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A Landlord Blog for the Passive Income Obsessed
Know the acronym âFIRE,â in personal finance circles?
It stands for Financial Independence/Retire Early.
Financial independence means that income from your investments (like, oh, I donât know, rental properties) is enough to cover your living expenses. In other words, youâre no longer âdependentâ on your job to pay your bills.
My name is Brian Davis, and Iâm 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 doesnât have the same ring to it đ
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:
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 peopleâs 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 youâve 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...
Raise Your Children as Good Entrepreneurs, Not Good Employees
Pause for a moment and consider what makes a good employee. Obedience? Check. Willingness to work long hours creating wealth for someone else? Check. Accepting a job and income controlled by others? Check. Now think about what makes a good entrepreneur....
9 (Legit) Gripes About the FIRE Movement â And My Responses
By now, youâve probably heard of the FIRE movement, short for âfinancial independence, retire early.â If not, it showcases how to replace your 9-5 salary with passive income from investments (like, say, rental properties!). Because when you can cover your living...
How to Buy a Fixer-Upper Without Getting Burned
For those who love renovation projects, the idea of buying a fixer-upper â either to keep as a BRRRR or to flip and sell â is intriguing. Buy low, sell high, and all that. Except it doesnât always happen that way. Before investing in a fixer-upper home, consider all...
PropStream Review 2021: Worth the Cost? Pros, Cons & Pricing
Whatâs your competitive advantage as a real estate investor? Perhaps you have the best network in your local market, and know every contractor, every lender, every wholesaler, every other investor. Or maybe you do your own repairs, and have a team of workers at your...
Average Property Management Fees: Common Costs & Negotiation
Becoming a landlord is stressful enough without getting nickeled and dimed by property managers. When you hire a property manager, you delegate the labor of advertising vacant rentals, screening tenants, signing lease agreements, and collecting rent to them. For the...
What Is a Blanket Mortgage? Pros, Cons, & Uses of Blanket Loans
Who says you need a separate loan for every single property? As you scale your real estate portfolio, it can get tricky to borrow and manage separate mortgage loans for every single property. It also limits your financing options, and your ability to pull equity out...
Best Cities for Real Estate Investing by GRM (Price/Rent Ratio)
The last 12 months have not been kind to gross rent multipliers around the country. Home prices have skyrocketed 9.12% nationwide, while rents barely budged upward at 0.34%. In other words, real estate investors are paying far more for the same rental income. Which...
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. 37: Pet Policies: Earning More While Renting Your Property to Pet
Too many landlords impose blanket "No Pets" policies without considering the potential upsides. Deni and Brian break down exactly how to earn more money on your rental units by accepting â and charging for â pets. From faster turnovers to longer tenancies to pet rent...
Ep. 36: 7 Real Estate Investing Tools to Boost Your Returns
The latest tech tools in real estate investing offer you a competitive advantage over all the other investors out there. They help you score off-market deals, automate your marketing and direct mail campaigns, and automate your rental management. Deni and Brian break...
Ep. 35: How to Know When to Sell Out as a Landlord
Rental properties are long-term investments. So how do landlords know when to throw in the towel and cash out? Deni and Brian break down several strategies for deciding when to call it quits as a landlord and sell your rental properties.Video Broadcast VersionAudio...
Ep. 34: Landlord Tax Deductions: An Overview for Investors
Rental properties come with a slew of valuable tax benefits. But only to the extent that you understand what they are and how to use them! Deni and Brian break down the most commonly used rental property tax deductions, to help you reduce your tax burden and improve...
Ep. 33: Renting to Friends or Family: Pros, Cons, and Cautions
Ever thought about renting a property to a friend or family member? It's a trap that's snared many an otherwise savvy landlord. If you're thinking about doing so, follow these rules for success before signing a lease agreement with someone you know personally! Video...
Ep. 32: The Formula to Retire Young w/Chris Mamula of Can I Retire Yet?
No one says you have to wait until 65 to retire. Brian hosts special guest Chris Mamula from Can I Retire Yet? to talk about all things financial independence and retiring early (FIRE). Check it out their personal experiences and tip on F.I.R.E! Video Broadcast...
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 âhow-tosâ and âavoid these mistakesâ are important, theyâre 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 âlandlord blogâ for? Itâs not just for landlords â itâs 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 doesnât 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 youâre 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, youâre going to need to know what youâre doing.
Thatâs why weâre 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?
âCut to the goods already Brian! Gimme some free stuff!â
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, itâs 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. Theyâre 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.
