I have 12 units across 5 buildings.  One is in year 2, all the rest are still in year 1.  On paper, all the buildings required some rehab because they were purchased below market.  So it's pretty much a given that year 1 is going to suck looking at the returns once you factor that money in :)  That's fine.  Long term, they should all be great investments.  The building that is in Year 2 should have been really positive, but I had a driveway replacement the city got on my case about so that ate up most if not all of my positive cash flow for year 2.  (I might still land in the black if I have 4 no drama months to end 2017.)

I still find myself occasionally being discouraged, wondering when I will have enough REI to actually impact my life in a positive way. Currently I've moved from writing checks all the time to the rentals rents received being enough to cover the rehabs and repairs, so that's a huge step in a positive direction, but since none of the money is coming back to me yet, it feels like I have this side business that has no impact on my life right now.

So I guess maybe to the experienced people out there, how do you stay motivated?  Things are obviously moving in the right direction, logically everything makes sense.  Emotionally and psychologically, I'm yearning for the time when my rentals will 'make it rain' every month :)  I'm just impatient.