I had to boot a squatter out when we first bought the property. Woman had been living there for 6 months with no water, heat, or electric turned on. Pissing in jars. And she was a hoarder of the useless shit variety.
When my sisters and I came into some money we thought we'd be smart and get rich by getting a rental property. That was our first mistake.
Then we bought a house with good potential literally a month before the market crashed in '08. That was our 2nd mistake.
Then we decided to hold onto it until the market recovered. That was our third mistake.
We finally unloaded it last year, taking a $80K loss on the original purchase price. The rental income minus the direct costs of maintaining the property for those 13 years worked out to about a $85K profit. So we didn't lose money on the sale but $5000 for 13 years of continual work and grief is a joke. And that doesn't take into account my time, which was considerable. and the opportunity cost of having the money tied up.
During my tenure as a landlord I got to know lots of tradespeople who dealt with landlords regularly. After awhile a clear trend became obvious. The only way to make money in the landlord business is to be a slum landlord: Have lots of properties, maintain them at the absolute minimum, and be absolutely ruthless the second a tenant is behind in rent. That single mom with 3 kids who just lost her job? She's outta there!!!!!
How do you know when a tenant is lying? Their lips move.
(post is archived)