Hitting the Wall

[John Chapman]

This is probably more directed at some of the guys who have been doing this for a while. At what point (if ever) did you just get bored or hit a wall with real estate? I've been doing buy and hold for almost 9 years, and I used to be super excited about chasing deals, fixing houses, and leasing them up. Now, I'm just kind of bored with it. I've got about 30 properties under management, and I've read/heard that this the point where a lot of people stop expanding in the SFR world. Personally, I think my general discontent is due to a confluence of events:

• After you have enough SFRs, adding a new one or two (or six) simply doesn't move the meter that much from a wealth building perspective.  
• The amount I'm personally managing is now to a point where I'm starting to notice the burden because there are now houses going vacant every month and more frequent repair requests.  The truth is that property management is pretty monotonous.  Not too bad in small doses but it's hard to think I want to keep adding to my responsibilities in this area.  (Yes, I know you can hire PMs but it's way too expensive for SFRs and no one will care as much as you.)
• Having held some properties for a longer period, I'm starting to get a taste of the cap ex that comes from long term buy and hold, particularly with SFRs  I think that being in Texas is particularly difficult because of settlement/foundation issues.  Fortunately, the homes have gone up in value enough that putting money into them only adds to their value and allows me to increase rents.  
• The SFR market in my area (DFW) is super hot, and it is hard to see the appreciation and rent growth that we've got continuing. (I think homes will still go up in value in my area due to population growth, just at a more modest pace.) It's really hard to justify working harder for deals that aren't as good. (Yes, I realize I got spoiled during the foreclosure crisis.)

This post may sound a little whiny, particularly to newer investors who are brimming with enthusiasm, but my sense is that many investors burn out or get bored with SFR investing after a while (maybe sooner, maybe later). They then do other things like pivot to notes or multi-family or whatever. Or maybe they find their groove again after looking around? I should qualify that I really have my systems down, and I'm not overwhelmed or anything. I'm just not that enthusiastic anymore and kind of curious what others have done when dealing with this.