Being leveraged is about the only way to make money on rentals in this market. I was In a good position on 4 rentals a few years ago but became obsessed with getting out of debt and sold most of them. I wish I would have waited until now because they have nearly doubled in value the last few years.
As of now I have 1 rental left and it's almost paid off. It rents for $1200 a month and property tax and insurance are about $360 of that. I had an offer on it for $285,000 so I'm really only netting around 3% on my money and often wonder if it's worth that. If I leveraged that equity to put 20% down on 3-4 more properties I'd net much more but my risk and hassle would increase.
I thought about doing a 1031 exchange into a 4 plex and increasing my leverage to make more on my money. If I outright sell my rental and try to invest in something else I'll get killed in taxes. So I just keep getting my lowly $1200 month and being happy that my renters pay. It's hard to make any real money playing it safe.
Bb
You might want to look into the 1031. I was told the current administration was trying to do away with them and I am not sure on the status. There are so many jobs available here it's crazy, kids don't want to get off the couch for $20 a hour .
