70s existing property, unrenovated, as a rental object

the risk is simply that with problem buildings you also get problem tenants.

In a problem building, I am not interested in problem tenants. Because I only take tenants who receive their rent through transfer payments. Completely stress-free.

You would definitely have to pay some taxes on that - how much and how quickly I would have to ask a tax advisor, I assume renovation/investment could be claimed there.

You have to look at that carefully. Up to 15% of the purchase price can be directly deducted as renovation expenses in the first three years as income-related expenses. It is good for your taxes if you otherwise have to pay a lot ;) . If you invest more than the 15% - e.g. due to a new heating system or similar - these costs are added to the acquisition costs and depreciated over the normal depreciation period.

About the bucket: The solution is called a condensate pump and then into a wastewater pipe. They are available for little money and serve their purpose for years. There are also models with an alarm function in case of a defect.

P.S.: I agree with the others: It wouldn’t be for me. It probably doesn’t exactly increase your quality of life to become a landlord.

I think the problem is basically where the condensate pump should pump to, because he was too stingy to install wastewater in the room. It’s basically a heating room in the basement, and there is no drain there. :D

Otherwise, I agree with you. When increasing your account balance through rental income / real estate capital, you must not forget that this is countered by the obligations of being a landlord. You have to weigh that carefully.

In the problem house, I don’t care about problematic tenants. Because I only take tenants who receive their rent through transfer payments. Completely stress-free.

You have to look at it carefully. Up to 15% of the purchase price can be deducted directly as renovation expenses within the first three years. It does the taxman good if you otherwise have to pay a lot ;). If you invest more than the 15% - e.g. due to a new heating system or something similar - these costs are added to the acquisition costs and depreciated via the normal depreciation schedule.

Thanks for the tips, I hadn’t really dealt with the tax side in such detail before.

The matter of "problem tenants" or benefit recipients is really an interesting topic. A friend of mine has been doing this forever. He bought houses here in the area many years ago – definitely 25-30 (?) – older buildings with several residential units in cities with low prices. He did a lot of the work himself, made them rentable – not great, but at least livable – and then rented them mostly to Hartz IV recipients (or whatever they were called back then).
You can’t lump everyone together there either. There were some quite decent people among them. He also rented to student shared apartments in part. Overall, I think it was a very good business. Of course, 25 years ago no one could have known how the real estate market would develop. But he virtually has his ducks in a row through those houses.

Well, there must be a pipe somewhere in the adjacent basement, right? The pump pumps upwards, it doesn’t care where it goes afterwards.