Kimberly Smith - Making Money with Rental Properties

No one likes a know-it-all. Most of us realize theres no such thinghow could there be? The world is far too complicated for someone to understand everything there is to know. So when you come across a know-it-all, you smile to yourself as they ramble on because you know better.

You understand that the quest for knowledge is a never-ending one, and youre okay with that. You have no desire to know everything, just the next thing. You know what you dont know, youre confident enough to admit it, and youre motivated to do something about it.

At Idiots Guides, we, too, know what we dont know, and we make it our business to find out. We find really smart people who are experts in their fields and then we roll up our sleeves and get to work, asking lots of questions and thinking long and hard about how best to pass along their knowledge to you in the easiest, most-accessible way possible.

After all, thats our promiseto make whatever you want to learn As Easy as It Gets. That means giving you a well-organized design that seamlessly and effortlessly guides you from page to page, topic to topic. It means controlling the pace youre asked to absorb new informationnot too much at once but just what you need to know right now. It means giving you a clear progression from easy to more difficult. It means giving you more instructional steps wherever necessary to really explain the details. And it means giving you fewer words and more illustrations wherever its better to show rather than tell.

So here you are, at the start of something new. The next chapter in your quest. It can be an intimidating place to be, but youve been here before and so have we. Clear your mind and turn the page. By the end of this book, you wont be a know-it-all, but your world will be a little less complicated than it was before. And well be sure your journey is as easy as it gets.

Mike Sanders
Publisher, Idiots Guides

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International Standard Book Number: 978-1-61564-448-3
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2013945262

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Introduction

Welcome to the world of real estate investing! How you use your rental real estate, how you manage it, how you finance it, and when you choose to sell it all play a role in how profitable your investment is.

Like everything related to money, whether in business or the general economy, the profitability of real estate goes in cycles, some logical and some illogical, such as the boom and bust weve seen over the last 10 years. The fact is, the earths population is increasing, but the supply of land upon which to build stays the same. The principle of supply and demand says that, over time, increase in demand with a limited supply of product results in the products increase in value.

The same is true of your rental propertyover time, its value will go up. In the meantime, its important to understand how to cash flow your property, or make your monthly income exceed your monthly expenses. Thats where property management comes into play.

Rental properties can and will make you money. Personal real estate investing is even more solid today than it was a few years ago. To be successful, you, the landlord, must understand the fundamentals of property investing, recognize the basics of good and bad investment properties, and have the right guide to steer you through the property and renter cycles. You must also recognize some of the pitfalls of the many rules, regulations, and laws that could stand between you and financial success.