Why own rental houses?
As the owner of rental houses that have proved to be excellent investments, I’m always interested in learning more about them. With the real estate market escalating in most towns and the favorable 1997 Tax Act capital gains rules on the books, rental houses are regaining investment popularity. The major rental house advantages include appreciating market values, depreciation income tax shelter deductions, leverage, cash flow and resale profits. But there’s a dirty four-letter word involved with rental houses. It’s W-O R-K. There’s work finding each rental house, acquiring it, fixing it up and renting it. But if it’s done right, managing rental houses isn’t hard work, as those investors I met who own hundreds of houses demonstrated to me. What to look for My St. Louis friend, Mike, often example, his latest acquisition is a sound, well-located, brick, four bedroom probate-sale house he bought in a good neighborhood for $35,000. It needed about $8,000 of fix-up work, such as stripping o
