I have long held that one of the most important reasons for investing and operating income-producing real estate is because you can enjoy maximum control over your investments. You alone may collect the income. It’s you alone who gets to keep the money, less expenses, from the properties every month. You decide who will live on your property, when to make improvements and when to raise the rents — Finally, it’s you who writes the checks and keeps control of all property expenses.

I can’t speak for others, but I like to invest my money in the kind of investment I can reach out and touch! Houses and small apartments fit the bill perfectly. I also like to invest my money where I’m the boss. My plan for making money is the only one I use. With my name on the deed when something goes haywire, I have all the control to immediately fix it. Most importantly, I don’t lose all my money when someone else goofs!

Obviously, no investment is 100% FAIL-PROOF. However, I have found that investment houses are about as close to fail-proof, as I need to be. Once I learned how to structure my purchases so that the mortgages would be paid off by my tenants over a long period of time, I effectively removed most of the downside risk to me. The highest risk is during the first 2 years of ownership. That’s when most marginal tenants move out and expenses are at their peak because of clean-up and fixing. After that, it’s much smoother sailing as rents begin to move up each year while the mortgage payments stay constant. Added cash flow automatically “locks in” greater safety.

When I compare owning income-producing houses with other common types of investing — I still like mine the best! Real estate has an excellent track record for as long as I’ve been around. It has it’s own tax shelter and, of course, my renters will pay off all my debts. All I have to do is hang on and make good management decisions. After my tenants finally payoff the mortgage debt, the money I get to keep every month far exceeds the dividends of any equivalent size investment I know of.
My good friend from Chipley, Florida, investor Jimmy Napier, says it best — “NEVER ALLOW ANYONE TO VOTE ON YOUR MONEY.” When you own income-producing real estate houses — And you collect all the rents, you’ve effectively stopped most investment leaks!