Buy It, Rent It, Profit! (Updated Edition): Make Money as a Landlord in ANY Real Estate Market

by Bryan M. Chavis

Now updated for today’s bullish real estate market, this is the go-to, classic entrepreneurial guide for landlords and real estate investors who want to buy and manage rental properties for long-term wealth.

There’s never been a better time for buying rental properties—interest rates are low and credit is more freely available to those who want to buy and invest. But where does one begin?

With more than twenty plus years of experience in real estate and as the founder of The Landlord Property Management Academy, Bryan M. Chavis knows all phases and aspects of working with rental properties. In Buy It, Rent It, Profit! he explains why rental properties are such a wise investment in today’s real estate world and outlines the steps and systems you need to implement to become a successful landlord and property manager.

This updated edition of the modern classic includes advice on being a profitable and professional landlord, protecting your investment, learning what types of property you should be purchasing, and adapting to the ever-changing world of technology in real estate. Chavis also provides systems on how to attract quality tenants, negotiate lease agreements, collect rent, finance a mortgage, and manage the property overall—everything you need to become a smart, profitable, and professional property manager.

In addition, this updated edition features a workbook section with easy-to-use, universal forms for leases, evictions, property evaluations, and more. Buy It, Rent It, Profit! is the ultimate how-to procedures manual for buying and managing rental properties and a practical, realistic tool you can follow to become a profitable landlord and property manager.

Genres: Business

320 pages, Paperback

Published January 3, 2017

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I almost didn't get through the first few chapters of this book. The first section is advertising for the author's website and school, and motivational jargon that isn't the reason I picked up this book. The remainder of the book was excellent. The step by step guide is really practical, the appendix is full of helpful tools.

[Malvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Define investing strategy:
- Choose real estate to have full control on investment
- Choose multi-units over SFR over fixer-upper to lower risk (multiple incomes vs rent+appreciation vs. appreciation/volatile)
- Target affordable housing for middle class for long term stability.

Analysis - SEOTA
1. Find target area
a-# of bldg permits: stability of local economy; coming supplies.
b-employment rate: middle class? delinquent tenant?
c-ave. household size: property unit mix.
d-demographics: growing? who to market to?
e-psychographics: what amenities to have
f-mortgage % rate: rent or buy trend?
g-comp pricing: any underpriced? rent increase trend?
h-occupancy rate: for financial calculation

2. Choose area -> filter by affordability housing properties -> pick right unit mix -> analyze for positive cash flow.

3. Generate financial calculation:
Gross Potential Income (GPI) = rent x units x 12 months
Vacancy Loss (VAC) = GPI x est. vacancy rate (h)
Effective Gross Income (EGI) = GPI - VAC
Other Income (OI) = fees, fines, coin machines, etc.
Gross Operating Income (GOI) = EGI + OI
Operating Expense (OE) = prop. tax, evict. cost, etc. (should add 3-5% extra for rainy days)
Net Operating Income (NOI) = GOI - OE
Replacement Reserves Account (RRA) = (saving for) roofing, boilers, paints, etc.
Debt Service (DS) = Mortgage payment
Before Tax Cash Flow (BTCF) = NOI - RRA - DS

Capitalization Rate (Cap. Rate) = NOI/Equity <- fully owned properties. Less than 1.0 means overpriced.
Cash-on-Cash Return (ROI) = BTCF/Down Payment <- mortgage investments

Price Negotiating:
If ROI too low:
+ bargain for better financing term,
+ Increase rent, decrease expense
+ Asking or lower price.

Understand how other party is paid. If counter offer slightly higher, accept & negotiate while inspecting!. If too high, explain offer and ask for clarification.

Leveraging Process:
* Appraisal -> Inspection -> Credit Agent -> Underwriter -> Approval Committee to issue Letter of Intent which includes LTV, Rate, Fees, DCR, Prepay, Est. Closing date
* Credit, Market Condition, SEOTA/Profitability, Lending Process, Closing Process.

Foreclosure?
Types of Foreclosure:
1. Court auction: bidding
2. Pre-foreclosure: needs to cover old mortgage + debt. avoid bad credit report
3. Purchase from lender: cheaper since bank/national property manager don't want to keep it.

OK as long as you have: Sales comp; Favorable financing; Accurate OpEx; Accurate market survey.

Screening
Needs: Legal name; Why moving; Their needs; How many people; How they heard about you;
Plus: We have corporate discount. Where do they work? What position? How long?

[Emily Ack · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like there are numerous flaws, but Chavis succeeds in his overall mission.

Flaws:
*Bryan Chavis is upselling his website and course and experience.
*Some of the information is incomplete due to "check with your local authorities." States, counties, or cities have different regulations. He does a good job of giving that heads-up, and that heads-up happens to be everywhere.
*Some advice is really obvious.
*This stems from a personal opinion: the rental/housing market is SO BROKEN. And Bryan Chavis is unwittingly part of the problem. While I absolutely agree that some landlords offer valuable services in exchange for rent, and that some people prefer renting (or need it while in a temporary position), the firm opinions he holds are reflective of a broken system. Particularly, in his SEOTA, he writes about that middle-class group who is stuck with rentals. That is really sad to me.
*His experience, and therefore the book, focuses heavily on multi-unit rentals, which have a high barrier of entry. Some people are better off focusing on AirBnb or a renting out an in-law suite, but he doesn't cover other options. His opening story of a successful couple that started with a duplex and worked their way up was the closest he got to discussing more feasible options for the beginner.
*I laughed and laughed about the concept of some of this contrasted with Covid. The eviction moratorium turned this real estate industry on its head.

Good thoughts:
*Lots of experience behind his writing and advice
*Positive in tone
*Actionable steps
*Sample contracts
*Covers all the bases, or at least the bases that I can think of
*Straightforward writing

It's not particularly the highest writing quality or the best, BUT it offers a lot of solid advice for someone looking into this topic.

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would call this book a cake , it's very fluffy in the beginning but then it gets down to the real business I just preferably could have done without the backstory of the author, now you definitely and should talk about your qualifications that make you able to talk on this topic with authority but that can be I love paragraph or one page. I just personally didn't care for I surpassed everybody's expectations and look at all the haters now , I didn't pick up an autobiography, I was expecting an elaborate plan for evaluating property, buying property, screening tenants, optimizing property, and Etc. Now I will say that this book does a very fine job at laying out good and advisable procedures of approaching every aspect of evaluating, buying, dealing with tenants, and maintaining the property. One thing that I have always disliked from professionals that specialize is when they trounced the other possibilities. In in the beginning of the book the author takes time and many pages to individually say what a bad investment the stock market overall, index funds, mutual funds, and single family properties that aren't your first property are. He holds multi-family property on a pedestal, and I have no problem that a person that specializes in a specific field obviously feels that it's the best but when you don't acknowledge the fact that each one of these things can play a significant and useful role in anybody's portfolio is where I have to take your information with a grain of salt. If something wasn't useful no one would be using it. I think this book goes well above and beyond in extra information as well as the site with a plethora of resources like leases, tenant rejection letters, rental applications, Market survey forms, and Etc.

[Adam Keep · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has more information than you’d think! From cradle to grave, everything you’d need to be a landlord, everything. It does focus more on multi-occupancy buildings rather than single family, but the information still applies. The appendix is particularly useful when you actually get going. It contains all of the contracts, checklists, and pertinent details from the book that you can use to be successful. I’m sure I’ll be skimming through the book a lot in my quest to be a landlord of multiple units.

[Alex Caravaggio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overview of being a landlord and getting into being a real estate investor. I found a lot of the forms suggested in the book to be helpful, and advice on protecting your personal assets quite valuable. This will be a good reference book as I become a new landlord.

[LoveAGoodBook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thorough

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple and clear. Nothing groundbreaking

[Dr. Ashori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible book for anyone who wants to go into this business or finds themselves being an accidental landlord.

[Kevie Kev · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative

[Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book Rent it, Buy it, Profit by Bryan M. Chavis covers the business of renting out real estate for money. This book gives many step by step processes of how to be a good landlord and manage a property with no problem. The book also gives math problems for the reader to solve using information gathered from the book.
Overall the book covers dozens of topics on real estate and gives the reader tons of information to begin their journey in this topic. Even more experienced people will find this book can teach them something new that is why I rated this book 4 stars, also you can find all the different topics covered in the Table of Contents and focus on specif ideas.
I would recommend this book to anyone who finds real estate interesting, even if you don’t plan on making it a career. This book can also be recommended to the more experienced as they may even learn some new tricks from this book.

[Bryce Zelig · Rating 1 out of 5]

I see the authors true vision in writing this, but I didn’t get anything out of this book that I didn’t already know before. There’s many good points and especially the last two chapters are very good all in all nothing special.