During the 1980s and 90s I owned a lot of real estate. It started slow and exploded into a 176 building pain in the ass. To be fair, most of the investment properties we owned were either single family homes or duplexes. A few multi-family buildings, a boarding house and a storage facility rounded out the mix.
With so many properties running through my personal accounts and a partnership with dad and brother, I learned a few things along the way. One hundred seventy six buildings is a lot of buildings. Good thing I didn’t own all of them at the same time. Mistakes were sure to happen.
By the early 2000s the real estate empire was gone. I was burnt out and sick of working with tenants. Countless property managers helped us over the years, but it was not enough. Managing over a hundred units much of the time over a footprint covering most of NE Wisconsin took its toll. To complicate matters, I also ran my accounting practice with double the employees I have today (during tax season).
Starting slow was my greatest idea. It felt good to see the passive income filling the checkbook. Our teams of contractors allowed us to buy fixer-uppers and increase the property values significantly. Our best deal was the purchase of an upper-lower duplex in my hometown for $8,000. Hard not to make a profit on those.
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