For some, it may sound easy to be a landlord, just acquire a property, make necessary repairs and rent it out to tenants. As long as the rent covers the mortgage, tax, and insurance, you can make cash flow each month. However, the truth is that to successfully manage a rental portfolio, it takes mor...

It’s common for small residential real estate investors, especially new investors, to compare deals in terms of ROI (return on investment) and talk to other investors about their cash-on-cash return. And often, ROI is indeed the sexy attractive number, 10%-20%, investors are going for in the end, bu...

The purpose of having a good bookkeeping system in place for your real estate business is not only for tax compliance but also for becoming better informed to make any important financial decision. When you know the exact status of your portfolio and the performance of each property at any time, you...

The prospective tenant’s ability to pay is one of the most important screening criteria for landlords in any turnover. Failure to make payment is the most common reason leading up to premature termination of the lease, and sometimes, eviction.

As a new landlord who self-manages the properties, one of the first things I came across while turning over a vacant unit is the “prospective tenant no-show”. Someone probably saw my listing on Zillow or Zumper, and casually send me a message saying that he/she is interested. Then, I, being a proact...

House hacking is probably the most effective, proven, and repeatable way to build a financial runway in your early years. It’s important to point out the word “repeatable” in the adjectives I’ve added to describe house hacking. Unlike stock market investing or getting an amazing raise, which happens...

In terms of comfort level, today’s middle class will most likely surpass that of a medieval king. But it’ll be too hasty of a conclusion just to say working a 9-5 job as a middle class is better than being a medieval king. It’s an overly simplified analogy, but you get my point here: What we track a...

To survive in the post-pandemic world as an independent landlord, we really have to stay focused on our long-term strategy, adopt a more modern approach process to make daily operation more frictionless, and be cooperative and flexible when it comes to facing challenging situations with tenants. In ...

One very important thing to keep in mind is that while landlords and property managers do have the right to evict a tenant for nonpayment, such a “nuclear” option should be used with discretion as it disproportionally and adversely affects the tenants. So, consider these three options before filing ...

To compare them apples-to-apples, we really need to look at the Sharpe ratio, which is used to help investors understand the return of an investment compared to its risk. An investment with a higher Sharpe is preferred over one with a lower Sharpe ratio; it means under the same risk level higher Sha...