Investing & Financing: "Town homes or Duplex" Reward VS Hassle

Hey everyone,

I would like to have everyone's input on a project I’m trying start. For many months now I have tried to come up with ideas on how to create passive income, besides stocks and other form of notes. The only logical one I have come up with is to become a landlord.

If you've been a landlord before, then these questions are for you or if you've never been a landlord and would like to throw in a few comments feel free.

1.)Is the pay off of being a landlord really worth hassle?

2.) Town home or Duplex? From the research I’ve completed I don’t believe I can afford to buy a town home. So, my last resort would be duplexes. I have talked with a few people who owned duplex’s their sentiments were “ I spent more money kicking my tenants out”

lol, I must be getting Alzheimer’s because when I started this post I had around twenty question to ask. Anyway this will do for now. Thanks everyone! You’re comments are much appreciated.

[quote="Jason G"]
1.)Is the pay off of being a landlord really worth hassle?
[/quote]

Like Kevin said, its all about prescreening your renters. Scenario:
-Our first renters ended up being drug users, and had more people living in the house than supposed to. Police raided the house, arrested one person, they ended up leaving on their own.
*We had to change the locks after this scenario because we believed they were coming back
-Our renters for the last 2-3 years are older (40-50's) and pay on time, landscaped the entire yard with their own money. It has come to the point where whenever something needs fixed they will have it fixed or fix it themselves and just deduct the amount off the monthly payment (which is rare because the house is only a few years old).

So you can get good renters or bad renters. If you have good renters you can live 400 miles from your property and not worry about a thing (which is what we do).

[quote="Jason G"]
2.) Town home or Duplex? From the research I’ve completed I don’t believe I can afford to buy a town home.
[/quote]

I would say this should go along with the first thing. Who would be your target renter(s) with either type?

Real estate is great passive income!

Being a landlord is a peice of cake. Oh sure, maybe 3 or 4 times a year you actually have to deal with something ... otherwise you just collect rent.

Duplexes and multiplexes are your best investment to begin with. Townhomes are one family dewellings so there is only one income. With Duplexes you have multiple incomes creating a larger passive income for yourself.

Karen

[quote="Jason G"]
1.) Are you a landlord?[/quote]

Yes.

[quote="Jason G"]
2.) What made you decided to become a landlord?[/quote]

Keeping my own housing costs down.... first bought a home with a suite to help cover the mortgage.

[quote="Jason G"]
3.) How did you acquire your first piece of property?[/quote]

Tradition way... financing through a bank. Nowadays, there are many ways to finance a property. You usually have to live in it though for traditional financing. So buy a 4-plex - collect rent on three sides, live in the fourth for free.

[quote="Jason G"]
4.) Was your duplex pre-owned or did you build?
[/quote]

I now have a tri-plex as a rental property. It was pre-owned. Two of the suites cover the mortgage and the third suite is all income.

[quote="Jason G"]
5.) How many duplex do you own and how long did it take you acquire that amount?[/quote]

Right now I only have the tri-plex and my own house.

[quote="Jason G"]
6.) How are you tenants? I have heard horrible stories of people owning duplexes and they’re tenants call them at 4:00am to fix the refrigerator.[/quote]

First, when you are dealing with tenants you should also have a list a repair people handy. When the tenant calls with a problem, simply call the repair man. Too easy.

But like I said in my previous post.... having to deal with a tenant 3 or 4 times a year is NOTHING. 4 days of out the year you get a phone call, you then in turn call a repair man, and you are done. Total time = 30 minutes. How hard is that?

I had a tenant once that caught the fridge on fire (don't ask). She called, I went and bought a new fridge, had it hooked up and that was that.

Karen

I asked my dad about the homes we own and rent out and he says he doesn't make very much from rent because of the high property tax in the area, but all of our houses' values have triped since we bought them, which he said where the real money is made.