What was your best passive income in 2014? • Hacker News Board

Re: What was your best passive income in 2014?

#441

Post by bradly » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 6:28 PM UTC

jadc wrote: post #436

bradly wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have our unit listed on VRBO, but my wife and I handle the inquires and renting ourselves. Most condo buildings will run your unit for you if you prefer. They will take care of everything for you (bookings, cleanings, furnishings, etc), but you make much less. Also, you just get a percentage of what the building makes as a whole, so those rooms are really incentivized to be as nice. We wanted our place to be nice…

How has your experience been with VRBO? Any reason that has prompted you not to use AirBnb? Edit to ask: do you mind sharing which island/area, your rental is in? 90% occupancy rate sounds pretty amazing.

If you do a lot of rentals VRBO is much cheaper. AirBnb charges you 10% per booking vs VRBO's $1,000 upfront and then 2.5% credit card transaction fees. This makes our place much more expensive for a renter for us to get the same amount of money. VRBO also has great phone customer support and it just feels more setup to support your rental as a business rather than your rental as a thing you do casually.

Our place in on Maui near Kaanapali beach. Hawaii is nice because it isn't too seasonal.

Re: What was your best passive income in 2014?

#442

Post by richardlblair » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 6:39 PM UTC

hughes wrote: post #21

A good mix of ETF funds from Vanguard Canada. It has been a very good year for equities, and all I had to do was literally not touch what I had bought.

It's been a strong year for equities. When I was looking the other day at vanguards list they all seemed really strong.

I purchased one in January and it's been doing pretty good. Hopefully the second half of the year is just as good.

Re: What was your best passive income in 2014?

#443

Post by cityzen » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 8:34 PM UTC

I wrote an ExpressionEngine Add-on called Detour Pro that sells for $22 ($17.60 after the site I sell it on takes their cut). I released it back in February of 2012 and to date I've made about $15k, this year alone $4k to date.

Re: What was your best passive income in 2014?

#444

Post by scott_karana » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 9:20 PM UTC

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #81

parfe wrote: post #4

Bought a house 12 months ago which included a great tenant. Rent checks showed up early every month for the last year. So far the house has been such little work I sometimes feel confused then surprised by his hand written envelopes addressed to me in the mailbox.

This is probably what my landlady's thinking too. She works as a tour guide somewhere in south-east Asia, is away 3/4th of the year, and has this quiet dude looking after her house and probably paying for her mortgage, :p. She didn't raise the rent last year since she's happy to have me. I wouldn't mind paying less though, it's kinda meh (old house, single room, etc)

Never hurts to ask. If they know you're a low-risk tenant, they might be able to reduce their margins accordingly.

Re: What was your best passive income in 2014?

#445

Post by scott_karana » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 9:28 PM UTC

jadc wrote: post #82

I have a few rentals properties which each brings in around $300/month after all expenses (including property management so I don't have to do anything). Each property price is around 56-60k so if you get a mortgage you only need to put down around 20% of that. It's a pretty good ROI of ~30%. Email in my profile if you are interested in details.

How do you handle property management?

Re: What was your best passive income in 2014?

#446

Post by stevekemp » Thu, Jul 31, 2014, 10:36 PM UTC

junto wrote: post #419

stevekemp wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do like the idea of being a remote system administrator, but the trust issues seem to scare people away. (Though I realize you're doing more than that if you're renting out physical boxes too.)

Indeed, I personally am looking for a nix admin to help me setup/secure my personal Ubuntu server. Finding someone I can trust is a huge battle.

This is usually the point where I volunteer ;)

Re: What was your best passive income in 2014?

#447

Post by LyndsySimon » Fri, Aug 01, 2014, 12:15 AM UTC

coev wrote: post #213

damian2000 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although you'd expect being the dev and possibly admin, you hold some control over the other party?

Better to have more than vague threats on your side, like having the law and vague threats on your side.

I hear that "very specific threats" is also a workable model.

Re: What was your best passive income in 2014?

#448

Post by juicejerry » Fri, Aug 01, 2014, 1:42 AM UTC

clarky07 wrote: post #402

So far this year I've made ~33k on my iPhone apps. I'm actively working on new apps and doing freelance work, and every once in awhile things need updated, but for the most part it's passive. I have > 20 apps at this point, the best one doing ~7500 so far this year. https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/30-south-llc/id331245760

link is dead

Re: What was your best passive income in 2014?

#449

Post by gmays » Fri, Aug 01, 2014, 1:43 AM UTC

Residential real estate. I bought a few short sale condos here in San Diego from 2010 to 2012 at 1/3 their values from a couple years earlier and hired a property manager.

Now I get about 1.5% their purchase price gross in rental income every month. After buying them and fixing them up the majority of the work I do on them is at tax time (still do taxes myself to stay in the loop). HOA and property management fees eat into it a bit, but it's not a bad haul. In addition to the cash flow, they've all appreciated from 20%-50% in the last couple years.

These days dividends from Apple stock (not bad for a tech company) and some other investments are doing better, though not even close to as well as the real estate.

The key is often to save up enough money to be able to take advantage of opportunities. For example, we just decided last week that we're moving to Florida. We were planning to rent, but we found a 3BR condo in a high-rise gated community on a golf course about 1mi from the beach for around $300,000 that went for $800,000 before the financial crisis. Luckily, we had the cash to be able to capitalize on the opportunity. I assume the property value will at least double in the next 5 years. Even if it doesn't, if we had to rent it out tomorrow we could break even on what we pay for the mortgage + HOA fees with rent.

It's risker than other endeavors, but investing in residential real estate like this is the best kind of investment I've found for my risk profile with the amount of money I'm willing to invest.

The hard part is getting together the initial capital to do so. I started working full time at 21 and it took me until around 25 to be able to make my first investment saving most of my modest income during that time.

Re: What was your best passive income in 2014?

#450

Post by godDLL » Fri, Aug 01, 2014, 9:52 AM UTC

mythril wrote: post #408

existencebox wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mind sharing which game this is? I'd simply be curious to see what sort of/quality of game generates that sort of (as you said, very favorable) income characteristics in this current market.

Sorry, I can't for fear of competition.

Competition is not an actor. It is a process, of which you're part; whether you want it to be this way, or would prefer a different market to the one we have.

Embrace the competition. Plan for it. Set time aside for it. Make it work for you.