Monthly Portfolio Report: March 2023
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 March 2023. You can also check out all my previous monthly reports and annual reports.
Property Overview
As I mentioned in last month’s report, one of my newly-acquired houses, Property #25, was still in search of its first tenant. But there is good news: while it was vacant for March, a tenant has moved in as of the time of writing (mid-April). Still, it was nearly three full months of vacancy to kick off that new property, which is obviously not ideal. But it’s occupied now, and we move forward.
On top of that, the tenant at Property #4 turned in their keys in February, citing personal issues for breaking their lease. While this entitled me to retain the security deposit ($895), the tenant left the home in poor condition and the turn cost me over $6,000 (plus another $2K in CapEx to replace the carpet in the bedrooms with new hard-surface flooring — though I don’t count CapEx in my monthly numbers, as explained in my last annual report.)
But there is good news here as well: as usual, my Property Manager got in and did the work quickly and correctly, and has also signed a lease with a new tenant. As a nice bonus, the new rental rate is $120/month more than the previous tenant was paying, which will increase this property’s cash flow going forward. The total length of vacancy here will end up being ~10 weeks, which is about average.
Rental Income
Collections were perfect again this month, no issues!
A note for the very careful observer: the total charged is ~$150 higher than last month because of small annual rent increases on two properties.
Expenses
This screenshot comes from RentalHero, the online accounting tool I use for my portfolio.
Here are the highlights with my expenses this month:
Maintenance & Repairs: Other than the expensive turn already discussed above, it was an extremely quiet month for maintenance & repairs — in fact, this is the second month in a row like that, which helps to offset the turn costs.
Utilities: During turns while properties are vacant, I am responsible for paying the utility bill (or more precisely, my PM pays the bill, and charges me back for it.)
Tenant Chargeback: This “negative expense” is a refund for previous work my PM did that was charged to the tenant (I get refunded as soon as the tenant pays the bill to the PM.)
The Bottom Line
My financial model currently projects my Memphis portfolio to generate $8,812 of positive cash flow in an average month. This month, my cash flow was $5,096, nearly $4K under my projected average. The back-breaker this month was obviously the turn costs at Property #3; everything else was in line.
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. A few ups and downs so far in 2023, as is to be expected, but even with the expensive turn I’m less than $1K below my cumulative cash flow target for the year:
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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.
