landlord

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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).