Hidden Rental Property Costs: Low-End Units’ Cash Flow Surprises

The Big Picture On Hidden Rental Property Costs:

Low-end rental properties often have hidden costs that are not reflected in standard cash flow calculations, making them appear more profitable than they actually are.
Crime, vandalism, and mandatory repairs (especially for Section 8 housing) can significantly eat into profits for low-income rental properties.
Finding reliable property managers and contractors for low-end properties is challenging, often resulting in subpar service and additional oversight needed from the owner.

When I started buying rental properties, I had no idea how to calculate rental cash flow. I just assumed the cash flow was “the rent minus the mortgage payment.”

I didn’t understand the enormous, irregular costs dictating rental property cash flow. Costs like vacancy rate, repairs and maintenance, and additional accounting costs for each LLC. I also didn’t account for property management costs, foolishly dismissing them since “I’ll just manage the property myself.”

Never mind that you never know when you’ll no longer be able to manage them or that it’s a labor expense, whether you or someone else performs the labor.

But even if I’d known all that, I still wouldn’t have accurately forecasted the real estate cash flow.

Why?

That’s because…low-end units come with hidden rental property costs that don’t appear in standard rental cash flow calculations.

 

Hidden Rental Property Costs

I love our free rental income calculator — as I should — I built it myself! But despite all that, it still misses some of the hidden rental property costs of low-end units.

Low-end units or properties have expenses that don’t show up on paper. This is one reason low-income properties’ cash flow and cap rates look so strong.

But before you run out and start buying cheap real estate, please understand most of the hidden rental property costs I’ve laid out in the following sections.

 

1. Weak Pool of Tenants

Deni and I have said it countless times on our real estate investing podcast: The quality of your renters determines the quality of your returns.

I’ve bought properties for as little as $20,000. And then I was foolish enough to be surprised when a few renters submitted rental applications to live there. Among those, I rarely saw tenant credit reports with scores over 600 (not a typo).

That led to loads of hidden rental property costs and problems for me as a landlord. But the bottom line was that these renters didn’t live by my social rules.

Most didn’t care about their credit at all, didn’t pay their bills on time, and didn’t treat my properties with care and respect.

That, in turn, led to many of the following hidden rental property costs of a low-end unit.

 

2. Greater Labor: Perpetually Late Rents

Do you know how tiring it is to chase down tenants for the rent they owe constantly?

I do. It’s exhausting.

In the middle-class bubble where I grew up, everyone paid their bills on time. It was just what you did; to default on a bill was humiliating. A point of shame.

When I bought my first rental property, I just assumed my renters would pay the rent on time every month. After all, I had certainly done so all my (brief) adult life.

Spoiler alert: they didn’t.

The first of the month would come and go. I’d send emails or texts, call them, or send friendly reminder letters. Then the grace period would expire — still no rent.

If they eventually did decide to pay it, they didn’t include the late fee, so I had to decide how many late fees I’d accumulate before filing an eviction.

And that says nothing of unpaid utility bills. Or, for that matter, the immense headaches of evicting a delinquent renter in a tenant-friendly jurisdiction.

 

Common Alibis for Late Rent Payments

As a bonus, below are some of the most common reasons you’ll (or excuses) you’ll encounter from tenants for delayed rent payments.

Alibis
Frequency
Typical Landlord Response

“The check is in the mail”
Very High
Request electronic payment

“I forgot it was due”
High
Send reminders before the due date

“I had a medical emergency”
Moderate
Ask for documentation but be empathetic

“My bank account was hacked”
Low
Request police report or bank statement

“I thought I already paid”
Low
Provide payment records

“My roommate was supposed to pay”
Moderate
Remind of joint responsibility

“I didn’t receive your invoice”
Low
Implement multiple notification methods

3. Greater Labor: Evictions

After far too many renters took advantage of me with sob stories, I eventually learned a hard lesson. Some people will keep pushing your boundaries until you defend them.

I found I had to start serving eviction notices and begin the eviction process as soon as the rent grace period ended. Then I had to take off work to show up in rent court for the eviction hearing.

Assuming the judge actually sided with me (which was not guaranteed, even in the most cut-and-dry cases), I then had to wait around for another month or two, then call the sheriff’s office, wait on hold for a half-hour, then schedule an eviction date.

After waiting more months, I had to take off work again to show up for the eviction. And I had to pay contractors to show up, change the locks, and empty out all the abandoned junk left behind.

I can assure you that my stock investments never gave me trouble like this.

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4. Unpaid Rents During Evictions

All that extra labor and headaches aside, the tenants lived rent-free during all those months of the eviction process.

“Don’t be such a privileged whiner. Surely you’re exaggerating.”

I’m not. In Baltimore City, where I was investing, evicting a delinquent tenant took four to six months. And that’s if everything went smoothly — which it often didn’t.

All too often, tenants attended the rent hearing with heart-wrenching sob stories for the judge. Never mind that they weren’t actually true; they worked — the judge often gave them rent extensions.

It once took me 11 months to get rid of a professional tenant. He knew every dirty trick in the book, including sabotaging the property and then claiming that the property didn’t meet housing codes (due to his damage).

When I eventually got him out, I’d paid the mortgage, utilities, property taxes, landlord insurance, and other costs so that he could live for free for a year.

Word to the wise: If you invest in low-income rental properties, buy rent default insurance. For reputable insurers, try either The Guarantors or Steady.

 

5. High Turnover Rates

Turnovers are where the overwhelming majority of expenses and labor lie for landlords.

You often have to repaint the unit (thousands of dollars), recarpet the unit (thousands of dollars), fix dozens of small punch-out issues (hundreds or thousands of dollars), and give the property a deep clean (hundreds of dollars).

And that says nothing of your labor in advertising the property for rent, showing the property to prospective tenants, collecting rental applications, running tenant screening reports, calling employers and landlord references, signing new lease agreements, doing the pre-move-in inspection, storing the security deposit per state law, and handing over the keys. All while not collecting rent for your property.

Woof.

The longer a renter stays, the lower the landlord’s expenses. So, just imagine how much it costs when you constantly chase down and evict delinquent tenants and constantly have to turn over vacant units.

 

6. Crime & Vandalism

In low-end neighborhoods, crime and vandalism can become real problems and expenses.

I’ve had properties broken into by squatters and partiers. I’ve also had properties broken into for theft, as appliances and copper pipes disappeared.

Even my air conditioning condensers have been ripped apart for the copper tubing inside. I feel myself shaking with rage just thinking about it many years later.

Good luck finding the “losses due to crime and vandalism” field in a rental cash flow calculator.

 

7. Weak Available Property Managers

Property managers get paid based on the percentage of rent that they collect.

So why would property managers take on all these additional headaches for low-income properties just to earn a lower commission for their extra work?

The answer: they don’t. At least the good ones don’t because they don’t have to.

That leaves you with the dregs of property managers, those willing to accept the worst work. Don’t expect them to go above and beyond for you — in fact, don’t expect quality work from them at all.

This means you need to double-check all their work, which entirely defeats the purpose of hiring a property manager in the first place.

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8. Unprofessional Low-Cost Contractors

Low rents and property values don’t justify high-cost contractors. You’d quickly find yourself upside-down if you paid a high-end contractor to renovate a low-end property.

Once again, that leaves you with low-cost, low-quality contractors. You have to constantly check their work’s quality and send them back to fix it properly. And that’s if they show up to the job, which they don’t half the time.

I found that low-end contractors didn’t show up for appointments on time, didn’t return my calls promptly, and only felt a bee in their bonnet when they desperately needed the money.

In other words, these aren’t the guys that put in your new patio and pool. If you had trouble wrangling them, imagine how hard it is to manage the lowest-cost contractors that work on cheap properties.

 

9. Section 8 Inspector-Mandated “Repairs”

Thinking about accepting Section 8 tenants for guaranteed rent payments on the government portion of the rent?

The problem with Section 8 inspectors is that they’re incentivized to write up your property for repairs. After all, it’s how they prove to their supervisor that they hit every house on their rounds.

So every year, like clockwork, inspectors for my Section 8 properties would write up several thousand dollars worth of “needed repairs” in their reports, which would eat up my cash flow for the entire year.

It’s why I stopped accepting Section 8 renters, even though the government actually paid the rent (unlike cash tenants). It was just too expensive to feed the bureaucratic beast.

 

How I Invest Today

After years of people calling me a slumlord simply because I provided low-income housing, I sold all my properties in disgust and walked away.

But that doesn’t mean I stopped investing in real estate.

As an expat spending most of the year overseas, I now practice passive real estate investing. That includes real estate crowdfunding platforms, private notes, fractional real estate ownership, and real estate syndications.

I don’t have to worry about chasing down non-paying tenants, filing evictions, or showing up to rent court. I just collect dividends, interest, distributions, and my share of the profit when properties sell.

Today, my real estate investments take up no more time or headspace than my stock ETFs do.

 

Final Thoughts on Hidden Real Estate Costs

Don’t get me wrong; the above expenses aren’t exclusive to low-income properties. Sometimes, middle — and higher-income tenants default too or cause property damage or other issues.

But it happens a lot less frequently.

Don’t believe me? Go buy up low-end rental properties, solve the affordable housing crisis, and come back and talk to me in a few years about your experiences. I’m sure we’ll be able to trade plenty of war stories.

 

What have your experiences with low-income investment properties been? If you plan to invest in low-income rental units, how do you protect yourself from the risks and hidden rental property costs outlined above?

 

 

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