Think Realty: Resources for savvy real estate investors

Buying your first rental

Most of this path comes from an investor who bought his first rental while still working a corporate job. It is practical, honest about fear, and light on hype.

The first rental is mostly a decision, not a transaction. The numbers matter, but most people who stall are stuck on the question of whether they can do it at all.

These pieces take the questions in the order a first-timer asks them: how to get past the fear, how to tell a good rental from a bad one, how to get the place ready, and who will run it once a tenant moves in.

Prices and rents in the older articles are dated. The checklists and the reasoning are not.

  1. The Weekend Real Estate Investor: 7 ways to overcome the fear of buying your first rental property

    Article, 2015

    The writer began as a part-time investor with a corporate job, and chose a single, simple, low-risk rental. These are the seven things that got him over the fear.

  2. 9 Numbers to Help Identify a Profitable Rental Property

    Article, 2016

    Nine numbers for judging a rental. He opens by admitting that ask ten investors what makes a rental good and you will get ten answers, then shows which ones he uses.

  3. 3 steps to prepare your property for the rental market

    Article, 2015

    Lessons from what he calls the school of hard knocks, on getting a property ready for tenants. Written for beginners, and useful for veterans too.

  4. Think Realty’s Guidebook to Turnkey Rental Real Estate

    Article, 2017

    A long guide, about 2,700 words, to turnkey rentals: properties bought as they are, often with a tenant in place, by an investor who will not be there. Read it if you are buying in a market you do not live in.

  5. Should You Hire a Property Manager?

    Article, 2020

    A plain look at the decision, starting from why buy-and-hold is attractive to beginners and what changes when you hire out the work.

  6. 5 Tools for an Effective Property Management System

    Article, 2020

    What a workable management system needs, beginning with being simple enough that someone with no experience can run it. Useful if you plan to manage the property yourself.

Other lists