I'll Never Buy to Hold Again!

I suspect that many of my fellow investors started out as landlords like I did.

I've been able to hold onto two multi families and one sfr for the last six years.  With the two sfr's my partner has, we manage nine units all together, not including the one we live in.  It's like having nine children, they're all different and we have a love/hate relationship with them all.

I started out thinking how perfect my life would be if I only had some rental properties that would just pump money into my bank every month.  I was convinced that this was the best way to stabilize my income.   I was tired of waiting on sales commissions, closings that were delayed or canceled created havoc for a budget minded family.  My goal was to be able to retire on the strength of these properties and I did.  But, I wasn't able to retire all together, just from sales.  I was able, the first four years, to focus on acquiring more properties and keeping them cash flowing.

The last two years have been turbulent within the housing market nationwide, historical lows for sales have resulted in mass foreclosures and the repercussion is a lot of new inventory flooding into the rental market.  The supply now exceeded the demand.  I suffered unprecedented high vacancies during these last two years while property taxes and utilities went up.  I happen to pay the utilities on two of those rental units as well as the mortgages, taxes,  insurance,  maintenance and repairs on all of them.

My tax returns show negative income; which is not exactly a glowing recommendation if you're trying to get any kind of financing for anything.  So, I drive a nine year old car that I love and I've learned every possible way to buy and sell real estate without using my own money.

Armed with all this, I have vowed not to take on anymore rental properties, not to buy and hold, but rather to buy and flip as many as I can.  This is my new adopted philosophy and I've learned it the hard way like every other life lesson.  I must be the hardest headed person... Or maybe I'm just not a quitter.