Pros and Cons of becoming a landlord?

Question

In a question last night, http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AqLU5sEDGZDzMgs_rjyAoYvty6IX?qid=20070629234830AAyLQo0 (please also answer that one too if you can) I mentioned that I am a 22 year old college student and would like to get into real estate and renting at some point in the near future. One of the answers got me thinking. I may have a general idea of what it would be like, but there's probally alot of aspects that I'm not aware of.

So my question is simply this; what are the Pros and Cons of becoming a landlord?

Answer 1

Con people actually living in your house!!!! it take up to 120 days to evict during that time your not getting rent and they are destroying the house ,you can sue but they dont have anything for court to take. Then there is tenant rights they give tenants bad advice I recently allowed a family of four to move in 3 months later they allow 5 more people to move in without permission tenant rights told them as long as they were paying rent they could let as many people cas they want stay here which goes against housing codes

Answer 2

OMG! It sucks big time. I hate it. I had one guy that wrote me 11,000 dollars in bad checks then I couldn't get him evicted. The law actually protects these jerks. After 3 months of waiting for the legal process to send a sheriff over, I had to hide in the bushes with a baseball bat because the place was furnished, complete with plasma tv's, etc. The sheriff was late, and just so you know... the sheriff's department sends out a little letter letting the tenenant know when they'll be legally evicted (giving them plenty of time to rob you or destroy your property).
Another bunch of professional non-paying renters actually wrote me a rent check on a NON-EXISTING BANK ACCOUNT! I went there to throw them out and they proceeded to tell me that they weren't leaving and I would have to pay a lawyer to evict them. This gets really expensive BTW. So I went to Home Depot and bought a big screw driver and attacked the entire family of 4 with it. Then I started punching holes in the drywall. Next I told them I was going to the gas station to buy a gallon of gas and a pack of matches, REMINDING THEM that THIS IS MY HOUSE AND I'LL DO WHAT I DAMN WELL WANT WITH IT, and that included burning it to the ground. These people never paid ONE Penny out of their pockets. They were threatening me saying they would call the police and have me arrested.
And then there's the midnight runs. It's happened to me twice. The girlfriend or wife gets pregnant and all the sudden they decide they can't afford the place anymore. They usually trash the place before they vanish too.
THIS IS WHY BEING A LANDLORD SUCKS ***!