I love rental property.
If you shop arround you can buy good solid homes to buy and rent at decent rates.
You can be a good landlord and give a family a decent place to live at a fair rate while getting money for just being decent to people.
Make sure you make enough to fix what needs fixing and can rent it a little under market.
I have helped many people including family members rent at below market.
One family member was able to buy their own home because I rented to them undermarket.
My cousin became a multi-millionare doing this..
Not bad for a guy that looks like Dan Haggerty and buys vintage firetrucks to have "water wars" with....
My brother did the same, starting just 15 years ago, when we were both struggling to stay in business. We made different choices. I had owned a couple of rentals, and couldn't tolerate the renters, and their irresponsibility. My bros a hard-ass and thrives on confrontation and enforcement of his standards.
You have to buy property that is hard to beat up.
Buy basic houses that are easy to maintain.
Simple Three twos or even three ones.
Nothing fancy just decent clean places to live.
You have to be ready for people to leave it a mess.
Some landlords get all bent out of shape about dirt.
I happen to love going in and cleaning up the mess and making it look good again.
Even holes in the wall repair very easily.
You ask for a deposit for a reason, take your costs out of their deposit.
Dont fear giving someone a break now and then on the rent to keep them from getting to far in the hole.
Treat people with kindness and they dont fuck you on purpose.
Be an asshole and you WILL get fucked.
Dont fear the dirt, people dont leave you a mess on purpose they just ran out of time to do everything.
I have yet to have anyone leave me a house that was so clean I could just rerent it.
Dont expect it, expect to have to clean your ass off, a little work never hurt anyone.