My father purchased his first investment property (shown to the right) in 1984, 6 months after I was born. It was a 6-unit, D/C- class apartment building built in 1920 that he paid $80,000 for. Over the next couple of decades, he would continue to purchase several other buildings (with and without partners) before ultimately selling them off, one by one, in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

He always self-managed his properties with a small, always-changing team of superintendents and handymen that he had put together. At least twice a week, starting in elementary school, my brother and I would tag along and assist by sweeping hallways, raking yards, running up and down stairs, knocking on doors, collecting rent, and returning with a carbon copy receipt.

Class D properties are notoriously located in high-crime areas and are very difficult to manage. These buildings are plagued by deferred maintenance, and because of the low rents, it is a continuous process of making patch repairs instead of fully repairing and correcting issues. Witnessing my father dealing with the endless hassles and headaches made the idea of being a landlord a distant possibility for a future occupation.

As I entered high school, my father began acquiring better properties, in better areas that were easier to manage. This, coupled with the benefits I had witnessed of being a real estate investor over the years, now made it a viable career path.