Monthly Portfolio Report: December 2023
One of my goals with Rental Income Advisors is to be as transparent and data-driven as possible with my readers and my coaching clients. I think the best way to build confidence in a new investor is to actually show the numbers, to prove that rental property investing really does work as advertised.
For those reasons, I publish a monthly report on my portfolio’s performance. I hope that this chronological history paints a clear picture of what it’s like to be a remote landlord. It’s also a great exercise for me to be sure I’m staying plugged in to all my numbers.
Here is the update for December 2023. You can also check out all my previous monthly reports and annual reports.
Property Overview
I went from three vacant properties in November to only one in December, as both Property #20 and Property #22 have new tenants in place following recent turns. Property #18 still has one side of the duplex vacant, but it looks like we’ll have a new tenant in place there very soon.
Rental Income
My rent charged this month rebounded due to my new tenants in place. I had one tenant fail to pay their December rent, and is currently under threat of eviction. Hopefully they’re able to get current, and/or get assistance from local sources of rent relief funds.
Offsetting that shortage were a few accounting quirks in my favor. (Remember that old Monopoly card, “Bank error in your favor”? That’s pretty much what happened.) At one of my properties with a new tenant, I was paid out for two months of rent in December, which should not have happened — the second payment should have been credited to January, and paid out to me then. So I’ll give this back next month. Separately, my Section 8 property received a rent increase, and I was paid back-rent for the increase dating back to October. These “bonuses” led to a slight overage in collections, despite the one non-paying tenant.
Expenses
This screenshot comes from RentalHero, the online accounting tool I use for my portfolio.
Here are the details around my expenses this month:
Maintenance & Repairs: A very quiet month. I did incur some additional rent-ready work as follow-ons from my turns — including replacing the stinky carpet on the stairs at Property #18, which I alluded to in last month’s report.
Property Management: My PM fees were higher than normal this month because I was charged two leasing fees for my newly placed tenants.
Insurance: Renewed my policy at Property #24. Though I have a mortgage on this one, it’s a different kind of loan, and the lender does not escrow — so I have to pay the property taxes and insurance myself.
Tenant Chargeback: The negative expense here indicates that a tenant has paid my PM for a previous piece of work that was deemed to be the tenant’s responsibility. When that happens, I get reimbursed.
The Bottom Line
My financial model currently projects my Memphis portfolio to generate $8,988 of positive cash flow in an average month. This month, my cash flow was $11,384, over $2K below my projected average. While I had several leasing fees and one non-paying tenant, low maintenance costs and the accounting “bonuses” were enough to give me a surplus.
Finally, here’s the running tally and graph I update each month. The dotted blue line indicates my projected average monthly cash flow for my portfolio in each given month. Though there were some ups and downs in 2023 (as always), I ended the year just $772 behind my annual cash flow target. In percentage terms, that means I achieved 99.3% of my projected cash flow, which of course I’m quite happy with:
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About the Author
Hi, I’m Eric! I used cash-flowing rental properties to leave my corporate career at age 39. I started Rental Income Advisors in 2020 to help other people achieve their own goals through real estate investing.
My blog focuses on learning & education for new investors, and I make numerous tools & resources available for free, including my industry-leading Rental Property Analyzer.
I also now serve as a coach to dozens of private clients starting their own journeys investing in rental properties, and have helped my clients buy millions of dollars (and counting) in real estate. To chat with me about coaching, schedule a free initial consultation.
