Passive Income Resource Guide
Rental Property Investing
165 articles9 sections
Buying a rental property
- How to Buy Your First Rental PropertyStart here Save 15% to 25% down plus six months of payments, check that the rent covers every cost at your quoted rate, and make the offer contingent on inspection and financing.
- Rental Property Due Diligence Checklist Before your contingency deadline, verify the building, the leases and deposits you inherit, real expenses and the new tax bill, title and legal use, and insurability.
- Rental Property Financing Options: Every Loan Type Explained Conventional rental loans need 15% to 25% down plus cash reserves; FHA allows 3.5% down if you live in one unit. Plus DSCR, hard money, seller loans, and HELOCs.
- Rental Property Insurance: What Landlords Need to Know A rental you don't live in needs a landlord (dwelling) policy, not homeowners insurance. What DP-1 to DP-3 cover, plus liability, lost rent, flood, and tenant coverage.
Deal analysis and returns
- Analyzing Rental Property ROI: How to Calculate Total Return Rental ROI adds cash flow, loan paydown, appreciation, and tax effects, then divides by the cash you put in. Worked examples for cash, financed, and at sale.
- Cap Rate Explained: What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know Cap rate is a property's net operating income divided by its price. How to figure NOI, value a building, read 2026 market rates, and why it misleads on houses.
- How to Calculate Rental Property Cash Flow Cash flow is full-occupancy rent minus a vacancy allowance, operating costs, and the loan payment. How to source each number and how much vacancy to budget.
- Cash-on-Cash Return: Formula, Example, and What Counts as Good Cash-on-cash return is a year's pre-tax cash flow divided by the cash you put in. Formula, worked examples at 2026 rates, and how to judge whether it is good.
- The 1% Rule and 50% Rule for Rental Properties The 1% rule asks for monthly rent of at least 1% of price; the 50% rule puts expenses at half the rent. At 7.32% with 25% down, a 1% house just misses break-even.
Buy-and-hold strategies
- Appreciation vs Cash Flow: Choosing a Rental Property Strategy Put cash flow first unless other income can cover a rental's monthly loss for years. FHFA home prices fell 21% from 2007 to 2011 while rents rose 8%.
- The BRRRR Strategy: Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat BRRRR returns your cash only if the refinance does: Fannie Mae caps a cash-out loan on a one-unit rental at 75% of appraised value, after 6 to 12 months.
- Turnkey Rental Properties: Pros, Cons, and How to Evaluate Them A turnkey rental is a renovated, rented house sold with management. The seller's margin is in the price, so check the value, rent, condition, and fees yourself.
Markets and property types
- How to Analyze a Rental Property Market Compare markets on population and job growth, rent-to-price ratio, vacancy, property tax and insurance costs, and landlord-tenant law, each from a free public source.
- Out-of-State Rental Property Investing: Buying and Managing Remotely Buying a rental in another state means hiring a local team first, verifying the property remotely, and meeting that state's filings, often a nonresident tax return.
- Single-Family vs Multi-Family Rentals: Which Is Better for Investors? Investors need 15% down on a house and 25% on 2 to 4 units, which earn more rent per dollar of value. At 5 units, commercial loans apply.
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