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Wow, I am getting some pretty strong feedback. On one hand, I love it, on the other hand I am feeling a bit like a student asking for help and being told they are stupid.

I am, indeed, an investor for 14 years. My husband and I, be it dumb luck or just positive thinking, have managed to build up a fair amount of equity in our properties without as much knowledge as it appears is out there. We have, to some degree, bought our cash flow. We have done mostly 10% down, which was way more than many suggest, but was our assureance that we wouldn't have to come out of pocket if we need to dump the properties.

Things that are not being mentioned is that we manage our own properties, local and long distance, and love it! We have never had to evict a tenant in 14 years, and I have only had 1 late payment and charged the late fee. I have had only 1 tenant that "thrashed" the place, her dogs loved to dig up the back yard, and she literally asked if she needed more than the $1,200 security and $400 pet deposits I was keeping. Additionally, we have virtually no expenses going into the home besides the down payment, the homes were mostly 1-5 years old and worst case needed some paint and flooring, no costly rehabbing. All that being said, maybe other formulas do work? I am not paying 8-10% management fees of any of my $1,200 - $1,500 rents... multiply that by just the 12 sfr's we own and manage and it does change the formula, doesn't it?

Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate the feedback, but what is working for one does not rule out what works for another.

I am anxious to hear about these 2% & higher rents... please share with me some city names if you will. Just imagine, if dumb luck follows us to a place where the wise investors know about... the possibilities are endless :)

Does anyone know if we can sell a building, we own personally and lease it to our corporation, to the corporation for fair market value? For some reason it seems that we can not because it is a closer than arms length transaction...I might just be having a mental mix-up :)

Hi all! Just stumbled on this site over the last few days and WOW...

My husband & I are in our early 40's, and bought our first home @ age 24, which turned out to be our first rental. We moved to Vegas in 1993 and began our real real estate investing careers. We are entrepreuners -business owners in the Electronics industry as well.

We have been slow and steady, but really decided on buy and hold about 5 years ago. I got my Real Estate licence, we jumped in and bought at several homes at what could not have been a better time in Vegas. We flipped a couple for quick cash and bought more with the proceeds. We now have many sfr's, a commercial bldg, some raw land, and we are diversified in 4 states. We love experiencing new types of transactions, students of life in general.

The best is that we have had the opportunity to be stay at home parents while having multiple strams of income. We have been able to change our kids lives with real life transactions in real life situations. They understand risks & rewards, multiple streams of income, and positive & negative cash flows! I can't say enough about the Cashflow Game by Robert Kiyosaki... it is a great family game, for adults and kids... the real "Game of Life"!!!

We are in Cypress-Fairfield. I know there are other areas like it out there. The numbers are working for us, but read the other response(s) as they may not agree...

I know if you buy in Vegas, $300k will rent for $1,200... way upside down, regardless of taxes (1%) and insurance (about the same as TX). But the response from ALL CASH concerns me and leads me to believe that 1% is not a good number... I am anxious to hear where else you can get a bigger rent than that without being a slumlord, or very risky area.

Our theory is, if we continue to buy in beautiful association communities, and continue to screen our tenants and get strong deposits, we should continue to have the tenant history that we have had, which is phenominal. We have been landlords for 14 years and love it... never used a property manager. Everyone's input will be awesome!

I appreciate the input! As an "anal retentive" person, I am really aware of all of those things mentioned, but thank you so much for mentioning them for those who don't. We know of an investor there that was not impounding taxes, nor aware of the 3%, and really got a whammy!

We are impounding, on resale homes, with real taxes (3%), and insurance. I hear what you are saying, but the numbers still seem reasonable for us... We put 10-25% down, which I guess is not something most investors are doing. That being said, do you really think it is a bad area to invest? We are not trying to pick an enormous appreciation, that is a recipe for disaster, but 3-5%, while the mortgage is being paid down by someone else, and we get the tax benefits meanwhile, seems like a conservative bet in the long run, doesn't it?

I know many are looking for a huge return, and end up losing huge amounts in the process, risk vs reward... On buy and hold, what better is out there? What numbers or areas do work for you? What would you rather invest in, if you are a fairly conservative risk taker?

I love this Forum... we have never really had mentors and this is exciting to bounce ideas and give feedback to others that are interested :)

We are buy and hold investors...invested in Las Vegas, 5 homes, before the boom and pop, and are holding the homes as they are positive cash flow. Next, we discovered a suburb of Houston, TX with newer homes, masterplanned community, and the purchase prices and rents are good... buy for $140k, rent for $1,400... we have 7 there. We are looking for another area to do this in. Ideally, buy newer homes in the $130k-$150k price range, rents in the $1,300-$1,600. Anyone want to boast your town or have any suggestions as to where to do this? We don't want t have all of our eggs, or too many eggs, in any one market place. Do you think 7 sfr's in one market is enough? Even though they are renting well, and cash flowing well, isn't it a tad risky to do too many more? Any feedback will be appreciated!!!

We are in NV and we have invested in AZ, UT & TX. We are heavily invested in TX, and manage our own properies. We did not have too much to do to rehab, some paint & carpet mostly. Our agent leases them out for us, we payhim, and we do the rest. We bought several before we even saw them, since then we have taken 2 trips to see & buy more. We saw it as a great opprortunity because the cost of the homes was low and the rents are high, about 1% of the value. Las Vegas is way too high now and the rental rates are way too low, about .33%. We saw 2 choices, stop investing or find a place away from home... so far so good!

3 or 4 usually. If you have prescreened the area and done your homework , it is pretty easy to find one that meets your investing critera.

Las Vegas, NV here!