Thinking about a rental property

Update:

We've got four rentals... today at least. The first one we bought just sold. We discovered the tenants were absolutely trashing the place. The woman had moved, and left her son and his girlfriend there. Don't know if the GF was still living there, but the nice little 1914 vintage Craftsman looked like a squatter's den. Overflowing ashtrays, empty liquor bottles everywhere, a pit bull in a cage ion the living room (no pets allowed, naturally), long term unreported water leak ruining part of the wood floor. Locks all changed (NOT allowed), original 84" door broken and gone, and was replaced with a cheap 80" slab and a couple of 2x4s to fill the gap - sort of. We terminated the lease, totaled up the damages, and decided to just sell it as-is rather than putting about $20K+ into repairs and refurb. The renters didn't do all of that; some of it would be needed updates like windows and floor refinishing, but they did about $8K worth of damage. I'm billing the lease signer for that, but no real expectation that she pays any of it. I'll send it to collections and anything we get is a bonus at this point - other than that, it's a tuition payment. So, we got the "landlord horror story" experience.

So why am I not crying in my beer? We bought the house, it produced rent income for over 4 years, and we're selling it as-is for about $25K more than we paid for it. After the smoke clears we'll net roughly 36.5% gross profit over that period, after expenses, commission, and all that. Unless I did the math wrong, that works out to a pretty respectable 7.6% annualized return. I'm not going to complain too loudly about that. We sold to a young couple getting married next month who want to move in, refurb it, and start a family.

So, lessons learned. We're inspecting houses regularly now, inside and out. We've finally got tenants in the last one, so things are looking pretty good.
Let me know if you get any collections to take on the case. I’ve sent tons of inquiries and no one ever responded. Collecting is a pain, and I don’t want to spend the time and gain unnecessary stress doing it myself. 7% return for a rental is pretty terrible though especially given the headaches / stress / drama.
 
… 7% return for a rental is pretty terrible though especially given the headaches / stress / drama.
The REIT in my portfolio has returned better than annually that for the 7 years I’ve been in it.
Last year it did 13%.
 
Rental property can really be a good long term investment. But you need to treat is as a business. It's hard to make a sideline. and its got to be long term. It can be a good wealth creator. But know before you go!
 
I’m not going to ***** about a 7% plus return on our absolute worst performing property. But that’s just me, I’m sure everyone else is a genius and I’m just a piker.
 
Let me know if you get any collections to take on the case. I’ve sent tons of inquiries and no one ever responded. Collecting is a pain, and I don’t want to spend the time and gain unnecessary stress doing it myself. 7% return for a rental is pretty terrible though especially given the headaches / stress / drama.
I’ll send the bill; if she doesn’t pay I’ll follow up a couple of times before sending it to collections. I’m assuming she’ll stiff us, but if we get anything back it’s gravy. She was a really great tenant up until she left her wastrel son there. The tuition payment here got us a lesson in properly monitoring your rental units, even when you think you have great tenants.
 
Regarding collections, we had many judgements from the many evictions we went through. The collection agencies we contacted all wanted a fee just to start the process. That was in addition to a significant percentage of any revenue actually collected. For us, with our tenant population, it wasn't worth pursuing.
 
If you still clear 7% from your worst "mistake", yeah, you're doing pretty good.

Many landlords I know insist on offering certain services included in the cost of the rent...mowing, changing AC filters, replacing smoke alarm batteries, etc. They do it not just for renter convenience or to maintain upkeep of the property, but to gain regular access to the property to ensure it's not transforming into a meth lab.
 
If you still clear 7% from your worst "mistake", yeah, you're doing pretty good.

Many landlords I know insist on offering certain services included in the cost of the rent...mowing, changing AC filters, replacing smoke alarm batteries, etc. They do it not just for renter convenience or to maintain upkeep of the property, but to gain regular access to the property to ensure it's not transforming into a meth lab.
We’ve told our tenants now (all of them) that they can expect us in there twice a year at the very least to service the furnace and AC, and check for any other unreported problems.

Two of the three remaining houses we’ve been in a few times and found everything absolutely great. The third I just rented today after a lengthy remodel. Told them we’d be in a few times to check on new stuff to see how it’s holding up, and service the HVAC.
 
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