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Trying to decide if I should buy a 4-plex apartment building or a renovated house that has 3 units. The numbers seem to give similar returns on investment. House costs less, but brings in less cash flow.
buy a single family home, live in it and invest elsewhere... being a landlord sucks! its all good until its not. then it can be holy hell depending where you are located and the laws
buy a single family home, live in it and invest elsewhere... being a landlord sucks! its all good until its not. then it can be holy hell depending where you are located and the laws
Mathjak, is this good advice for an investor? Didn't you mention in another thread that you or someone in your family was retiring soon from real estate investments?
I agree with you, it can be holy hell, however it can also be great. It all depends on the landlord, location, tenants and the profits. Don't you think?
By the way, I would by the 4 plex....the more the merrier
But if your not handy a renovated house may be better for you
YEP after 24 years of real estate investing we are done.......
its been brutual the last few years with tenents, expenses, local laws. not something we want to do going into early retirement. .. in fact if we were able to liquidate sooner we would have but basically these were co-op apartments with the origional rent stabilized tenents in them from when the building was taken co-op decades ago..
real estate is a business, its not something that is truely passive. its like owning any other business. it has its aggrevation and legal battles from time to time.. the problem is for most who dabble in it they are very dependent on the rent. have a tenant turn bad on you and the courts can take months to evict them and the stress is tough... its not like a stock dosnt go your way and in a second its gone and life goes on . you need alot deeper pockets to dabble in real estate as the nubies find out .....
for passive investing its certainly not my first choice ....... beginers think buy a rental property and the money rolls in.... it rolls out just as quick too when things turn ugly. lol.......
the biggest mistake most make is not realizing its only good until its not. if your doing this passively it takes alot of time and money to deal with tenants when they dont pay... their problems become your problems.....
some areas are better then others, im in nyc..... courts here are very anti-landord.
Last edited by mathjak107; 11-09-2009 at 01:31 PM..
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