All Forum Posts by: Paul C.

I've only been buying and renting SFRs for just under 2 years, but so far the experience has been pretty good. I've been able to acquire several properties with an average unlevered yield of 8%. That's based on the 50% rule and corroborated by my estimate of expenses.

I have to wonder, though, if I'm missing something. The math would say that if I want 120,000 of rental income, I just have to scale what I've done to 1.5mm worth of properties.

1. Is it really that straightforward (not going to say easy, but straightforward)?

2. What happens in 10, 20 or 30+ years? Do they really just keep pumping out stable cash flows that grow with inflation or do you end up with a bunch of decrepit houses that no one wants to rent?

3. What are the long-term risks I may not be thinking about? e.g. a Detroit type scenario?

4. If you've been doing this for 10+ years and have grown your portfolio of properties to 10 or more, did everything pretty much gone as expected from a big picture point of view? What were the biggest surprises if any?

Thanks!

Some great stories here. I've only been doing this for just under 2 years, but my best tenant is a lady who WANTED to pay the full year's rent in advance and didn't ask for anything in return.

Hi Bryan, they're all within a 20 minute radius of uptown. Some of the zip codes are 28214, 28215, 28216, 28227 and 28269. How about yourself?

Thanks Greg. I wish we had bought more! We were being cautious, though, and wanted to sure the first two went smoothly before jumping in further.

The Charlotte market is good, but even in the past year, the opportunities have gotten less attractive. Last year, 10% unlevered returns were possible...close to the 2% rule. Now, it seems you have to settle for 7% unlevered returns. I still think that's pretty attractive and can't think of any other investments that would give that kind of return with as little risk, but am curious to hear what everyone else thinks,

Hi everyone, my name is Paul and I began investing in single family homes in the Charlotte area in early 2012. I work full time in finance.

My goal is to build a real estate portfolio that provides enough income to live off of.

I currently have 7 properties and a few under contract. Everything has gone pretty well so far, to the point where I find myself asking, "What am I missing, there must be a catch?"

In my search to see if there's anything I'm not thinking about or what I can be doing better, I came across bigger pockets. Looking forward to learning and sharing.