So, just wanted to share a bit of a testimonial and give praise to God and encouragement to others. For a brief background, I'm 36, have 3 kids, work as a Sr Project Manager for a large construction company and made a resolution to get active in RE again this year. We own a SFH that used to be a primary, but became a rental when we moved out last year, we house hack our current home by renting out an extra room (have always house-hacked, before it was a thing), and purchased a 4-plex in June of this year.

Without being too long-winded, it's been a trial in trying to get all the systems in place (still a long ways to go here!), get setup properly for asset protection and tax strategy, and deal with lease turnover for the first several months of ownership of the 4-plex. All this while juggling the 60+ hrs/week W2 job and family.

This past month was a bit of a perfect storm with several leases expiring and not renewing. We had 2 units at the 4-plex, the house hack room, and the SFH all coming up for rent. The interest was nonstop, but mainly tire kickers and I was getting a bit frustrated and stressed as we got closer to the leases expiring. On top of this was dealing with a problem tenant who had actually gotten arrested on the property and had someone break a window and was causing a bunch of issues. So, I was talking to my father while filling up at a gas station a couple weeks ago early in the morning and he asked me how I liked being a landlord. I said I felt like hiring a manager! I'd been praying on this a lot as well and asking for help in getting these places rented without any vacancy.

Well, later that day I hopped on Zumper and saw that we actually had 3 people apply over 2 of the units at the 4-plex. One of them we got signed up and leased out that week, the other two didn't work out, but we got that other unit rented out the following week. And then got the the house-hack room rented that same week too. The SFH home we thought we had rented as the tenant was going to extend his lease, but that didn't pan out so we still have that one on the list, but 3 out of 4 ain't bad! We also have (fingers-crossed) got things settled with the problem tenant.

So, through it all with the 4-plex through re-leasing all 4 units now at market rents and passing on the water bill via RUBS to the tenants and charging a non-refundable move-in fee we've increased the rental income by 12% and the gross revenue by 20% with zero vacancy. All this in the first 4 months!

It's been a PITA for sure, but a proof of concept to me that you can find and build value if you look for creative solutions, research, and learn from others. Being a landlord, RE investor, husband, father, and full time W2 employee does require sacrifices. I wake up at 4:45am every morning, meditate/relax to some Bible meditations for about 15 minutes while I shower, hit the gym by 5:30am, come back and get to work, then work after work, then dinner and bed and repeat. It's all for building a better future so we can meet our goal of replacing the W2 income for financial independence and move overseas to Colombia.

Now that things are (hopefully!) stabilized with the 4-plex it's on to the next! Actively looking for the next deal. Very interested in getting into residential assisted living and STRs to help boost the cash-flow and meet the goal sooner. I know this did end up a bit long-winded, but I hope this is encouragement to others.

The struggle is real, but God is good!