We Earned $231/hr From Our Rental Properties in 2018
The 2018 #s are in! The biggest # we track when it comes down to it is cash flow. While cash-on-cash return comes in at a close second for priority, the main focus for us is cash flow. And while I don’t go into net worth accumulation by someone else paying down your debt (i.e. the tenants) nor do I go into tax advantages, those are hugely beneficial and worthy of their own post. Today, just cash flow. There are several rules of thumb most people use when analyzing properties for cash flow: the 50% rule, the 1-2% rule, the $XXX/per door rule, the Lobster rule, the Alexa rule, the downward dog rule, all sorts of rules. Our primary focus is $100/per door/month and 50% rules.
Wait, before we go any further most of you know I’m involved in a 42 unit apartment complex. For this exercise the 42 unit is not being considered as we are still in process of stabilizing a heavily deferred maintenance property. I’m also not sure my partners want me sharing detailed info on that asset with the world wide webs so I’ll keep this exercise to the properties just my wife and I own. However, 2019 is looking VERY promising for the 42 unit.
MOVES & ACQUISITIONS
In 2018 we sold one property (our very first rental property in Pensacola – the one we’ll never sell!) and 1031 Exchanged into a 4 plex. Other than that our focus was geared toward stabilizing a couple acquisitions that were made in mid-late 2017.
THANK YOU PM TEAMS!
I can’t say enough about our PMs. Having a full-time job and growing family (ref: How I Balance), we have very little time to focus on managing these properties, plus managing our own rentals is just not what me or my wife want to do. Thus we hire professional property managers to manage all of our properties. We have a few different property managers based on our properties locations being in different cities, BUT those property managers are a huge part of why our hourly # is so high. All in all, we averaged about one hour a week working with our property mangers. So 52 hours a year. Thank you Team! YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!
THE NUMBERS
Before we get started, here are a few definitions to ensure you and I are on the same page when it comes to The Numbers:
- Expenses column includes mortgages (if applicable), insurance, taxes, property management fees, repairs, legal fees, miscellaneous operating expenses and capital expenses. Our expenses were high this year and I get into that in more detail below.
- Revenue column includes rent, pet fees, and late fees.
Again, I can’t say enough about our PMs and the systems they have in place to keep us abreast with situations but overall they just handle them. So here is how I came to us earning $231/hr on our rental properties in 2018:
- 52 Hours Worked for the Year (thankful for awesome PMs)
- $12,038 Annual Cash Flow in 2018
- $12,038 cash / 52 hours = $231.50/hr
One goal we want our assets to accomplish are $100 cash flow per door/per month. On average we were just shy of that in 2018 so I won’t spend any time discussing that here, but I do want to address the 50% rule.
NOT MEETING THE 50% RULE
For those of you not familiar, the 50% rule simply states that fifty percent of your rental income should cover all of your expenses (I’m grossly summarizing for the sake of this post). And since only 1 of our properties met the 50% rule, I feel the need to explain, just how close the rest of them were and the importance of keeping separate, sacred accounts for each property to cover vacancy and the more costly, unexpected capital expense items.
- Little Yellow House: we actually sold this property in February 2018, so only two months into the year. The sell of this property yielded a 77.5% ROI for the life of us owning this property. The proceeds from this house were 1031 exchanged into the 4 Plex – Mobile. So while we experienced a negative cash flow for the 1st two months of 2018 with this property, all-in-all, it provided a great return from acquisition to exit.
- Duplex – Gulf Breeze: We replaced one unit’s HVAC at a cost of approx. $3700. Not having to do so would have easily put this property above the 50% rule. Thankful for the reserve accounts we established. If you’re not establishing those reserve, sacred accounts for capital expenses and vacancy, DM me.
- 4 Plex – Mobile: this was the acquisition we 1031 exchanged into from the Little Yellow House. Almost completely turn key, but we had one tenant turnover and a few large repairs to make during the acquisition process – no worries though, we bought this at a bargain!
- Mobile Home – Pensacola: this is the property from our First Tax Deed Auction. It had a rough 2018 with a tenant turnover, vacancy, a HVAC replacement and some fairly major plumbing issues resulting in >$3k in expenses. 2019 should be a strong, stable year for this one.
In closing, 2018 was a profitable year and I am anticipating 2019 to be much better. By that I mean I’m anticipating our cash flow to almost double as a result from just the two transactions. And while most investors don’t look at hourly earnings from rental properties, my W2 background has me thinking that way. If you’re not engaged with our group on Facebook, you’re missing out on conversing with us and 4,500 other W2 real estate investors. Join Us: Real Estate Investing for the W2 Employee
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