What are you making on your SFH?

[Josh F.]

I have a number of single family homes around 30032, 30314, and 30315.  Average rent is $1000, and average house size is 3/1.5.  Typical 1950s unimproved, but clean, rental housing stock.  Mix of Section 8 and Market tenants.  Occupancy is around 92%.  I find that on average I am making $4,750 a door.  Of note, I don't have any mortgages on the properties, and utilize a management company.  How do your numbers compare?

[Salvatore Lentini]

Rule of thumb is about $200 per door per month.  Less on multi families.  You also need to take into account where the properties are and whether or not you get appreciation.  While you shouldn't rely on appreciation it absolutely makes a difference.  I bought a handful of single family rentals in this one area 5 years ago for $140-$160K that are now worth $250-$260K just because the area was on the cusp of a big upswing.  So the few thousand dollars a year in cashflow was nothing compared to what I gained in equity.  Compare that to properties I purchased in low income areas.... they are worth pretty much the same as they were 5 years ago.