Anyone using rental income for FIRE?

[wolf]

Also, have rentals. No mortgage. In good areas. Very nice income. Manage them my self. After being a landlord for so many years, have figured out how to keep good tenants. (one's who stay for years).

Also, learned how to keep visits to rentals at a minimum. ie. When something breaks, I just tell the Tenants who to call for repairs.

If an appliance breaks, I just go out and make the purchase. Then have the
Tenant arrange for the time and day for delivery and installation. (I do not have to be at the rental).

Most, repairs can be done over the phone. (this is what R.E. management firms do.).

Yep, the income is very good, and follows inflation.

 

[jkern]

Three rental condos provide about 40% of my total income needed. They are all less than 10 years old, so maintenance has been easy even though they are located 135 miles away.

Unexpected return: they have doubled in value over the last three years.

 

[FIREd]

Yes, I do use rental income for FIRE. It's part of my 4-legged stool strategy (interests, dividends, rents, SS). Though I use a property manager to ease the pain, I can't see myself being a landlord forever. The plan is to eventually sell and probably use the money to buy a SPIA, when it makes more sense age-wise to make such a purchase.

 

[ajs56]

I'm curious how many of you are using rental properties as a meaningful part of your FIRE strategy.

1. How has your experience been?

2. Has it been worthwhile from a money vs hassle factor perspective?

3. Any surprises (good or bad) you had not expected?

4. Does it limit your ability to travel and/or live far away from your rentals?

I've been acquiring single family houses to rent out over the past two years and get around $60k / year in net income. It's not enough for us to live off of exclusively, but it's a meaningful part of our FIRE strategy.

I am 56 and planning to FIRE in 2014. Along with a partner, we have rentals in the form of 500+ storage units and a commercial/retail building. We have a full time site manager who handles bookings, site maintenance, etc, and my wife does the rent rolls, pays bills, etc. Takes about 10 hours per week average for her. When I FIRE, if we need an extended time away for travel, etc., we will have DD handle the books while we are gone.

It has been a great long term investment and a big part of our FIRE program. Relatively minor hassles nowadays as the site manager handles those, and yes it has overall been a good experience. I suspect the next big event will be structuring a sale at some point, but we are in no hurry as it poses no majopr headaches and produces a healthy NI.

 

[Senator]

I should have clarified a bit. I have 24 rental apartments, 5 four plexes, and 2 duplexes. the duplexes and one 4-plex is paid off. Plus my home is paid off.

Between all of them, they generate 110K+ in net income. Add another $20K for managing them myself. Plus my full-time job. But you need to manage them closely.


It really is not difficult if you get great tenants. The secret to great tenants is knowing how to attract them, keep them and recognize them from their application. Anyone can do it. I have written a ton of posts on how I do it on my blog.
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