{"id":49452,"date":"2013-10-21T13:33:11","date_gmt":"2013-10-21T19:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/renewsblog\/?p=49452"},"modified":"2024-06-17T04:00:03","modified_gmt":"2024-06-17T10:00:03","slug":"2013-10-21-pros-cons-single-family-rental-properties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/2013-10-21-pros-cons-single-family-rental-properties","title":{"rendered":"The Pros and Cons of Single Family Rental Properties"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When you mention the term \u201clandlord\u201d to someone, they generally are going to imagine a person who owns large multi-family properties.\u00a0 But many landlords, including myself, own a significant number of single-family rental properties.\u00a0 In fact, I know some landlords who would never touch a multi-family property.<\/p>\n<p>Single family properties can make great rental properties.\u00a0 But, just as with everything else in life, single family properties have their pros and cons.\u00a0 Here is a short list.<\/p>\n<h2>Single Family Rental Property Pros<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>There are fewer expenses as tenants tend to be responsible for yard maintenance and all utilities.<\/li>\n<li>Tenants tend to stay longer in single family homes. \u00a0\u00a0Single family tenants tend to be in that stage of their lives when they are more settled, often with kids looking for a good school.\u00a0 \u00a0As I have said before, <a title=\"The Biggest Killer of Cashflow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/23\/cashflow-killer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">turnover is a cashflow killer<\/a>, and turnover will generally be reduced with a nice home and good tenant screening.<\/li>\n<li>A single family home can be sold at a retail price, giving you another potential exit strategy for the property.\u00a0 Generally, the only person who is going to buy your multi-family property is another investor.<\/li>\n<li>Your potential buyer base is much broader with a single family home.\u00a0 There are simply more folks out there who can and will buy a single-family homes as opposed to multi-family.\u00a0 So you will have an easier exit if you need it.<\/li>\n<li>You may not be expected to furnish appliances.\u00a0 Many single family tenants have their own appliances.<\/li>\n<li>Lower property taxes.\u00a0 Here in Tennessee, all non-owner occupied multi-family residential properties are assessed at a higher rate for property tax purposes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Single Family Rental Property Cons<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>When tenants move your vacancy rate is 100%.\u00a0 When a single family home is vacant there is NO money coming in.\u00a0 This lack of cash flow can be painful if the unit is not filled quickly.<\/li>\n<li>When vacant, theft and other vandalism can be more of a problem because there is no one there to look out for your property.<\/li>\n<li>With single family homes as your rental properties, everything you have that can break multiplies.\u00a0 You have more roofs that can leak, more air conditioners that can go out, basically just more of everything.<\/li>\n<li>More upkeep.\u00a0 There are more fences to repair, eaves and dormers to paint, etc.<\/li>\n<li>Management could be more difficult as your properties are more spread out and not all under one roof.\u00a0 You use a sort of economy of scale.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>None of these pros and cons are deal makers or killers, but they may affect your thinking on how and where you want to invest.\u00a0 It is always good to look at both sides of the coin.<\/p>\n<p>So which do you prefer, single or multi-family?\u00a0 Tell me why with your comments.<\/p>\n<p>Photo: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/43164076@N06\/4599258174\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Universal Pops<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you mention the term \u201clandlord\u201d to someone, they generally are going to imagine a person who owns large multi-family properties.\u00a0 But many landlords, including myself, own a significant number [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":172142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7380],"tags":[186,190,1347,59,790,3972,3986,569],"class_list":["post-49452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-long-term-rentals","tag-cashflow","tag-landlord","tag-multi-family","tag-real-estate-investing","tag-rental-property","tag-single-family-rentals","tag-single-family-vs-multifamily","tag-tenant"],"acf":[],"comment_count":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}