What are the best resources to learn how to buy an investment property and become a landlord?

Question

I want to weight the pros and cons of buying an investment property to rent and possibly live in, probably an older duplex. Any experiences or resources would be helpful.

Answer 1

Hey, I saw you had been ignored up to this point. I own 3 apartment buildings: 2 old duplexes and a 6 unit building that was once a hotel. The way I started was to buy a duplex and rent out half. My mortgage was 600 a month and the other tenant was paying 400, so I was only paying 200 a month. With the other buildings now I'm bringing in a few thousand a month.

The pros:
Fun - I thoroughly enjoy working on my older properties and getting them into a condition where I can raise the rents and give people nice places to live
Profit - With enough income, it would be possible to do it full time
Stable - Depending on who you rent to, the income is fairly stable. I rent to college students, so I have to re-fill every apartment every year, but with more stable people you'll get less work!
Ownership - Since you own the properties, you will be able to use them as collateral in any future deal, equity loans, or calculating your net worth

Cons:
Tenants - They will hate you, you're the bad guy, your making the money while you sit on your *** (or so they see it). Some tenants can get their panties in a twist for any reason at all, and will certainly try to make you out to be the bad guy. It comes with the job. I tell my tenants when they move it that if they pay the rent, we'll get along fine. I don't want to listen to excuses. I try to always fix problems within a week.
Vacancy - When it happens that your places are empty, it sucks paying many hundreds of dollars out of your pocket for the mortgages.
Ownership - Since you own the property, you are responsible for all the maintnance and upkeep. You also take the liablity if someone gets hurt.

The best resources are simply the people in the business... Realtors, other investors. Talk to the current tenents of a place you are looking to buy. They will probably be more honest about the condition of the property.

If you have any questions I can be reached at [e-mail]

Answer 2

I own seven properties, and have friends that own 10+ properties. It's my experience that the older and cheaper the property you buy, the harder it is to rent and manage. Everyone wants to rent a new place, and if you buy it new, it's likely under warranty. Believe it or not, there is little price difference between new and used, and your life will be so much better if you buy new. The way I did it, was to buy enough properties so that the profit from rent paid my own mortgage. I think you'd like that better than sharing a duplex with a tenant! Here's my favorite landlord site:
http://www.l2l2l.com/

Here's my favorite place to find vacation rental investments:
http://northgeorgiarealestatemls.com/