I don’t want to be a landlord!

“I don’t want to be a landlord!”  I hear this phrase from many other real estate investors.  They don’t want phone calls at 2:00 AM for an overflowing toilet (because 2:00 AM is when everything breaks in rentals).  My response to these investors is “Okay, then don’t be. BE AN INVESTOR!”

Hire a property manager to handle those calls, collect the rent, evict tenants who don’t pay, and to screen and place new tenants in your rental units.  If your objection to this is that you can’t afford a property manager, if you want to be wealthy, you can’t afford NOT to hire a property manager.  Your time is better spent looking for your next deal, not doing what a property manager can do for you.  If your argument is that hiring a property manager will eat all of your profits, then you didn’t buy that property right, assuming you’re getting top rent for that unit.

Buying properties at a discount, whether it be short sales, from a motivated seller or a frustrated landlord, then either reselling to another investor, or rehabbing and selling retail for quick profits can make you rich, but they will never make you wealthy, because at the end of the day, you have to keep working those deals to keep bringing in the pay checks.  With long term holds (rentals), you can be on the beach or at a mountain cabin and those checks are still coming in. 

Getting to that point is not a “get rich quick” proposition.  It will take time.  I’ve heard anywhere from 5-8 years is the average time to become wealthy as a real estate investor.  This will depend greatly on your work ethic and determination.

Look for my next post where I will go over buying rental property “right.”