Is 9% CoC: realistic?

[Julie A.]

I'm working on a 10 year portfolio plan for buy & hold rentals (SFR or Multifamily). I can reach my goals if I can hit 9% CoC return (on average). My secondary goal is 20% forced appreciation and 5% market appreciation. Experienced folks: have you been able to achieve these numbers consistently? If so, where? How did you finance it and what types of properties?

[JD Martin]

Unless you are paying all cash for all properties including rehab not sure how worthwhile this metric is for you. When it comes to individual properties I want to know: my rate of return based on my all-in costs and my (personal) perceived exposure to risk. Because I don't really want to own properties that don't have a good rate of return, regardless of whose money it is (all cash or a bank loan), and I don't want to be exposed to high levels of risk regardless of rate of return.

Example: my minimum rate of return was 12% gross of my all-in costs, which ended up being about 10% minimum net. But I won't do a deal where my actual net cash is so low so as to expose my own personal funds to catastrophic events. So I have a house that I have no money in - my theoretical cash on cash return is infinity - and it returns about $400/month net. If that number was $50 per month, I would sell that house as there are too many things that can go wrong that would turn this into a loser even without any of my own money left in the deal.

Ideally with RE you keep on using your original seed money over and over again and you never pump any of your own funds into properties.