Free Republic

“Passive income.” That’s the sales pitch for rentals. Tenants cover the mortgage, you collect the rent, the property appreciates, and you’re off sipping margaritas. Sounds dreamy… until Saturday morning shows up with a broken appliance. Ask me how I know. Here’s the reality from my own ledger: one of my rental properties in the Finger Lakes, NY area is locked at $2,200/month. That’s the ceiling. Meanwhile the expense list has no ceiling. In the last year alone I replaced the gas range, microwave and dishwasher. That’s just a tiny sample of a seemingly never-ending list of surprise expenses. “Passive” income?...

Shifting from building a nest egg to building your passive income is something you are probably thinking about if you are near or already in retirement. It's a great strategy for making ends meet as you look to supplement your Social Security checks. One name that you might want to consider adding to your portfolio is Realty Income (O 1.00%). When it comes to money, it's just easier to work with round numbers like $1,000. This way, you can simply scale up (or, less likely, down) to hit the dollar figure you have in mind. On June 14, Realty Income...