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
The 3-Step Strategy to Win Your Spouse Over to Real Estate Investing
When I first started dating my (now) wife, she saw me lose money on a real estate deal. As a first impression for real estate investing, it left a lot to be desired. And it’s been a long road since, in warming her to the enterprise of real estate investing. It’s a...
Rising Interest Rates and Real Estate: What’s Going to Happen?
Introduction to US interest rates: The US economy has entered a stage of quantitative tightening. This is characterized by a consistent increase in interest rates. According to the CME Group FedWatch Tool, the current interest rate is 200 – 225 basis points, and it is...
Vacant Unit? How to Write Irresistible Rental Listings
If you want good returns, you need long-term, excellent renters who will pay on time and treat your property with respect. Tenant screening will help you spot the best rental application in your pool of applicants, but how do you attract the biggest, highest-quality...
What to Expect to Pay for Today’s Investment Property Mortgage Rates
Captain Obvious here: a investment properties are supposed to make you money. Whether you renovate and flip the property or buy it to rent and hold onto it long-term, as a real estate investor you quickly find that financing investment properties is not the same as...
Retirement with Real Estate at 32: How Leif Did It
“I reached financial independence at 32 with a wife, a house, and two kids, primarily through real estate investments.” Meet Leif Kristjansen. Leif lives a quiet, pleasant life with his family. Except when it’s not quiet, when he and his family run off to Europe for...
Financing Rental Property Renovations for the Highest ROI
What Rental Property Updates Have the Highest ROI? Whether you’re dipping into your savings or taking out an rental property loan, putting money into fixing up your home can increase its value and your return – if done correctly. Before starting a renovation project,...
10 Rental Property Financing Ideas from Pro Real Estate Investors
Leverage. It’s one of the great advantages of real estate over other types of investments. You can finance 80%, 90%, even 100% of your investment. Ever tried doing that with stocks? Good luck finding a lender. The best you can do is buy stocks on margin, and that’s a...
8 Lease Contract “Hacks” To Protect Landlords’ Rental Properties & Profits
Want a profitable rental property, as a landlord? You can (and should) take all the standard steps to protect your investment from bad tenants. After collecting rental application forms, you run tenant screening reports, check the tenant's previous rental records,...
The Shrinking Generational Gap & Shifting Renter Demographics
People often look to the millennial generation for an idea of where markets will trend. And with good reason — this is the largest generation since the baby boomers, and is expected to overtake the number of baby boomers in 2019 when trends hit...
Unconventional Financing: Exploring IRAs, 401(k)s & More
You can only buy so many properties with conventional mortgage loans, before reaching lender caps. According to most conventional mortgage guidelines, ten properties is a hard ceiling. But even that is generous: most lenders balk if you have four mortgages. If you’re...
Privacy for Landlords and Investors: Finding the Right Balance
“When I was your age, we actually had this thing called privacy!” Is privacy dead? Long live privacy? I’ll let the politicians and data pirates debate that point, but here’s what I do know: landlords and real estate investors are juicy targets...
From Newbie to 12 Rental Units: How Brady Hanna Reached $40,000 in Passive Income
Brady Hanna wanted to get out of the rat race almost as soon as he stepped into it. Six years ago, Brady stumbled across BiggerPockets, and realized he’d found his exit route: rental properties. He read articles on rental investing (sadly, it was before my time...
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.
