Longtime Landlords: All it's cracked up to be?

[Paul C.]

I've only been buying and renting SFRs for just under 2 years, but so far the experience has been pretty good. I've been able to acquire several properties with an average unlevered yield of 8%. That's based on the 50% rule and corroborated by my estimate of expenses.

I have to wonder, though, if I'm missing something. The math would say that if I want 120,000 of rental income, I just have to scale what I've done to 1.5mm worth of properties.

1. Is it really that straightforward (not going to say easy, but straightforward)?

2. What happens in 10, 20 or 30+ years? Do they really just keep pumping out stable cash flows that grow with inflation or do you end up with a bunch of decrepit houses that no one wants to rent?

3. What are the long-term risks I may not be thinking about? e.g. a Detroit type scenario?

4. If you've been doing this for 10+ years and have grown your portfolio of properties to 10 or more, did everything pretty much gone as expected from a big picture point of view? What were the biggest surprises if any?

Thanks!