One of my goals with Rental Income Advisors is to be as transparent and data-driven as possible with my readers and my coaching clients. I think the best way to build confidence in a new investor is to actually show the numbers, to prove that rental property investing really does work as advertised.

For those reasons, I publish a monthly report on my portfolio’s performance. I hope that this chronological history paints a clear picture of what it’s like to be a remote landlord. It’s also a great exercise for me to be sure I’m staying plugged in to all my numbers.

Here is the update for February 2022. You can also check out all my previous monthly reports.

Property Overview

Stayed at full occupancy this month, which is always a nice bonus!

But unfortunately, one of those homes is occupied by what amounts to a squatter: a tenant who last paid rent in September 2021, whose lease has long ago expired, who has refused to apply for locally available rental assistance, and whose eviction is still in the queue waiting for a hearing in court. No sign of any break in the logjam here…

Rents

Pretty similar story to last month: still have a non-paying tenant at Property #9, a shortfall that is being somewhat offset by month-to-month fees.

Quick aside: some of you may wonder why the amount “Charged” (as shown above) can vary by month. Of course, if a property is vacant, there is no rent charged — but the amount can also change when a tenant renews their lease at a slightly higher rate than they were paying previously. That happened this month at Property #11, and also on one side of my duplex (Property #18), which is why the amount charged is $110 higher than last month.

Expenses

Not as quiet a month on the expenses side as January was — but that couldn’t continue. This month featured:

Maintenance & Repairs: A leaky roof repair that cost ~$1800 was the big event here, alongside some more typical maintenance visits for minor HVAC, electrical, and plumbing issues.
Property Taxes: This was a month where I pay property tax bills for the three properties I own outright (vs. those where I have a mortgage, and the property taxes are paid out of escrow by the lender.) Since I owe taxes to both the City of Memphis and Shelby County, this happens twice each year, and I take a bit of a hit in those months.

The Bottom Line

My financial model currently projects my Memphis portfolio to generate $6,313 of positive cash flow in an average month. (This is likewise higher than last month because of increased renewal rates at a few properties.) This month, the positive cash flow was $4,844, about $1,500 below target. This miss was due to a combination of the roof repair, the property tax bills, and the tenant under eviction.

Finally, here’s the running tally and graph I update each month. The dotted blue line indicates my projected average monthly cash flow for my portfolio in each given month. February 2022 was unfortunately below the line, and — spoiler alert! — March will be even worse. But as you can see in the cumulative totals over 2 years, these things tend to average out in the long run, reinforcing the reasonableness of the assumptions I make in my pro forma modeling:

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About the Author

Hi, I’m Eric! I used cash-flowing rental properties to leave my corporate career at age 39. I started Rental Income Advisors in 2020 to help other people achieve their own goals through real estate investing.

My blog focuses on learning & education for new investors, and I make numerous tools & resources available for free, including my industry-leading Rental Property Analyzer.

I also now serve as a coach to dozens of private clients starting their own journeys investing in rental properties, and have helped my clients buy millions of dollars (and counting) in real estate. To chat with me about coaching, schedule a free initial consultation.