How many of you have rentals (i.e. you're a landlord)? Are they worth it?

[Eagle]

How many of you have rentals (i.e. you're a landlord)? Are they worth it?

Once we pay off our mortgage it's something I've been mulling over doing.

What other questions should I be asking?

[rennigade]

Hey Eagle...there is a real estate section...this should have been opened there. https://www.savingadvice.com/forums/...ate-investing/

Can a mod please move this? Thanks in advance.

[Eagle]

Never even noticed that section. Is it new? Is it very active? For example I only really go to the General Discussion, Debt, and Personal finance sections.

[TexasHusker]

Never even noticed that section. Is it new? Is it very active? For example I only really go to the General Discussion, Debt, and Personal finance sections.

It's not active. Real estate has been, ever since I have been coming to this site, considered a four-letter word.

If you want to talk real estate, you'll need to find another site - the subject is taboo here. The things that stay on the main board here are the really important subjects, like how much do you pay for a haircut, "little known" financial loopholes, WWYD with Albert Pujol's home run ball, etc. Trivial subjects such as discussion of the economy are properly relegated elsewhere.

As for your question, I have four vacation rentals and have done very well with them.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I think rentals can make a lot of money. But the way to evaluate a rental as an investment is not the same as evaluating a home you buy and live in. I would love to get into rentals but i need more time to learn and decide how to invest. It's not something I feel like I should just jump into.

[rennigade]

Never even noticed that section. Is it new? Is it very active? For example I only really go to the General Discussion, Debt, and Personal finance sections.

Its semi new compared to the rest of the sections. Its good to keep some sort of order. For whatever reason people want to throw everything in the general discussion because its the most active. It becomes a cluster.

Do a google search using some of these searches...landlord, real estate, rentals, landlord followed by bogleheads. You'll get a lot of threads. There will be more of a mix there...some with horror stories...some with success. Thats the only site I know which discuss RE...although most there lean towards easier forms/less hands off forms of investing. <---(and the fact that I just said that will cause a firestorm...just wait)

Here there are only a handful (less than 5?) who worship real estate. To them any other way of investing doesnt cut it and is a waste of time. They're too biased...which is why you need to seek out other places to get a broad spectrum. But of course those who worship RE wont provide you with links to any other site that deals with real estate...big surprise there.

Heres a fact...this site struggles to provide any sort of (new) useful information. It hasnt for the past 1-2 years. Before then it seemed to do much better. There arent enough members so either ancient threads get bumped or topics are constantly regurgitated. It is what it is.

If you're interested here are some links to other sites that discuss financial related topics...bogleheads being the gold standard <---(this will also cause a firestorm...but not as bad as my statement above)

https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/index.php

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/

[Eagle]

It's not active. Real estate has been, ever since I have been coming to this site, considered a four-letter word.

If you want to talk real estate, you'll need to find another site - the subject is taboo here. The things that stay on the main board here are the really important subjects, like how much do you pay for a haircut, "little known" financial loopholes, WWYD with Albert Pujol's home run ball, etc. Trivial subjects such as discussion of the economy are properly relegated elsewhere.

As for your question, I have four vacation rentals and have done very well with them.

Do you manage the 4 rentals yourself or use a 3rd party management company? So these rentals are near vacation sites? Why'd you choose that?

[Eagle]

Its semi new compared to the rest of the sections. Its good to keep some sort of order. For whatever reason people want to throw everything in the general discussion because its the most active. It becomes a cluster.

Do a google search using some of these searches...landlord, real estate, rentals, landlord followed by bogleheads. You'll get a lot of threads. There will be more of a mix there...some with horror stories...some with success. Thats the only site I know which discuss RE...although most there lean towards easier forms/less hands off forms of investing. <---(and the fact that I just said that will cause a firestorm...just wait)

Here there are only a handful (less than 5?) who worship real estate. To them any other way of investing doesnt cut it and is a waste of time. They're too biased...which is why you need to seek out other places to get a broad spectrum. But of course those who worship RE wont provide you with links to any other site that deals with real estate...big surprise there.

Heres a fact...this site struggles to provide any sort of (new) useful information. It hasnt for the past 1-2 years. Before then it seemed to do much better. There arent enough members so either ancient threads get bumped or topics are constantly regurgitated. It is what it is.

If you're interested here are some links to other sites that discuss financial related topics...bogleheads being the gold standard <---(this will also cause a firestorm...but not as bad as my statement above)

https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/index.php

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/

Thanks for the heads up. Do you own any rentals?

Why do you think there hasn't been a lot of new useful information in the past 1-2 years?

[Eagle]

I think rentals can make a lot of money. But the way to evaluate a rental as an investment is not the same as evaluating a home you buy and live in. I would love to get into rentals but i need more time to learn and decide how to invest. It's not something I feel like I should just jump into.

I kind of feel the same way. I shouldn't just jump into something without a lot of research. We didn't even buy our house for 12-18 months of me searching for houses at least on a bi-monthly basis.

We are at least a few years away and another promotion away from doing anything serious with rentals.

I've been tempted to cash out one of our mutual funds and just pay off the house but have resisted temptation. It was worth 30k in 2009-2010 and it's worth near 87k now. We only owe less than 90k now on our mortgage. I know it's the right call in the long-term... But still. Tempting.

[disneysteve]

It's not active. Real estate has been, ever since I have been coming to this site, considered a four-letter word.

If you want to talk real estate, you'll need to find another site - the subject is taboo here.

The site is called SavingAdvice. Investing is certainly part of it but the majority of visitors just don't tend to be RE investors. It isn't bad or good. It's just the way it is. You don't need to be rude about it. If you want an active RE forum, I'm sure there are a few of them out there. This just isn't it. The subject isn't taboo at all. There just aren't more than a handful of people here who know anything about it.

[97guns]

I guess you could say I'm a RE worshiper, it's done very well for me and all my family members who own it as investment, it's provided my income for going on 8 years now with a much more lavish lifestyle than I ever had working.

[TexasHusker]

Do you manage the 4 rentals yourself or use a 3rd party management company? So these rentals are near vacation sites? Why'd you choose that?

I use a management company, but I also own the management company.

I chose vacation rentals for several reasons:

1. I've got cool places to stay.
2. The yields are slightly better than traditional residential houses.
3. They don't require my hands-on management.
4. There is the potential for greater capital appreciation.

[TexasHusker]

The site is called SavingAdvice. Investing is certainly part of it but the majority of visitors just don't tend to be RE investors. It isn't bad or good. It's just the way it is. You don't need to be rude about it. If you want an active RE forum, I'm sure there are a few of them out there. This just isn't it. The subject isn't taboo at all. There just aren't more than a handful of people here who know anything about it.

Perhaps if it wasn't relegated to another forum, more than a handful would know something about it. The criteria used by the moderators on which topics stay and which go is humorous, to say the least.

[disneysteve]

Perhaps if it wasn't relegated to another forum, more than a handful would know something about it. The criteria used by the moderators on which topics stay and which go is humorous, to say the least.

People felt that the few real estate conversations that there were were getting lost among everything else. That's why a separate forum was set up. It was to highlight the real estate stuff and put all of those conversations in the same place.

[kork13]

Perhaps if it wasn't relegated to another forum, more than a handful would know something about it.

I never pay attention to what forum category anything is sitting in... I don't navigate the site that way, I just use the "New Posts" link, and I know alot of others do the same... It doesn't really matter what forum anything is in, it's just a function of what threads are active.

OP, I currently own just one residential rental property, overseen for me by a management company. I'm not making a killing, but the renters are covering my expenses & are slowly building my equity in the house, so I'm happy with it. With that said, I'm definitely interested in becoming more involved with RE. My problem is primarily just inexperience with the field & a lack of skills that support it (I'm not handy or mechanically minded at all).