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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 Do 1031 Exchanges Work? Defer Taxes on Investment Properties
Owning that first rental property is a huge milestone for investors. It lets you dip your toe into the market, gain experience in property management, and build confidence in your judgement. But for ambitious landlords, the first property is marks just one step on a...
How Does the Coronavirus Impact Real Estate Investors? (Updated)
Evolving story, updated several times weekly as we know more. As the coronavirus continues rattling investors and shuttering businesses around the world, people keep asking me the same question over and over: What will the impact on real estate be? Because no...
Unpaid Rents: Landlords, Rent Defaults & Evictions During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The new âCâ word, coronavirus, has caused disruptions so different, so enormous, that itâs left most investors and landlords scrambling to keep up with constantly-evolving changes to how we do business. Â For landlords, COVID-19 is not only creating the problem of...
10 DIY Home Improvement Ideas While You’re Stuck at Home for the Pandemic
Want to boost your propertyâs value with DIY home improvements before selling or leasing it, but strapped for cash? No biggie. Youâd be amazed how much you can do yourself, even if youâre not exactly Tim the Toolman Taylor. Sure, you may not be knocking down walls or...
Mashvisor Review: How Well Does Mashvisor Work for Real Estate Investors?
Despite the promises of fast-talking, out-of-town promoters who invite the naive to "free" Get-Rich-Quick seminars in a local hotel, building passive income through rental properties is neither simple nor guaranteed. Real estate profits are limited by the knowledge,...
Out-of-State Real Estate Investing with BRRRRs: Whitney’s System
âI keep offering to pay for my husband to retire and mountain bike all day, if heâll move overseas with me. So far he keeps turning me down, but weâll travel the world sooner or later!â Whitney Hutten is 44 and brings in around $15,000 per month in passive rental...
How to Buy Turnkey Properties Sight Unseen
Would you buy a rental property sight unseen? It might sound like a terrifying prospect, but itâs actually much more common than youâd think. Thanks to technology and the Internet itâs now easier than ever for investors to research and buy turnkey properties in the...
The Debt Snowball Method, FIRE, and Real Estate Investing
When youâve got extra money in your budget for financial goals, should you allocate it toward aggressive debt payoff or invest it? Financial experts love to point to math that shows investing is usually the best place for your money, but that decision proves...
The Best Cities for Real Estate Investing in 2020, Based on Rental Cap Rates
Ever get sick of hearing people glibly spout âLocation, location, location!â, whenever real estate comes up in a conversation? Yet most real estate investors never look much further beyond their own backyard, when deciding where to invest. Which is why we wanted to...
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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 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 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.
