At this point, we are three years in, and have learned that you sometimes have to have thick skin (grit) in dealing with tenants, managers, and RV site visitors; while maintaining a sense of humor and humility.

These costly improvements are pushing rents up.While effective rents (factoring in concessions) may be declining, asking rents remain high as landlords aim to maintain their property value.

Because banks know that investors/tenants don’t maintain properties as well, and fight needed reserves and assessments — don’t even think of arguing against the fact).

To thrive in real estate investing, you must maintain a firm grip on your finances.

You need to maintain a reserve to handle unexpected costs in the first year.How much should you maintain in the reserve? 

It was simple and cheap.However, it still takes time and money to set up and maintain the LLCs.

🏦To get to the point where you can avoid personal guarantees, you’ll need to build your business credit over time:Open trade lines in your business’s name (utilities, vendors, etc.).Make sure you’re reporting payments to business credit agencies like D&B.Keep your debt-to-income ratio low and maintain good cash flow.It doesn’t really matter if it’s an LLC or S-Corp—what matters most is establishing the business as a strong, creditworthy entity.But yeah, in the early stages, personal guarantees are almost unavoidable.

Financial independence requires an income that enables you to maintain your standard of living throughout your life.

I have already created a single member LLC in my name (husband) and the attorney said that it would be fine to proceed this way and that it would allow me to self-manage and maintain liability protection.

ThanksHello Imani, my husband and I have been building big beautiful brick properties day in and day out in Detroit for the passed 5 years straight and I’m proud to say we are experts in all aspects of building and maintaining successful rental properties in Detroit City.