For the past few months, I've been reading about landlording. Really, what spurred my interest was that we sold our home and bought a new one, and I just found all the real estate information related to that transaction really fascinating.
I have a legal background (attorney) and I'd do well with negotiations (once I educated myself more about the industry), contracts, following laws/regs, (if necessary) handling evictions, and such. My wife works for a property management company and is a people person. She is also very organized and a whiz at record-keeping. So we would seem to have good backgrounds for "getting into the game."
However, neither of us is particularly "handy," as in doing repairs/maintenance ourselves so we'd likely have to contract with a handyman (which I'm guessing some landlords handle themselves), in additional to the folks all landlords need to call like electricians, plumbers, etc. I would anticipate this would eat into our cash flow.
But would this be a crucial blow to any potential plans to buy a rental property? Or can it be overcome? And do most small landlords just rely on the inspection report to determine repairs a house they are considering buying might need? Or is it a huge advantage for the landlord to have experience in construction to get a better idea first hand of the condition of the property? I know you make your money at the buy, so that seems like the single most important factor.