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 November 2022. You can also check out all my previous monthly reports and annual reports.

Property Overview

Property #20 came online this month, but was vacant until the very end of the month, so my occupancy was at 95%. I had a small rent-ready rehab to do before placing a tenant in this new house, but all went quite smoothly. Check out all the details about this house in its Property Spotlight.

Also in November, I added four more properties to my portfolio! You can see their locations represented by the light-orange pins on the thumbnail image for this post. These will be Properties #21, #22, #23, and #24, and I will publish Property Spotlights soon with all the details on these. Per my normal protocols, the numbers for these properties will not be reflected until December, the first full month of their operation.

As I’ve been discussing in the RIA Roundups the last few months, this burst of acquisitions is thanks to an infusion of funds from the sale earlier this year of my two remaining rental condos in New York City, one of which was a 1031 exchange.

Rents

Collections were perfect this month — ballyhoo!

The rent charged was about $1K higher than last month because of Property #20’s rent. Even though the tenant moved in just before the end of the month, my property manager collects the first full month of rent when they move in, and the second month is pro-rated.

Expenses

Here are the highlights with my expenses this month:

Maintenance & Repairs: Just slightly above expectations this month thanks to a $1,400 roof repair.
Property Management: This was a bit higher than normal due to a $550 leasing fee owed to my property manager for placing a new tenant at Property #20.
Insurance: For the four properties I own without a mortgage, I have to pay property taxes and insurance directly in a lump sum (rather than into escrow each month as part of my mortgage payment.) The $2,200 this month was the sum of the premiums for those four properties.
HOA Fees: One of my single family homes is in a neighborhood that has an HOA; this is the annual fee.
Utilities: This was the refund of the connection fee I paid during an earlier turn/vacancy this year. This is a normal process, and happens after the tenant puts the utility account in their name — though it can sometimes take a few months for the local utility to process the refund.

The Bottom Line

My financial model currently projects my Memphis portfolio to generate $7,761 of positive cash flow in an average month. This month, my cash flow was $6,172, more than $1K short of my projected average. While I benefited from full occupancy, the annual property taxes and HOA more than offset those benefits.

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. Total cash flow for the year now stands at $64K, but I’m more than $10K behind my projected cash flow for the year:

Free Rental Property Analyzer

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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.