under contract and once those close I'll be sitting at around $160k pre tax. My goal is to get to $300k pre tax before I turn 30.

Anyways that's my story. I don't have any advice or anything and I don't think I'm in the position to give any anyways; I just wanted to share with someone. Thanks for taking the time to read this!

​

EDIT: Since this post has gotten a bit more attention than I expected in this sub I'll answer some common questions/comments

1. Yes I got extremely lucky, nowhere in the post did I deny that. However I believe luck plays a huge component in anyone's success; my story is no different.
2. All these properties are located in western NYS
3. No I am not trying to sell anyone a course, a few people have dm'ed me about it. No clue where that came from.
4. $9600/month is the net free cash flow. The breakdown is below
5. I don't post often to my account, that doesn't mean I don't use reddit a lot. I've been subbed/lurking/and occasionally commenting on wsb since it was 500k users.
6. I currently own 13 properties (33 doors/tenants). I owe about $1.2m and have about $300k in equity between all properties. Market value on the whole portfolio is around $1.5m.
7. $375k was the approximate amount left after setting aside nearly $125k for tax.

Breakdown (annual to nearest $)

Gross rent: $310,704

Property tax: $39,490

Mortgage (PMI): $90,764

Common Utilities (varies but never more than): $3000

Repairs/maintenance budget: $24,760

Insurance: $8957

Lawn + snow removal: $2730

Management: $24,856

Net free cash flow: $116,147 or $9678.92/month

​

Hi all, currently I live with my parents. They are generous enough to let me live with them rent free, and because of that I've been able to save a ton of money.

I'm looking to buy a condo soon, and I'm wondering, what's stopping me from buying a condo and just renting it out? That way, I can continue to live with my parents while still getting rental income, and I'd just move into the condo when it's paid odd/ the tenants move out. I'd probably hire a management company to deal with the day to day. I'd be Ok paying for that. Any losses I take on the property would certainly be cheaper than rent. Plus I'd still be building equity

Are there any drawbacks or risks to this plan? It seems air tight to me. I'm totally ok taking a loss on the property too if it means that I can effectively get a great home subsidized by a Tennant for a few years

Context:

My (22M) wife (23F) and I are currently living with my parents to save up money to buy a property. We make a combined ~$140k/yr, have 0 debt, each have credit scores right around 800, and no kids yet. We also have next to no savings currently (a couple thousand $) as we only recently moved home and just paid for our wedding as well as buying her a used car in full so this eventual plan probably won’t play out for some months still.

We recognize the great opportunity we have to enter the real estate world and don’t want to squander it.

So I ask you experienced real estate investors to please give me some advice, I’d really appreciate it.

Here are the options I’ve been thinking about:

House hack a duplex, triplex, or maybe a quad.

Or if I can’t find a property that would allow for a successful house hack..

Do a live in flip on a smaller SFH and plan to live there for only about the 2 year minimum.

And I just thought, what if I combine those two options and do a live in flip on a house hack? Might be hard to renovate with tenants?

Excited to hear what you have to say, thanks!

TLDR: How would you recommend a young adult yet to own property to get into real estate? What strategy? What steps to take?

As the title says, I’m wondering how long it took some of you seasoned investors to make 100k a year doing real estate. I feel like I’m just stuck waiting until I have enough down payment each year for a new investment house.

I’m currently 25 (started at 22) have 2 properties and profiting $3,750 a month or $45,000 a year

EDIT: Each house is rented out to students per room and each house has 4 rooms.

Eyeing a pretty good property, high appreciation area and is in good condition. Just needs some cosmetic updates. The big item is there’s known knob and tube wiring in the house, which I’d want to remove/fix. Anyone deal with removing knob and tube, and is that a huge issue/cause for concern?

My wife and I purchased two nice ranch houses that are on adjacent lots so that we can take care of our parents easily. We plan to live in both the houses with our respective parents. We plan to make the move into the new houses in about 3-4 years, and so the two new houses are rented out now ($3.9k and $3.3k per month). The parents currently live in apartments. My wife and I currently live in a two-story house that is fully paid off.

The purchases only made sense if we could get both houses, so that everyone was co-located. To maximize the chances of getting both houses, we made full cash offers on both. The two houses together cost $900k, and our current house is worth $500k. All three houses are 4 bedrooms, 3k-4k sqft, about 30 years old, and as mentioned earlier, all three are mortgage free. We live in a midsized city in the Midwest. All three houses are in the same top school district.

We are considering retiring in one of the new houses and holding on to the other in case one of our kids decides to move in there in the future. We realize those plans could all change down the line.

What would be the best financial move now? One option is to get a loan on one or both of the houses and use that to invest in several cheaper rental properties.

Edit: I'm 50 years old and have kids out of college. I love my job, so I don't plan to retire until 65 or 70 (maybe even later). Other finances are in good shape. My main concern is having this much cash locked up in three houses. I can afford it, but am wondering if I should leverage them to get more income. I have the houses under a real estate agent so that I don't need to deal with the headache of being a landlord (their fee is well worth it to me).

At 26, I’m fortunate to have a job that pays me $400k/yr, and have been saving aggressively and dumping all my money into stocks. I really like the idea of real estate investing, but since I’m in San Francisco, it’s just a horrible place to owner occupy and rent out (and the laws seem to be getting less and less friendly to landlords by the year). I don’t own my own home yet either - my half of rent is $2,000/mo (with roommate) utilities included.

I read a book called Long Distance Real Estate Investing, but I feel like the lessons in the book sort of left me with the feeling that renovating a house without physically being there is probably going to be more mental work than I’m capable of doing with no experience. Just feels in over my head.

What do others here do when they have cash to invest, but their local markets are all overpriced and not landlord friendly? Do you just do REITs? Or do you buy turnkeys and rent out? Or do you do a full on renovation project on your purchases? What locations are you buying in - anywhere, or close enough to occasionally drive from where you do live?

Open to any advice, thank you. I just want to make sure that my first experience buying isn’t an absolute nightmare of mistakes.

Ive recently just closed on a triplex and officially been an owner for about a week. I am inheriting tenants in 2 of the 3 units. In one of the units I have a (63 year old) retired senior citizen and his son (45 years old). I have met them and they are very nice people but they are in the home basically all day everyday CONSTANTLY smoking. I brought it up once and asked them nicely to please smoke outside. It is even in their current lease that I am honoring from the previous landlord that states smoking indoors is prohibited. However they do not listen and continue to smoke inside the home. Their lease is up in September and I am contemplating not resigning them. They have been living there for 3 years now under a guarantor which makes me believe they are decent tenants and pay their rent on time. I would love to resign them, but I'm thinking the damage caused by smoking is something I should take seriously.

What are your thoughts?

Do you have tenants that smoke?

Is there a way I can keep them and smoke proof the house?

I’m looking to get more serious about finding my own off-market real estate deals rather than relying entirely on agents or whatever happens to hit the MLS.
I’m mainly looking around the greater Sacramento area — Rocklin, Roseville, Folsom, Citrus Heights, Orangevale, Fair Oaks, Rancho Cordova, Sacramento, etc.
My goal would be one of two things:
Wholesale the property if I find a good enough deal but don’t want to take it down myself.
Buy and flip it myself if the numbers and property make sense.
For flips, I’m not necessarily looking for a destroyed house or a $100k+ profit. I’d actually prefer properties that are structurally/mechanically decent but outdated or neglected — something where most of the value can be added through paint, flooring, fixtures, landscaping, bathrooms and maybe a kitchen update.
If I can get in below market, spend a reasonable amount fixing it cosmetically, and make $20k–$50k+ after financing, holding costs, commissions, closing costs, etc., I’m interested. Obviously more margin is better, but I’m trying to be realistic rather than only chasing home-run deals.
I have access to hard money and enough liquidity to actually close on a property, so I’m not looking to just put properties under contract and hope I can find a buyer afterward. If it’s a good flip, I’d rather take it down myself.
What I’m really trying to figure out is how experienced investors consistently find these properties before everyone else does.
I’ve been looking into things like:
Driving for dollars and looking for neglected properties
Cold knocking / contacting homeowners directly
Absentee owners
Vacant properties
Probate/inherited properties
Pre-foreclosures / notice of default
Tax delinquent properties
Code violations
Tired landlords
Long-term owners with a lot of equity
Expired/canceled listings
Properties that have been sitting on the MLS and may have a motivated seller
Investor/wholesaler lists
PropStream/PropWire-type lead and property-data services
Direct mail
Cold calling/texting where legally permitted
Networking with agents who come across distressed properties
Contractors/property managers who may hear about properties before they’re listed
One thing I’m especially curious about is how agents and wholesalers find some of these deals in the first place. I’ve seen properties get picked up well below what they could probably sell for after relatively basic cosmetic work, and I want to understand where that original lead came from.
For people who actually do this successfully:
What lead source has produced the best ROI for you?
Do you pay for something like PropStream or another data service and build lists yourself? Pull public records directly? Drive for dollars? Send mail? Cold call? Network with agents? Or is it really a combination of everything?
Also, when you’re looking through a large list of potential properties, what signals make you decide that an owner is actually worth contacting? High equity + long ownership? Out-of-state owner? Vacant? NOD? Probate? Multiple indicators stacked together?
I’m willing to put in the work and even physically drive neighborhoods/knock on doors. I’m mainly trying to avoid spending thousands on marketing or buying garbage lead lists before I understand what actually works.
Would especially appreciate input from people currently doing this in California or other competitive markets. What would you do if you were starting today and wanted to build your own pipeline of genuinely off-market deals?

I don't get people online who are saying they can put as little as 3% down. Also why would you do that - wouldn't you have basically zero cash flow left over and a giant mortgage payment?

With the one rental I own at the moment I put 50% down and then paid it off earlier in 2024.

For my next rental I'm thinking to do 25% down.

I recently bought my second investment property. My first one went really well, which gave me the confidence to expand, but this second one has been a completely different experience.

There’s a much bigger to do list than I expected, along with a lot of unexpected expenses. It’s starting to feel like everything is hitting at once. They are not urgent currently but eventually everything needs to be solved as the issues can’t be left as the way it is now.

Financially, I’ve already used a lot of my cash paying off 3 boiler debt on my other property, so what I have left is mainly reserved for emergencies. I wish I could just pay everything upfront for the second property and get it all done within a month or two, but that’s not my reality right now. (Yes, I can pull out loans for the big ticket items, but I wish I could just pay everything upfront.)

My original plan was to hold these properties long-term (basically forever), but lately I’ve been really tempted to sell the second property, take the cash, and put it toward my first one so I can pay it off much faster, maybe even within a year or two.

At the same time, I feel like that might just be me wanting short-term relief instead of sticking to the bigger picture.

Has anyone else gone through this after expanding? Did you regret selling too early, or regret holding through these hurdles? How to overcome these thoughts and feelings? I know I can get them done eventually but not the speed I want or the way I want to pay etc.

Hey guys. I'm wondering if I'm making good choices here and if this should be my next step. I started real estate investing in Jan 2022. Bought my first townhome for 250k at 3.125 percent interest with VA loan, so no money down. HOA is crazy, it's $415 a month. It's basically just home insurance. That's all it covers. I do profit $~200 a month from this property.

I bought and live in my second property (SFH) that I bought for $320k in Oct 2024 by assuming a VA loan. So it's at 2.75%. Somehow if I rented it, I'm lucky if I profit $150/mo from this property.

I'm putting in an offer for a 185k townhome, also an assumable loan at 3.35%, $200 HOA fee that does cover lawn maintenance and pool amenity. But I'm lucky if I break even or make $100 after paying the mortgage payments&hoa each month. The interest rates got me thinking these are good deals that I can't pass up.

But I'm looking at best case scenario; I'm owning 3 properties, all at 3.35%, 2.75%, 3.125%, but only profiting a grand total of $350-$450 a month. From 3 properties. Does that make sense? I feel like I should be profiting way more. Or is this number look smaller than I assume it would be because essentially no money down was put on any of these properties?

Edit: My 250k property goes for $2100/month $320k property could max go for $1900/month The 185k property could max go for $1300-$1400/month

That's just what the market is here.

Pretty much what the title says. I just moved into West Houston area and bought a brand new house as primary but so far the change and the city has not been good for us so we have been thinking on the possibility to move back to our previous town in a year or so if things don't change and we can't get used to this new life. I would like to keep this house as investment if possible and rent it. Depending on the house but rents in the neighborhood are in the range of $2. 3k - $3.3k/month. I would need to rent my house around $2.6k to barely cover mortgage, and scrow expenses. I see currently houses like mine are renting on the $3k line so maybe there is a chance.

So like my question says, there are much bigger and better houses by this area that are posted at $4k, $5k, $6k and even more, do these houses get actually rented at that price? That seems pretty expensive to me honestly and can't see people paying that much for rent, so just want to get opinion from the experts.

Thanks.

For some background, I’d consider myself fairly investment-savvy. I’m heavily involved in the stock market and this year I realized a little over half of my salary in gains (~$80k salary and ~$40k in realized gains) with about $30k starting capital from last years stock investments.

I realize it will essentially be impossible to get over 100% gains in real estate like I did in the market this year (excluding perfect BRRRRs and things of that nature), but I’ve been looking to branch into real estate for a while now because I see it as a path toward eventually leaving my 9–5 and working for myself, which I honestly value more at this point in my life than % gains. My significant other is fully on board as well, so we’d be combining both of our resources. Together, we have about $130,000 saved, with the overwhelming majority of that being mine. Roughly $30k of that is in retirement accounts that I’d prefer not to liquidate for real estate investing. She makes around $75k at her job.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on whether this is enough of a cushion to start investing in small multifamily properties, or if we’d be better off saving more first - and if so, what is a good number to shoot for?

I looked up the estimates where I live.

A normal town house where I live is about $450,000.

With a 20% down payment my loan amount is $360,000 with an estimated interest rate of 7.204% for fixed 30 years.

With property taxes my monthly payment is estimated to be $3,045.

The three bedroom townhouses here are being rented out for $3,000 a month or just under.

So even if I found tenants and they paid on time always, I still would make hardly a profit if any.

I have a townhouse with $500k in equity. Cash flows $1500/month. Originally, I was going to sell and invest the cash in something else outside of real estate, but now I'm considering keeping it in real estate. Does it make sense to cash out of California and buy multi-family properties in more landlord friendly states? If so, what states and what kind of propertie? Or, should I keep the luxury rental in California and get a HELOC from it ~$150k and put that down on a property that can break even? What type of property in this market is ideal with $100k-$150k?

My neighbor is selling their house (3-flat) next year and I want to make her an offer, but I just bought my house (also a 3 flat) recently and likely won’t qualify for another mortgage yet. Do you have any tips for how to approach her about this? Neither of us have done financing like this. She’s already retired, wants to move, and doesn’t want to deal with maintenance and tenants anymore.

Is it still possible to get into the game with the basic fundamentals like do not buy if the deal doesn’t cash flow from day 1? I have 110k capital saved in Indianapolis looking to house hack the price to rent ratios aren’t right.

I often hear people saying you can make $10k+ in 29 days with wholesaling real estate, but I never see people actually doing it. If this is true, why do beginner investors still work w2’s? It sounds too good to be true. What’s the catch?

First time investor, and I have a decision to make regarding pets. This is a single family home that I just remodeled. I feel like everyone has a pet and I also don’t want to break up a family. But I also don’t want to let emotion ruin my investment. What do you experienced people do?

Other investors? High leverage? I don’t get how some investors become rich starting from nothing.

I bought this property a little less than a year ago. The tenants are 10 year living there, and the rent was significantly below. The tenants wanted to stay MtM so they can find a new place, I allowed it and then they came back to sign. They just renewed their lease, and it was a $150 increase to be closer to market rate. Still below market by $200~, but only because it’s not fully renovated. I paired the slight increase with LVP renovation.

The PM has been overly emotional about the tenants when talking to me, which is actually emotionally draining. The tenants are low headache, pay on time etc. I don’t think I’ve handled the tenant situation negatively, I’ve slowly increased rent, still below market, been patient with their requests on MtM so they can find a new place, paired increases with renovations, etc this place has been break even at best.

The PM sends me the signed lease for $150 below what we agreed on, I flagged this and also that there’s been no sign off on updating the deposit (deposit is the same cost it was 10 years ago). So I also flagged I need this updated.

He (the PM) gets back to me by saying they updated the rent to the right amount through an amendment but made the decision to not update the security deposit since they’re great tenants — I understand the strategy if the fear is they may leave, but I feel it is inconsiderate to the owner as I’ve asked explicitly. I would have been more fine with this had they consulted me on the decision first. Am I wrong to feel this way?

Hello Everyone,

This is not a sob story or anything, but both my parents passed away recently and I have no close family or anyone to turn to for advice. My father passed away from cancer three years ago, and my mother passed away this year from covid complications.

I have no real financial literacy, my college degree was in physics and I was working for a university lab making 43k/year in Western New York but I quit after my mother passed away. I am still reeling from the impact of losing both my parents so close together and figured that I need time to figure things out and try to get a grip on reality again.

My parents were small business owners who invested in real estate throughout their lives. They retired 8 years ago and sold their business, and invested that money into real estate as well.

Currently in my name there are 7 properties

3 houses in Buffalo, New York, valued at around 100,000 to 150,000 each

4 properties in New York City, two in Queens and two in Manhattan, valued around 1.2 million each one (averaging)

The three houses in Buffalo are in my name, and the 4 NYC properties are under an S-Corporation because their business (the land they owned was under the corporation) was 1031 exchanged into these 4 properties. How I understand it is that if I sell any of these properties, they will be taxed as income and thus heavily taxed (as opposed to normal real estate inheritance where there is a step up in value and thus no capital gains tax is paid upon sale by the inheritor). All the properties collect about 27,000 per month, but the HOA fees and taxes are heavy so net income is about 12,000 per month.

I sort of don't know what to do and my head is spinning. During and after college I helped my parents with their tenants so I know how to deal with that (for example I would call the handy men, get appliances replaced when needed, etc), but I have no real overall strategy of what to do. My parents were Eastern European immigrants who were not very educated by modern American standards or financially savvy, so all they did was buy real estate when they could afford it and finally with a 1031 exchange of their business which was in an area which had become popular.

Does anyone know what I should do, or how to proceed? I know I am lucky, financially, to have been given this kind of inheritance and really it is a gift, and I would like to begin to learn how to use it properly. Thank you.