BiggerPockets

I live off my rentals. I have several dozen.

If you do everything right, you might have a cash flow of about $100 per unit per month. If you do all the management and maintenance yourself, that might add another $100 per unit per month. So, if you want to live off your rentals, take the amount of money you need per month by either $100 or $200 (depending on whether you're doing the management or maintenance).

Good Luck,

Mike

I live off of real estate investing, but not just rental income. I also flip properties via wholesaling, retailing, rehabbing, etc.
I also have various other income streams in the real estate investing world.

If you want to live off of rental income, you will need to first, start, then continue the process. It is not a get rich quick program regardless of what gurus preach, it takes time, effort, patience, and determination but can be done.

six

I am in the same boat as Will - full time investor but my income comes from rentals / seller financing / flips / wholesales / rehabs blah blah blah.

Owning homes free and clear sure does help get the cash flow up (lots of debate here on that topic - not trying to rehash it here) but as Douglas said you have to start somewhere and that means your first $100 a month home :)

Getting started is the most important thing - Kel just posted in another thread about her and her hubby getting their second home - so just like they are - get started and build house by house.

I don't take any cash out of my REI. I want to build critical mass and a "rock solid" balance sheet first. If the plan works (God willing), I'll be in a position to live off it in 18 months, but want to wait longer to help it grow faster.

I could live off my rentals if:

1. Paid off 80k with proceeds from previous sales.
2. Could live on $1825 per mo-3650x 50%
3. Moved to Mexico and ate cold cereal for breakfast and a 6 pack for dinner.

That is an absolutely fantastic question, living off of rentals can be very lucrative, or it can be the fast track to bankruptcy! I make my living entirely off of real estate investments,but not off of rentals alone. My personal game plan does not involve a bunch of leveraged properties, I would much rather be debt free on my portfolio. This goes completely against what most folks will tell you, but over the past 15 years I have seen a lot of good people go down the tube's because of over leveraged rentals.
Now to more specifically answer your question, how much income are you looking to replace?If you do not have a ton of personal debt, you could live off of five or six paid for single-family homes. One of the biggest problems is, once you leave your full-time employment, it is going to be very difficult if not impossible to get mortgages on investment properties.
Personally, flip some contracts, take that money, by free and clear real estate! just my opinion, good luck!!!

RobTheHouseGuy is correct. Which is why 25 of my 30 properties are Free and Clear. And 3 of the 5 will be paid off in less than 10 years. So a fairly strong position.

I have 11 rentals fully paid for and bringing in nearly $100k a year free and clear, but being retired USN after 33 years I get a nice little check to retire on, so the rentals just bring in a little extra spending money... giving me time to spend my life playing with real estate lead genertion for others for free..

I have been buying rentals free and clear for the last few years. What I do is keep my expenses low (I try not to eat out or engage in general consumerism - and I have now realized that my gf that just moved in with me is more self sufficient than I realized and I am actually making money off cohabitating with her) and basically reinvest as much of my rental income and my day job income (which is still quite higher than the rental income annually - but not for long). I hope that in a few years I can have prop managers do all the work while I check my bank acct online from where I wish to be at that moment.