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

Property Overview

Still at 100% occupancy this month — love it when that happens!

Also in October, I added another property to my portfolio! You can see its location represented by the blue pin on the thumbnail image for this post. This will be Property #20, and I will publish a Property Spotlight soon with all the details on this one. Per my normal protocols, this property’s numbers will not be reflected until November, the first full month of its operation.

This will the first of at least six new properties I will add to my portfolio this fall. After 18 months of a static portfolio, there is suddenly a lot of new activity! This is thanks to an infusion of funds from the sale earlier this year of my two remaining rental condos in New York City.

Rents

Collections were perfect this month — no elaboration needed.

Expenses

Here are the highlights with my expenses this month:

Maintenance & Repairs: Higher than average maintenance costs this month. A big piece of this was an $1,800 roof repair, but I also had various other HVAC and plumbing repairs.
Property Taxes: Twice a year for the three properties I own outright without a mortgage, I have to pay property taxes directly to the taxing authorities (for all other properties with mortgages, this is paid by the lender out of escrow.) This was one of those months, so I had an additional $1,100+ in property tax expenses.

The Bottom Line

My financial model currently projects my Memphis portfolio to generate $7,761 of positive cash flow in an average month. This is higher than the last few months because it reflects several recent rent increases, including at the two properties I turned earlier this year. This month, my cash flow was $6,323, more than $1K short of my projected average. While I benefited from full occupancy, high maintenance costs and the extra property taxes 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 $58K, but I’m more than $9K behind my projected cash flow for the year. It’s now certain that I will miss that target again this year, and will have to evaluate the causes for that in my annual report and adjust my financial model accordingly.

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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.