Celebrating 20 years of rentals.

Knoxville TN, USA · Member since 2023 · 63 posts · 42 votes

Over the past two decades I’ve expanded and contracted the numbers of LTR and STR I’ve kept in my portfolio, but I recently looked at a house I need to renovate a bit and realized that I bought it this week in 2005. That house - in the North Hills neighborhood of Knoxville, had been the object of countless calls, texts, emails and letters from many trying to “help me offload it.” I bought the house as a HUD foreclosure - $50,500. Today the annual rent return is roughly 1/2 what I paid for it. It doesn’t matter what you pay (within reason) - time on task and the power of compounding are the amazing gifts of home ownership!

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William WhitleyBusiness Member

Accountant · TN · Member since 2025 · 146 posts · 92 votes

That’s such a great reminder about playing the long game in real estate.

As long as your rent covers expenses and you’re setting aside a solid reserve for big repairs, you don’t need to be cash-flowing a ton right out of the gate. Keep the place well maintained, stay close to market rent, and over time both equity and cash flow tend to take care of themselves.

The best part? As long as you keep vacancy low, your tenants are basically buying the property for you.

Accountable Balance Bookkeeping, LLC

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Asma Kabeer
Wholesaler · Member since 2025 · 29 posts · 6 votes
1y
This is powerful, thank you for sharing! As someone early in my investing/wholesaling journey, it’s encouraging to see how time and consistency pay off. Do you find you’ve preferred keeping more LTRs in your portfolio over STRs long-term?
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- Rob HowardPro Member
  OP
  Knoxville TN, USA · Member since 2023 · 63 posts · 42 votes
  1y
  @Asma Kabeer I like paid-off more than leveraged - at least at my point in the career. The old adage was flip two, buy one. Now it's more like flip four, buy one - but the principle is the same. When you begin - really regardless when you begin - time is on your side.
  
  Depending on how you accumulate the property - and your ultimate projected goal for it - either just makes sense.
  
  I inherited a small piece of ground from my grandparents. It's a tiny little farm with sentimental value far beyond something that I would ever find and buy. With that I plopped a couple of "disposable" tiny houses for STR.
  
  On one I've bought for income - inside the city of Knoxville (a fantastic college town) - I am precluded from doing STR - so it's ideal for me to do LTR. I have developed friendships with several folks who have contact with grad students. They have been wonderful tenants and many have become career-long real estate clients as well.
  
  My Airbnbs I mentioned earlier - on the grandparents' farm are ideally leveraged for STR. FIRST - I bought the tiny houses from FB marketplace at a deep discount from the average cost of a new property. Re-fitting them was minimal cost and while they are seasonal the doors are each growing on value as well as paying rental dividends. Places I bought two years ago for $30,000 and $15,000 could each sell for around $50,000 each if I decide not to do STR any longer. My colleagues who bought new are dealing with depreciation, I'm dealing with Appreciation while still getting to depreciate a portion of the purchase price.
  
  My company, Keller Williams, operates on a principle of Win-Win or no deal. I live by that. If it isn't a benefit for my client (buyer or seller) and the person across the table ... the deal really shouldn't happen.
  
  So - know that time heals all wounds. I bought some real "clinkers" in my time and sold them for little return, but time is always on your side if you're willing to some in learning all the right things to do. This is the only career I know of where they pay you to learn and don't expect you to pay them back.
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- Rob HowardPro Member
  OP
  Knoxville TN, USA · Member since 2023 · 63 posts · 42 votes
  1y
  @Asma Kabeer I bought some waterfront land and sold it, but there's enough here that I don't need to wander too far. Plus, for me, I did a life assessment and decided I had enough. There is a wonderful satisfaction in finding that spot!
  2 Reply
- Jules Aton
  MD/DC · Member since 2024 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
  1y
  Quote from @Rob Howard:
  
  @Asma Kabeer I bought some waterfront land and sold it, but there's enough here that I don't need to wander too far. Plus, for me, I did a life assessment and decided I had enough. There is a wonderful satisfaction in finding that spot!
  Well done sir! There comes a point where time and personal enjoyment become more valuable than money. My 30yo self wouldn’t have believed it but it’s true. Was it Bernstein who said when you have won the game stop playing?
  1 Reply
- Rob HowardPro Member
  OP
  Knoxville TN, USA · Member since 2023 · 63 posts · 42 votes
  1y
  @Jules Aton I LOVE that quote! Actually, I was co-captain of a 10-person real estate team. We hired a business coach who was a whiz at NLP. Only after deep work with her, she asked me the question of whether I'm happy as a team lead - and observed that if I were to turn over the reigns and work almost exclusively with my personal sphere of influence locally that I would earn there same or better income without spending $140k to make it. That was the impetus for me to look at that possibility.
  
  I realized that my personal goals were more aligned with that than growing a team and gambling on others to do their part. My partner was younger and had a bigger "why" - young wife, two small kids and the need to leverage while I was going to make more than enough to sustain my lifestyle with my own (much less stressful) efforts. So I happily passed leadership to him and still have more business than one satisfied guy needs.
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Christina Calderon
Investor · Cleveland, OH · Member since 2025 · 17 posts · 20 votes
1y
Congrats! Love hearing success stories like this.
1 Reply
- Rob HowardPro Member
  OP
  Knoxville TN, USA · Member since 2023 · 63 posts · 42 votes
  1y
  @Christina Calderon Thanks Christina! As an aging fellow with a life-long struggle being "scattered" I'm pretty proud of where I find "old Rob" sitting. Two of my favorite gurus - Gary Keller (old) and Taylor Welch (younger) have both echoed the sentiment: "We totally under-estimate what we can accomplish in 5-10 years, while over-estimating what we can do in 5-10 minutes/hours/day."
  
  Take a breath. Turn off your phone, pull out a few pieces of paper and sketch out where you want to be.
  
  That's your map. If it's "retire with five million in the bank at 30" then you take that, get a copy of Keller's book "Millionaire Real Estate Agent" and look at the formulas in there. They AREN'T realtor formulas, they're BUSINESS formulas applicable to any business. I did a shortcut - prompting AI (ChatGPT or Google Gemini are the best I've found for this) to use the principles in that book to create a "Success Coach" to figure out what you need to do to "get there." Keller says "...it's very simple but now very easy... most people can't reach massive success because the steps to get there are boring and consistency is really all that matters."
  
  If you choose to you can "get rich slow" - then you know how and have the resources to "get really rich quick!" Everything has learning curve and (short of being born on 3rd base - which I wasn't) there is no shortcut to learning the principles without seeking out and spending time with others who practice and know the formulas. Usually that means finding them - offering some sort of valuable contribution - and listening / learning what they don't even know they're telling you!
  
  Good get yours!
  2 Reply
William WhitleyBusiness Member
Accountant · TN · Member since 2025 · 146 posts · 92 votes
1y
That’s such a great reminder about playing the long game in real estate.

As long as your rent covers expenses and you’re setting aside a solid reserve for big repairs, you don’t need to be cash-flowing a ton right out of the gate. Keep the place well maintained, stay close to market rent, and over time both equity and cash flow tend to take care of themselves.

The best part? As long as you keep vacancy low, your tenants are basically buying the property for you.
Accountable Balance Bookkeeping, LLC
Website View Page
2 Reply
- Rob HowardPro Member
  OP
  Knoxville TN, USA · Member since 2023 · 63 posts · 42 votes
  1y
  @William Whitley They bought some of them years ago! One of them he paid my personal residence mortgage for the past few years. The rest is pretty much gravy. "Get rich slow" is the best performing and least attractive - to younger folks - option in the history of money.
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