How realistic and how easy would it be to be a proffitable land lord if you had the money and the prop manager

Answer 1

Here in california, payments are way more than rental income. Some states, payments are less than rents. I own 16 houses free and clear but I work on them myself. If I had to pay contractors and managers, I couldn't afford it, AT ALL.
The profit generally comes when you sell the property, so it's really a bet on rising property values. Breaking even or creating a tax loss while you own it, then a 15% maximum tax when you sell it.

Answer 2

Profitable assume that the transaction is profitable. You can operate real estate investments at a profit and still be earning a very low return on your investment.

If you pay all case for a house and then it never goes up in value you could be operating at a profit if the income is greater than the expenses to maintain the property plus other expenses.

Beyond that it is hard to say. The topic is a bit more complex. Many, many people become wealthy investing in real estate. One of the key reasons is you can get lower cost debt to finance the purchases and then get other people to effectively pay the debt back. If you hold long enough and the property at least holds its value you likely will do just fine.

Here is a little story told to me by a rather simple man who was a real estate investor because he felt he was not smart enough to do much else. He has a learning disability. He had been an investor for something like 30 years and had done just fine.

Real estate is the only field where you can buy for 100, hold for a period, sell for 50 and show a 'profit'.

What he meant is you can buy for 100 using 100% (or a down payment less than 50), let the tenant pay the rent and pay off the debt. Assuming the rent covered all the running costs plus the mortgage then you would have a property that was free and clear with no money coming from your pocket.

When you sell for 50 you owe nothing. You have some closing costs and maybe some taxes due.

Effectively you have let the tenant pay for an asset that was falling in value but they paid it off quicker than it dropped in value.

So, using very simple logic and a distortion of the true definition of the term 'profit' you can definitely make money in RE if you study and then focus on solid deals.

Answer 3

You cannot get an answer with a question like this. One would have to know too many things, such as:
1) Where are you located?
2) How many apartments or homes?
3) What is the rent?
4) How many units are rented?
5) Look at the reports for the last 3 years
6) Inspect each unit.
7) When were the appliances replaced?
8) What is the condition of the carpeting/floors?
The list goes on and on and on and on and on and on............

Will you do the daily maintenance? Would you do the paint/clean on move outs?

You get the idea, right????????