My Goals For Easy Rentals and Passive Income - Feedback Please

[Julie Marquez]

My husband and I work good W2 jobs in construction (me in project management, he is a carpenter). We love real estate and want to have more rentals in our area of rural Seattle Skagit County. We have one rental house purchased last year that cash flows zero because it is on a 15 year loan. We like our jobs now and work is fine, giving us great income and great borrowing abilities, and the ability to save around $50,000 a year. 

We are investing for our retirement (or early retirement) and want easy rentals for passive income. By 2030 (in 14 years), we would like to retire and have few properties with high cash flows. For example, I don't want 150 units that cash flow $100 each, I want 15 units that cash flow $1000 each. Or even better, 7.5 properties that cash flow $2000 each. So we want to pay them off quickly.

We want to buy one property a year for the next 15 years (hopefully some small multifamily soon) with a 15 year loan and our saved money as a down payment. For the short term (first couple of years), we are okay with the cash flow breaking even. In terms of purchase price, I just want to (almost) make the 1% rule. We live in a high appreciation area, not that I'm counting on that, but we plan on holding these properties forever. We want to invest in areas of good school districts, and B or better neighborhoods. We don't want to deal with problem tenants, and we will pay a little premium for that luxury. We also target homes built 1990 or newer, as we are just more familiar with this construction, the issues, and hopefully lack of issues.

I know there are a thousand way to invest in real estate, but these are my goals. I'd appreciate any feedback or comments about anything else I should be thinking about. Thanks BP friends!

[Account Closed]

@Julie Marquez kudos on having a well defined, attainable plan. My only question is why are you so eager to pay down 4% loans? If you took 30-year mortgages and decent cashflow, this year you could save $60,000 and next year after another property you could save $72,000 and then $85,000 and so on. Then once you are out of acquisition mode and have the 8-15 units you want you can start paying them down. That is the route my wife and I are taking and it has been in this cumulative growth or "snowball" effect that we have seen the most power.