How many homes is your goal?

Member since 2023 · 21 posts · 21 votes

I am in my late 40s. I have always dabbled in real-estate and done well. I am approaching it in a much more specific way now. Should be closing on my 6th rental next month.

What is the goal number of homes for most of you? I do not have a set number yet. I read most investors only have 12 on average.

Are you looking at a monthly dollar amount more so than house or unit amount?

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Winston CovingtonPro Member

Realtor · Santa Ana, CA · Member since 2014 · 131 posts · 111 votes

Good evening Byron, your question is an interesting one. Personally, It’s the total positive cash flow that matters most. Bigger #’s doesn’t equal better cash flow. My retirement goal is to have 10 nice B grade homes in good neighborhoods with great schools paid for free and clear. That along with my primary residence being free and clear will provide a great retirement and allow my wife and I to pursue our “ Bucket List “ and enjoy a comfortable lifestyle. It will also provide us a chance to share our blessings with our Church, Community and favorite Charities. :-)

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Winston CovingtonPro Member
Realtor · Santa Ana, CA · Member since 2014 · 131 posts · 111 votes
3y
Good evening Byron, your question is an interesting one. Personally, It’s the total positive cash flow that matters most. Bigger #’s doesn’t equal better cash flow. My retirement goal is to have 10 nice B grade homes in good neighborhoods with great schools paid for free and clear. That along with my primary residence being free and clear will provide a great retirement and allow my wife and I to pursue our “ Bucket List “ and enjoy a comfortable lifestyle. It will also provide us a chance to share our blessings with our Church, Community and favorite Charities. :-)
12 Reply
Chris SeveneyBusiness Member
Moderator
Investor · VA · Member since 2015 · 21k+ posts · 19k+ votes
3y
Quote from @Byron Paille:

I am in my late 40s. I have always dabbled in real-estate and done well. I am approaching it in a much more specific way now. Should be closing on my 6th rental next month.
What is the goal number of homes for most of you? I do not have a set number yet. I read most investors only have 12 on average.
Are you looking at a monthly dollar amount more so than house or unit amount?

My goal is 1 home. The one I live in. Why? Because I have owned lots of real estate in the past and now own the loan, love being the lender over owning the property all day long. While there are alot of benefits to owning the real estate, sometimes its not worth the aggravation.
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Byron Paille
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Member since 2023 · 21 posts · 21 votes
3y
Quote from @Chris Seveney:

Quote from @Byron Paille:

I am in my late 40s. I have always dabbled in real-estate and done well. I am approaching it in a much more specific way now. Should be closing on my 6th rental next month.
What is the goal number of homes for most of you? I do not have a set number yet. I read most investors only have 12 on average.
Are you looking at a monthly dollar amount more so than house or unit amount?

My goal is 1 home. The one I live in. Why? Because I have owned lots of real estate in the past and now own the loan, love being the lender over owning the property all day long. While there are alot of benefits to owning the real estate, sometimes its not worth the aggravation.
I have one I bought with cash. I have looked at holding the note on it at the time I sell it. Do you have a prepayment "well penalty" for early payoff? If you want to make a certain amount on the home, that would make certain it happens.
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John MorganPro Member
Rental Property Investor · Grand Prairie, TX · Member since 2018 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes
3y
@Byron Paille
I started investing 8 years ago when I was 44. I thought having 10 paid off rentals that cash flowed me 10k/month net before I retired would be a doable goal. I ended up changing up my strategy and leveraging more to ramp up my cash flow. I'm now at 18 SFR now with 13k/month net cash flow after all my expenses. But I'm leveraged and letting my tenants pay the mortgages off. I promised my wife I wouldn't go above 10. Lol. But I found out how powerful leveraging is and they're easy to self manage. I'll probably pick up a few more over the years if she lets me. Lol
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Robert Ruschak
Real Estate Broker · IN · Member since 2017 · 65 posts · 12 votes
3y
It depends upon your lifestyle. Do you spend $1 million dollars a month like Nicolas Cage do you want enough that will allow you to retire for the next 50 years?
The amount of homes is irrelevant, whereas the cash flow is more important vs appreciation in the long-term.
"Most people" on average will have1 home in America and the "average age" of the 1st time homebuyer is the mid-thirties. USA has become a nation of renters.
Good debt leverage is fantastic if you know what you are doing! Some investors eventually lose their investments when they do not factor in total operating expenses, debt service, cash reserves and potential CapEx!!
My local client wants to acquire over 500+ units and that is achievable with multi-family.
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Eliott Elias
Investor · Austin, TX · Member since 2021 · 9k+ posts · 5k+ votes
3y
Less on number of properties, more interested in how much cash flow those properties can provide me. 100 K a month is my number.
3 Reply
Alecia LovelessPro Member
Member since 2019 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
3y
@Byron Paille My immediate goal is 50 units in the next 3 years. I’m currently at 25. I currently believe I have options to achieve that goal assuming a few things happen and I am able to locate the appropriate properties which can be difficult in my area. I do not really have a desire to invest outside my area but may be forced to do so if the right properties don’t become available in my area.
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Byron Paille
OP
Member since 2023 · 21 posts · 21 votes
3y
Quote from @Alecia Loveless:

@Byron Paille My immediate goal is 50 units in the next 3 years. I’m currently at 25. I currently believe I have options to achieve that goal assuming a few things happen and I am able to locate the appropriate properties which can be difficult in my area. I do not really have a desire to invest outside my area but may be forced to do so if the right properties don’t become available in my area.
I am picking up homes 2 hours outside of Dallas for pennies compared to closer to the big D. I should be able to move closer aftern my 6th one. Although the cost of the homes vs amount they are being rented may hinder that. So I understand what you are saying. I have already received my 2nd retirement, now I am just increasing cash flow to get wherenI want my family to be. Wish I had started at your age.
1 Reply
Joe S.Pro Member
Investor · San Antonio · Member since 2020 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
3y
Quote from @Chris Seveney:

Quote from @Byron Paille:

I am in my late 40s. I have always dabbled in real-estate and done well. I am approaching it in a much more specific way now. Should be closing on my 6th rental next month.
What is the goal number of homes for most of you? I do not have a set number yet. I read most investors only have 12 on average.
Are you looking at a monthly dollar amount more so than house or unit amount?

My goal is 1 home. The one I live in. Why? Because I have owned lots of real estate in the past and now own the loan, love being the lender over owning the property all day long. While there are alot of benefits to owning the real estate, sometimes its not worth the aggravation.

I own more notes than I do actual homes. When we recently had the big run up in Appreciation as well, as inflation jump, it devalued our notes to some degree. Obviously, it devalued some of yours as well. Technically, I probably could retire on my income provided my notes do not lose too much value and inflation doesn’t jump too high. Retiring sounds better than it used to, but notes lose their value due to pay down and inflation. I could use some insight from a big note guy like yourself.
What are your thoughts on this?

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Joe S.Pro Member
Investor · San Antonio · Member since 2020 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
3y
Quote from @Eliott Elias:

Less on number of properties, more interested in how much cash flow those properties can provide me. 100 K a month is my number.
How did you come up with that number?
3 Reply
JD MartinBusiness Member
Moderator
Rock Star Extraordinaire · Northeast, TN · Member since 2015 · 10k+ posts · 16k+ votes
3y
Quote from @Byron Paille:

I am in my late 40s. I have always dabbled in real-estate and done well. I am approaching it in a much more specific way now. Should be closing on my 6th rental next month.
What is the goal number of homes for most of you? I do not have a set number yet. I read most investors only have 12 on average.
Are you looking at a monthly dollar amount more so than house or unit amount?

I never had a specific house goal (if you listen to my podcast here on BP, in my signature below). I got into buying rental property because I knew something about houses, and had a bunch of cash I had saved from my "day job" that I wanted to pay me a better return than the nothing the banks were offering. I found that I was pretty good at it and didn't need the money from the rentals (since I had a day job) so I just kept rolling the rental money into buying houses. Eventually I found myself with enough houses that I didn't need to work any more if I didn't want to, though I still kept working until I reached my pension (military/public sector). The difference ended up being that originally when I figured out what my pension would be, I realized I'd have to get another job after I retired, whereas after collecting all these rental properties I ended up with a pretty good and profitable business that covers virtually all of my wants and needs.
You just need to reverse engineer it. The Buddha says that all of life is suffering because you can never fulfill your wants - a new want just takes its place. So you have to decide what's your "OK I have enough" number for income or houses, and work from there. For me personally, I have enough, but that doesn't mean if a good deal fell in my lap I wouldn't buy it. A few years ago I thought I was more or less done for a while, then a screaming deal fell in my lap. So I bought it and it was worth buying.
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Byron Paille
OP
Member since 2023 · 21 posts · 21 votes
3y
JD I like that. I am retired Army " bad injury" and retired from teaching Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I would like to double my retirements. So for me it is 10k a month. That way if something happens to me my son and wife have little to worry about. Also have a desire to own my own ranch in TX for bowhunting. Those carry a couple million price tag. Be cool to have rental homes pay for the ranch.
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JD MartinBusiness Member
Moderator
Rock Star Extraordinaire · Northeast, TN · Member since 2015 · 10k+ posts · 16k+ votes
3y
Quote from @Byron Paille:

JD I like that. I am retired Army " bad injury" and retired from teaching Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I would like to double my retirements. So for me it is 10k a month. That way if something happens to me my son and wife have little to worry about. Also have a desire to own my own ranch in TX for bowhunting. Those carry a couple million price tag. Be cool to have rental homes pay for the ranch.

10k a month is easily doable with a little persistence. The ranch might be a bigger stretch, but maybe instead of owning the ranch you can have rentals pay for a nice long hunting trip every year. There are lots of multi-multi millionaires that rent fishing and hunting trips all over the US rather than own the ranch themselves.
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Polo VazquezPro Member
Real Estate Agent · McAllen, TX · Member since 2017 · 382 posts · 281 votes
3y
10 use to be the number for me but I've had kids since then and inflation skyrocketed since then. I probably want 12 now and they would have to be paid off. You should listen to the episode 795 of the BP podcast. It talks about the "Small and mighty investor". Meaning that although the investors doing 20, 30, 100 deals a years are the loudest, most aren't really doing that and are doing very well.
6 Reply
Bazil J Mallya
Member since 2023 · 1 post · 1 vote
3y
When I started my RE Journey, I had my overall goal on number of Houses. But now, I have flipped it to certain Annual cash flow. With a target of annual cashflow - you can easily mix your RE strategies to achieve your preset goal
1 Reply
Jeremiah Dunakin
Member since 2022 · 186 posts · 192 votes
3y
I guess I’m a simpleton. I would like 5/6 places paid off. I would like to bring home after expenses 6k a month.That would tickle me pink. I never wanted to become rich ( though I wouldn’t mind it) I just want to not worry about my next contract at work, or if I have a bad knee and need surgery that I will get behind. I guess simple financial freedom is what I’m after. I have one rental and looking at the end of year getting another. This forum has been awesome
4 Reply
Eric Gerakos
Investor · Costa Mesa, CA · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
3y
You can own 100 homes with 0 cashflow and 0 appreciation so the number of homes doesn't matter. The profitability of each home is what matters.
7 Reply
Byron Paille
OP
Member since 2023 · 21 posts · 21 votes
3y
Quote from @Eric Gerakos:

You can own 100 homes with 0 cashflow and 0 appreciation so the number of homes doesn't matter. The profitability of each home is what matters.

I would not call that an investor, sounds more like the Government. What's your minimum cash flow standard for a home to be considered?
0 Reply
Todd Jones
Member since 2023 · 243 posts · 199 votes
3y
Quote from @Eric Gerakos:

You can own 100 homes with 0 cashflow and 0 appreciation so the number of homes doesn't matter. The profitability of each home is what matters.

This.
The number of deals or units only indicates your tenacity. I’m not impressed or unimpressed.
You could have 20 units and be in the negative. It all depends on several variables, sometimes unexpected.

How you get from a loss per month to positive cash flow, now that’s the story I want to hear.
2 Reply
Zachary Ware
Member since 2022 · 405 posts · 455 votes
3y
For me, the number of units is less relevant than the monthly CF. I am looking to cover all of my living expenses plus enough to travel a few times a year.
1 Reply
Pete Harper
Rental Property Investor · Streetman, TX · Member since 2018 · 527 posts · 495 votes
3y
Interesting question, one I've been pondering myself. I started off our real estate journey four years ago. My wife and I were recently retired and I set a goal of $100k a year within the first three years. The idea was to diversify and supplement our retirement income. We hit my $100k number the second year, four years in we are over triple that number. I have been astounded by how quickly real estate scales. We started investing primarily in small multi-family properties; duplex and four-plex. We would buy properties that needed mostly cosmetic updates and do most of the work ourselves. Being retired I had the time and energy. We like small multi-family so we can work on one unit at a time. While we were doing renovations the other unit(s) would help pay expenses. This quickly scaled to where we were not spending any out of pocket money on renovations. Now four years in we have 38 total units and things have scaled to where our properties are buying new properties. We've even been able to hire contractors for the major projects. We just finished a full gut renovation on half a duplex bought with proceeds from our rental portfolio.
Our retirement journey has been much different than expected. Our living expenses are less than I had anticipated and the real estate side has been more successful. My wife and I are currently debating "How Many is enough?" I still really enjoy real estate and want to keep going.
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Byron Paille
OP
Member since 2023 · 21 posts · 21 votes
3y
At the moment I an averaging $500 a home in the portfolio. If that held true it would not take many to reach my first goal. I have not leveraged or scaled just yet. 7 month 7 units 5 SF 1 duplex. Just seeing where she goes.
0 Reply
Denis PonderPro Member
New to Real Estate · Yuma, AZ · Member since 2023 · 280 posts · 246 votes
3y
Mine is a CF goal more than a doors/units goal. I'm buying a mixture of cashflow properties and appreciation properties. I have a state pension but my wife does not; our goal is to replace our current combined monthly income with rental income so we can retire well.
My son has decided to start investing in RE with us which is pretty exciting! He wasn't excited about college so I shared with him the idea of working two jobs and using the income from the higher paying job to invest in RE. He has one job locked up and working on finding his second.
1 Reply
JD MartinBusiness Member
Moderator
Rock Star Extraordinaire · Northeast, TN · Member since 2015 · 10k+ posts · 16k+ votes
3y
Quote from @Jeremiah Dunakin:

I guess I’m a simpleton. I would like 5/6 places paid off. I would like to bring home after expenses 6k a month.That would tickle me pink. I never wanted to become rich ( though I wouldn’t mind it) I just want to not worry about my next contract at work, or if I have a bad knee and need surgery that I will get behind. I guess simple financial freedom is what I’m after. I have one rental and looking at the end of year getting another. This forum has been awesome
Nothing simpleton about that. That's more or less how I started off. I'm guessing if there weren't so many good deals back then I probably would have just finished off that way too. I'm glad I went the route I did - if anything I was too conservative - but I can't complain because I ended up with a nice portfolio and a pretty cushy life.
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Jeremiah Dunakin
Member since 2022 · 186 posts · 192 votes
3y
I have thought about the same thing. Sometimes I think that if things go good for me why not level up my lifestyle a little bit. Maybe be able to take an extra trip a year or maybe not scrutinize every purchase as much. It’s good to hear others growth
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