At one convention a speaker mentioned that 10 paid off houses were enough for him. But one man's enough is another man's NOT.

If the houses are cash flowing 200-300 a month as some here have mentioned, then 10 houses are nowhere near enough.

I don't think you can answer with number of properties or doors. The answer is how much actual $$$ you need a month to live on and everyone's definition of that is different.

Don,

I think that formula is much too simple. There are also variables like income expectation, age, net worth, alternative investments, political environment, risk tolerance, and the like that are also variables that need to be included in the equation.

with 63 SFH's + and only 2 mortgages with average rent of 1100 we don't make a penny. All owned by the partnership. Why would i need to make money? I mean it-- tell me why? I cut my people the best pay. We, my wife and I draw as needed from the partnership. I rehab, when vacant, and don't repair old crapola. When you deduct T&I, accountant, 1 or 2 truck payments, gas for all work equipment, office expenses, tools purchases, Freon at 400.00 for 30 lbs bottle, new furnaces (we don't rehab old furnaces. The occasional pro to do furnace installs and AC installs to keep warranty in tac, tree guys, sewer line replacements roofs, new baths or kitchens. Every 5 or 6 yrs we're dumping 9 to 10K into rehab. That repays many fold over. Places we purchased for 9800.00 are now well over 190 to 200K.

Funds get short quick.

It's sad for me to say-- we don't watch the "pennies so the dollars will follow" any longer. We did that for 20+ years.

Like anything, "It depends."

What are your goals? To have piles of money? Why? What do you plan on doing with it?

The fools in power who want to pit us against each other says silly things like "Well, NO ONE needs X!"

Really, why not? For that matter, why do Americans need houses with running water when much of the rest of the world has the village well and buckets?

Some folks are fine living a simple life on $30,000 income. Good for them! Others want $300,000 so they can travel the world and enjoy some nice things. Others want $3,000,000 so they can volunteer and donate large sums to various charities. Others want $30,000,000 so they can race Bugattis.

Set your goals so that you have something to strive for but yet you don't look up someday and wonder, "Why did I bother giving up X-years of my life for something I don't really care about?"

YEARS ago when I first heard that speaker he was referring to homes that rented for $2000/mo in the '90's.

I'd call that $4000/mo now.

How bout 10 beachfront million dollar homes renting for $5000/week? :)

Our local taxes just took a big jump. It now takes 3 months of rent to pay the property taxes.

BRAD

I need to be debt free and clear $10k / month, so $20k in gross rent to feel comfortable walking away from a W2.

Bill KY that formula is golden.

My wife has been saying that lately. I look at her and say, "last few months, we have literally been just getting by. I guess we need few more units making $$ to support our lifestyle. "

Slave vs Expenses

Don't focus on the number of units, folks on the desired amount of cash flow.

People ask me how many units I have. I let the know that on the first I don't have enough and all other days I probably have too many.

For me, I need a net six figure income annually. But it has taken me decades to get to that level.