Making the leap to buying your first rental property

[Andrew Rellinger]

Hello, I am saving my money and reducing my spending while brainstorming ways to make money on the side so that I can begin to invest in real estate. I am interested in starting out with just 1 single family rental property and seeing where things go. Saving up for the first property seems like it takes an incredible amount of time and money to do it smart and right (affording an attorney and CPA in place, establishing an LLC or DST, and have enough cash for a down payment on a $250-$350k property, etc). I am in the VERY early stages of real estate investing of working on formulating a plan so that I can get started and take action, however saving up for the first property seems very cloudy to me and almost a little impossible due to the amount of money that needs to be saved up in order to do things smart. Here are my questions:

0. How did you make the leap from having nothing to owning your first rental property?

1. How much money would you recommend having saved up? 

2. How much credit would you recommend having before getting your first property? I am thinking of creating either an LLC or DST for my real estate investments, and am unfamiliar with building credit under a business credit card. Any suggestions for building credit under a business credit card?

3. Did you wait until you saved enough to take action and buy your first property? Or did you find a deal when you didn't quite have enough money saved up by finding a way to make it work without having the money up front for the down payment? 

4. The only debt I owe is on my vehicle (pick-up truck) which I am considering selling and getting a "beater" so that I can have more money to invest in real estate. Is this a good idea? Have you found it necessary to have a truck in real estate? I purchased it in 2020 so I can trade it in for a little more than what I purchased it for given the demand, but I don't want to get rid of it if it is going to come into great use in real estate since I got it for a good deal, but still owe quite a bit on it. 

5. How much money is recommended to budget for a attorney? an accountant/CPA? Would you recommend having these people as part of your team prior to buying your first rental property? What are other things you recommend budgeting for before purchasing your first rental property? 


I just want to get involved, stop spinning my wheels and take some action at the same time I want to make sure I am prepared and educated before I take action. 

Thank you so much for reading. Any response or advice would be helpful.