Build Passive Income with Real Estate
Who says you need to work until you’re 65?
A Passive Income Blog for the Obsessed
Want to work forever?
We certainly don’t. Which is why we’re so obsessed with passive income. And while we love stocks, our true passion is passive real estate investing.
My name is Brian Davis, and I’m a passive real estate investor, personal finance writer, co-founder of SparkRental, and world traveler. I get to spend most of the year living abroad hiking, scuba diving, wine tasting, and breaking toes trying to learn how to surf.
Deni (my partner) and I have a simple goal: to help 5,000 people reach $5,000/month in passive real estate income. Want to be one of them? To start stacking up streams of passive income? To reach financial independence and retire early with rental properties or real estate syndications?
We created this real estate investing blog to help you stop relying so heavily on your 9-5 salary and start living more intentionally. Welcome!
The Latest from Our Real Estate Investing Blog
Velocity of Money – Should You Invest for Faster Money Turnover
The Big Picture on The Velocity of Money: The velocity of money determines how quickly capital returns to an investor. Faster turnover allows for more reinvestment opportunities, while slower investments can limit cash flow but offer stability. Beyond risk and return,...
Are Homes Overrated? Life as a Full-Time Nomad
The Big Picture on Being A Full-Time Nomad: Sarah Weaver’s journey highlights how remote work and real estate investing can provide the financial stability needed to sustain a flexible, location-independent lifestyle. By leveraging rental properties, she achieved...
Buy MORE Stocks in Retirement? The “U-Shaped” Portfolio
The Big Picture on the U-Shaped Portfolio Strategy: Unlike the conventional approach of reducing stock exposure over time, the U-Shaped Portfolio suggests lowering equity allocation in early retirement to minimize risk, then increasing stock holdings later in life to...
How Hiring an Executive Assistant Can Help You Escape Your Inbox and Reclaim Your Time
The Big Picture on Why You Should Hire a Virtual Assistant: By hiring a well-trained executive assistant to manage your inbox, you can eliminate the constant distraction of emails and focus on high-value tasks that drive your business forward. Professionals like real...
Geoarbitrage Real Estate Investing: How Living Abroad Can Supercharge Your Wealth
The Big Picture on Geoarbitage Real Estate Investing: By earning in US dollars while living in lower-cost countries, investors can significantly reduce living expenses while maintaining or even growing their income. This strategy enables a higher quality of life at a...
Why Renting Might Be the Smarter Financial Choice Over Homeownership
The Big Picture on Why Renting Might Be A Better Financial Choice: Renting eliminates the headaches of home repairs and maintenance, which can be expensive and time-consuming for homeowners. Renters can simply contact their landlord for any issues, ensuring peace of...
Exploring Hard Assets as a Hedge Against Inflation and Fiat Currency Instability
The Big Picture on Hard Assets: With fiat currencies facing ongoing devaluation due to inflation and government spending, hard assets like real estate, precious metals, and commodities serve as reliable stores of value. Unlike paper money, these tangible investments...
The Stock Market Myth: Why An Ex-Financial Advisor Traded Wall Street for Real Estate
The Big Picture on The Advantages of Real Estate Over The Stock Market: Chris Miles challenges the conventional belief in high stock market returns and the 4% retirement withdrawal rule, revealing that actual S&P 500 returns average only 8.4%, significantly...
The Complete Guide to Real Estate Wholesaling: How to Earn $15-25K Per Deal
The Big Picture on Real Estate Wholesaling: Focus on markets with strong investor demand, such as major metropolitan areas, and target motivated sellers from specific distressed property lists using cost-effective outreach methods like calls and texts. Instead of...
Why “Dying With Zero” Could Be Your Smartest Financial Move
The Big Picture on The "Dying With Zero" Strategy: Timing wealth distribution strategically can have a greater impact than leaving a large inheritance, as financial support during key life moments can be more beneficial than receiving wealth later in life. Over-saving...
Everything You Know About Money is Wrong: Insights from Real Estate Attorney Mauricio Rauld
The Big Picture on Insights from Real Estate Attorney Mauricio Rauld: Prioritizing investment over excessive spending can accelerate wealth building, as seen in Jim Rohn’s 90% investment strategy and Grant Cardone’s 50/50 rule. Active investments, such as real estate...
Debunking the High-Risk, High-Return Investment Myth: A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Smart Investing
The Big Picture on High-Risk, High-Return Investments: Investing involves multiple dimensions beyond risk and return, including liquidity, time commitment, tax implications, and regulatory constraints, all of which shape investment decisions. High returns don’t always...
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 since 2017, and 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 or wherever else you listen!
Recent Episodes
Beyond Education: Group Real Estate Investment Club
Learning is wonderful, and we offer nearly endless free education content for real estate investors. But nothing beats getting in the trenches and actually investing to earn real returns.
At your request, we created a real estate investment club that lets you “earn while you learn” with a club of other investors. Every month, we meet on a video call to vet a new passive real estate investment. These group real estate investments range from private parnetships to private notes to real estate syndications and funds for fractional ownership in an apartment complex, self-storage facility, retail or other large property. You get all the benefits of real estate investing, from cash flow to appreciation to tax benefits, without the headaches of buying properties yourself.
Best of all, you can invest with a lot less money. Rather than the $50,000 – $100,000 needed for a typical private equity real estate investment or rental property down payment, you can invest with $5,000 per deal.
Oh, and non-accredited investors are welcome on all deals. We intentionally propose inclusive deals open to all investors.
Who Is this Real Estate Investing Blog For?
Well, sure, it’s for aspiring and active investors and landlords. We write about the nuts and bolts of investing passively in real estate syndications or actively in rental properties. We cover topics ranging from real estate crowdfunding to tax benefits, tenant screening to collecting rents, single-family to multifamily to self-storage and beyond.
But while the “how-tos” and “avoid these mistakes” are important, they’re only part of the picture.
The bigger picture? How real estate investing fits into your larger strategy for building wealth and passive income.
Specifically: reaching financial independence to give you the freedom to retire early, if you so choose. Or to supplement your current lifestyle so you can live better or switch to your dream work.
So who is this “real estate investing blog” for? It’s not just for passive real estate investors or active 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 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 real estate investors. We offer a premium course called FIRE from Real Estate, to help you reach financial independence and retire early in years rather than decades. 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 want 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 real estate education at SparkRental. We want you to make as much passive income as possible, as fast as possible, on the fewest real estate investments possible.
More Resources for Investors
Had enough of us going on about the importance of real estate investing education?
“Cut to the goods already Brian! Gimme some free stuff!”
All right, all right. Here are some free real estate investing resources, to help you on your quest for financial independence from real estate:
Real Estate Investing Calculators
Real estate investing involves math. But it doesn’t have to be hard math. Use our free rental income calculator, house hacking calculator, property depreciation calculator and more to get ahead in the game of life.
Interactive Real Estate Maps
It’s a big country, with thousands of towns you could invest in. Where should you invest? Why? Check out our interactive maps of the hottest housing markets, cooling real estate markets, best cities for real estate investing by price/rent ratio, and more.
Real Estate Crowdfunding Comparison
Wondered whether real estate crowdfunding investments are worth considering? The answer: some are, others aren’t. But which are worth it? Check out our comparison of real estate crowdfunding platforms — and which we invest in ourselves.
Landlord Software & Mobile App
Use our free landlord software to screen tenants, collect rent online, and automate your rental accounting. Sync your bank account, automatically label income and expenses, and use one-click Schedule E tax statements.
Want more free landlord resources? Check out our list of Free Real Estate Investing Tools.
