Those "cash flow" figures are a little presumptuous. However real easte investing in both short term and long term capitalization is no doubt a great way to spend your money and is the career path I chose at very early age.
Like I stated in my post I didn't pull those numbers out of the sky. I have been fortunate to be able to do a little of this myself. A couple of investments that I've recently made are cash flowing more than the numbers I used, so I felt I was being conservative.
Example, I bought a property for 20k that I had about 25k into with closing costs and upgrades. It's cash flowing $587 per month. Another property I have 16K into and it brings in $390 per month. Another I have $35k into and it's brings in almost 700 per month. All the numbers I used in my scenario where more in up front cost and less in cash flows, so these numbers are very realistic.
Don't take this wrong, I'm still a working man and I have not reached my goals of retiring and living off of these investments, but if I had known the time value of money at 19 I would be way ahead of the game now. But it's never too late to start, and my goal is to retire at 56.
Those are fantastic deals! The avg property around here rents for about 1% of the total purchase each month, a gross rent multiple of around 8. On avg......
The more properties you buy you'll find that there are always a couple underperforming, constant maintenance / problems of some sort. Diversity and volume help provide consistancy and predictability.
The term "cash flow" can be misleading depending on the time line you take your cash flow measurement. Big ticket maintenance items happen, changeover expenses are expected. 11 months out of the yr I'm in the black, December im always gonna be way in the red. Aside from running 200' of new water line and painting 4 apartments today I also tallyed my business personal property tax, I'm taxed on every stove, dishwasher, refrigerator, microwave, blind, advertisement sign, desk, computer, filling cabinet, and on hand supplies annually! I'm mad thinking about it!