[DianaB]

Janet, I think that having rentals is a wonderful idea. My Mom and Dad had a lot of rentals when I was growning up. They would buy small and inexpensive homes, fix them up a little, and rent them out for enough that the rent covered their payments. I know that back then they tried to have the houses paid for in two or three years (this was in the 70's)because the sooner you can get them paid off the sooner you can make money. I will admit that they did rent to people who weren't the best and Dad always had to go and find them to collect rent but they did make money. You have to be able to do your own maintenance work if you have a lot of houses otherwise repairs can take a big cut in your profits.