With proper tenant screening and systems in place you can absolutely be a successful landlord.

@Heather Bailey When house hacking with a separate rental unit, ensure proper insurance by obtaining landlord or short-term rental coverage tailored for Airbnb activities, in addition to your primary residence policy.

@Zach Howard you pretty much MUST hold it in an LLC if you don't have the proper visa or greencard.1) Many attorneys over-hype the benefits of an LLC for each property.

that we’ve learned in our 24 years, managing almost 700 doors across the Metro Detroit area, including almost 100 S8 leases:Class A Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, 3-5 years for positive cashflow, but you get highest relative rent & value appreciation.Vacancy Est: Historically 10%, 5% the more recent norm.Tenant Pool: Majority will have FICO scores of 680+ (roughly 5% probability of default), zero evictions in last 7 years.Class B Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, decent amount of relative rent & value appreciation.Vacancy Est: Historically 10%, 5% should be applied only if proper research done to support.Tenant Pool: Majority will have FICO scores of 620-680 (around 10% probability of default), some blemishes, but should have no evictions in last 5 yearsClass C Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, high cashflow and at the lower end of relative rent & value appreciation.

The same is true for credit card debt. 

Proper time tracking and logs are critical for demonstrating compliance with this rule.I've only seen one person with a W-2 qualify for reps, and that was from a tax court case where people had to come in in person and attest to his hard work.

If you don't know how to do this properly it can be detrimental. 

So excited we found tenants, we took our realtors word for it and didn’t properly vet our new tenants.

@Anthony Sigala that "Rule" was created for mostly Class B properties BEFORE the Great RE Crash of 2008-2010.Values after the Crash dropped so much, that it could also be used for Class A rentals.Values are now more than their pre-crash highs, so the rule now only applies to Class B & C rentals.How are you identifying Class B & C submarkets in your area, so you can properly apply the rule to the right rentals?

You may have heard that staging your home properly can make a big difference when you sell your house, but what exactly is home staging, and is it really worth your time and effort?