RE: Maybe Working for your Dreams isn’t the Answer
Yes, there are ways to screw it up. A fellow I talked to a while back said the trick with rental property was to not pay more than $50,000 a unit. That was some years ago so I figure maybe you could bump that to $60,000. Right before the real estate market tanked last time people were speculating and buying multi unit rental properties for more money than the rent rolls would cover the expenses and debt service, in other words they had investment property that they had to pay into! Their plan was to make it into condos and then sell the condos for a profit. Sometimes that works, if they are actually apartments that people really want to buy. I did see something saying the condo market in Boston was hot the other day so maybe another collapse is near but if you buy a building and you pay a price where it makes money it will make money all the time, people always need a place to live, in down economies even more people need to rent and in up economies you can raise the rents.
I did a really half-assed job of reading up on rental property in Japan last year. From all that I read, it made Japan sound like an ideal place to be a renter because troublesome tenants tend to be rare here. Unfortunately, I didn’t think it was something that was possible for me to get into so I brushed it off pretty quickly and never really figured out what it takes to make a go of it. It wouldn’t hurt to look back into how to buy rental property here with fresh eyes and a new mindset.
Are you in Japan or America right now? A lot about Japanese culture would make them pretty great tenants. I feel acquiring property there especially as a foreigner may be weird, difficult and/or complicated.
I’m back in Japan. Yeah, the language barrier makes real estate a little more intimidating over here. It can be done, though. I think the key would be finding another foreigner over here who is doing it, or has done it, and get has much help as possible.
That's when a good real estate agent is essential, find someone who specializes in investment properties.
I wholeheartedly agree. I happened to come across this right after reading your comment, advice from one of Steemit’s own.
https://investfourmore.com/2018/09/14/does-the-book-rich-dad-poor-dad-teach-how-to-invest-in-real-estate/
That guy's analysis is right on, I might want to check out his books. It's almost funny that someone would spend $50,000 to learn to invest in property instead of using that to buy property.
Yeah, that seems to say a lot about how much people actually stop to think.
I’ve enjoyed this guy’s posts in the past. I would imagine his books would be interesting too. I like that he tells you upfront you can find all the same material that are in his books spread across his blog posts.
I liked that too. I guess a smart person would just use the vast amount of free and low cost information and their $50,000 to buy real estate and that a sucker is born every minute and that a fool and his money are soon parted.