Becoming a Landlord with Justin Pogue | Ep. 94

• A landlord owns property rented to tenants under a written contract that defines roles and responsibilities. Key duties include property maintenance, appliance repair/replacement, ensuring the unit meets habitability standards (functional kitchen, heat, etc.), mortgage payments, and property taxes.

Becoming a landlord, you are basically, in effect, becoming a small business.

• Even when renting individual rooms, Justin recommends written month-to-month agreements that list furnishings, guest policies, and common-area rules. House hacking lets owners live on-site, learn tenant expectations, and reduce their mortgage while building equity.

House hacking is kind of like landlording with training wheels.

• The anxiety before signing never fully disappears—even experienced investors felt it. Most feared scenarios never materialize, and accumulated landlord knowledge exists to handle the ones that do.

The butterflies that are in your stomach about your first investment, they will never go away until you actually do the first investment.

• After a drainage canal blockage flooded 16 units, Justin leveraged contractor relationships instead of paying a $32k disaster-recovery quote. Water extraction, sanitization, and new flooring were completed in three days for a few thousand dollars.

Your relationships with your contractors are gold and treat them as such.

• Evaluate neighboring properties and their management quality—poor neighbors or management can drive good tenants away. Schedule closings in the morning so lenders are available if questions arise, and always read every page of the documents.

Read the paperwork at the signing and pay no attention to the eye roll that you get from the title people.

• Perfect properties attract bidding wars. Seek units with cosmetic or management issues that you can solve—these face less competition and can still deliver strong returns after modest fixes.