My 6 Favorite Real Estate Websites

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My interest in real estate investment has been growing since Mr. FAF and I bought our first house in 2016.

I want to start buying rental property and get into landlording as a side business.

As we were looking up houses in the DC area that we liked and saw how much the housing prices had increased since 2008, we were both shocked and intrigued.

A lot of houses increased by more than 30% in value from 2011 to 2016 without any significant renovation.

When we estimated the rental income those houses could generate, we got excited about potentially doing just that in the future

But since Mr. FAF and I can’t just jump right into the rental market before we pay off the mortgage on our current house, I need another outlet for my burning passion for real estate.

Mr. FAF also wants to invest in real estate for extra income and retirement. But I’m the crazy one who has been obsessed with looking up houses on Zillow and searching for everything related to land-lording, property management, and buy-and-hold strategies on the internet.

Google has been my best friend in this journey, helping me find great resources for my real estate education. If I can’t buy another house just yet, I will educate myself in the meantime to make better investment decisions in the future.

Without further delay, below are my top 6 rental property websites (in alphabetical order):

1. Afford Anything by Paula Pant

Paula Pant, the founder of the website, is a female real estate investor and self-made millionaire in her early 30s. Paula is definitely a role model for me when it comes to real estate investment.

Paula started blogging about how she had stumbled on her first rental property and has grown her portfolio over the years while traveling all around the world.

Paula used to publish her Rental Income Reports every month where she detailed all the expenses and income from her rental properties. Paula now hosts the Afford Anything podcast where she interviews guests about personal finance, early retirement, and real estate investment.

2. Bigger Pockets by Josh Dorkin & Brandon Turner

This is probably the biggest real estate website with articles and podcasts about a wide range of topics (i.e. buy-and-hold, wholesaling, flipping, property management).

The website hosts a forum where a community of new and seasoned real estate investors can discuss and help one another in their businesses.

Bigger Pockets has more than 200 podcasts, 90% of which I have listened to with fervor. I’m particularly interested in podcasts about property management and land-lording.

The ones I have not listened to until the end are mostly about wholesaling or flipping which I don’t intend to do given the huge amount of work associated with it.

I like the wide range of guests – from new to experienced investors – on the podcast. They offer great insights into their failures and success and how they went from knowing nothing about real estate to owning multi-million-dollar apartment complexes through trial and error.

3. Rental Income Podcast by Dan Lane

As I was exhausting the material on Bigger Pockets, I started looking up more resources on the internet and found the Rental Income Podcast. The website features Dan Lane’s interviews with buy-and-hold investors, landlords, and property managers.

The Rental Income Podcast currently has about 100 podcasts. I have listened to all of them and would recommend it to anyone who’s interested in rental property.

4. Renting Out Rooms by Mike Choi

The blog is the brainchild of Mike Choi, a Korean American engineer, who was caught in the 2008 financial crisis with an over-paid townhouse. In order to pay for his grad school and stay out of debt, Mike rented out the spare bedrooms in his house.

Mike renovated his unfinished basement, moved there, and rented out his own bedroom on the 2nd floor. The rental income has helped Mike pay for graduate school (about $34,000) without taking out student loans, pay off his second 30-year mortgage in 6 years, and build a large emergency fund.

I like the honest opinions and lessons Mike offers on his site. I also like that Mike is a fellow Asian who tried to navigate his way through the shaky real estate market and has a solid plan that’s working for him.

5. Rental Rookie Podcast by Emily & Kirk Du Plessis

If you’re totally new to land-lording, this is a perfect website for you. Emily and her husband, Kirk, host a podcast where they talk about their experience entering and thriving in the rental market without much prior knowledge. They sometimes remind me of Mr. FAF and I – a couple new to real estate but eager to dive into it.

6. The Dave Ramsey Show by Dave Ramsey

Dave Ramsey is a syndicated radio host and a financial advisor who loves real estate. On his show, Dave answers questions about personal finance but also offers advice on real estate investing, especially rental property.

He’s the one who reaffirms my belief in paying off our current mortgage before buying a rental property.

Conclusion

Besides the 6 websites above, I also learn about real estate through various other sources (i.e. Youtube, newspaper articles, books). But these are the websites I frequently visit and find the most helpful. I listen to the podcasts every day on the way to work and back home, when I clean the house, and when I cook on the weekends.

As I learn more about landlording and property management, at one point I feel that the learning curve has started to level off. It doesn’t mean that I know everything there’s to know about real estate. It just means that I need to start doing it myself to learn from my own mistakes and success (if any).

After all, practice makes perfect. And I’m counting down the days when I can take the plunge into rental property investment.

Related:

How This Family Slashed Their Mortgage Payment By $700/month

A Landlord’s Worst Nightmare Comes True

Rental Property After Our House Is Paid Off

7 Lessons From Our 1st Realtor Experience

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