Leisure suit Landlord

Suit up! Or just relax and enjoy being a landlord. Renting is not that kind of an old school business where you need to look like a businessboss to make good deals and to rent out your apartments. Neither is any hobby good or fun if you do it 24/7. It is good to look sharp but you don't want to over do it. Landlording is never the less one of my favorite pass time hobby, it can be done professionally and strickly or little more laid back and it can provide nice extra income streams. For me it is never a problem to suit up or unsuit and pick up a sledge hammer. But I still enjoy the laid back money stream possibilities where the investment itself does most of the work.

Suit up!

I would say landlording or real estate investing is like a hobby. You compete, you try to improve and try to have all the little peaces right. Like a professional athlete (well not in Finland) if you are the best or one of the best you can make money, way more than others. Others say that it is dangerous and too laid back way to think. I like it in many ways: it gives me challenge, it can be done quite easily and from time to time quite effortlessly, you can improve, you can make money and you can leave your mark. Easy does not mean risk free but like in many other ways to invest, one can manage the risk.

Usually my real estate investing includes a lot of snooping around, hunting down the target and doing the numbers. I keep track of the market, pretty much daily: I track prices, rents, interest rates, news and reports. It still doesn't take much of my time and nowadays it is rather rare to find good investment opportunities but it does not mean that I "work" any harder. If I have a lot of other things in my mind I can also completely forget my real estate "imperium". I collect rent and check monthly that I have received  my "dividends" and this would be enough. It takes maybe a minute in a month and the PE (Personal Effort = laiskuusluku) number is not even worth mentioning. To keep track of the market takes maybe an hour/day and still my weekly PE is way under 0,25 (7 [time invested in real estate investing per week]/40 [normal working hours per week]. 

Picking up a sledge hammer and DIY renovations can also be a great way to blow of some steam and get your thoughts together. It feels mind blowing to smack down a brick wall with a sledge hammer. It feels great to sweat, put the brains to rest and to do physical labour. Maybe not everything is great to DIY but to have the option is nice.

Don’t get me wrong, investing takes time, effort and money but how much is totally up to myself. During the holidays I have and I am going to lay back, put my feet up, collect my dividends (rent) and enjoy life. It is not always that easy but very often I can choose not to make any effort and it might go a long time (maybe even years) very nicely. Maybe, maybe not...

And The Leisure Suit Landlord has left the building...