All Forum Posts by: Garrett Dube

Quote from @Stuart Udis:

You are still missing the point. You are trying to build a portfolio as if you have a crystal ball and already know how each property will operate after they are purchased. Take a step back and ask yourself why you purchased the first three single family homes in your portfolio and ask that same question each time you are considering making a purchase. If your decision making is tied to cash flow projections you are likely ignoring the fundamentals that are more telling of the properties long term success. Most cash flow or door chasers fail to understand this and that's what leads to bad investment decisions. 

I thought the same thing and scaled up rather quickly to 300 units in deep south 95% section 8 after about 18 months I realized I bought myself a job that was simply not worth it.. So I sold out to my partners at the time.. Best decision I ever made. they went on to basically lose the portfolio as 2 steps one back.. theft  non pay trashed units.. simply not a sustainable model.
I then switched to no debt A class only takes a few of those to hit that magic 10k a month NET cash flow with basically zero drama.. and only a handful of props  to manage  .. owing 50 houses has major work load if they are section 8..  that was my experience .. I actually wanted to own 5000 of them.. and probably could have gotten there but holy cow Juice no way worth the squeeze. I will leave landlording section 8 to others.

There was just a discussion about how section 8 in Toledo is terrible and not worth it.

Love to see the ambition. Are you planning to go from 3 to 50 just based on rental income or with value add? It's tough to get to that scale without having a massive driver of income or value add. Good luck!

Quote from @Stuart Udis:

@Garrett Dube Why 50 units? Do you believe the xyz amount per house in rental income multiplied by 50 will be your early retirement? Keep dreaming. That's not how this business works.  Whenever I read investor posts about unit count goals and utilizing section 8 rentals as the vehicle to scale a portfolio it loosely translates to buying real estate without paying attention to the fundamentals in the markets where they invest. You can own 1000 units and get crushed in this business. You can also own a handful do quite well. Your focus on an arbitrary unit count isn't indicative of success and can lead to bad investment decisions. 
 

That's exactly my first reaction reading similar posts. My guess is you (the OP) really don't mean 50 units, but are after more of a cashflow goal, etc. Owning 50 bad units, will probably not get you to your goals. I have had multiple units in the past that dragged my down a lot more than propelled me forward, and I was happy to dump those. I suppose it could be more of a semantic thing, but seasoned RE investors understand it isn't all about the unit #'s, especially when it comes to section 8.

@Garrett Dube Why 50 units? Do you believe the xyz amount per house in rental income multiplied by 50 will be your early retirement? Keep dreaming. That's not how this business works.  Whenever I read investor posts about unit count goals and utilizing section 8 rentals as the vehicle to scale a portfolio it loosely translates to buying real estate without paying attention to the fundamentals in the markets where they invest. You can own 1000 units and get crushed in this business. You can also own a handful do quite well. Your focus on an arbitrary unit count isn't indicative of success and can lead to bad investment decisions.