Being a landlord sucks

[jonnytrumpet]

@inutah I only have 1 property, and I've been having the same thought.

 

[alex818]

@inutah How were you able to get loans totalling 1.8 million? What’s your yearly income?

You could potentially be over leveraged and therefore selling one might be a good idea anyway to reduce risk.

 

[inutah]

@alex818 We lived in one of them for 5 years, built equity and used it to finance the other two which were positively geared at the time of purchase. Cash flow wasn’t affected.

 

[devora]

@inutah and the rental never cover the interest

 

[crumbacher]

@inutah Ignore the emails lol. If it’s that important, the agent will call. This policy has served me well.

 

[olmes]

@inutah I know your pain , I'm a property investor too and I noticed the more properties you have the more you are managing your emails from Property managers about these issues, I hit 10 IP before interest rates rises and it felt like every single day I was talking to my spouse about one of them due to rent being late or a leaking roof then mould or a rent review or something, and my missus got to the point where she was sick of me talking about it.. as rates went up And the portfolio became very negative cash flow I made the decision to sell down 5 of the worst ones and redeploy the funds in 2 commercial properties. I went from being 7 K negative a month to being a little bit positive, but the best part is a lot of those emails have stopped or rarely come in.. the commercials properties don't have the same problems iv noticed I think because the tenants are established businesses and the buildings are in better condition. Maybe consider selling down your properties and going into good commercial property , my tenants pay all the out goings including property manager fees and even pay land tax, also the rent increases are scheduled in the lease so you know what to expect on that side of thing

 

[jmiahman]

@olmes What kind of commercial properties did you buy?

 

[olmes]

@jmiahman Hi

The first one I bought was a freehold industrial property with a global tenant

The second is a freehold medical asset

 

[inutah]

@olmes Thanks for the thoughtful response. This is exactly how I feel. Dinner time is just about discussing whats broken when investment properties were intended be our side hustle. We earn more from our main jobs but ips have become more time consuming. It doesn’t make sense financially to keep them. Commercial properties off we go!

What was the average value of your IP for them to require so much maintenance? I hear of people buying 400k homes that require very little attention.

 

[olmes]

@inutah Yeah try commercial my friend you'll be much happier, it's a much more passive way to invest I think.

And 700 K to 850 are the ones I kept all houses but I sold off all the units I owned which were about 250k to 350k I had bought those in other states around the place, they don't go up as much as the detached houses I noticed so they were the obvious ones to go. Problem with all the ones I invested in they are all older investments because I'd buy it and do a little Reno on it as that was my strategy at the time however that's why I was always having issues because of there age.. if I was to start again I'd try buying something newer or at least in better condition to keep maintenance down

 

[freeme2013]

@inutah Although I can appreciate everything you say, we have 2 investment places and the property managers have been fantastic. Truly set and forget investing. The maintenance can be a bit of a pain true but am lucky enough to have tenants who are not whingers and are happy to do the maintenance themselves

 

[panelasalex]

@freeme2013 The insinuation that tenants who report when maintenance is needed on the property that the landlord is responsible for maintaining are whingers…

 

[freeme2013]

@panelasalex That is how it reads yes but not what i meant. I mean some tenants will want to claim a light bulb and treat your place like shit while others will go and buy a new bulb without a second though and are happy to potter around in the garden and keep it looking nice. Not for me. For them, living there.

 

[inutah]

@freeme2013 I understand that maintenance comes with IP but it is a lot of decision making about things we don’t understand and it gets expensive.

Our properties were positively geared but with the interest rates increasing + endless repairs, it is exhausting and time consuming.

It’s also not a skill that we can get better at.

I do wonder how people with a large portfolio manage if they also have a full time job.

 

[freeme2013]

@inutah Agreed. I knew a guy that had 30 properties and also a full time job and also on top of that a Lollipops franchise and then on top of that again a laser tag franchise. Not sure how he coped. Those properties were not high end by any stretch so can only imagine the invoices he was getting

 

[wwjdft]

@inutah You bought poorly, that’s all.

 

[jess7737]

@inutah It's weird for some of us hearing about landlords constantly being bothered when many of us have dealt with real estates/landlords that'd refuse to do anything. One place I lived in was a complete crap shack, no screens, no insulation, rats/mice, wouldn't possibly pass an independent safety check etc, one of the rooms that could've been a bedroom didn't have a door on it so we couldn't really use it but in amongst a pile of random crap under the house was a door that seemed to be the same size. We asked if we could put the door on-not get someone else out to fix it etc just move it from downstairs to upstairs and attach it ourselves and we weren't allowed. They also ignored all messages about mold but the real estate would check up on us from the neighbours property and rant about the backyard needing mowing despite the fact there was a drainage problem so the backyard was a swampy muddy mess with long grass because it was too wet to mow.

Another place the dishwasher wasn't working when we moved on but there was an assurance it'd be fixed, a whole year of asking about it mostly being ignored and eventually they said since it was broken before we moved in it wasn't a maintenance issue.

There's other boring stories too but I've basically never thought of landlords as doing much of anything to fix up rentals and people I've rented with seemed to have the same attitude.

 

[inutah]

@jess7737 I’m sorry for your experience. I didn’t know there was an option to say no to repairs.

My issue isn’t about the tenants bothering us. I believe tenants are entitled to a fully functional and safe home. It’s the frequency of communication from the property managers that consumes our spare time. I don’t blame the tenants but more so my luck with having high maintenance homes.

When I rented I only had to contact my property manager a handful of times over 10 years.