Unsure if buy & hold is for me...

[Stephanie Hardy]

Buy & holds sound like awesome investments and a great way to have cash flow each month. My hesitation, especially after reading a lot of the forum posts on BP, is that it is such a headache to have a rental! Between the stress of potentially having a vacant property each year when the lease renews to having nightmare renters or even having a big repair that is needed, I don't know if I'd be able to truly ENJOY having a rental. Is it really that bad if you do your screening right and get good tenants in there or is that half the battle, too? I know every property has its own pros and cons, but what are the odds that something goes wrong or not according to the plan?

Flips sound like I would really enjoy doing them more, but I have extremely limited knowledge in fixing/repairing homes and don't have much extra time to spend doing it, so I think the "fun" part of having a flip I wouldn't be able to participate in and would just have to hire out. Also, because I don't know much about repairs and costs, I am afraid I wouldn't really be able to accurately estimate what the costs would be and would go broke from misestimating the costs. I know on the flip TV shows, they have a contractor around letting them know costs, but it is usually before they even buy the house. To me, I wouldn't think a contractor would waste their time with that, but who knows.

What are your thoughts? What other investment opportunities (besides wholesaling - don't care for that) do you think would be a good fit for an introverted person?

[Elizabeth Schellhammer]

Stephanie, I think one of the best strategies to build financial security and long term wealth is buy and hold. Sure, there are headaches, but you are essentially having a tenant pay for your asset while you're also collecting a profit from them if you buy right and it cash flows. 

We have two rentals now... a duplex where we live in one half and rent the other and one single family home. We have a great property manager for the SFR and I honestly do not spend much time worrying about that property and never have to deal with calls, filling vacancies, etc. Now, we have had bad property managers in the past and that can be more of a headache than doing the management yourself. Make sure you choose a good manager, and if you are not happy find a better one! Once you feel comfortable with the manager you've hired, you will be just fine watching your checks come in and your loan amount go down.

As far as flips go, I can understand how you think they seem fun and exciting. We have yet to do a flip as we haven't found the right deal. We also are not very handy and would have to sub contract, which makes me nervous. If we did do a flip, that cash would go into another buy and hold. Flipping, to me, does not seem to be the way to build long term wealth, it's more of a supplement. It's a way to earn cash, likely large sums if done well, but if you are just planning to flip then that is more of a job than an investment. 

Excited to see where your investment journey takes you!

Keep us posted.

Beth