REIT I can agree with, also syndication deals are another way, but both are real estate. Good info MM.

Buy acreage, sub-divide into lots and sell. Do it right and you can make 100%+ return in under 2 years. Our last one netted 180% return in 20 months on 8 acres.

Only advice I have is don't do it.

NO WAY would I rent to anyone without going to see the house they are living in now. ------THAT will tell you if you want to rent to them. Just pop in,, no notice to them that you are coming. Ask for the land lord's name and phone # they are renting from now ------- if they wont give it -- hint hint hint ----- Also get their credit score,, that tells you a lot.

Got to start somewhere. The end goal is to turn these rentals in 15 years and buy the vacation rentals that we want, where we want, for retirement

Pig wants to buy a rent house and asks for advice. Pretty sure he tot thinking to obtain lessons on multi-family units, REITs and land development. KISS.

Just start with the vacation rentals..................why do the PITA rents. Just buy the resort house and build from that.

No need to make that first mistake of long term tenants......................but hell, Ive had lots of fun with all those mistakes.


Giddyup.

In that case I'd buy SFR in the range of 1200-2500 sq ft or a small du/tri/4 plex. Also, as I'm sure you know, the market in DFW is bonkers right now.

I have 2 rent house. Both are paid off by renters.

The rule of thumb that I read about is to rent the unit for 1% per month of the value of the house. That has never worked for me because a person who qualifies could buy his own home.

As said, get an application and check references from former landlords. If they re uncomfortable with or decline to provide, pass on them.

Do a credit check!,!! If they don’t/haven’t paid others they won’t pay you.

Property taxes can be a killer on commercial property.

I also schedule walk throughs every 90 days. If anything needs to be repaired, I have it done and they have to reimburse me or hit the road.

I’m lucky that my Wife works for a law firm and can tell us about criminal, credit and other backgrounds.

I pay for the water bill and install sprinkler systems. That way I know the lawn is watered and also the foundation.

Yep, I’ve had to evict people with children but I’m not in this business to make friends

Good advice above. Crazy prices for homes in DFW right now. I heard on the 'Texas standard', radio program that We are about 2 million homes short, in our state. It's not slowing down anytime soon. I might add, when you hand the keys over, do a walk through, take pictures, explain why we don't flush stridex medicated pads, baby wipes or Womens hygiene products. Show them how to replace a/c filters. If there's a drip under the sink they need to call you immediately. I'm sure there are other things. These are just some things I've run into.

My Sister and BIL had some. They turned them into B&B's and are making way more off them.

It can be a good investment but shouldnt be looked at as a casual commitment.

good renters, get everything in the contract, agree to inspections before and after. 24 hour notice to come into property. Deposits returned only after cleaning verified etc.. Don't take any slack. Offer to pay for certain utilities, rent duplex, live on one side so to easily monitor.

You are burning the candle on both ends, and now want a forest fire in the middle??? https://texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/8033613/a-year-off#Post8033613

I have always been interested in real estate. I have a good friend that has 10 rental homes and he is constantly dealing with tenets and hearing him talk about dealing with all that nonsense changed our direction on what we wanted to do. We went the vacation rental route and bought our first place this past August. The cabin is in Broken Bow and it is jammed packed booked. We have less than 10 days available the rest of the year. We are way ahead in our income projections on the place and have already started to look for our next vacation rental to buy, looking in Hot Springs, AR or in the Hill Country somewhere.

I might need to look into this. We have an acre lot at Canyon lake. I need to check my restrictions.

The other places that were recommended to me was Gatlinburg, TN and Branson, MO. Those were the number 1 and 3 hot spots that my management company recommended. Broken Bow was number 2. I asked about Galveston and they suggested shying away from there due to taxes. Also asked about the Gulf Shores and they said that its good, but a saturated market. TN and MO are interesting to me but I rather get something a bit closer.

Stress drives me, boredom kills me.

Vacation rentals are in the plans after we establish a few long term rentals. The plan is to put the earnings from every month into a separate account to build and cover repairs and vacancies. Eventually when we purchase a vacation rental, those funds will also go into that account and if it ever doesn’t pay the mortgage, then that account will have the funds to cover it.

It’s not like we can’t cover a vacation rental right now, hell we could buy one and never rent it and be fine, but that’s not how I want to operate. These are investments and not luxuries.

Had several rental properties long ago. Get references from last few rent/owners, do credit and background check, have a lease that spells out everything (late payments, partial payments not accepted, restrictions on modifications (even painting), walkthroughs/annual inspection, no pets without nonrefundable deposit and if "no pets" - strictly enforce that rule, ability to enter property, penalties for breaking the lease. etc). Get a deposit that equals or exceeds the monthly rent. Do not accept a partial deposit and/or allow early move in. No partial rent payments - be firm with the the late/partial rent penalties. Only had to put out one tenant in almost 20 years of having properties. I always fixed or had fixed any issues promptly. Communicate with your tenants anything that might disturb them.

That’s good to hear. Thank you.

a lot of very good advise on here. My wife and I bought our first rental property in 1986 and struggled for a number of years trying to make it work on our own but tenants typically don't treat the property very well. I tried to do all the maintenance myself, which became a lot more work than I could keep up with while still working full time. After several years, my wife changed jobs into working for a broker that also did property management. She learned a lot about managing properties from working there (still works there) and found several things we were doing wrong or at least costing us more time/money in doing things the way we were trying to do. She manages about 50-60 investor properties, so she has connections to every type of maintenance person that we also leverage to our properties, and they usually cut us a better deal since she funnels so much work to them with all the others.

get a good lease agreement, background (criminal and financial) checks, minimum 1 month security deposit, nonrefundable pet deposit. We also require a professional to clean the house when someone is moving out at the end of their lease, funds come from their security deposit. We also replaced all the bedrooms flooring (except master) with commercial grade laminate flooring (looks like wood), the rest of the floors were already tile. We also require no smoking inside the house and if there is a hint of smoke when tenants are moving out, everything gets a fresh coat of paint (paid from their deposit). Everything is spelled out in the lease agreement.

I would strongly suggest getting a property manager to handle your rental property(s)!!! Yeah, they cost a little bit but they are well worth it in dealing with all the things surrounding a property(s).