TBT: Ask Marco - How Much Cash Should I Keep In Reserve For My Rental Properties?

Passive Real Estate Investing

Real Estate Investing with Marco Santarelli, Investor and Entrepreneur.

Education, Business, Investing, Entrepreneurship, How To, Business:investing

4.6 • 968 Ratings

🗓️ 15 January 2026

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Click Here for the Show Notes How much cash should you really keep in reserve for your rental properties—and how does that change as your portfolio grows? In today’s episode, Marco answers a great question from listener Clint, who’s actively scaling his Kansas City rental portfolio and wants to avoid tying up too much idle cash while still protecting himself from vacancies, repairs, and surprises. Marco breaks down the real factors that matter—local market strength, tenant quality, property age, neighborhood class, and eviction risk—and shares his practical rule of thumb for reserves, plus how to intelligently scale them as you move from one property to ten or more. If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re holding too much cash (or not enough), this episode will help you find the balance between safety and growth. -------------------------------- Throwback Thursday Episode (The episode originally took place in the year 2021) This episode is part of our Throwback Series and may include references to older content such as web classes, events, promotions, or links that are no longer active or available. While the conversation and insights still hold value, please note that some information may be outdated. -------------------------------- If you missed our last episode, be sure to listen to TBT: Ask Marco - Choosing the Right Neighborhood Download your FREE copy of: The Ultimate Guide to Passive Real Estate Investing. See our available Turnkey Cash-Flow Rental Properties. Our team of Investment Counselors has much more inventory available than what you see on our website. Contact us today for more deals.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to passive real estate investing, the show where busy people like you learn how to build
0:05.7	substantial passive income while creating wealth for the long term. And now, here's your host, Marco
0:11.7	Santorelli. Hello, my friends. Welcome back to passive real estate investing, where we dive into the
0:18.4	world of real estate investing, among other related topics, to help you with your real estate investing journey.
0:24.0	Today, we're doing something a little different. We're going to take a trip down memory lane and showcase an important
0:30.2	episode from the past on what we call our throwback Thursday episode. Now, whether you've been with us
0:36.5	since the beginning, which goes back to
0:38.0	2015, or you're tuning in for the first time, this episode is a must listen. We are revisiting one of
0:45.8	our more popular episodes from the past. And believe me, what we discussed back then, whether
0:51.2	it's six months ago or six years ago, is just as relevant today. So sit back,
0:57.0	relax, and let's rewind the clock for this great episode. Enjoy. Today's question is a cool one,
1:04.1	and it comes from Clint, and he asks the basic question of how much cash should I keep in reserve
1:09.9	for my rental properties. This is a good
1:12.8	question. It hasn't come up in a long time, interestingly enough. Maybe I've talked about it on
1:17.2	previous episodes and in terms of my general rule of thumb. I'll share that with you here in a couple of
1:23.1	minutes, but let me read his question and give you some comments before I get to that.
1:28.9	So Clint says, hi, Marco.
1:31.4	I've been listening to the podcast for a few months now.
1:33.2	Thank you for all the great info.
1:34.2	And you're welcome. My wife and I own a single family rental home in Kansas City and are starting plans to acquire
1:41.7	three to five more properties in Kansas City within the next year,
1:46.2	and plan to continue expanding our portfolio further after that.
	...

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