Landlord plan, need some advice.

[Chavis Kendrick]

My wife and I are trying to create a plan before we start home searching in August. My plan is to buy a 3 bedroom 2 bath family home that will have an estimate mortgage of $850-$880 with my VA home loan. We would have to live in it for at least a year but we will be living there for at least 2 years due to my current military assignment. Once we leave our plan is to rent it out for $1200 which is what I see the average family home being rented out for in this area. We were planning on using a property manager and just paying the $100 dollars or percentage of rent. In return we should make about a $300 profit to either pay more on rent or save. We will do this untill the mortgage is paid off or the house appreciates a good amount. Is that not a good plan?

[Linda S.]

@Chavis Kendrick,

If only life was that simple.. ya know, just buy it-- rent it out--  get $$$ and relax!   

I'd say about 10% of the time, it is-- and sometimes I joke "is X still alive?" because there are no complaints, no issues... but 90% of the time, it's not.   Stuff breaks, houses need repair, and depending on the class of property-- IMO the more people pay in rent, the higher their expectations are, and often they are more needy, and expect more.   

As @Nathan Gesner pointed, $200 won't cover anything.    You know how much I had to pay for 1 property last month? --- $4300 new HVAC, and $420 in exterminator services..  that's almost $5K... you ready for when *** hits the fan?    Another property,  last weekend---  main water line had a big leak, luckily my partner was able to fix it-- but if not-- it would have been an $1000+ plumber bill.      One thing you need to understand as a landlord, is that you have no choices but to pay and fix it... sure you can get multiple quotes-- but you're paying.  Heat breaks-- you're paying.    Roof need replacement-- you're paying.     Stuff happens.. you're paying... 1 month might wipe out all your profit for that year... vacancy is a whole new topic!     Just go into it knowing stuff will

If I were you, I'd see if I could get a house even cheaper, the one thing you can control now is the cost of the house you buy  and your mortgage.