How to go from 1 to 2...

[Ryan O'Hara]

My wife and I recently purchased our first property that we plan on house hacking. We are inheriting a tenant and plan to have an STR in the basement unit.

Now that we are officially in the game, I have been wondering how do we go from 1 property to 2,3,4,5,etc...? The first property was a feat in itself with the money side of things, and convincing my wife that this is the smart route to go. In my perfect world, we would be getting our second property as soon as it makes sense with us moving into the new place.

That said, what are ways that other investors have taken that next step in growing their portfolio? I know there are many routes, but would love to hear from others on what they found to work.

[Jonathan Greene]

I wouldn't start focusing on #2 yet because you still have a lot to learn from #1. Planning how is a smart tactic, but I've seen a lot of new investors get obsessed with scale and not pin down that first property. You should always have your first property running at max, meaning spending money to fix things that you know about now so that your capital expenditures will be nothing over the next couple of years while you save for the next one.