Retire Early with Rental Properties
Who says you need to work until you’re 65?
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:
Can Landlords Charge Tenants to Replace the Carpets?
Carpets don't stay pristine forever. Often landlords have to replace them between every single tenancy. But should landlords always pay for replacing ruined carpets? Can they ever charge tenants to replace them? Here’s what landlords need to know about carpets,...
Should I Hire a Property Manager? Pros, Cons & Costs
“At what point should I hire a property manager?” Sooner or later, most real estate investors question whether to hire property management to make their rental income truly passive. I did, and I decided that for me professional management was almost as important as...
Should Landlords Accept Partial Rent Payments?
Nearly every landlord has heard it before: “I can give you $500 now — I swear I’ll have the rest to you by Friday!” Ah, partial rent payments, how I loathe thee. They lay a sticky trap for many a landlord. While most landlords are fundamentally nice people who want...
Cap Rates in Real Estate Investing: A Non-Nerd’s Guide
Not a big ol’ nerd for personal finance and real estate like I am? No sweat. We’ll keep the math simple. After all, math is a lot more fun when you’re calculating your future riches, right? Break out a cocktail napkin (and a cocktail to match), because calculating cap...
What Is NOI in Real Estate Investing?
Rental properties not only generate ongoing income, but you can predict that income before you buy a property. In order to do so, however, you need to know how to run the numbers. Numbers such as net operating income or NOI. While it may sound complicated, NOI in real...
9 Life-Changing Real Estate Investing Lessons I Wish I’d Known Earlier
At first I was afraid. I was petrified. That was me at 23, when it came to real estate investing. I was interested in it, and saw everyone around me achieving success with it. But I waited on the sidelines. By 25, I was still clueless, but now I was cocky,...
Can You Buy Happiness with Money? 11 Ways to Buy Lasting Happiness
Average people love to say “money can’t buy happiness.” They’re not only wrong, they’re deluding themselves — and probably not very happy. Many of the same blowhards lob around cliches like “money is the root of all evil.” Guess what? Lack of money is the true root of...
How to Use a VA Loan for an Investment Property
Real estate investing requires money, and usually more than we like when buying an investment property. Fortunately, you can leverage other people’s money to buy our own assets. But navigating the world of investment property loans is stressful and oftentimes...
How to Get an Investment Property Loan with Bad Credit
If you’ve ever bought a home to live in, you probably think buying investment properties works similarly. However, you should be aware of the important differences between a home loan and investor loan. Most notably: higher credit requirements. Can you still get an...
What do you want to learn more about?
The “Live Off Rents” Podcast
Prefer to watch or listen to your real estate investing and FIRE tips & tricks? No sweat.
Deni and Brian have been broadcasting live every week to the SparkRental-sponsored Facebook groups for years, although they only started releasing the content via podcast in 2020. Each episode is quick, 15-20 minutes, but jam-packed with actionable content.
No fluff, just advice you can put to work immediately to build passive income from real estate.
If you enjoy the episodes, share them, and please rate and review on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever else you listen!
Recent Episodes
Ep. #43: 6 Alternative Real Estate Niches Compared
With residential rental properties so expensive right now, should you consider alternative niche real estate investments? Deni and Brian do a quick tour through niche real estate investments, including: Section 8 housing Short-term and corporate rentals Land...
Ep. #42 5 Ways to Guarantee On-Time Rent Payments
Late rents are a perpetual headache for landlords. At best, they're an inconvenience and mean having to chase down tenants like you're their parent. At worst, they cause your own mortgage payment to be late, and force you to go through the long, tedious, expensive...
Ep. #41 With Cap Rates Down, Should You Invest in Real Estate?
Nationwide, home prices are up nearly 11% over the last year. But rents are up less than 1%, and in many of the largest cities they've dropped 5-10%. Which means rental returns and cap rates are dropping in most markets. Should you keep investing in rental properties?...
Ep. #40 How to Retire in Your 30s w/Guest Rick Orford
Who wants to wait until their 60s to retire? Brian sits down with Rick Orford of The Financially Independent Millennial to discuss exactly how he retired in his 30s and moved to Italy. We talk about how he started, grew, and sold two businesses, how he blew most of...
Ep. 39: 4 Alternative Ways to Get Rid of a Bad Tenant (Other than Eviction)
In the midst of the ongoing eviction moratorium, many landlords have asked us: How can I get rid of a bad tenant, if not through eviction? Deni and Brian walk through four alternatives to the formal eviction process, to remove bad tenants. As a reminder, landlords...
Ep. 38: How to Tenant-Proof Your Rentals to Reduce Repairs
Tenants are hell on your rental properties. Repairs and maintenance costs typically amount to 10-15% of the gross rents landlord receive, averaged over time. To keep that figure as low as possible, you want to "tenant-proof" your rental properties as much as possible....
Who Is the Rental Income 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. And every week, Deni & Brian hop on live video on Facebook for a 15-minute live vlog and answer questions.
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 Real Estate 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 debit card. Reduce late payments and rent defaults, and use one-click Schedule E tax statements and Income & Expense reports!
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!
Let me be crystal clear about our guest article policy. We almost never accept them, and when we do, it’s from websites that meet the following criteria:
- Domain score of 60 or higher, per Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest tool.
- Extremely relevant to SparkRental’s mission. In other words, a focus on real estate investing, passive income, financial independence/retiring early (FIRE), property management, and personal finance.
- In-depth articles on unique topics not found elsewhere online.
- Exceptionally strong writing. Fully 99% of the writing I read on the web is crap and doesn’t meet our standards.
Meet all of those criteria, and still interested in contributing to our real estate investing blog?
Contact Brian using the form below, to pitch a few unique and relevant blog post ideas.
