Excellent real life experiences and tips.I started RE investing with a duplex. I have a few other properties now but I'll never be a "professional" real estate person. But I know I must be very professional in my approach.
You MUST become very familiar with local real estate laws and follow them fastidiously. In my state (Massachusetts) the rules are very tenant-protective and ill-informed landlords can get totally screwed over. Join a local or state landlord association - it will be your best resource for legal forms, rules etc. Read the book The Good Landlord by Peter Gilman Shapiro.
Scour the Deeper Pockets website for info about maintenance ratios, costs, good spreadsheet formats. you MUST track your expenses carefully.
Be VERY careful about tenant selection. Being owner-occupied gives you some flexibility in most states (you do have a small say about who will be your neighbor, but you still can't discriminate). My landlord association gives lots of guidance, stare-compliant processes, leases and forms which has a god-send.
Use online advertising to find tenants- zillow, apartments.com etc and use online rent collection systems like apartments.com to do your lease paperwork, collect rent etc. Online payments are soooo much better than collecting checks, cash, or stories about the check is in the mail.
Listen carefully to others in this forum saying if the rental is still on the market, its probably junk. They most often never hit open market and/or are scooped up by industrial investors now. Owner-occupied is looking like a dying breed.
Good luck. It CAN go well. It has for me. ( so far)
)Well said.
Very good book suggestion:
"The Good Landlord"
Amazon. softcover:
https://www.amazon.com/Good-Landlord-Ma ... 0692440364
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Statistics: Posted by Sandtrap — Wed Jun 26, 2024 7:13 am — Replies 21 — Views 1207