BP Newbie from NJ and fearful

[Tanuja Nihir Shah]

Hello everyone,

I own several retail businesses and now would like to get into real estate business . I am a regular listener of BP podcasts on Stitcher. But when I listen to all established guests on BP podcast it seems like they do not like the headache of owning and renting properties. But I can only start buy owning and renting couple of units this year. Should hold it back? Is owning and renting is not a good strategy to start with? Also NJ law favors tenants more than landlords. I am some what skeptical but I need to start somewhere. Please advise.

Thank you,

Tanuja Shah

[JD Martin]

I was on the podcast and I don't find owning the properties a headache at all. It's all in setting up the right strategy and getting the right tenants. 

I rehab the house completely before putting someone in it. That means I have very little to do for many years on the house. Then I screen the hell out of the tenants and only place people that can pay and won't be aggravating. There's no guarantee, but: most people who have jobs, no criminal record, good credit scores, and are reasonably nice people rarely turn into nightmare tenants. 

I think @Joe P. above was being facetious :) (at least I hope, even though NJ is a stronger tenant state) because there are a lot of rental properties in NJ. Just because a state may be more tenant-friendly doesn't mean there's not plenty of money to be made. In an ideal situation, you'd never know one way or the other if the state is or is not tenant-friendly because you'd never be evicting people or finding yourself in court fighting with a tenant. I am in a LL friendly state but it's never mattered one way or the other for me. I've had dozens of tenants by now and I've never had to go to court with any of them. So I could have just as easily been in NJ.