New to REI

[Adam Schipul]

Hey everyone, I want to get into REI but everything seems overwhelming and i'm worried about money and paying for 2 mortgages if i can't find tenants. I'm 24 in the Navy living in Chesapeake VA. I live in an apartment with my wife. She doesn't really have a whole of money to contribute right now. Rent is about 1600. I have a car payment of 558 and my annual salary is about 48,000. i just got promoted so i should be making an extra 500 bucks a month by the end of the year. i have about 5,000 saved in a high yield savings account. My lease ends around this time next year and i don't know what i should do as far as my first property. My contract is up in 4 years and i don't want to reenlist because im an IT and i can make a lot more money in the civilian world. My friend who is also an IT in the Navy wants to be real estate investing partners. It sounds like a good idea because he has more money saved than i do currently and we're best friends. We both wanna get into the real estate game, we both wanna make money. We're looking at small single family homes and duplexes in our area as well as Texas, Georgia, and Detroit. I know interest rates are pretty high right now. I watch bigger pockets podcasts all the time. I'd appreciate any guidance and wisdom.