Real Life Rentals

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The top of this page displays a Dashboard Summary of all of my key performance metrics.  Scroll down for a detailed month-by-month account.

january - February 2024 update (+$1,393 & +$7,256)

A very slow start to the year. The portfolio is now at the point where we are dealing with significant CapEx every single month. Also, due to various issues (including holdups at the local housing authority) we have thousands of dollars of rent that is backed up. It will be paid eventually but makes these months feel a little lean.

We are sitting around 94% occupancy which seems to be about as good as we can hope for lately. That number should improve soon as we hope to sell some of our “tough” units which have always contributed to more vacancies, so we will be left with a higher concentration of the higher quality units.

December 2023 update (+$5,410)

Another below average month to end the year. Once again, we had a few vacancies and we also paid over $10k for capex again. Capex is becoming a constant monthly expense now that we have a larger portfolio with multiple roofs, furnaces, water heaters, windows, etc etc.

Overall, I’m super grateful that despite multiple vacancies and renovations to work through, we still ended the year very close to projections. Not only that, we are very close to our first $100k year. This is something I could only dream about a few years ago.

september - November 2023 update (+$7,490)

Lack of updates for the last few months as multiple projects kept us busy.

We have continued to have occupancy below 90% and we also paid a lot of property taxes in September which has kept cash flow at a less than exciting level. However, we still will end the year at or above expectations due to a stellar first 6 months of the year.

I decided to renovate and sell Lightning #1 and Lightning #2 due to multiple reasons. That was expected to be done by now but we had a MAJOR insurance claim at both properties that is still being worked out, so now I expect to sell those in the spring.

august 2023 update (+$12,220)

Back to comfortably positive territory after a lackluster July. Amazingly, we cash flowed well despite only having about 85% occupancy in the month of August as we continue to have a ton of turnover, some of them pretty heavy.

We still have to pay property taxes on about half of our portfolio (we are choosing to skip the discount window in order to manage cash flow). So we will see a hit to cash flow over the next 2 months from the taxes plus the costs of turnovers.

All in all it’s part of the normal ebbs and flows of the business but it makes things quite busy when it happens all at once.

July 2023 update (-$68)

Paid property taxes on about half of the portfolio, plus we are inundated with vacancies and repairs.

june 2023 update (+$15,568)

Record setting month of cash flow! Rent collections were strong and occupancy still is above 95%.

However, as usual for this time of year, storm clouds are brewing. We’ll be paying tens of thousands in property taxes in July and August, plus $40k for our two major unit renovations, plus we have a few more units moving out at the end of July.

may 2023 update (+$4,201)

First “down” month of the year. We had about $20k in additional expenses in the form of annual insurance premiums, cap ex, maintenance, and turnovers. But many of my personally owned rentals performed quite well which balanced everything out, more or less.

We filled our two vacancies from last month, but another two opened back up, so we are still at 96% occupancy. These next two will be heavy renovations, since they have not been touched since we acquired them. The renovations could be as much as $40k but we have been expecting this. Plus, it will increase our partnership revenue by about $1000/month!

april 2023 update (+$9,896)

Average month of cash flow. We paid the last of our property taxes for the spring (next big round will be school taxes over the summer) and had some maintenance as usual. We are just finishing some of our heavier turnovers (major renovation bills hitting next month) and our occupancy is up to 96% which is the highest it’s been in quite a while…(checks notes)…10 months!

march 2023 update (+$15,097)

Another nearly record high month as we had several tenants catch up on late rent and our occupancy is at 92%. We continue to work through paying our property taxes (we spread them out across a few months to minimize the impact on any single month).

We are experiencing some softening in the rental market as we have had a few units take longer than 2-3 weeks to fill. We’ve been accustomed to being aggressive on our rents (usually attempting to raise 10% after a turnover) so we are simply beginning to back off on our listing rent prices. The market isn’t dropping, it’s simply leveling off and becoming more “normal”. We don’t expect this to hurt us as we’ve underwritten our rents very conservatively, so we should be able to maintain solid cash flow.

february 2023 update (+$10,144)

Solid month of cash flow despite paying over $10,000 in property taxes. We were able to ride through the extra expenses easily due to a positive anomaly. We had a burst pipe in the Hershey 4 plex and the insurance payout was much higher than the actual cost. This helped to turn an otherwise low month into a month that looks really good on paper.

We are still at around 94% occupancy with a few units still (as of end of month February) 1-2 months behind on rent. Tax refund season is upon us, so the late paying tenants should be catching back up in March. It should be noted that this only generally happens for our C-class units, which only makes up about 15-20% of our portfolio. These units are generally higher cash flow, yet higher volatility/instability.

We paid some significant maintenance/repairs/turnover costs in February - over $5,000 overall - but it was easily absorbed by cash flow from other units and of course, the large insurance payout.

We expect next month to be similar - we will have one or two more “heavy” turnovers (these are usually from inherited tenants moving out where we are looking to raise rents significantly) - so we should continue to see occupancy in the low-to-mid 90’s, and turnover costs again over $5,000, possibly closer to $10,000.

january 2023 update (+$12,687)

January is typically a bad month, but by all accounts Jan 2023 has bucked that trend and gotten us off to a great start. As is typical for this time of year, we have a few economic vacancies (translation: tenants not paying) but this is usually remedied when tenants receive their tax refund in February or March. These economic vacancies were more than offset by the rest of the portfolio, however, as we continued to have a relatively low amount of maintenance expenses.

As expected, we have filled several vacancies in January and we are sitting at around 94% (physical) occupancy. The vacancies/turnover continue to pop up, including an unexpected move-out with a tenant breaking their lease after only a few months.

Next month, we expect to push our occupancy above 95% and we will also incur some moderate expenses from all the turnovers plus repairs from a frozen pipe that occurred in late December. Our expenses will be more than offset from an insurance claim from the frozen pipe, which should make February another solid month.

december 2022 update (+$9,968)

December is usually a month for bouncing back since most of the repairs and cap ex usually happen in the summer and fall months. It was nice to end with a $10k month to push the last 6 months of 2022 into positive territory.

We are still churning through vacancies but I think there will be some light at the end of the tunnel as we are filling four or five units in January. December was at 92% occupied and we should be above 95% by February. It would be nice to be able to stay above that number for at least a few months! It all depends if we buy more units that need an extensive turnover.

Overall 2022 was unimpressive from the standpoint of performing to expectations. However, we added 9 units and handled a significant amount of cap ex which means we will hopefully be setting ourselves up for higher cash flow in 2023!

november 2022 update (+$4,684)

Another month of better cash flow, but still below expectations (we expect around $6500-$7000 per month). We paid for the 2nd half of a large roof project on The Beast, which has been our number one problem property this year. We don’t have any more anticipated large cap ex or repairs now *knocks on wood*

We’ve also had a higher than usual vacancy and turnover rate for the last few months. We plan to re-fill several units here in December and that will probably spill over into January as well. This always comes with (usually) minor repairs and a lease up fee for our 3rd party PM or our in-house leasing manager (for those units managed internally), which dampens cash flow as well.

The portfolio currently is right around 90% occupancy and we expect that to hover around the same or possibly go up a little in December. Unfortunately it’s a slow time to fill vacancies, so we will see!

I added another property to our tracking. I’ve run out of creative names.

October 2022 update (+$2,851)

As expected, back into positive territory, but still not great considering how good we were doing in the first half of 2022. We continue to be plagued with capex and turnovers, and we were at 88% occupancy.

I do expect that we are through the worst of it though. We have multiple units that were being renovated that are very close to completion. We are all caught up (well, maybe 95%) on our capital expenses. I think we should be back at our normal 93%-95% occupancy by December.

$60k by EOY is doable. It’s below expectations, but there’s just no bouncing back from a $20k turnover for one unit. I think these things can be expected to happen every few years, and those years will end up looking like sub-par years unfortunately.

september 2022 update (-$5,860)

Another very rough month, in fact I’m pretty sure this is the most money my portfolio has LOST in cash flow in a single month. It’s been a year for records!

The main driver here is over $20k that was spent on necessary capex and turnovers on one property - The Beast. Indeed, the rest of the portfolio did quite well. We even only had about 85% occupancy since we are renovating several units, most notably ALL FOUR of the units in STR FTW! are vacant and undergoing renovations.

While I do expect to have some more capex and turnover expenses in October, I think we should be back in positive territory for the rest of the year, although the $75k expected EOY cash flow is looking out of reach.

august 2022 update (+$57)

Yes my 49 unit, $2.5M portfolio made me a whopping $57 in August. Yes that is $1.16 per unit lol.

Needless to say, just like last month, we had quite a bit going on. The big one, again, was another $14k in property taxes across several properties. We also have a major turnover (will cost over $20k) that is starting at The Beast. We had a tenant catch up from multiple months behind plus pay a few months ahead at Going Postal, which helped to offset the expenses.

Occupancy was back up to around 94% but we’ll be back down below 90% next month due to several tenants moving out. We’ll continue to turnover, improve, and raise rents which is good for the long term, but I anticipate lower cash flow in the short term. Plus, I’ll be replacing another roof in a month or two. :(

july 2022 update (-$3,288)

Pain.

Just kidding.

July and August have been rough months since we started using a lender that does not escrow taxes and insurance. Here in PA, most of our school tax bills are due in July, August and September.

So, we just need to keep an eye on the “expected” vs. “actual” graph to get a true picture of the total performance of a property and the overall portfolio. Over the course of 12 months, the impact of taxes and insurance should be spread out.

We paid about $13k in property taxes in July, and we will be paying another $14k or so in August. Also, occupancy was a little lower than expected as we had 44 out of 49 units occupied (90%). This should be back to the 95% range next month.

We also added three more active units to the portfolio following a massive 2 year rehab. We just refinanced so I’ll be adding that property to the tracking in August.

june 2022 update (+$8,588)

More of the same here in Central PA! Despite about $4k in repairs & maintenance spread across four or five properties, we are continuing to rock and roll with better than expected cash flow. Again, this is largely attributed to our overperforming STR units. We will be converting another unit over to STR in the next month or two.

We are still holding steady at 96% occupancy - 44 out of 46 units. Next month, we’ll have one or two units open up, but we’ll probably fill the two that are vacant right now. We will also HOPEFULLY add 3 more units into the “active” mix, as we are wrapping up an out of control 3 unit BRRRR that took us 2 years to complete.

may 2022 update (+$9,060)

Yet another solid month. The overall cash flow trend continues to go up as we bring more and more units into service. In particular, our furnished, short term units in Hershey 4 Plex and STR FTW! are bringing in several thousand per month between just two units. We’re performing about $10k better than expected overall, and I’d attribute nearly all of that to the two short term units exceeding expectations.

We had a few units fill up, while a few more became vacant, so we are still at around 96% occupancy (44 out of 46 units occupied).

april 2022 update (+$6,585)

While some months are a tale of extremes, everything from this month was very average. We had 96% occupancy, about $4k in repairs, paid property taxes and insurance premiums on a few properties, and collected rent on most units.

Oh, and we also bought another 4 unit. No big deal ;)

march 2022 update (+$15,083)

Another record breaking month - I think it’s the 6th time we’ve hit a cash flow record in the last 15 or so months. This time it’s almost laughably high - the only reason it got this high was due to a large payout coming from a housing agency for ONE unit. We paid a large amount of property taxes this month, as well, but it was completely masked by lack of maintenance issues and 98% occupancy.

february 2022 update (+$4,396)

Another nice month, only slightly dampened due to property taxes, insurance, utilities and repairs. We are doing our best to spread out the property taxes so they don’t all hit in one month.

We’re at 98% occupancy so that definitely helps to keep the cash flow sustainable.

As I type this we just got our appraisal back for our Middletown 5 unit (spoiler alert: it’s very good). The refi will be in a few weeks so the updated cash in the deal and cash flow will be updated next month.

january 2022 update (+$6,446)

Happy 2022! We are off to a nice start to the new year.

We are still at 95% occupancy with one unit being filled while another one opened up. We have another unit that is almost done with initial renovations. There’s a chance we might get to 100% in the next month or two, as long as no one moves out in that time.

We paid another large cap ex bill from the work that was done at the end of 2021 on The Beast.

The other big portfolio action is we completed two cash out refinance’s on the Hershey 4 Plex and Going Postal. This caused the cash in our deals to decrease significantly (see Cash Investment above) and also we were able to officially take credit for the massive forced appreciation (see Appreciation Since Purchase above). The result is our overall ROI skyrocketed. Now we’ll start the process all over again with that money - find and purchase great properties with high upside potential, renovate/improve, cash out refinance and repeat. All while increasing cash flow and net worth.

december 2021 update (+$14,663)

This ended up being the bounce-back month to rule all bounce-back months. Since all the major expenses hit last month, December was just left with a ton of rent coming in and mortgage payments going out - very few other expenses.

This was the FIFTH record breaking month of rental cash flow this year, and the strong ending to 2021 vaulted my portfolio performance significantly above expectations. As I do every year (and every few months here and there) I’ll be adjusting expectations (mostly upward) in 2022 based on updated rents and expenses for every single property.

We are up to 95% occupancy with most of the major rehabs complete and just a few light turnovers here and there. So, I would expect occupancy to stay at 95% or higher going forward.

Indy Rancher #2 is sold and final numbers are updated HERE.

We are ready to continue to rock and roll with new acquisitions in 2022 plus continuing to do what we’re doing with the current portfolio.

november 2021 update (-$1,179)

As anticipated, it was an ugly overall month with several cap ex projects being completed. We paid about $5k for a new roof, $3k for HVAC, and about $6k-$7k in other costs across multiple properties. Negative $1,179 isn’t that bad considering all those expenses. This was the first negative month in 16 months. Side note: that seems like a cool metric to track - “months since last negative month”

We’re up to about 93% occupancy and next month should be around 95% as most rehab projects are being completed. With the existing properties (plus other projects that I haven’t even added to this tracking spreadsheet yet), we are set up for a monster Q1 of 2022 and beyond. My initial projection for 2022 cash flow is somewhere in the $70k-$80k range.

Indy Rancher #2 is sold and I’ll have final numbers next month. It was very profitable - most of the money was made on appreciation. I’m officially out of the Indianapolis market.

Our AirBnB experiment in Hershey is going very well. It’s still early on, and we haven’t had any vacancy yet (we’ve had the same tenant stay for about 2.5 months), but it seems like it will be a massive money maker.

october 2021 update (+$4,312)

A decent month despite beginning to pay for several cap ex projects, as expected. We paid about $5k in cap ex this month, with another $10k-$15k upcoming, so we will most likely be ending the year with a whimper, from a monthly cash flow standpoint. We should still meet or exceed our annual cash flow expectations, which is the main focus anyway.

Portfolio occupancy is up to 88% as we have been completing more rehab projects, and we expect to be up to a healthy 93%-95% in the next month or two as more newly rehabbed units get filled. We are also beginning to strategically raise rents on some of our inherited tenants.

We added another property to the tracking this month: Beast Jr

In other news, we sold another single family house and are under contract to sell another single family house. We continue to look for opportunities to sell our lower cash-flowing single family houses, especially given the current sellers’ market. For both of these houses, we will not be doing a 1031 exchange.

september 2021 update (+$7,604)

Nice recovery from last month. We paid our last $5k(ish) of property taxes for the year in September, so that’s nice to have that behind us. We filled one vacancy so far (the rent went up by $300), and we have a few units that are close to 100% complete and will be bringing in extra cash flow as soon as October.

The extra cash flow will hopefully help to offset the upcoming capex wave. I have a $7500 roof, $5k HVAC, plus a few thousand in miscellaneous coming up soon.

august 2021 update (+$436)

Not a great month as we’ve had a confluence of expenses and unfortunate events. The two big stories this month are property taxes and vacancy. I did my best to spread out the property tax payments while still getting the 2% discount for early payment, but it’s amounting to around $5k per month in July, August, and September. Regarding vacancy, we have 40 units that are “active” and being tracked on this website, and only 32 are occupied. This is not market driven; 7 out of 8 are vacant because they’re undergoing significant rehab (these are mostly BRRRR units).

Once the units get rehabbed, they’ll get re-rented at a much higher rate and cash flow will prosper.

That being said, it will probably take a month or two to work out of our current occupancy situation, plus we have about $15k-$20k in upcoming capital expenditures (yay), so I’d expect the next few months to look a little choppy from a cash flow perspective.

We added Bathroom Palooza to the tracking this month, and updated the expected cash flow accordingly through the end of the year.

Bat Cave is being renovated to sell and has been removed from the portfolio tracking until the dust settles after the sale.

july 2021 update (+$7,458)

Another very healthy month of cash flow despite us paying school taxes on multiple properties. We had one tenant catch up to the tune of $5k+ (including quite a bit of late fees) which basically paid for all the property tax bills.

We continue to have a few projects in the mix:

• After a bad tenant destroyed the house, Bat Cave is basically being flipped to sell in a few months

• We added Middletown 5 unit to our tracking (purchased in June)

• Hershey 4 Plex continues to be rehabbed, with 2 rehabbed units coming on-line in the coming months

• The inherited tenant (along with ducks/chickens) is out of Going Postal, and that unit is being fully updated

• My last Indy property has a vacancy and we hope to re-rent it at a much higher rate since we’ve seen some significant rental appreciation in that area

june 2021 update (+$10,219)

Not only ANOTHER record breaking month, but I’ve crossed over the $10k milestone! This month turned into a monster because we just rented out a large 3 unit (it was a year long BRRRR) and it grosses $4k per month. The income boosted our June numbers and we haven’t closed the cash out refinance yet, so our monthly P&I is still low. I’ll be adding this property to an individual tracking page once we make our first P&I payment on the new refi (September).

Very possible that next month could be a record setter as well.

***knocks on wood***

may 2021 update (+$7,867)

Eked out another record breaking month (by $6, LOL!)

Each property continues to have ups and downs, but we have enough units that the ups of some properties cancel out the downs of the other ones.

We added a property to the tracking this month that I’m SUPER excited about, check it out!

april 2021 update (+$7,861)

Just barely set another portfolio record (last record was $7,796 only 2 months ago) and it’ll only go up from here. We had a few pleasant surprises with some past due rent being paid this month, which helped to mask the few thousand dollars of property taxes paid.

I refinanced four properties (Lightning #1, Lightning #2, Bat Cave, Unicorn) this month. The refi’s decreased my monthly payments of interest, decrease my interest rate (they were all in the 5’s, and new rate is 3.75%), decreased my amortization period from 30 years to 25 years, and got me about $30k in cash out. Huge win! I’ve reflected this as a reduction in principal (cash in the deal) for each of these properties. I’ve also adjusted the tracking showing new appraised value and loan values.

It is going to keep getting better ;) I expect a few more record breaking months in 2021!

march 2021 update (+$2,041)

As expected this was a low month due to paying property taxes as well as multiple issues that we continue to work through.

April will be a little ho-hum as well due to three or four other property tax bills that need to be paid.

After that, we will be adding another 7 units to the tracking in May/June time frame. Everything is looking good!

february 2021 update (+$7,796)

New portfolio cash flow record! Here’s the crazy thing, we have 2 vacancies and 2 economic vacancies. Out of 29 active units, that’s nothing to sneeze at.

Next month we will pay several thousand in non-escrowed property taxes which will certainly cause a temporary bump down in March. But the overall trend is up!

january 2021 update (+$2,962)

Overall a decent first month of 2021!

I’ve done the math and January officially sucks. However, now that the portfolio has achieved some scale (29 active units), what used to be a -$500 or -$2000 month is now still a positive month. Perhaps negative months are now a thing of the past, barring a major apocalypse.

Every year I re-evaluate my properties and update the “expected” returns accordingly. Some went up (rent increases) and some went down (increases in utilities and taxes).

By all accounts this should be a great year for the rental portfolio due to the additions that were made last year, plus we have 6 more units that are being rehabbed and coming online (hopefully) in the spring. Due to the rental, flipping, and wholesaling businesses taking off, and increased personal expenses from a growing family, I’ll be starting to pay myself a small salary for the first time.

december 2020 update (+$4,067)

Very solid last month of the year despite several units experiencing various issues. I added another property that I named The Beast (last 1031 acquisition).

I’ll do a more thorough review of the year in a blog post, but overall I have to say I’m satisfied with where things ended up. I grew the portfolio and despite vacancies, turnover, repairs, Cap Ex, and COVID-19, cash flow performance came in just above expectations.

november 2020 update (+$1,486)

This was a mediocre month due to all kinds of circumstances, but as usual I’m just happy that the number is still positive.

The major news that I added two new 1031 properties to the tracking: Slow and Steady and Going Postal. This is part of a massive 1031 exchange that I completed in 2020.

We still have an economic vacancy in Central PA 4 plex, but it will be over in December. We also had a few large repairs on multiple properties, plus some high property tax bills that were paid.

october 2020 update (+$4,789)

Another fantastic month, and as usual, it wasn’t without complications and setbacks.

First of all, I’ve added cash flow from my THREE new 1031 acquisitions to the overall portfolio tracking. This bumps up the number this month (October) since I don’t start paying the mortgages until next month (two in November, one in December). I start tracking individual properties in the month of the first mortgage payment, so you’ll see two new ones in the next update.

Issues this month included an uncharacteristic economic vacancy in one of my most reliable properties, plus the Money Pit/Moneymaker living up to its name.

I standardized the reporting on sold properties which you can see here, here and here. A major takeaway is that closing costs must be considered when deciding to sell. On all my sales, I made great appreciation, but closing costs ate up most/all of my appreciation. In most cases, you MUST add value and/or hold for 5-10 years (or sell off-market to an investor) to ensure closing costs don’t completely wipe out your gains.

september 2020 update (+$3,637)

Best month since March! All three 1031 properties have sold, with final results posted. Two of them broke even overall, while one provided a decent return.

I’ve already purchased two 1031 replacement properties. They will be added to the site with the November update (the month that I pay my first mortgage payments).

I also added a new property to the tracking, another BRRRR!

I am continuing to update the “Expected Cumulative” graph with all the the sales and acquisitions. Total expected cash flow per month is currently around $2500. It’ll be jumping up once I add the 1031 replacement properties.

august 2020 update (+$1,856)

So many moving parts this month it will be hard to mention everything. The main story line is I’m in the middle of a MASSIVE 1031 exchange. Buying 3 properties and selling 3 of my worst performers. One property has already sold.

Another sale fell through but got back under contract within 24 hours.

The other sale is proceeding smoothly.

If everything gets executed according to plan, all 3 will be sold by mid-September and I will begin buying properties literally days after the last sale. This is moving way faster than I ever imagined.

july 2020 update (-$2,203)

As expected, it was a rough overall month for cash flow. The highlight was a $5k turnover/repair bill in Indy Rancher #1. This was also poorly timed with some large utility, property tax, and insurance bills.

The even-more-major news from this month is that I’m under contract to sell two of my biggest cash flow dogs, and just listed another one. When I sell these properties, my average cash flow will actually go UP since these properties mostly cash flowed negative. Plus, I’ll be performing some 1031 exchanges into larger, stable, cash flowing properties using the proceeds. The net result will be minimal cash out of my pocket, minimal taxes due, and an additional $500-$1000/month in cash flow. But this will take 6-9 months to execute fully. I’ll be sure to provide updates on how it’s going, both on my website and of course on my Twitter feed.

june 2020 update (+$3,532)

Great month but it wasn’t without complications. I had a full month of vacancy in one property, and another tenant didn’t pay at all in June.

The next few months will be pretty rough from a vacancy, repair, and CapEx standpoint. There’s still a few moving parts, so it might not be as bad as I fear. Either way, I’m prepared with plenty of cash reserves for the worst case scenario.

may 2020 update (+$2,147)

Another good, not great month. I’m happy to make this much cash flow despite one tenant not paying, a vacancy and several turnovers. The COVID-19 impact continues to unfold better than even my best case projections, and I’m hoping it continues to be that way.

In other news, I added another partnership property to the tracking (best ROI ever!) and I’m preparing to sell my first rental property.

april 2020 update (+$2,563)

A great month, considering the COVID-19 situation. Rent was collected on all units, with the exception of one vacancy, and one unit paid half. I was monitoring rent collected closely, and when I realized it was looking quite good, I made the decision to invest $3,000 into the vacant property. I think this was important for many reasons, but the main reason is I want to use my strong cash flow and cash reserves to continue to provide above-average housing. It’s the right thing to do, plus it gives me a competitive advantage against many other landlords in the area. I’ve made the decision to emerge from COVID-19 stronger than before.

march 2020 update (+$5,239)

A fantastic month largely fueled by tenants catching up on late rent using their tax refunds. I even had one economic vacancy (non-payment) and one physical vacancy.

february 2020 update (+$3,859)

A lot has been going on this month, and despite vacancies, turnover costs, late/non-payments, and repairs, cash flow is back to 2019 levels.

Also notable this month: a new property was added to my tracking, now that it has been rehabbed, rented, and refinanced.

january 2020 update (-$1,166)

After a monster 2019, cash flow has come crashing back down to earth at the start of 2020. The big expense was for Indy Rancher #2, but I also dealt with annual landlord fees on multiple properties, semi-annual utility payments, and some (legitimate but confusing) “rob Peter to pay Paul” accounting (which will be remedied in February).

december 2019 update (+$4,546)

Another great month concluding a fantastic year! After several years of nearly everything going wrong, this year nearly everything went right. I had very minimal vacancy for the year (less than 2%) and less large capital expenses and maintenance than in past years. I believe this is partly due to luck, but also due to my increased focus on rehabbing properties the right way, up front. This keeps good tenants in the property (since it’s very desirable) and decreases future maintenance calls. I also think my Central PA property manager does better and better the longer he has properties under his management.

2019 was a year of growth largely due to this being my first year as a full time real estate investor. I have big goals for the coming year and hope that 2020 turns out even better!

november 2019 update (+$4,065)

Another fantastic month now that I’ve got 15 units cranking away bringing in cash flow. Barring something catastrophic, this will be my first year with positive cash flow in all 12 months.

october 2019 update (+$3,577)

Solid month, and I’ve now added my 3 unit BRRRR into the tracking. I’m also starting to get some very small payments from my new partnership (we have one occupied unit from an inherited tenant) - I’ll be reporting out on those properties in more detail once the rehabs are complete. The monthly “expected cumulative” graph has been updated accordingly.

september 2019 update (+$5,684)

Another near-record high month due to a few anomalies. Some “free” cash flow is starting to show up from my 3 unit (I’m starting to get deposits but haven’t made a mortgage payment yet), so that helps to bump up the numbers. I got a full security deposit back, which was nice. In negative news, one of my properties instantly became a liability this month, but I’m remaining calm.

august 2019 update (+$2,020)

Another solid month while riding through a vacancy. September is looking good, plus I’ll be adding my 3 unit to the mix(!) in October.

july 2019 update (+$2,643)

This is what I like to see! Sustaining a vacancy and multiple repairs and still maintaining a healthy portfolio cash flow is what I always wanted to shoot for! An increase in unit count helps immensely - this is the definition of diversity in real estate. More units not only increases my AVERAGE cash flow but also decreases cash flow VOLATILITY. This doesn’t mean crazy stuff doesn’t happen, but the overall impact to the portfolio is dampened.

june 2019 update (+$3,606)

Great month! I’ve hit the $20K benchmark which is already more than I’ve made in any other year…and it’s only halfway through the year!

Here’s some interesting stats: $13,188 (65%) of my cash flow in 2019 came from the 4 BRRRR’s (Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat) that I completed in 2018. These properties account for only 44% of my properties (4/9 currently) and only 15% of my cash invested ($32,216/$215,182)! That’s what I call efficiency, and I love it. BRRRR’s work, folks!

May 2019 update (+$900)

An overall ho-hum cash flow result, but when you dig into the numbers and details there’s a lot of positives. I’m still cash flow positive despite a $2,500 capital expenditure. I had multiple tenants extend their leases another 12 months which avoids a TON of vacancy and associated expenses. Also, some of the upcoming expenses I was expecting either won’t be as bad or won’t be happening at all.

april 2019 update (+$6,016)

Aaaaand ANOTHER monthly cash flow record! A lot went well this month as I had a tenant catch up, rent increases went into effect, and even experienced a favorable PM accounting error.

A lot of the cash flow perceived success in 2019 is simply due to delayed cash flow that was due at the end of 2018 but wasn’t paid on time. So, this made 2018 look artificially bad and is making 2019 look artificially good.

Also, WINTER IS COMING. As I outlined in a blog post about cash flow, we KNOW that Cap Ex is going to happen. I have three or four projects/issues that need to be addressed in the next month or two which will total thousands of dollars. The extra cash flow from the first part of 2019 will help to pay for the Cap Ex later in the year and bring the actual cash flow closer to projections.

Bottom line is, this is a long term game so it’s not worth getting overly excited over short term fluctuations - whether they are insanely high like this month or depressingly low like some months I’ve had in the past (see October 2018).

march 2019 update (+$3,901)

Another great month despite an economic vacancy in the Bat Cave. It’s been a monster first quarter of 2019 as the BRRRR’s from last year are really starting to take off, plus the tenant in Lightning #1 is catching up from payments that were missed in the end of 2018. My PA property manager has been doing a great job the last 6 months; really proactively getting better tenants, following up on late paying tenants, and taking care of repairs in a cost effective manner.

february 2019 update (+$2,214)

Another great month, all things considered! Zero vacancy but I did experience some maintenance costs in several properties. I will be expecting a few vacancies in Central PA properties over the next few months which I will monitor very closely with my property manager.

january 2019 update (+$3,693)

Great start to 2019! Minimal issues plus a tenant is getting caught up on late rent which inflates the number a bit for this month.

I’ve updated my projections for each property and the portfolio - this is outlined in my recent blog post.

December 2018 update (+$4,594)

What a great end to an up and down year! This is a record cash flow month for me and is a great indicator for what it looks like when there are minimal issues and zero vacancies.

I also added my 9th property to the mix - The Unicorn.

The unfortunate story of 2018 will be CapEx in Indy Hipster House, major repairs in Indy Rancher #1, and multiple vacancies and evictions, most notably in Lightning #2. This is real life baby.

november 2018 update (+$1,265)

A mediocre month but I’m definitely happy to be back in the green overall after last month.

Next month I’ll have recovered from the vacancy in Lightning #2 and I’ll also be adding another property to the mix (Name TBD). It should be a solid last month of the year!

october 2018 update (-$4,937)

Bad month due to my first CapEx event at the Indy Hipster House. The deck collapsed and it cost me about $6K to replace it. This reinforces a very important lesson: either add value through rehab and make the property like-new (BRRRR), or buy it like-new after rehab (turnkey). As you know my preferred method has been BRRRR lately as you essentially can get the bank to pay for the rehab.

I have a few properties that are cruising along nicely, and I still am having tenant issues with the recent acquisitions. It really does seem like all of my properties have needed a 6-9 month ramp up period before they really start cash flowing.

September 2018 update (+$1,562)

Average performance this month as I’m still waiting on the recent acquisitions to really get off the ground. If they don’t, I might need to re-name them “Huge Dud #1” and “Huge Dud #2”.

I added another property to the portfolio - The Bat Cave! Expected cash flow through the rest of the year has been adjusted accordingly. You may notice that I’ve quietly hit a milestone: the portfolio value has crossed over the $1M threshold.

august 2018 update (+$1,437)

As expected, I saw a bounce back month in August.  I'm hoping to fill the vacancy in Lightning #2 soon, fix some lingering repair issues in Central PA 4 plex, and have a strong last few months of the year.

july 2018 update (-$2,109)

Worst month in quite a while, and I've discovered the portfolio still isn't strong enough to ride through some issues without a negative cash flow month.  It's times like these where it helps to step back and look at the big picture and see that the losses are short term and temporary (this is one of the reasons for Real Life Rentals).  Most of the issues will be resolved in the next month or two.

June 2018 update (+$3,074)

I'm happy to say that the portfolio is now beating expectations for YTD cash flow.  There might be a little turbulence next month (stay tuned!) but I think I've got enough units in the portfolio now to ride through it.

I've updated the portfolio tracking to include Lightning #2, along with the expected cash flow numbers.  We are up to around $1,700/month in expected cash flow.

This month we celebrated our 3 year anniversary of owning Central PA 4 Plex (and being real estate investors).  It's been quite a ride, and the best is yet to come!

may 2018 update (+$2,168)

Another great month despite a few minor issues.  I've updated the tracking to include returns from Lightning #1.  Also note that the "Expected Cash Flow" has increased as well to account for the added property.  Year-to-date numbers are right on target, and we'll see if they can be sustained.

april 2018 update (+$2,604)

What a great month - all existing properties are humming along, and the two new BRRRR's are starting to throw off some cash flow as well.  I will be adding individual tracking for the BRRRR's once the first mortgage payments kick in.

march 2018 update (-$1,411)

Had to pay for turnover repairs, lease up fees, and major basement repairs being done this month.  I'm excited for next month as I'll have my 2 Central PA BRRRR's to add to the mix.

february 2018 update (+$1,636)

Good month, all things considered! Some properties had some bumps but the other properties carried me through to some nice cash flow at the end of the month.

I've got some turnover and maintenance expenses hitting in March...could be an ugly month...but by April I'll have my next 2 BRRRR's (Buy-Rehab-Rent-Refinance-Repeat) to add to the portfolio and we should be poised to take off from there!

january 2018 update (-$600)

A ho-hum start to 2018 with multiple expenses hitting at once.  Looks like another vacancy coming up in Indy Rancher #2 but hopefully it gets filled quickly.

December 2017 update (+$2,834)

Finally had a good month to finish off the year on a good note.  Massive lessons learned this year on many fronts, and there was some significant adversity to work through, but the worst is finally behind us! The current portfolio is positioned well and I am now working on TWO local BRRRR's to add to the mix in the next 2-3 months!

November 2017 update (-$1,315)

Another month of negative cash flow - 3rd in a row.  The Central PA townhouse vacancy was finally filled and all indicators are that next month we'll be back to positive cash flow.  I just acquired another BRRRR locally and looking bring that one "online" (rent ready) in February or March.

October 2017 Update (-$2,070)

Another down month due to the continued vacancy in the Central PA townhouse, turnover expenses in the Central PA 4 plex, and repairs in Indy.  It is just impossible to cash flow with a sustained vacancy in a small portfolio like mine.  The good news is there's a light at the end of the tunnel - the vacancy is getting filled and the repairs are mostly taken care of at this point.

september 2017 update (-$1,965)

Painful month due to a continued vacancy in my Central PA townhouse as well as a major turnover bill that hit at the start of the month.  I really need to get this thing filled as soon as possible.  Lots of lessons learned on that property.

august 2017 update (+$1,994)

Little bit of a rebound this month, but the portfolio is still going through some churn.  Next month could be break-even or negative.  My Central PA townhouse was STILL vacant, and I have some turnover expenses that will hit in September.  On a somewhat related note, I did fire a property manager for the first time! (I will do a post about how and why.) My other properties carried me through this vacancy in August - brought a 6th property (9th unit) into commission, and finally getting some late payers onto a payment plan to get them caught up.  This is the paradox of buy and hold - the more units you have, the LESS risk there is to your cash flow.

July 2017 Update (-$703)

Bad month...this is what cash reserves are for! I had to pay for utilities on my 4-plex, have a few late paying tenants, and have a vacancy in my Central PA townhouse (killer).  Next month will be much better as the late payments and late fees come in, and I've also got my 6th property complete with rehab and a tenant in place which will add to the cash flow.  This is the first negative cash flow month in almost a year, but the bottom line is I didn't lose any sleep about it because I keep at least $10K in cash reserves at all times.

June 2017 Update (+$4,082)

First official monthly update - cash flow looks great this month, but it's really an anomaly.  I had tenants pay late on 3 properties in May, which moved that cash flow, plus late fees, from May to June (I get my disbursements from most property managers on the 15th of the month).  It's rare to have late payments on 3 properties at once, but I'm fine with it as long as I eventually get the rent paid.  I also added a 5th cash flowing property to the mix (hoping to add a 6th next month), which helped to bolster the number this month as well.  Even though it's not sustainable with my current portfolio size, I'm happy with over $4K in passive income this month!

February 2017 - May 2017

It looks like a downward trend, but I promise it's not.  Something happened each month - vacancy/turnover costs, tenant placement fees, minor maintenance, and late rent payments.  This is all part of the game!

September 2016 - January 2017

Beginning in September, I now had four cash flowing properties and the flood was all cleaned up.  I enjoyed several months of no vacancies, low maintenance, and on-time rent payments.

July - August 2016

Disaster struck in the form of a basement flood in my first Indy Rancher.  The total repair bill was over $5K, and I paid it mostly between July and August.  This one-time event is the main reason why my total cash flow is below expectations.

May - June 2016

My first (and only) sustained vacancy in my Central PA townhouse.  I still only had two properties at this point, so this one hurt, as you can see from the dip in cash flow.

january 2016

At the start of this chart, I had just two properties - Central PA 4-plex and Central PA townhouse.