March was a great month for my rental property portfolio. Being a landlord is awesome.  Like last month, it was a fairly quite. My rental properties provided great income even with a minor repair or two.  In fact, administrative tasks took more time than repairs and maintenance, but I’ll dive into that later in the post.

My rental property experienced one small repair. The ongoing zoning issues at rental property #4 appear to have a light at the end of the tunnel. I cannot wait to share the details on rental property #4 and anticipate FINALLY have this issue resolved in April (fingers crossed).

There will be a three part series walking through the entire purchase process of buying the new rental property. I will discuss everything from finding the property, fixing the place up, to finding tenants and everything in between.  

The Landlord Report- March of 2018

Hello there – welcome to another “Landlord Report”. This monthly report will share my experiences as a landlord. The report will show EVERYTHING related to my rental properties and life as a landlord….

I will discuss the rents that I collected, mortgage payments, and other ‘landlord items’. Additional topics may include repairs, finding new tenants and any other items that might randomly pop up. The report will also share how much money I made and the amount of time (hours) I spent being a landlord. I want to show the world being a landlord is a wonderful thing.

Throughout this process I aim to be as transparent as possible. Being a landlord and owning rental property is a wonderful way to earn (mostly) passive income and allow you to buy back your time faster.

I hope you follow along with this monthly series. The Landlord Report can serve as a guide to owning rental property. Please feel free to contact me with any questions – happy to provide insight.

The table below outlines all my income and expenses for the past month:

As you can see, March was a great month for my rental property portfolio. In fact, it was one of the better months I’ve had as a landlord.

Rental property #1 and rental property #2 had perfect months. A perfect month means that I collected 100% of the rent and had no expenses other than the mortgage. There was a small repair at rental property #3 and the ‘expenses’ on rental property #3 are the utility bills.

Being a landlord is not all sunshine and cash flow. But! I still love being a landlord.

Below you will find a detailed account about what happened at each property this month.

Rental Property #1

The Starter Home

Rental Property #1 Summary

There was nothing exciting or noteworthy about rental property #1 in March. I love when being a landlord is boring. That usually means everything is going right.

The tenants paid their rent in full and on time. I stopped by on my way home from work. This pit-stop took maybe 10 minutes of my time. The rent will increase by $25/month starting in April. Gotta love making more with no additional work.

Rental Property #1 Summary

In summary, rental property #1 – earned $381.76* and I spent about 10 minutes managing the property. 

My mortgage debt dropped by $764.95 from my monthly mortgage payments. When considering principal reduction, I made $1,146.71.

*Remember – this is an accidental rental that I plan to live in during FIRE.

Rental Property #2

The Fixer-Upper

The tenants paid their rent of $4,000 in full and on time. Rent collection required me walking downstairs to get my morning cup of coffee. Does life get any easier than that?

Starting in April, the rent will increase $75/month to $4,075. This is a $900 increase annually. Nothing like making more money with no extra work.

We also had two roommates move out at the end of March. The two roommates/tenants staying in the house and I had a few ‘open houses’ to fill the vacant rooms.

Two new roommates/tenants will be joining us for the month of April. I am proud to report there were no vacancies.

Between advertising the rooms, scheduling property tours, managing the former tenants moving-out and having new tenants – I spent a few more hours than normal. Rental property #2 required around 20 hours this month.

Thankfully, there were no maintenance items – other than some touch up painting and cleaning to the two bedrooms with new tenants. I completed this task myself in less than an hour. Painting is fairly easy and I already had all the supplies. Bonus – I enjoy a beer and listened to music while completing this task.

Rental Property #2 Summary

In summary, rental property #2 – earned $1,591.43**. I spent about 20 hours managing rental property #2 this month.

My mortgage debt decreased $730.84. When factoring paying down my debt, rental property #2 made me $2,322.27.

Not bad for 20 hours of work. I earned $232.23 an hour for my time at rental property #2. Most people don’t make that on a single pay check.

**I also live in the house and get paid to live here. Pretty sweet right? House Hacking is awesome.

Rental Property #3

My Duplex

Rental property #3 required little effort this month. There was another plumbing backup at the property, however, this problem should finally be resolved.

Given that I value my time, I did not make the repair myself. I was also on the road and would not be back for three days. So, I called my plumber to fix the problem; this set me back $300.

Gas Bill: $194.07

Water Bill: $143.83

Electric for unit: $57.78

Plumbing repair: $300.00

In summary, rental property #3 – earned $1,120.24 and I spent about 20 minutes of my time managing this property.

Rental Property #3’s mortgage debt also decreased $409.96. When factoring in paying down my debt I made $1,530.20.

Portfolio Summary

In summary, I spent about 20 hours and 30 minutes of my time maintaining my rental property portfolio.

This was a great month for my rental portfolio.

In March, my rental properties provided me with a positive cash flow of $3,093.43. This month required more time than normal since I needed to find new tenants for rental property #2.

My mortgage debt decreased $1,905.75 last month which further increased my net worth.

Factoring in repayment of debt and cash flow, my rental properties earned $4,999.18. This is $243.86/hour which is awesome. My day job doesn’t pay that well. Being a landlord and owning a rental property portfolio is great. What is your excuse for not owning a rental property?