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A Landlord Blog for the Passive Income Obsessed
Know the acronym “FIRE,” in personal finance circles?
It stands for Financial Independence/Retire Early.
Financial independence means that income from your investments (like, oh, I don’t know, rental properties) is enough to cover your living expenses. In other words, you’re no longer “dependent” on your job to pay your bills.
My name is Brian Davis, and I’m a landlord, real estate investor, personal finance writer, co-founder of SparkRental, and world traveler. I get to spend most of the year living abroad, largely because my rental income allows me to live anywhere.
Deni (my partner) and I have a simple goal: to help 5,000 people reach $5,000/month in passive income from rental properties. Actually our goal is to help as many people as possible reach financial independence from rental income, but that doesn’t have the same ring to it 😉
Want to retire early with rental properties? Stack up streams of passive income? Reach financial independence?
We created this landlord blog to help you do just that. Being a landlord is great, but ultimately rental properties are a means to a greater end: giving you the freedom to lead whatever life you want.
The Latest from the Landlord & Real Estate Investing Blog:
What’s the Best Property Management Software for Your Business?
Why work when you can automate? The whole point of investing in rental properties is passive income. If you're spending your nights and weekends manually collecting rental applications, writing lease agreements or collecting rent payments, you're doing it wrong. The...
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What I Wish I Knew Before Investing in Rental Properties
To the uninitiated, investing in rental properties can look like a no-brainer route to financial independence and a steady passive income. After all, your tenants are covering your mortgage and other rental expenses, with little effort on your part! But if you don’t...
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Learning Real Estate Investing: What 11 Pro Investors Wish They’d Known Earlier
Real estate investments are expensive, even if you finance them. That means mistakes are expensive. I already shared some of the real estate investing lessons I wish I’d known when I was just starting out. So I figured I’d open it up to other professional real estate...
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How to Increase Rents Without Losing Tenants (PLUS: Free Raise the Rent Letter)
Want a better return on your rental investments? Landlords need to understand how to tactfully and effectively raise rents, without losing their tenants. Turnovers can be costlier than a Kardashian’s wardrobe, so if you want to maximize ROI you...
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20 Questions to Ask Before Starting the Rental Application Process
Time is worth more than money. You can always earn more money, but your remaining time on this earth is limited – and more so every minute of every day. Which is probably why you became a landlord in the first place: to build passive income. And...
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Real Estate vs. Stocks: Which Is Faster for FI & Early Retirement?
If you want to reach financial independence and/or retire early (FIRE) within the next five to ten years, should you invest in real estate or stocks? Both have their advantages and disadvantages. It turns out that several US and German...
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How to Calculate Rental Property Cash Flow: Know Your ROI Before Investing
I cringe every time I hear a new rental investor say “Well the mortgage payment is only $1,000, and the rent is $1,300, so that’s a $300/month cash flow!”Sound the air raid siren, because that investor’s dreams are going to end in flames.How to...
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9 Questions New Investors Should Ask Before Buying a Rental Property
Unlike flipping, buying a rental property is a long-term investment. And long-term investments need long-term thinking and planning.Real estate is an inherently illiquid investment – it costs several months and thousands of dollars to sell,...
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How to Find Good Deals on Investment Properties – Even in a Hot Market
It’s been hard to find good deals on investment properties over the last few years. Fueled by low inventory, especially among starter homes, the last five years have seen home values skyrocket. Look no further than Zillow’s Home Value Index,...
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Who Is This Blog For?
Well, sure, this is a real estate investing and landlord blog. We write about the nuts and bolts of investing in rental properties, tenant screening, leasing issues, collecting rent, managing difficult tenants, and so on.
But while the “how-tos” and “avoid these mistakes” are important, they’re only part of the picture.
The bigger picture? How rental properties and real estate investing fit into your larger strategy for building wealth and passive income.
Specifically: reaching financial independence to give you the freedom to retire young, if you so choose.
So who is this “landlord blog” for? It’s not just for landlords – it’s for anyone looking for creative ways to reach FIRE through real estate investing.
Real Estate Investing & Landlord Education
Our real estate investing blog includes hundreds of landlord articles, personal finance articles, property management tips, and detailed real estate investing advice. Browse it, search it, use it as a free resource.
But our landlord education doesn’t end with the blog.
We offer a range of free webinars and online masterclasses for landlords and real estate investors. We offer several premium landlord courses. Our weekly newsletter keeps you abreast of rental industry trends, landlord tips, and the best of real estate investing blogs from around the web.
What for? Why do real estate investors and landlords need continuing education, anyway?
Because investing in rental properties is not like throwing money in an index fund.
Buying real estate investment properties takes skill (at least if you’re going to make money). Managing rental properties takes skill.
Your returns on rental investment properties are directly proportionate to your knowledge and skill, both as an investor and as a landlord. If you want to reach financial independence from real estate, you’re going to need to know what you’re doing.
That’s why we’re obsessed with ongoing landlord education at SparkRental. We want you to make as much passive income as possible, as fast as possible, on the fewest rental investments possible.
Beyond the Blog: More Landlord Resources
Had enough of us going on about the importance of landlord education?
“Cut to the goods already Brian! Gimme some free stuff!”
All right, all right. Here are some free landlord resources, to help you on your quest for financial independence from real estate:
Free Rental Application
Email our free rental application PDF to your prospects; they can type into it, e-sign it, and email it back to you. It even includes authorization for you to contact employers, prior landlords, and run tenant screening reports.
Tenant Screening Reports
Well, it’s free for the landlord. The applicant verifies their identity and releases their credit report, criminal background check, and eviction history tenant screening reports to you. No site inspection required!
State-Specific Lease Agreements
Our rental lease agreements are extremely landlord-protective, and deter any lawsuit-happy tenants. They’re editable, reusable, and include all state-specific lease clauses, disclosures, and addenda.
Free Rent Collection
Collect rent online, through either ACH (bank transfer), credit card, or our unique RentDeduct – we pull the rent directly from your tenant’s paycheck! RentDeduct fees can be charged directly to the tenant.
Want more free landlord resources? Check out our list of Free Landlord Tools.
Spark Rental Blog Guest Post Policy
This is our skeptical face. Persuade us you’re not another hack!
Yes, we do allow guest blog posts occasionally.
No, we don’t accept crappy posts from bad writers or people who aren’t real estate investing experts, landlords, or rental industry experts.
If you’re an outstanding writer, with something unique to write about, and you’re a rock star real estate investor, landlord, property manager, housing industry analyst, or FIRE and personal finance expert, we can talk. But I’ll warn you right now, we have extremely high standards, and we will probably send you a detailed set of instructions to follow.
We also only accept in-depth articles of 1,500-2,000+ words.
Still interested in contributing to our real estate investing blog?
Contact us using the form below, to pitch a few unique and relevant blog post ideas.
