What are some of the advantages of owning income property?
Being an income property owner is a huge commitment, but, if handled properly, that huge commitment can bring equally large financial rewards.
Income from Renters
The biggest benefit of owning a rental property is that the renters will provide you with a direct income stream. Those monthly rent checks go straight into your business account, ideally more than offsetting any expenses for the month.
For example, if you own a house that you rent out for $1,000 per month, that house when fully occupied will put $12,000 per year back into your accounts.
It’s hard to argue with a direct income stream like that. It is worth nothing, though, that those kinds of figures are optimistic ones and you shouldn’t just dive in expecting those results. Still, even partial results can be very good. If you can keep the property rented for just 75% of the year, that’s still $9,000 a year in income, after all.
Sweat Equity
The other factor that you should consider is that your sweat equity is likely to add additional value to the property as you maintain and upgrade it. Doing things like repainting the home, adding new siding, refinishing the inside, doing some basic landscaping to the yard, and so on will add value to the home without significant financial cost.
Not only will this allow you to charge more for rent, it will also increase the value of the property itself should you choose to sell it in the future.
If you enjoy home improvement projects, this should be a major attraction for buying a rental property. You’ll have the opportunity to fix it up upon acquisition as well as in between tenants, which will return very nice dividends for you.
- Huge Tax Write-Offs for Income Property
As a rental property owner, you are entitled to huge tax deductions. You can write-off interest on your mortgage or on any credit cards used to make purchases for the property. You can write-off your insurance, maintenance repairs, travel expenses, any legal and professional fees, and even your property taxes. You can see a more extensive list at Nolo.com
On top of all of these deductions, the government also allows you to depreciate the purchase price of your property based on a set depreciation schedule, even if your property is actually appreciating in value.
Using our above example, you receive $3,480 in rental income for the year ($290 each month * 12 months). If you made this money at a regular job or in the stock market, you would lose a significant portion of it to pay income taxes. However, by owning a rental property, you can offset the $3,480 income with the depreciation expense for your property, thus being able to reduce or completely eliminate the amount of taxes you have to pay on this rental income.
Speak to an accountant to determine all of your specific tax write-offs.
Being an income property owner is a huge commitment, but, if handled properly, that huge commitment can bring equally large financial rewards.