Aspies and Landlord?

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Hello,

I would ideally like to be a trader, but I don't have the cashflow at the moment, so I am putting that dream off. But there is one thing I have though about: real estate. What if you bought high yield real estate (less of the glamorous rentals), and invested in some? What about using the first years earnings to pay off the mortgage, and presto, have a payed off income stream? There are many homes that rent for at least 500 a month, and are going for less than 30k . There is also going to be a new mega store coming in, as well as a drone complex, and people need places to stay. What do yous think? Use savings as a down payment, and invest in a small fixer upper to rent?

Most people have no idea how hard being a landlord is. Aside from obvious things like people assuming they will get a tenant that will pay rent on time and the apartment will never be vacant, even for a month, here are a few things to consider:

-Tenant laws: Your apartment/house must be up to certain standards in order to rent. If you end up with a bad tenant, you need to evict them via the legal system.
-Taxes and maintenance costs: Property taxes can be a lot, depending on where you live. Maintenance costs can be a lot, especially with a fixer upper. You also cannot put off fixing an emergency, or a tenant can sue you in a lot of situations. You have to pay taxes on your rental income, too.
-The cons of being a landlord: In some states, it can take a long time to evict someone. If you're assuming the property will always remain occupied with no problems, you are mistaken. It costs money to advertise the property, if you have to do that. Also, you can't just put anything in your rental agreement. Just because you put "No visitors allowed" in there, doesn't mean it holds any water. Unless you know a trade, the costs of maintaining a rental will probably exceed the amount you get. If your tenant happens to trash the place, it can be hard to get them to pay you, even if you sue them and win. Some tenants will call you at 3 a.m. just to get you to come over and unclog the toilet. You have to be actively involved with your property, not just sit back and expect to collect money.

The worst con of them all is probably: Most experienced landlords usually give a general rule of not seeing profit from your investment for about 7-10 years. This includes if you have the money to buy it outright. Why? It will take a long time to recoup that initial 30k, plus the cost of fixing it up, plus you have to factor in your property being vacant. The bottom line?

It might be a good investment if you're willing to wait and put the work into it. Unless you're planning on buying several properties, though, it might not even be worth it. After 7 years, the profit most likely still won't be much. Plus, if you live in an area where it's cheaper to buy than rent, if people move there permanently, they will end up moving out and buying a place instead.

I will say the one thing you have going for you is buying it outright. However, you could just as easily put some of that money in stocks right now. Your best bet would be investing only some of it, and not wasting it on stocks that are only trendy.

Well, I was thinking of diversifying across different assets, and so that would not be my only asset, but I would use it as an income portion of the portfolio, to subsidize them if you will. The property I was thinking of need a little work, and is 2 miles from town, near a gas station, and cost 14k. So to me, the ROI would make it worth while. But yeah I agree, I would eventually want to buy more. I just want to get into real assets (gold, silver, land, commodities,etc.) and try and have real wealth. Not that I don't like stocks, it is just stocks are overrated.