Rental Property Investments

When I first heard about real estate investment, I assumed it was a sure thing. Investing in rental property seemed like the easiest way to make money quickly and with virtually no work.

Think about it. All you have to do is sit on a house and let your tenants give you money. Sure, you have to perform some basic maintenance work, but there is almost nothing to it. Investing in real estate must be the biggest scam since the beginning of the world, I thought.

It turns out that I was right and I was wrong. On the one hand, investing in rental property really did make me a lot of money very quickly. I invested about $50,000 dollars in a house, fixed it up, put on some basic safety equipment, and rented it out. Although it took a few years to make up the amount of money that I had put into it, I was on my way very quickly. investing in rental property provided me with a great residual income. I had a job on the side, but mostly because I wanted to. I could have lived off my real estate investment income without working anymore if I had so desired.

Then, I faced the nightmare of anyone who makes their living investing in rental properties: bad tenants. The first people who I rented my house out to were wonderful. They paid their rent on time, they took good care of the house, and they called me the instance anything went wrong. Soon, however, they had moved out and gotten in a place of their own. By then I was investing in rental property on the other side of the town, hoping to double my residual income.

When I got the bad tenants, they took me totally by surprise. At first they seemed very nice. When I did a credit background check, I found out that their credit scores were not very good, but they were not all that bad either. I figured that they would be a safe bet. After all, I had had good luck so far. It turns out that they almost ruined my investment in rental property. They did not pay the rent, and completely trashed the house. Investing in rental property ceased to be a surefire proposition. Suddenly, I was spending all my time in an out of court, trying to get them evicted. It was much harder than you would think. It almost ruined investing in rental properties for me. Next time, I will be more careful with who I choose for tenants.