10 years ago I stacked cash and bought a house. It was a big struggle to save up for a 10% downpayment, but I scraped it together and have no regrets.
Monthly rents are currently ~$4000 in total, the home price has more than doubled, and the location is in high demand with renters. I lived in one of the units for a couple of years at first and did all the maintenance myself, but then I moved to Europe for 6 years and used a property management company. Now I'm back in one of the units doing a few upgrades before going abroad again later this year.
While I was living in one of the units I still had time to bang girls and go on vacations and work full-time, but there was definitely a chunk of time spent handling house-related matters. I love rolling up my sleeves and learning how to fix things, so I saved cash by doing the work myself. If you have to pay tradespeople, your maintenance costs are going to be a lot higher.
My experience with the property managers was ok, although there were a few minor slip-ups. They take care of all the administrative stuff, but it's good to have a family member or friend watching out for things as well. It might seem like everything is running smoothly, but that's only because you're halfway across the world and have other things on your mind.
Here are some takeaways:
1) You'll always be spending money to fix or update things in a home that you own. If you don't know anything about the work tradespeople are doing, they can fuck you hard and you won't know it. These expenses can be minimized if you do the work yourself.
2) It is possible to do be location independent and own a home, at least for a few years at a time, but you can't completely outsource all home-related business when you're living abroad. The longer you're away, the more things "pile up" for you when you get back.
3) Even if you have positive monthly cash flow from rental income, that should not be the only money you're living on. You need to have other income or reserves in case of fluctuations caused by emergency expenses, vacancies, etc.
Let me know if there's anything I can clarify or break down.
Monthly rents are currently ~$4000 in total, the home price has more than doubled, and the location is in high demand with renters. I lived in one of the units for a couple of years at first and did all the maintenance myself, but then I moved to Europe for 6 years and used a property management company. Now I'm back in one of the units doing a few upgrades before going abroad again later this year.
While I was living in one of the units I still had time to bang girls and go on vacations and work full-time, but there was definitely a chunk of time spent handling house-related matters. I love rolling up my sleeves and learning how to fix things, so I saved cash by doing the work myself. If you have to pay tradespeople, your maintenance costs are going to be a lot higher.
My experience with the property managers was ok, although there were a few minor slip-ups. They take care of all the administrative stuff, but it's good to have a family member or friend watching out for things as well. It might seem like everything is running smoothly, but that's only because you're halfway across the world and have other things on your mind.
Here are some takeaways:
1) You'll always be spending money to fix or update things in a home that you own. If you don't know anything about the work tradespeople are doing, they can fuck you hard and you won't know it. These expenses can be minimized if you do the work yourself.
2) It is possible to do be location independent and own a home, at least for a few years at a time, but you can't completely outsource all home-related business when you're living abroad. The longer you're away, the more things "pile up" for you when you get back.
3) Even if you have positive monthly cash flow from rental income, that should not be the only money you're living on. You need to have other income or reserves in case of fluctuations caused by emergency expenses, vacancies, etc.
Let me know if there's anything I can clarify or break down.