Thanks for yours and all the other advice given here.

I guess I should have clarified that I am not currently living in the US. I don't have debt and education is free in my country, but unfortunately I'm more into creating web stuff than studying, although I am (very very) slowly getting my masters. Buying a place for my own use doesn't really apply, because it is very likely I will move to another country soon.

I noticed there are some nice companies out there holding properties and paying dividends every quarter, for example ADC, GTY and PEI. Can't think of any reason why I would buy an apartment to rent out instead of just buying stock in these companies, considering they seem to be getting better bang for buck for their real estate than I could. Would be nice to find something like this not tied to USD though.

Found non-US real-estate companies. In Nordic stocks, I found Wihlborgs, Klövern and Citycon that each have yield of over 6%. I now feel I will invest in a mix of these instead of buying a single property myself.

It's still a lot safer to diversify and not just buy stocks in real estate in your country. Better to diversify it at least a bit by splitting the money e.g. 50% Nordic Real estate 25% European Real estate index 25% US Real estate index (E.g. Vanguards' REIT Index VGSIX)

Ps. I am not living in the US either.

It was something that generated ad revenue and was later acquired.

Thanks for the reply.

Would definitely do, except I won't be in this country for long.

Yes, I took that into account. I figured I would spend about 10 hours per year having to deal with apartment stuff (maybe more at first when I'm still clueless), and that it would be empty one month per year while I look for renters.

Apartment is also not that suitable for me, because I will very likely not live in one country that long, and couldn't really check on the apartment always. Of course there are companies that can handle this for you, but then you take a hit in the profit.

And on your second point, yes I am always looking for things to reduce expenses. But because I don't know where I will live after a year, I can't buy an apartment for myself to live in. Currently I am renting, and don't have a car. My biggest expenses right now are food ($450 / month), rent ($450) and my vice energy drinks ($270).

> Of course there are companies that can handle this for you, but then you take a hit in the profit.

I guess on average that should not be worse than stocks --- the public companies have managers, too.

Yes, it might be a good idea to get such a company to handle the details for me, I haven't really looked into how much it costs. I wonder how this is different from just buying the stock of some property holding company directly though.

Ten hours per year? You mean per week right?

Do you think 10 hours is naive? Maybe it is, I have no idea. I guess biggest risk is ending up with a renter that doesn't pay, and then having to go through courts to get them to move out.

My landlord is having an easy time though. He spent a few hours posting an ad in the paper, showing the apartment to potential renters and doing the rental agreement with me, and now he is just getting a nice monthly bank transfer. Hopefully I could enjoy a similar experience.

You will spend much more than 10 hours per year unless things go spectacularly well.

I was a landlord for a few years: I rented out a single family house in a nice suburb and I had great tenants and positive cashflow from day one! Even so, you still want to go by the place periodically to make sure it's still standing (you can write off the gas/expenses for this since it's business-related travel!). You have to collect rent and make sure the checks don't bounce. I like money in hand, so I don't want checks mailed to me. You need to file paperwork in some cities for annual rental property registration, need to keep records for taxes, there may be some repairs needed. At the very least you'll need to make sure the repairs are done right.

Easily way more than 10 hours/year. I had a friend who both worked for a property management co and who rented out houses for years. His feeling was that unless you had multiple properties, paying the company wasn't worth the lost revenue.

The biggest risk is having a renter who not only doesn't pay, but trashes the place on his way out and has no assets you can get in a lawsuit. It happens, but you can minimize your exposure. In any event, renting property is not something to be entered in to lightly. Don't do it if you heart isn't in it.