First, yes I do manage my own properties at this time. We’ve considered having someone else show the properties, but for the foreseeable future we will do the maintenance ourselves. Our houses are only about 5kms from our house, which makes things much easier.

I guess there are a few problems that can make it difficult to earn a positive cash-flow.
1) Property values are at an all-time high right now.
2) Interest rates are on the rise.
3) Renting to single families is much less lucrative than renting multi-unit residences, or even renting multiple bedrooms in a single house (as I do).
4) Geography

I find the best thing is to have a spreadsheet to analyze properties side-by-side. I’m hoping to post my spreadsheet on the blog in the near future. I just need to clean it up first and add some new calculations.

Have you considered flipping houses at all? It is a good way to generate capital more quickly but there is a significant risk associated with it.

You could also look into buying foreclosures. The procedure is not ‘cut-and-dried’ though, it requires a lot of hard work, research and tenacity. I haven’t tried this, and probably won’t.

You can check my past posts for more information on my properties and why they make money. Generally, I rent 5-bedrooms in a relatively cheap ($150k) house. The house therefore rents for $2000.

My advice, if you really want to get into this is:
1) Be careful (housing prices are volatile right now, and could drop substantially depending on your area).
2) Keep looking, run numbers, analyze the hell out of the properties.
3) Hire an agent. A good real estate agent will save you time by showing you only the properties that meet your strict criteria (location, price, rental potential, etc., etc.).

Good luck!

Hmm… I didn’t think the advice was that bad at all. Do you care to elaborate on your claim? Here’s the ‘bit’ for reference purposes. Also, the full post.

I don’t get it…
I agree with ‘Adult Supervision’ those are all a bunch of excuses. I have friends that are good at making excuses and when it comes down to it, the only reason to do that is to avoid doing any actual work. Its called … wait for it… Learned Helplessness.
1) Yes, the house would be slightly harder to show… however, how many people are viewing the house per month? 2?? Not many I would imagine, so this point is moot.
2) Yes, the house would be slightly messier, but … see (1).
3) When you are a landlord… you have to deal with bad tenants some times, but they are the minority. Do you want the money? Or do you want to shoot yourself in the foot and sit there in foreclosure? Also, that’s why you have insurance (just make sure your insurance company knows tenants are living there), if the house gets trashed, the insurance will cover it.
As far as the banks go, there’s no law stating that you can’t rent your property (unless you said they would be owner occupied, in which case you’ve committed fraud). So, rent them out, get the money, make sure the bank knows they are occupied by tenants, and then it’ll be their problem to evict them.
I’m not sure how the laws are written in the US, but in Ontario, if the new owner of a property intends to live in it (for real), they are allowed to force the tenants out within a reasonable time-frame with written notice. The only time you run into a problem is when you are kicking out bad tenants (for damage, or missed payments) because then the courts get involved.