New member with an age-old RE investor question

[Monica M.]

Hi BiggerPockets community,

My name is Monica. I'm in the Houston area. I'm a notorious lurker, so it's a bit of a shock to my system to emerge from the shadows, but I'm happy to do it. I wanted to first off thank you all for the wonderful guidance and advice that I've gained from the site over the last few months. It really has been invaluable. As far as my real estate experience, I own six rental houses and manage nine others for my mom. Sometimes I feel like this is a piece of cake while other times I think, there's gotta be an easier way. I've also begun to explore flipping as well. My goals are to figure out how to take the headache out of managing and to also get my feet wet enough in flipping to see if that is the better avenue for my real estate investing. To flip or to hold? That remains the question. Or maybe a combination of the two. Anyway, being here will certainly help me figure it out. Looking forward to growing and prospering with you all.

[Ophelia Nicholson]

I am a full time rehabber and I have been a landlord since 2002. Every side has its advantages and disadvantages. Rentals for me are easy money, I collect my rent- hope I don't get a phone call for the month about repairs, wait and collect rent next month.

It is however not a road without potholes- I've had tenants who left me with roaches falling from the ceiling when I open the front door. I've had tenants who paid me 6 months in advance and I wish they would never leave. I've had tenants sue me for 15k after spending one night in my house. I've had tenants who left and I didn't even know house was empty.

On the rehab side - I like rehabbing only because it lets me get creative, I can do amazing kitchens, I get to use my staging chops and buy new furniture. But again it is not road without potholes. It takes A LOT more money and it is a JOB sometimes it is a 8am to 10am job, sometimes it is a 7am to midnight job. Some houses are money pits and you just keep throwing money into it without an end in sight.

I have a house right now 30k into it and I don't even have tile bought or installed. After you open up the walls you find knob and tube wiring, rotted floors, busted plumbing, mold, structural issues. (Just giving you a general idea).

You then have to deal with bad contractors, sub contractors, real estate agents, appraisers, home inspectors, homebuyers who sometimes want the PERFECT house and send you everything that a home inspector even remotely mentions whether it is tiny or not. Sometimes you go thru several contracts to close one house- One house last year I think I went thru 4 contracts before the house finally closed. One of the contracts was cash with no contingencies and still didn't close- GO FIGURE.

I'm making the point that each avenue of investing has its advantages and challenges. If buy and hold was so easy everyone would do it. If flipping was so easy everyone would do it.