I've had to evict someone recently and it makes you want to murder. I luckily live in a state where they make the scumbags move out, but as the landlord you have to cross all I's and dot all T's. The maddening part for me was at the courthouse they will assign them an attorney. So they try to find loopholes to get cases dismissed so you get to file again and go through the whole process again, while said scumbag lives for free. They almost act like you're the bad guy while you're being stolen from. I had the case dismissed on a loophole then got my buddy lawyer to show up. In the end the tenant should have taken the deal I offered back when I predicted an eviction and court were eminent. Instead he tried to play the system and lost out bigger. F him. On a side note that's going to sound condescending...I don't understand why you breadwinners are needing permission from the wife on how to invest/ spend money.

 

Exactly. I simply borrow against my assets at low rates when I need money for the next thing.

 

Makes sense, Non-socialist states, where the refugee socialists are likely to flee and drive up property values and rents.

This too. I correctly did this with my first property, it took about 15 years, longer than I expected but it did get there.



Yes your tenant demographic makes a difference, most especially if you manage it all yourself and hope to have any QOL on your days off. Slum lords actually have higher margins but they have to deal with a lot more BS. Wealthier tenants have high expectations, are used to getting what they want, and know how to work the system. Concur with mid-level.

With more than a couple units I'd probably outsource the management too. That can actually mostly pay for itself... professionals can often get higher rent with less vacant time, and have volume accounts with Mx pros. I've had tenants call about broken garbage grinders, etc. If I'm on the road I'll just tell them to call a plumber and give me the receipt. With a manager, his plumber will go in and find the fork the tenant dropped into the grinder. Then the manager charges the tenant instead of charging me.

 

I was suggesting refinancing the existing rental. Set up a LLC (know the advantage of a limited liability corporation in case of a lawsuit) and put them in it. Incorporate in a lawsuit and legal friendly state. That is the advise I have gotten from professionals and those successful in the business. Don’t just take my advice. Meet with legal and accounting specialists, talk with other rental owners.

 

Man, this is going off on a tangent such that maybe it needs it own thread.

No one is talking about financing their home here. Reading comprehension is hard.

I let in Texas. Not California. But yeah, I know.

I used to have another rental house when I lived in another state that I tried to manage myself. I’ll never do that again. I don’t want to deal the tenants mainly. But once you do have a good property manager handling things, you’ll probably find they pay for themselves anyway.

Regarding the breadwinner comment, major financial decisions that effect both of us are a both of us decision. Seems strange to me that anyone would do it any other way. But also, this is a two breadwinner household so it would be extra strange to exclude her because I’m “a breadwinner”.

That last paragraph is gold. Our property manager has a stack of applications on his desk already when our house goes vacant and numerous contractors and technicians on speed dial for when tenants call in a problem and I’m sure he’s got a negotiated rate with them. Yeah, he gets a cut of the rent but it rents faster and he’s got more experience culling applications for new tenants than I do so I’m betting he’s getting better quality tenants than I would as well. He’s well worth the expense. Having done it with and without, I’ll never do it myself again.

 

Because I'd laugh in her face and vice versa if we had to get permission to drop 1500 bucks or had an investment idea either of us were going to pursue. I encourage my wife to take risk and start up her own businesses, which she's done. I don't need to be an anchor holding her back. Certainly not letting anyone influence how I'm steering my ship.

 

Side Hustle, although it's something I was doing before college, flying, Navy, anything.

I service and tune motocross bikes. Generally I've been known more as a suspension guy, but pre-modern 4-stroke bike me and my dad built some insanity tier XR to motocross bike mods (heavy but powerful trail bike, to still heavy but insanity power motocross bikes) to include building custom chassis but we eventually settled on modifying stock chassis as a better more cost effective solution.

I got into suspension because while my dad was an awesome engine builder, he knew he didn't kniw suspension. I talked/ worked with Rick Z (Factory Connection) and Craig Seekins (C-Cycle) who while my bikes were too far off the baseline for them to do, both freely shared their knowledge and steered me in the right direction.

That said, I don't have the time to do the testing to be a "send me your stuff and it will be done awesome" (Factory Connection and RaceTech are the big dogs there) but Ive kind of foumd a niche in vintage racing, doing either "period correct" modifications or "looks like a 1982, but has modern guts" suspension mods. Depending on what's legal for the class in question.

 

Yes, this has already been pointed out, I missed that part in the post I was responding to.

 

Uh, yeah, investing in houses is not a 1500 buck investment. :-\

1500 bucks? I'd agree it's a non issue, if we were talking 1500 bucks, that is. Hell, I'd even say it wasn't an issue if we were talking 1500 elks.

 

I'd have a side hussle but I'm too busy raising my kids not to be Liberals. It's a full time job nowadays.