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
From Single Mom to Landlady: My Journey to Singlemomhood
Singlemomhood, is that even a word? If not, perhaps it should be. I mean parenthood is a word! Recently, just for “gits and shiggles” as they say, I posted on Facebook: “I remember being a single mom back in the day! It’s hard! Hey single parents: what do you think is...
How One Work-at-Home Single Mom Bought Her First Duplex
Being a parent is endless work. And if entrepreneurship also requires endless work, then what is infinity multiplied by infinity? Then double the responsibilities again, for a single mom. And, stay with me here, imagine that our heroine also invests in real...
Investor Insights on Rental Financing, LLC Ownership & Deals
An aspiring rental investor named Derick reached out to us for advice, as he starts down the road of buying income properties. His questions touched so many issues faced by new investors that we decided to answer him publicly, in the form of a blog post! Derick...
A Step-by-Step Guide to Investing Half Your Income
How quickly could you reach financial independence, if you could live on half your income and invest the rest? When would you be able to retire, with that change in the math? Probably within five years, and almost certainly under ten. Remember, financial...
Tim, Who Lives for Free: A House Hacking Case Study
Image Credit: Kgbo under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 International license Imagine what your life would look like with no rent or mortgage payment. A smile-worthy thought, eh? Especially given that 11 million Americans spend half (!) of...
Are Apartment Finder Services a Scam?
As a Realtor, I’m increasingly asked about the new trend of “apartment locator” companies. What’s all the hoopla about? An apartment finder or locator does exactly that: they scout available rental housing and provide a list of properties that meet their...
4 Strategies to Pay Down Your Mortgage Faster
Two-thirds of American homeowners take out a mortgage when they buy their home, and even more investors use real estate leverage (other people’s money) to expand their portfolio. Are they wrong to do so? Not necessarily, although some people borrow more than...
Legal Lowdown: What Makes a Lease Agreement State-Specific?
“I’ll just use this free template I stumbled across online as my lease agreement.” – Attributed to the Common Newbie Landlord, scientific name Stultus novitius. If the idea above has ever occurred to you, you’re probably lucky enough to have never been to rent...
Tales from the Tavern: Financing Mixed-Use Properties
Once upon a time, there was a young girl with big aspirations! That little girl is much older now and has had the time of her life learning, growing, failing and learning some more. Real estate, construction, leasing, investing, selling; it’s been her life...
Income Suites: House Hacking for Single-Family Homes?
You’ve probably heard of house hacking – buying a duplex or small multi-unit property, so that you can move into one unit and have your neighboring renters pay the mortgage. But what if you’re buying (or own) a single-family home? One option is bringing on a...
Butcher Judges? Know Your Landlord-Tenant Laws or Else!
Wouldn’t you think that a judge would possess some type of legal background? Not always! Often it is an elected position (read: all about politics). Someone knew someone, perhaps the popular town butcher, ran to be district judge and got voted right in. It’s...
The Rich Do Get Richer in Real Estate – Want to Join Them?
Answer honestly: would you rather be the kind of person who complains about others’ success, or would you rather be the kind of person who achieves success? Sure, when we put it like that, it’s easy to say “I’d rather be successful than sit around blaming the...
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.
