Advice on Growing a Portfolio

[Benjamin Briede]

My name is Ben Briede (25) and I am a new investor. I recently just purchased a SFH in Cincinnati, OH as my primary. The plan was to update it, as the former owner had lived there for 50+ years so it was pretty out of date. My plan after that was to live in the house for a year-year and a half while I save up some funds to buy either another SFH or a Multi-family.

I'm leaning more towards another SFH since rent in the area is around 1.7k-2k per month and I believe it would cashflow a couple hundred dollars a month based on my current payments and other rental expenses. (This second SFH would provide me a place to live while renovating and then repeating the process again and again.

My issue is that I want to get into the game faster and saving funds especially now with the price of everything, if getting harder. I also don't want to use too much of my savings for a down payment on another one. I have looked into possibly a HELOC and looked into the pros and cons of this and so far I am leaning towards that.

If anyone has any recommendations on how I may achieve getting into the game faster (purchasing 1-2 rentals/year)  that would be greatly appreciated. I look forward to the feedback and making some connections!

Thanks!