Which is honestly a very good question that should absolutely be answered. When you do have the money to invest, you obviously want to get the most out of your investment, right? Like when there’s trends like investing in rural properties, well, hordes of people follow, any trend really. Well, that makes total sense, and it’s not like you have infinite money either. So yeah, while investing in property sounds so fancy and businesslike, but honestly, half the time it’s just trying to figure out what’s less stressful. People might make it seem like it’s a cake walk, but honestly, it’s not.
Sure, people always hype up rental properties as this perfect passive income thing, but before that magical dream even happens, there’s one big question to deal with. Go with single-family homes or multi-family properties. Which one is better? Is there even an option that’s better? Where’s the money at? Well, both of these are entirely different worlds, and so it’s really just going to vary.
Maybe Single-Family Homes are for You?
Single-family rentals usually feel a lot more approachable. It’s one home, one set of tenants, one roof to worry about. Plus, families who rent these places often treat them like their own home, which usually means fewer surprises. The stability can be so nice, and honestly, it helps that it doesn’t feel like running an apartment complex or something. Basically, if you’ve ever owned a house, you basically don’t have to deal with any “I didn’t know about that” like multi-level homes have (same for condos and duplexes).
Plus, financing and future resale also tend to be easier with single-family homes. Plus, there’s companies like North Texas Property Management that handle all that complex management stuff (which can be hard and confusing for some landlords with multiple houses). Also, if you ever decide to sell the house, or houses in this case, you’ll probably have a bigger pool of people waiting to buy one.
But what About Multi-Family Homes?
Well, for some, it might be “jumping to the deep end”, which isn’t inherently bad or anything like that. So, if you’re thinking bigger, then it could very well be for you. Since it’s multiple units under one roof, if one renter moves out, there’s still money coming in from the other units. That takes a lot of stress off compared to a single-family home sitting empty.
Now, with that said, more units mean more responsibility. Which also means more maintenance requests, more leases, more chances for someone to complain that their neighbor is loud or parking weird. Basically, there’s more work. It’s seriously not as easy as buying an apartment and just “going with the flow” and waiting for the money to just come in; it’s seriously not as simple as that. While yes, the earning potential is there, there’s a lot of work, a lot more work, so much work.
But What if You Don’t Want to Landlord Full-time?
Some people would say that being a landlord is a full-time job, while others might say it’s passive income. It’s really going to be up to you and how you want it. So, property management companies were mentioned earlier, and yeah, that’s a great choice. For a lot of people, they would rather outsource (but it’s not like the service is free), so if you own multiple homes, be it multiple single-family homes or apartment(s), then this could be a great idea.
So, Which is Best?
Well, as generic as it might sound, the choice is just yours and whatever you think will be the best fit for your life (and finances, too, of course). There really isn’t a right or wrong answer; again, it’s just what is best for you personally.
