Anyone make any money renting houses?

[Kard63]

I've been looking up tax plans for it and all of them revolve around making cash when you sell the house. None of them give a good strategy in a situation where you make a few hundred a month. Anyone here do this?

[Rictor]

It really only works if you pay cash for the house and don't have a monthly payment to make. This is because renters suck and will rarely actually give you any money. Then, depending on the laws of your state, they get to live rent free in your house for several months before you can legally evict them. Then your spend $50,000 repairing all the damage they did to your house while they lived there, none of which you will ever get back because anyone renting a house has no money to begin with (or they'd buy) so suing them just wastes more of your money.

Then your house sets empty while you pay your monthly mortgage payments...then you rent it again and start the money losing cycle all over again.

Renting sucks unless you have a bunch of houses that you paid cash for and have a company handling all the maintenance and finding renters for you. If you actually need guaranteed money coming in each month to pay the mortgages on your rentals, you'll be bankrupt in a year.

Flipping houses is much less risky. You buy a house in a neighborhood that is on the way up, where everyone is restoring the old homes, you put a little money into it, and you sell high a year later to make a quick 20% profit. If you can actually do the work on the house yourself or can put together a cheap contstruction crew to repair houses for you full-time, then you can make even better money at this.

Of course, you need to be able to afford to lose money on a house too, because sometimes neighborhoods that are getting reclaimed take a turn for the worse and every one that was restoring their houses gives up and moves away, leaving the value of your house the same, so you lose money even if you manage to sell it for what you paid for it (considering the high fees you pay when you buy and sell real estate, especially if you use a realtor).

[Bdiddy]

What Rictor said.

Have made some good investments with my father on a couple of houses that we are flipping. He's retired, but he is an amazing handyman/carpenter who loves to remodel. It works great!

[MrJackMeHoff]

At no time during that incoherant rambling did you even come close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone here is more dumb for having read that post.

May god have mercey on your soul.

[Choppa]

At no time during that incoherant rambling did you even come close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone here is more dumb for having read that post.

May god have mercey on your soul.

gotta love Billy Madison quotes

[JFK]

It really only works if you pay cash for the house and don't have a monthly payment to make. This is because renters suck and will rarely actually give you any money. Then, depending on the laws of your state, they get to live rent free in your house for several months before you can legally evict them. Then your spend $50,000 repairing all the damage they did to your house while they lived there, none of which you will ever get back because anyone renting a house has no money to begin with (or they'd buy) so suing them just wastes more of your money.

Then your house sets empty while you pay your monthly mortgage payments...then you rent it again and start the money losing cycle all over again.

Renting sucks unless you have a bunch of houses that you paid cash for and have a company handling all the maintenance and finding renters for you. If you actually need guaranteed money coming in each month to pay the mortgages on your rentals, you'll be bankrupt in a year.

Flipping houses is much less risky. You buy a house in a neighborhood that is on the way up, where everyone is restoring the old homes, you put a little money into it, and you sell high a year later to make a quick 20% profit. If you can actually do the work on the house yourself or can put together a cheap contstruction crew to repair houses for you full-time, then you can make even better money at this.

Of course, you need to be able to afford to lose money on a house too, because sometimes neighborhoods that are getting reclaimed take a turn for the worse and every one that was restoring their houses gives up and moves away, leaving the value of your house the same, so you lose money even if you manage to sell it for what you paid for it (considering the high fees you pay when you buy and sell real estate, especially if you use a realtor).

That is one side of the equation......

[studiocritic]

there are billions to be made in short term (<30 days) vacation rentals.. especially at the beach.

vrbo.com

beachhouse.com

a1vacationrentals.com

dozens of sites like this that will list your houses for free or cheap.. and some of them have a shitload of traffic.

if you can get a house, its insanely easy to drive leads/bookings to it

[polish_aristocrat]

It really only works if you pay cash for the house and don't have a monthly payment to make. This is because renters suck and will rarely actually give you any money.

I rent an apartment now and treat in like my own, but I realize I may be an exception

[studiocritic]

I rent an apartment now and treat in like my own, but I realize I may be an exception

i do too.. but looking at how some of my idiot friends treat their places.. being a landlord would suck. holes in the walls, fixtures ripped down.. wtf

[Wilbo]

The key is to properly screen your tenants, get an adequate security deposit and have an iron clad lease which spells out who is responsible for what. I know people who make a wonderful living from this.

[bringer]

now is not the time to buy/rent or flip. keep your day job

[Kard63]

now is not the time to buy/rent or flip. keep your day job

My day job is doing well enough where I'm wondering where to put the cash. Its a new problem for me. I'm looking for something that will not require much time for the next 2 years.

[tranza]

DH makes money from renting houses too...

[AmateurFlix]

there are billions to be made in short term (<30 days) vacation rentals.. especially at the beach.

vrbo.com

beachhouse.com

a1vacationrentals.com

dozens of sites like this that will list your houses for free or cheap.. and some of them have a shitload of traffic.

if you can get a house, its insanely easy to drive leads/bookings to it

interesting links, thanks for posting that

[Kristian]

I've been doing this in the UK for 7 years. I started out by getting a 6 bedroom terrace house at auction and renting it to students at 50 quid a room per week. Collecting the rent was no problem, I left it to guys that do odd jobs for me (and bigger than me at only 5'8 lol). I now rent exclusively to professionals via an estate agent. Everything is handled for me. The most I ever have to do is review applications after they have past credit checks, review home after tennants have left, and organise a local cleaning service.

I'm actually in the process of buying a 5 bedroom terrace here in North Wales. If anyone wants first refusal on renting, lemmo know!

The next step for me is vacation rental property in Cyprus. I just can never find the time to get there and find the contacts I would need and could trust. Vacation rentals are great, yield more obviously, and companies now specialise in runnign them for you. With you being in the US this would be a fantastic option for you (i'm even considering it myself) though you may have to choose prop in another state.

[V_RocKs]

Rent to me...

[Babagirls]

i think Beemk does if i remember correctly..

[beemk]

i have one rental house right now, i paid cash for it and after all the expenses i make about $400 a month. its not that much money, but for the work it involves its worth it. plus you gotta figure how much the value of the house goes up. i could have turned around and sold the house for $20k profit, but i want to make money in the long run.

[jimthefiend]

About a third of my income is from renting out a few properties. It's a good business.

DO YOUR RESEARCH though. Know your responsibilities.

[jimthefiend]

i have one rental house right now, i paid cash for it and after all the expenses i make about $400 a month. its not that much money, but for the work it involves its worth it. plus you gotta figure how much the value of the house goes up. i could have turned around and sold the house for $20k profit, but i want to make money in the long run.

I'd have sold and reinvested.

The housing market is about to take a nose dive. There are already signs. If your profit margin is only 400 a month on that particular property, youd have been better off to sell and use the money somewhere else.

Getting more stuff to rent would be FINE, but do it in a different locale. Say, a college town.




I have one piece we bought in 97. My end is about 500 a month. We are renting it for 1300.


COLLEGE TOWN.






edit: The only reason it's 500 is because I was a fucking idiot and took out a bunch of equity once. Which I blew. I wont make that mistake on our other houses.`