The Other Side of Owning Rental Property

TL;DR: After 14 years of landlording, we're out. We probably would've been just as well to invest in some ETFs.

A lot of folks here discuss the pros & cons of being a military landlord. Here's the final tally for our situation. At various points in our military life, we've had 3 properties comprising 30 rental-years (two properties in our hometown and one at a former duty station).

One property was a net break-even. One property was effectively break-even on cash flow, but due to being in a high appreciation area netted us about 26% return after 7 years (tax-free, thanks to military orders allowing us to consider it a primary residence). The last property is getting prepped for sale–likely about 190% return between appreciation and positive cash flow after 14 years (pre-tax). We used (good and bad) professional managers for one and trusted family for the others.

The only way we did as well as we did was through significant personal effort. In our case, being profitable landlords was definitely not a passive activity.

Our last tenants were AWFUL. Habitual drug users (and dealers, too if our heretofore silent neighbors are to be believed) who trashed the place and left us with $1,000 in unpaid rent and utilities–not to mention damages and cleaning costs.

If I had to be a landlord again (I probably wouldn't be), I would have:
* been way more discerning of tenants (within the bounds of fair housing laws)
* while not chasing every dollar, been more aggressive about keeping rent close to rising market rates
* ensured we had the maximum legally-allowed security deposit
* been way more rigid about lease terms (late fees, screening substitute tenants, etc.)
All of that is to say, it's very difficult to do this well from a distance.

If I can offer any lessons learned or answer questions that help someone else, I'd be happy to.