There is a big fear that keeps people from being landlords. People are afraid that a tenant will destroy rental property. Yes. It happens. Every landlord has horror stories. The stories aren’t myths. Landlords exchange horror stories. You think you’ve done a great job screening tenants. But don’t worry about whether or not tenants will destroy your rental house. They might. It’s not a big deal. Examples of when tenants have destroyed rental property Battery in the garbage disposal fleas, fleas, fleas. I said that three times on purpose. It’s happened plenty of times, and they are a pain to ge ..read more

When is the best time to buy a house? As a real estate investor for over 20 years, I have bought houses through many cycles. I bought houses when interest rates were in the 7s in the early 2000s. I bought a house with a 2.3% interest rate. I bought houses before the 2008 housing market collapsed. I bought houses before the COVID housing scarcity pandemic. I sold houses after houses went up 40% between 2019-2023. I’ve been through the cycles. I’ve seen it all. I experienced it. I know what it’s like when my net worth drops 40% in a year. I know what it’s like when my net worth increases 40% in ..read more

I’m a seasoned real estate veteran with over 20 years of experience and a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). Throughout my career, I’ve always found assumable mortgages intriguing, yet there was seldom a compelling reason to seek them out. Now, the tide has turned. After enjoying historically low rates for several years, we’re witnessing a sharp rise back to more reasonable levels. Current mortgage rates are hovering in the 7-8% range, but there’s a sizable group of homeowners who secured their loans when rates were as low as 2-3%. Many of them are now looking to sell, presenting potential buy ..read more

Real estate is a wonderful investment for many reasons. One of the best reasons is leverage and the ability to buy with no money down. You can buy as asset with other people’s money and have other people’s money pay for the loan. When I was first learning in the late 1990s I stumbled across some books on tape from the library. Yes, books on tape. Yes library. There is so much free information at the library! The book was by Carleton Sheets and was about buying houses with no money down. I watched some of his videos when testing out my VCR not too long ago. So cheesy, but still mostly relevant ..read more

So many people assume they need a real estate agent. But have you ever thought, “Do I need a real estate agent to buy a house?” The short answer to that question is “no.” While real estate agents can undoubtedly provide value and expertise, motivated buyers can handle this process themselves. The first few houses that I bought, I used an agent. But I quickly realized I didn’t need one. In this guide, we’ll break down what a real estate agent typically handles, and I will explain how you can buy a house without an agent. Who Needs a Real Estate Agent? While it’s possible to buy a house without ..read more

Should you hire a rental property management company to manage your rental house? No, in most cases you did not need to. When I started buying houses in my early 20s, I was adamant that my real estate business did not interfere with my day job or my social life. It sounds like a property management company was perfect for me to accomplish those goals, right? Not really. The rental houses did not take much time. Let me walk you through why I never used a property management company, as well as the pros and cons of hiring a property management company. What does a Rental Property Management Comp ..read more

This was originally written in Sept 2021, it has since been updated as we’ve learned and experienced more. The main thing we’ve learned as our kids have aged? The strategies in this post work. How do you stop a temper tantrum? This is so tough. We have 3 kids 4 and under 3 kids 6 and under. We have lived through so many tantrums, breakdowns, and meltdowns. You can too. But there are tricks to break the tantrums. All of the tricks have the same theme. You can’t break the meltdown! But they can. Help them. Break the laser focus. That’s the goal. Our emotions grow at a different rate than our rea ..read more

As parents, we’ve all encountered the seemingly inexhaustible supply of toys, gadgets, and general kid stuff that seems to multiply in our homes. If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably looked around your house and wondered how you ended up with so much…stuff. But here’s the thing: this clutter, while visually overwhelming, presents an unexpected opportunity to be a great dad (and mom) How, you ask? By using it as a tool to teach kids about money and much more. In this article, I am going to share my strategy, which I fondly call “Trading Clutter for Cash”. It’s my way of teaching kids by ..read more

You’re a new landlord, or thinking about becoming one. How do you maintain a rental property? Look, I am not handy. Even if I was handy, fixing things was not part of my business model. I was comfortable paying someone to do it right so I could worry about other things. But there were times when I would jump in and do some work. When houses were vacant I would jump in and fiddle sometimes. If three houses were vacant I was more likely to jump in. But while rental houses were occupied I rarely did any of the maintenance. Find a reliable contractor to maintain the rental property This section de ..read more

Welcome to Dad is Fire. Usually, the about me section of a blog is to tell you who I am and to talk about myself. This blog isn’t so much about who I am, as it is what I am. So what am I? I am someone who was raised by a dad who treated his business as his favorite child. I didn’t want to be that person. In my teens I developed a plan to try to buy myself an early retirement so I could spend that time with my children and wife that I didn’t yet have. The phrase Financial Independence Retire Early didn’t exist, but the path to it did. Unlike other FIRE experts online, Finance Experts in real li ..read more