How to Get $10k/month Cash Flow: That's the Wrong Question

How to Get $10k/month Cash Flow: That's the Wrong Question

Investor · Boston, MA · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 3k+ votes

A lot of people want to use REI to escape their 9-5 and replace their W2 income so they can live the life they want. That leads to the reasonable question 'I need/want $7/10/15k/ month in free cash flow(FCF) from my RE portfolio, what is the best and fastest way to get there so I can leave my soul sucking 9-5?', which if you spend any amount of time on BP you've seen a dozen times.

IMHO the question is interesting, but not the best version: it is too abstract for people to give concrete actionable advice, not to mention there is no one best or fastest way to do things like this. Plus it doesn't lend itself well to being quantifiable. How many SFR doors is $10k/month free cash flow?

What I would ask is, how do I get to $100k/month in revenue. If someone wants $10k/month from owning RE that they then rent/lease, some form of debt will come into play. Using a DSCR of 1.3 backs into a NOI of $43,333/month.

[Skip if you don't like math: FCF= NOI-Debt and NOI/Debt=DSCR. If DSCR=1.3 then NOI=1.3debt. Plugging that in to the first equation yields 1.3debt-debt=FCF or debt=FCF/.3] 

Using a 55% expense ratio gives us $96k/month of top line revenue. [More math, NOI=Rev-exp, if exp=55% of rev, then NOI= Rev-.55 Rev or Re=NOI/(1-.55) ] 

Reasonable minds can differ about the DSCR and expense ratio by asset class, but it gets us in the ball park.  Now we can get to a number of doors one would need if we wanted to do, say SFRs ( in Suffolk County MA, which has a median rent of $1,524/month, that's 66 doors) and number of doors, gets us to number of down-payments we need, which determines financing strategy, how to manage ect. 

So, the question is: how would you get $100k/month in revenue from RE investing  (either the debt or equity side)  and how long do you think it would take? Or is this even a worth wild goal? If not, why? 

I'd be interested to hear from @Steve Vaughan @Mike Dymski @Jim K. @Steve K. @Jay Hinrichs @Joe Splitrock 

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Investor · Greenville, SC · Member since 2016 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes
6y

There is an extremely small percentage of investors who quit their jobs with a passive real estate portfolio.  And nearly all of them don't have a passive portfolio...they run real estate businesses.  The other part I don't get is why so many people do jobs they hate.  Managing residents, investors, and contractors is not exactly a solution for high job satisfaction either.  Lastly, I think most investors who do end up scaling do it organically rather than following a formula...and they make tons of pivots on the way that are not aligned at all with the original formula (markets, interests, and opportunities change).  The growth is not linear...may be one or two properties in one year and a bunch in another, then a pause, sell some, keep others...it's a fluid business.

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  • Rental Property Investor · Batavia, IL · Member since 2018 · 452 posts · 672 votes
    6y

    Great post @Bill F. I could be wrong, but I honestly think the majority of those who post such questions on the forums wouldn't even have the motivation or patience to grab a financial glossary to understand the terms you just just used (NOI, DSCR, FCF, expense ratio etc) let alone develop a spreadsheet and plan outlining their financial goals with realistic numbers and timelines. Replacing income to be able to "retire" in 1-2 years is in vogue right now and while RE is a great way to do that in the long term, many don't understand the amount of education, work, persistence, and time it takes for 99% of people to get to that FI number. What you've outlined would be a good starting point though to help understand just how much needs to be done to truly hit the free cash flow targets that we aspire to attain.

  • Handyman · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2018 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes
    6y

    OK,@Bill F.

    Let me clarify that every time I hear "best and fastest way" in this business, I'm really hearing "get-rich-quick." There is no best and fastest way to do ANYTHING in real estate, as far as I can tell. There is a small group of higher-probability ways to do something and a much larger group of lower-probability ways to do the same thing. The one great standout way, the royal road, simply does not exist.

    The question, as I'm reading it, is how to go from taking home $120,000 a year FREE AND CLEAR (FCF= Free Cash Flow), to taking home $1.2M FCF.

    Imagining that it's going to come from ONE WAY is a mathematical wet dream. So many single-family homes or so many apartments in apartment buildings equals net operating income for each minus capital expenditures for each equals free cash flow). Adding up, scaling up, zoom-zoom-zoom in the one way I'm using to make money off real etate.

    By the time you get to that point, you're always buying assets with one hand and selling assets with the other. You're never just ringing the same gong over and over. If you're in my space, cheap rental SFR in low C-class neighborhoods, well before you get to $120K FCF per year in any given year you're renovating one or more to sell to the retail market and acquiring one or more for additional rental income. It's never just a simple math equation of real estate income from X number of houses that you're renting.

    So there's never going to be a straight line in real estate investing from $120K a year to $1.2M a year. If it comes at all, it's going to come from multiple, diversified sources of income within RE, not just straight rental take. In single-family rentals, you would make money renovating and selling appreciated properties, you'd make money in rent, you make money wholesaling, you'd make money renovating and selling new acquisitions. It's all going to work together. We're talking a large operation, with a number of employees. And certainly by the time you get even close to $120K/yr FCF, you're also diversified into multifamily, commercial, moneylending, etc. That's just the normal order of things.

    So I'd stop looking for the "best and fastest" straight lines. What's going to work for one person with one skillset isn't going to work for another person with another skillset. And then in the worst kicker, the ones that do the best in the beginning are often also the first to lose their shirts when things go belly-up.

  • Investor · Greenville, SC · Member since 2016 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes
    6y

    There is an extremely small percentage of investors who quit their jobs with a passive real estate portfolio.  And nearly all of them don't have a passive portfolio...they run real estate businesses.  The other part I don't get is why so many people do jobs they hate.  Managing residents, investors, and contractors is not exactly a solution for high job satisfaction either.  Lastly, I think most investors who do end up scaling do it organically rather than following a formula...and they make tons of pivots on the way that are not aligned at all with the original formula (markets, interests, and opportunities change).  The growth is not linear...may be one or two properties in one year and a bunch in another, then a pause, sell some, keep others...it's a fluid business.

  • Real Estate Broker · Portland, OR · Member since 2019 · 4k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    6y

    I think saying I want to make $X/month and that's it won't work.

    I want to cure cancer in 10 months.   Got no plan to get there otherwise.

    Better idea is:

    1) Find out what you're good at

    2) Learn what you're not good at.  Learn to get better or do a work-around like a partner.

    3) Identify the deals you want

    4) Start writing.  Determine why you lost out on bids

    5) The ones you win, find out what you did right and did wrong.  Fix what you did wrong.

  • JD MartinBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Rock Star Extraordinaire · Northeast, TN · Member since 2015 · 10k+ posts · 16k+ votes
    6y

    I am with @Jim K. in that I don't think there is any linear instruction manual here. I also agree with @Mike Dymski in that the most likely scenario is that you "retire" to run your RE business. I know that's what I will be doing. If you've done it well/done it right, the time commitment is probably 1/10 of the time commitment of a typical W2, but the idea that 99% of people are going to have a totally passive portfolio that runs itself while they drink Appletinis on the beach is pure fantasy. Most of my houses run themselves, but there's still 5-20 hours per month that I put into the properties on average, depending on turnover, new purchases, etc. 

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  • Joe VilleneuvePro Member
    Plymouth, MI · Member since 2013 · 13k+ posts · 19k+ votes
    6y
    Originally posted by @Steve Morris:

    I think saying I want to make $X/month and that's it won't work.

    I want to cure cancer in 10 months.   Got no plan to get there otherwise.

    Better idea is:

    1) Find out what you're good at

    2) Learn what you're not good at.  Learn to get better or do a work-around like a partner.

    3) Identify the deals you want

    4) Start writing.  Determine why you lost out on bids

    5) The ones you win, find out what you did right and did wrong.  Fix what you did wrong.

     Except you may not have done anything wrong, for the ones you didn't get.  Sometimes the best deals, are the ones you didn't get.  The goal isn't to collect properties, the goal is to collect $$$$.  That means you establish the financial criteria you "need", not "want", based on a plan.  Find markets where strategies you know will deliver the financial criteria from that plan...now make offers based on that property delivering that criteria.  If your offer isn't accepted, you move onto the next property/deal/offer...and don't negotiate against yourself by continuing to attempt to get this property.  If the deal is gone, and the property is still available, let someone else take the property...and move on to the net deal.

  • Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
    6y
    Originally posted by @Mike Dymski:

    There is an extremely small percentage of investors who quit their jobs with a passive real estate portfolio.  And nearly all of them don't have a passive portfolio...they run real estate businesses.  The other part I don't get is why so many people do jobs they hate.  Managing residents, investors, and contractors is not exactly a solution for high job satisfaction either.  Lastly, I think most investors who do end up scaling do it organically rather than following a formula...and they make tons of pivots on the way that are not aligned at all with the original formula (markets, interests, and opportunities change).  The growth is not linear...may be one or two properties in one year and a bunch in another, then a pause, sell some, keep others...it's a fluid business.

    Agree Mike those that live on RE estate generated income are in the business..  I am sure there are plenty that sell a company or get an inheritance and start kind of at the top.. but thats the outlier..  Its just a business  with inventory and a service and a tough one at that.

  • Cincinnati, OH · Member since 2020 · 4k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    6y

    @Bill F. at the end of they day, setting your goal is setting your goal. Whether the goal is a fixed amount per month of FCF or NOI, or set number of doors, etc it is a goal to target. The reason I prefer free cash flow is that each house is different. Taxes in one neighborhood are different than the next. Expenses for one house are different than the neighboring property. So backing into a NOI and applying a high level assumption can give you a ball park, but when talking a specific goal you need specific numbers, hence looking at FCF.

  • Investor · Boston, MA · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    6y

    Thanks for the great answers so far!

    I agree with @Mike Dymski that most people who want to reach their "Freedom Number" don't realize they will most likely trade one job for another. My answer to how to get to $100k/month in Rents would be similar to Mike's point about pivoting. Trying to get to $10k FCF per month from $200/door is a fools errand that misses the other ways RE generates money, mainly appreciation and debt pay down. Having a strategy that allows you to take advantage of those two wealth generators and allows you end with the top line revenue/FCF you care about will get you there much faster than focusing only on cash flow. 

    @Jim K. sorry I wasn't clear, the question is how to get $100k/month in gross rents, but you still hit on two other great points! Portfolios don't stay static, properties come in and they go out based on market conditions. Getting tied to the idea of "must have this cash flow" can blind people to the opportunity to sell a property and get 50 months of cash flow all at one time. Also, as a result of being in and around RE other opportunities will come about, like lending, flipping, moving up stream...

    @Jay Hinrichs you summed it up better than I could; at a certain point this stops becoming investing and starts being a business. Not everyone wants or can have a business. RE is a great place to put money, but a hard place to make money. 

    @Evan Polaski fair enough, but a goal without a plan is just a dream. So how do you plan to meet your goal unless you have a plan on how to get there? One of the points of my original post was to show how a reasonable sounding goal, like $10k/month in FCF, can turn out not to be not so realistic when put into a more easily digestible context. 

  • San Antonio, TX · Member since 2019 · 930 posts · 836 votes
    6y

    @Bill F.

    The other thing to think about which I don’t know is occurring to some folks, is that if you want to replace your W2 with 10k/mo in rental cash flow, it’s not going to be passive. My best estimate for my area is that you would need between 50-100 tenants to generate that cash flow. If you are self managing, that is at least a full time job, and even if you have PMs working on them, it’s still going to be several hours a week.

    If you try to buy properties in lower income areas that seem to have higher cash flows, you run into issues that those properties tend to be even more management intensive, and often don’t meet the anticipated cash flow anyway. If you are a newbie thinking that you can grab that many properties and sit on the beach drinking margaritas, it’s not going to work that way.

  • Member since 2020 · 437 posts · 675 votes
    6y

    @Bill F.

    My question is why do people hate their 9-5 so much!

  • Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
    6y
    Originally posted by @Justin Thorpe:

    @Bill F.

    My question is why do people hate their 9-5 so much!

    grass is always greener on the other side of the hill.. constant social media of how to get rich with non of your own money etc etc.

    really just an extension of MLM marketing at its core.. 

  • Handyman · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2018 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes
    6y

    Two points:

    First, there's a real, obviously intended conflation on Bigger Pockets between two concepts: a "freedom number" and a more limited concept related to the financial independence blogosphere and community, a "financial independence number" or "FI number."

    Your FI number is based on a simple calculation: do you have 25 times your annual spending budget in broad-based stocks and bonds index fund investments? If you do, then there's good data that shows that you'll be able to retire for life, taking out an annual spending budget of (4%) from your saved money annually. So if you have $1M saved, for instance, and you are able to live on $40K a year, then you'll be able to take $40K a year out of your investment portfolio to spend and you won't die broke.

    More information on that: 
    How to Retire Forever on a Fixed Chunk of Money

    On the other hand, this is a Bigger Pockets's take on the "freedom number" concept:
    How to Calculate Your Freedom Number by Learning Your “Real” Net Worth

    Since many number of people here on Bigger Pockets are not interested in the slightest in curtailing their personal spending or even doing the work of accounting for it, the whole "freedom number" notion, which depends on rigorously controlling your spending, gets mighty fuzzy around here.

    We have also largely agreed in this thread that there is no such thing at 100% passive real estate investment, or to reuse @JD Martin's very useful phrasing, "the idea that 99% of people are going to have a totally passive portfolio that runs itself while they drink Appletinis on the beach is pure fantasy." With that in mind, you can really start to see the strings trailing off that freedom number.

    ---------------------------

    Second, I don't think everyone starts off hating their job. I think this society is relentlessly trying to brainwash you into the belief that your career should be your passion. I think that's possible for a lot of jobs, especially when you're at the beginning of working in them. It certainly was for what I used to do for a living, which was teaching English to speakers of other languages. I could be passionate as hell about the general occupation...until the reality that doing it came with the cost of spending my life with very little financial security in a world of ever-increasing financial insecurity made itself perfectly clear to me.

    But that didn't happen for years. You kind of get sucked into it. I'm pretty sure that on Day 1 at Facebook, for instance, no dude sitting in front of a screen working on a team of guys that are delegated the task of improving one possibly better way to share cat pics thinks of himself as a "feline image viral distribution facilitator." They have larger ideas about their job...until time comes along and teaches them better. From that point on, hate starts to take over. Hatred and a blind urge to be free.

    So is it any wonder that so many uphappy people leap at real estate investing as a wonderful chance to change their stars? Just look at the way it's sold in late night infomercials. They never have a DIY dude like me in a filthy T-shirt talking about fixing a water heater that failed because the idiot who installed it didn't know what a dielectric union was. Nobody ever explains how they lost their shirt buying their first place with credit cards. Who have you ever heard in an infomercial detailing the difficulties of overseeing the creation of a scope and order-of-work schedule when you only have minimal construction knowledge? No, the guys selling the fantasy are all laid back, sitting on boats, explaining how they have all the free time in the world after raking in $10K before lunch. Go to the real estate seminars. All of the speakers are emphasizing their free time...their time to do what they love...their time to spend with their families...

    They all make it sound like a machine that quietly prints money and makes it magically appear in your back pocket. What person whose only moment of happiness in their job is opening their bank account and seeing that the biweekly direct deposit of their salary is in wouldn't want a machine like that?

  • Rental Property Investor · East Wenatchee, WA · Member since 2014 · 10k+ posts · 16k+ votes
    6y

    @Bill F.  Completely agree easiest way to get to $x per month is the wrong question.   I guess that's a way to ask how to become financially independent or to have time freedom, options, choices, etc but i doubt many asking know their deep why. Hard to put easy and fast in the same sentence of realities' time and hard work.  

    The steps to attaining FI are different for everyone. I've never been a deep in the weeds how sharer unless its a specific topic.  Too many variables for something so fluid as real estate to outline some guide.  Too many pivots required as @Mike Dymski and @Jim K. and @JD Martin consistently refer to.  it is not binary.

    We change and grow as we go.  I have a mix of asset types, purchase methods, financing terms, exit strategies, etc.  Case by case,  The important thing to me is why I am doing it and when is enough enough to get off the treadmill. 

    Just as I feel content a new cause will strike me.  I need a why to pursue something as I state over and over,  Affordable housing, helping vets and the invisible people interrupt my nap schedule these days.  

    The $x per month are a result of the purpose, not the reason itself.  Cue Mike's cart before the horse pic and thank you for tagging me, Bill. 

  • Member since 2020 · 437 posts · 675 votes
    6y

    @Jay Hinrichs

    You nailed it. There is indeed a massive undercurrent of subliminal marketing via social media and other channels pedaling GRQ (get rich quick) ideas many of which include RE as the ticket to nirvana and a 9-5 career as a loser convention.

    I don’t speak for everyone but most wealthy people I know worked other professions and found themselves in RE as investors because it offered them a great avenue to invest the wealth they earned from their jobs, ventures etc. I am talking Wall Street bankers, Tech execs, Doctors, Attorneys or entrepreneurs.

    Many if not all got their start in the 9 -5 / cubicle world. Also most are highly educated who painstakingly went to college for many years.

    So at least the world I see counter argues with the world many “gurus” (guys who lecture to sell their books, videos etc) preach which looks down on the cubicle/ 9-5 culture and higher education (not to mention home ownership) but tells people to skip all of that “nonsense crap” and get right into RE as their fastest ticket to the country club. Makes it all look like the modern day Amway / Quixstar story.

  • Investor · Boston, MA · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    6y

    @Justin Thorpe and @Jim K. interesting insight, so maybe I'm asking the wrong question too...It its core maybe this is about why are so many people so desperate to leave their job? 

     I do have the time to do a ton of research, but of the two links I clicked on (told you I didn't have  lot of time) this Pew report seemed interesting, it is four years old, so COVID has had an impact, but we can roll with it. 

    Big take away, the majority of Americans are happy with their jobs. Some big factors that make you more likely to be happy in your jobs: 

    -Income: makes sense the more $ you make the more you like your job

    -Education: Probably correlated with Income to a degree

    -Work Schedule that you like

    -Full time vs part time

    -Getting Benefits. 

    -Viewing the job as a steppingstone in a larger career. 

    Interesting, self employed people have the most sense of identity from their job of people not working in government or Non-profit: 

    So maybe the push to get out of the cube is more about agency and meaning than we give it credit for..

  • Contractor · Sheboygan, WI · Member since 2016 · 917 posts · 266 votes
    6y

    @Bill F. too many answers center around single family and multi family. As a passive investor people with retirement accounts have been getting 10% for years on commercial triple net lease properties.

    Find RE investors who think " outside the box" to get the best options to accomplish your passive income goals.

  • Will GastonPro Member
    Rental Property Investor · Columbia, SC · Member since 2010 · 1k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    6y

    @Bill F. I feel compelled to answer this because I have ~100k/month in revenue. 

    I've been investing for 15 years, own 75 units with a mix of student rentals, commercial offices and a handful of lower income properties with gross rents in the 120k/month range.

    It's been my experience that "passive income" in real estate is at best on a spectrum and at worst a complete lie.

    I have in-house management for most of my portfolio and outsource management to 3rd parties for some of my other properties. I spend a lot of time and energy managing the management across all of this. Passive income suggests (at least to me) that no effort or time is required. That is not true in me experience. Even on commercial leases. 

    Yes, the grass is greener on this side. But it still has to be watered.

  • Rental Property Investor · Batavia, IL · Member since 2018 · 452 posts · 672 votes
    6y

    @Bill F.  I think at the heart of all this discontent is the cultural drive of the work force to demand more hours, more availability, more productivity etc. which, as @Jim K. alluded to, is turning once enthusiastic workers to become disheartened and burned out by the increasing demands placed upon them.   Social media, infomercials, podcasts, etc. all tell us that the grass is greener on the other side.  What seems to have been forgotten over time is that the grass is green wherever you take the time to water and fertilize it.  So instead of changing yards, doing the same thing, and expecting better grass....we need to take the time to figure out how to make our own grass green first. 

  • Central, MN · Member since 2015 · 148 posts · 184 votes
    6y

    The best part about this thread is you got a lot of heavy hitters to respond and share their thoughts!  As a person not even in the category of anyone who posted here, I'd share this.  Why are so many people looking to get out of their jobs?- I think it is a lot of reasons.  First, data exists everywhere now to show how wages have not kept up with corporate earnings.  Many folks feel taken advantage of and unfulfilled- money isn't the only caveat though, the TIME people invest in their jobs, they start to realize they never get it back.  For many, 50 years ago, life was slower and it was more about a steady lifestyle.  Now, everyone is chasing experiences, how many things can I do with my life, time being the one thing you can't get back.  There is no doubt the glamorizing of RE Investing has driven this bus as well, too.  The reality is, never before have more people WANTED more things and never have more people feel liked they DESERVED more things.  There are plenty of adults in the world today whose parents spent almost every waking moment making sure they had all they wanted(wanted not needed!), could do everything they cared to do, etc. as children.  It has created an eternal WANT for more and more things, money, stuff, experiences.  I think folks hear podcasts, see infomercials and  think, " He or She has everything I want and they do this!"  

    I also think the humility of some of the key folks on this site, also help drive the confidence bus.  Folks like @Jay Hinrichs, @Steve Vaughan, @JD Martin have had so much success, yet you never hear them discourage folks, they often talk about how it isn't about some secret process, but rather doing the work, being mindful, seeing things through. I think most folks feel they can do that, so REI becomes more appealing.

    REI for me is an avenue to financial security, but I know full well, I can't "sit and drink appletinis" all day. I'm not wired for that, however if REI can give me more power of choice, I'm all for it. I also like tangible. Real Estate is a physical thing, not just some stock or bond or whatever. I can see it, work on it, watch what it provides for others. I can physically see it provides a home, jobs, a contribution to the community, etc. Yes a stock may do that too, but I can't see it.

  • Member since 2020 · 201 posts · 118 votes
    6y
    Originally posted by @Bill F.:

    @Justin Thorpe and @Jim K. interesting insight, so maybe I'm asking the wrong question too...It its core maybe this is about why are so many people so desperate to leave their job? 

     I do have the time to do a ton of research, but of the two links I clicked on (told you I didn't have  lot of time) this Pew report seemed interesting, it is four years old, so COVID has had an impact, but we can roll with it. 

    Big take away, the majority of Americans are happy with their jobs. Some big factors that make you more likely to be happy in your jobs: 

    -Income: makes sense the more $ you make the more you like your job

    -Education: Probably correlated with Income to a degree

    -Work Schedule that you like

    -Full time vs part time

    -Getting Benefits. 

    -Viewing the job as a steppingstone in a larger career. 

    Interesting, self employed people have the most sense of identity from their job of people not working in government or Non-profit: 

    So maybe the push to get out of the cube is more about agency and meaning than we give it credit for..

    "-Income: makes sense the more $ you make the more you like your job"

    Actually many people recall the period when they made most money as the worst period of their lives, as making that extra money, or earning a top salary meant accepting commitments that worsened their personal life.

  • Real Estate Broker · Portland, OR · Member since 2019 · 4k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    6y
  • JD MartinBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Rock Star Extraordinaire · Northeast, TN · Member since 2015 · 10k+ posts · 16k+ votes
    6y
    Originally posted by @Rich S.:

    The best part about this thread is you got a lot of heavy hitters to respond and share their thoughts!  As a person not even in the category of anyone who posted here, I'd share this.  Why are so many people looking to get out of their jobs?- I think it is a lot of reasons.  First, data exists everywhere now to show how wages have not kept up with corporate earnings.  Many folks feel taken advantage of and unfulfilled- money isn't the only caveat though, the TIME people invest in their jobs, they start to realize they never get it back.  For many, 50 years ago, life was slower and it was more about a steady lifestyle.  Now, everyone is chasing experiences, how many things can I do with my life, time being the one thing you can't get back.  There is no doubt the glamorizing of RE Investing has driven this bus as well, too.  The reality is, never before have more people WANTED more things and never have more people feel liked they DESERVED more things.  There are plenty of adults in the world today whose parents spent almost every waking moment making sure they had all they wanted(wanted not needed!), could do everything they cared to do, etc. as children.  It has created an eternal WANT for more and more things, money, stuff, experiences.  I think folks hear podcasts, see infomercials and  think, " He or She has everything I want and they do this!"  

    I also think the humility of some of the key folks on this site, also help drive the confidence bus.  Folks like @Jay Hinrichs, @Steve Vaughan, @JD Martin have had so much success, yet you never hear them discourage folks, they often talk about how it isn't about some secret process, but rather doing the work, being mindful, seeing things through. I think most folks feel they can do that, so REI becomes more appealing.

    REI for me is an avenue to financial security, but I know full well, I can't "sit and drink appletinis" all day. I'm not wired for that, however if REI can give me more power of choice, I'm all for it. I also like tangible. Real Estate is a physical thing, not just some stock or bond or whatever. I can see it, work on it, watch what it provides for others. I can physically see it provides a home, jobs, a contribution to the community, etc. Yes a stock may do that too, but I can't see it.

     Thanks :)  I think you have the right attitude. It's really difficult to have success long-term if you don't enjoy what you are doing. I have always enjoyed fixing things, my entire life. When I was a kid the first thing I did when I got a new toy for Christmas (or when I got my first transistor radio!) was take it apart, much to my parent's chagrin. I always wanted to know "what makes this tick" or "how did they put this together without any screws?". Most of the time - not always! - I got the thing back together. Then I moved on to cars when I got a little older, to where I could build one from boxes. Houses were just a natural outreach for me, I guess. And I think one of the reasons I always liked real estate as opposed to stocks or other investments, aside from the things you mentioned (something tangible, can actually do things with it, etc) is that things that would horrify other people don't phase me at all. Other than a badly shifting foundation, which I don't like dealing with, there's virtually nothing on a house I can't fix. That gave me a lot of confidence - first in saving money by DIY, next by not being able to be snowed by contractors and builders, and finally by not being worried about big-ticket repairs.

    When it came to trading stocks and things like that I found I just didn't have the stomach for it. Other people really get off on that rush - for me it just produces anxiety. On the flip side, a day putting together a kitchen (I like woodwork and putting in cabinetry and trim) with the radio playing is a really fun, physically rewarding day. That I am making money to boot is just a bonus!

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  • Joe SplitrockPro Member
    Moderator
    Rental Property Investor · Sioux Falls, SD · Member since 2015 · 9k+ posts · 18k+ votes
    6y

    Looking at gross income is a good way to look at it, because that is an actionable goal. Cash flow is just a byproduct of gross income - expenses. You may need $100K gross to get $10K if everything was leveraged. However if properties  are paid off, you could get to $10K free cash flow with under $20K gross rents. 

  • Rental Property Investor · East Wenatchee, WA · Member since 2014 · 10k+ posts · 16k+ votes
    6y
    Originally posted by @Juan Pardo:

    Actually many people recall the period when they made most money as the worst period of their lives, as making that extra money, or earning a top salary meant accepting commitments that worsened their personal life.

    I agree, Juan, for salaried, w2 and 1099 workers.  I'd venture to say the more you like your job, the more money you will make. Money is a symptom of excellent performance. Easier to perform at a high level when you believe in what you do. 

    I remember rough times in the landlord trenches, longing again for the care-free days of our first apt or early marriage trailer with fewer responsibilities.  What kept us going was knowing we were front-loading and it would end.  We knew once stabilized, the assets would perform for years to come.

    A lot of us that built from the ground up need to roll up our sleeves for something.  We need a cause and purpose or at least a lawn to mow while listening to podcasts.  There is a drive in us that a lot of normies don't have. 

    That said, I will announce dipping a toe in the dark side water of hiring a PM.  My DEY self is having a seizure, but will try it on a new 11 unit acquisition. The PM is already in place and performing well. 8.25%, no fill-fee and a 60-day cancel policy.  I will keep people posted, especially  @Jim K.  @Joe Splitrock @Jay Hinrichs @Jerry W. and @JD Martin   They will best understand the significance of this.

     Great discussion 👍

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