Our one property still going strong

[Andrew Lee]

Our duplex (and only current property) has been successful from day one.  For the past 5 years, we've gone only one month without both sides being fully rented on 12-month leases.  When my wife and I took the plunge into real estate investing, we agreed on a couple of principles:  (1) we would buy only a property that was nice enough that we wouldn't mind moving our children into it ourselves and (2) we would be able to pay the mortgage ourselves every month without stress if either of the two units failed to rent for many months.  Those principles have saved us.  My intention all along was to rent to college students in my own classes whom I knew personally and could be assured of their reliability and integrity. This has worked very well and we've always had a "wait list" of college students in my classes who are eager to rent our duplex every year.