So many people are of a mind set like yours. Here is a positive story about rentals, which we bought, despite so many nay sayers out there in 2001 as an exchange from our family home we bought in 1983, when interest rates were 14%. We took the profits and bought a 10 unit apartment and a nine unit multifamily property, leveraging our money to put 20% down on each, with our profits from living and renting our first home for 18 years.
We manage them ourselves, we do most of the repairs ourselves and last year netted about $35,000. Now with being self employed, most of our lives and no pension plan or possibly no social security, we figure we will keep them, pull our hair out occasionally managing them, but will have a nice flow of income when we retire and they are paid off in 10 years.
Real Estate is a fantastic long term investment, similar to the stock market. The flippers and speculators give each a bad name and scare people. Where else can you turn an $83,000 investment into over a million dollar asset in a 20+ year time period? Only in real estate.
Google....$83,000 would have bought your 754 shares when it went public 3 years ago....those shares are now worth $504,790....
We manage them ourselves, we do most of the repairs ourselves and last year netted about $35,000
That's great! I just choose not to deal with renters...I wish you well...and hope you never suffer the renters I have...the last one chased his wife through the house firing a shotgun at her...did $17,000 damage just to the ceilings and front door....and....you gested it..he could not pay for the repairs...lost his deposit...but the rest came from my pocket.