Success Stories -

Need a little motivation or inspiration? Landlording can be frustrating at times. This page was created to offer hope beyond your current challenges by reminding us of the "rewarding" aspects of landlording through sharing monthly examples of some of the Success Stories of our website visitors. We invite you to share your real estate and management success stories. See the bottom of this page if you wish to submit one of your success stories to be featured.

SUCCESS STORY by Ellie, IL.
Who would want to be a Landlord? Ever hear that question? Well I would. I started out a divorced mom of 3 with nothing to my name. Couldn't even get a loan for $1200 on a car in 1980. A little backdrop to my story. I dropped out of high school in my junior year to marry my boyfriend. Deliberately got pregnant to try to keep him from going to Viet Nam. That was 1965. Didn't work. I was 3 weeks short of being pregnant enough and they shipped him off leaving me stateside, pregnant and 16 years old. He came back a changed guy. Marriage only lasted 2 more years. Just long enough to have 2 more kids. So I ended up divorced with 3 kids at the great age of 20.

My parents had raised us kids to work. Had my first job helping take care of a house and kids at 10 during the summer time. Had bought my own clothes since then so I naturally went to work after the divorce. I held down such wonderful jobs as waitress, maid, CNA, packing pickles, and factory work. In 1978, I was standing packing pickles for $1.85 hour when I figured that maybe there was a better way. I went back and got my GED. I scored in the top 1% of anyone who had ever taken it. That was good enough to get me a scholarship to college. Having been a CNA I planned on taking up nursing. Those classes were full up with an 8 month waiting list. Not wanting to lose my scholarship, I looked around for what else I could take. Lots of openings in computer. I had never seen one but oh well. That is how I ended up in Infomation Technology. I got my first job offer when I was at school for 5 months. They said they hated to insult me by offering me $4.35 an hour to start as a computer operator. I accepted the insult. Job was for weekends only to start. Worked it into a full time job. They picked up my educational costs. By the way, I never accepted or asked for any kind of government help other than pell grants to go to school. I graduated with a 3.87 GPA while working full time and raising my kids. The company offered me a promotion to Computer programmer and I was off and running. Three companies and several promotions later, I finally was making enough money to start looking at investing some.

I had always hated the run down shacks I rented and I kind of wanted to be able to offer something better. That is how I chose real estate for investing. Fast forward 15 years. My kids are college grads paid for by real estate. The VP at the bank calls me by my first name and I have his personal phone number. My Insurance agent jumps when I call - I have more policies with him than anyone else. I got a half million dollar loan with no problem. I have purchased 3 homes in 3 months. All of this because of real estate investing. So yeah, I can put up with the hassles of having to go sign a lease tonight and not make it home till 7 or 8. And my youngest son GETS IT. He will go far. I already have more money than I will ever need. Now it is for the kids and grandkids.

SUCCESS STORY by Jerony, NJ.
I encourage website visitors to take a long view of rental ownership - as long as over 20 years which means you need a staying power, both financial and mental, to succeed. A gentleman tenant moved in a one-side of a duplex of my first investment in 1979. This man still lives in the same unit, never missed a rent payment, and seldom complains. He has paid over $275,000 rent so far. Thanks to him, the duplex is paid off long timr ago. By the way I paid $100,000 in 1979 for the entire duplex. To be fair, his rent is below market by about $200/mo and he is happy. This is only 1/2 of the duplex. Last year, this property produced $25,000 net cash flow. Not bad considering my downpayment was $20,000.

SUCCESS STORY by Bobbie, CA.
Recently a tenant told me she was so happy to rent the place I owned that she brought me a gift. She left me a bottle of wine. Actually I don't drink wine. She called and told me she had roses in a planter but they fell over in her car, so she brought me the wine. I was really touched. What's more, she asked me when I wanted to receive the rent. It is due by the 25th before the rent due month starts. So I told her the 20th would be fine. Since the first time she had to pay cashiers check for rent and security deposit, she has been paying me in cashiers check ever since. And by the way - when she first rented the property, she didn't move in for over 2 months, but paid the rent anyway. It is a fun business!

Thanks to Jeffrey Taylor, www.mrlandlord.com