Major Tradeoffs

Rental properties involve more tradeoffs to think about than your typical stock or bond investments. These are certainly not the only things to think about, but these are the ones that are the most impactful on your current financial situation adn your way of life.

Loss of Liquidity

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In general, you will need to put up a chunk of money as a down payment for a rental property. By doing this, you will lose access to this money until you sell or refinance the property. If the property value goes down for some reason, you may be unable to do a cash-out refinance.

The tradeoff here is that this money could have been used for other investments that might be more liquid. For example, you could invest in a

Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT)⁠

that returns you a stable percentage of your investment, and you can sell your shares of the REIT whenever you want. Or, you might want to have an emergency fund of cash you can use if you lose your job.

Make sure you're comfortable losing access to your down payment indefinitely.

Landlord Time vs. Property Management Costs

An investment property requires a lot of work!

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You need to deal with tenants (find them when you have a vacancy, collect their rent if they are not responsible, and sometimes evict them), hire contractors to do repairs between tenants and due to property deterioration, handle emergency repairs (phone calls at 3am that there's a leak or the toilet is backed up), and periodically check the property to make sure the tenants are not destroying it.

Those things not only take time, but also add stress to daily life, knowing you might be called by the tenants at any time, including while you're on vacation.

An alternative would be to hire a property manager who can deal with almost all of those things, ensuring you can spend minimal time dealing with the property. However, property managers will often take 6 to 10% of your gross rent, which can often be the difference between a monthly profit and a monthly loss (at least in the near term).

Decide whether free time or money is most important for your lifestyle and investment goals.

Still interested?

Read about some of the key expenses →⁠

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