I am new and want advice

[Trent Stevens]

Hey everyone I am brand new to investing. I want to get into single family buy and hold. I have been listening to B.P podcast and others for about 6 months, I am really excited to start my hand in it. 
A little about me I am in my late 30’s happily married with two wonderful kids. We live on my family ranch that is paid for just have to pay property tax and insurance in California. So house hacking is not a thing for us. One of my cons. is I have poor credit and am a little embarrassed to talk about it online. I have been working on paying down my debit but the damage Has been done and all I can do is keep working on it.

I have been focusing my time at looking at Alabama. I really like the landlord friendly and low property tax and price but can’t decide between Montgomery and Birmingham. I have been leaning more Montgomery because of the military base and would like to rent to military with the better up keep and responsibilities they have. I also have been looking at brick houses because I heard Insurance companies insure lower on brick homes and I really like how they look. I know I’m not going to live in it, I just prefer it. I am looking at investing for my future not right now but I am wanting to make around 250 in cash flow. My goal is 20 homes in my portfolio before I retire at 55. If anyone has any advice or strategies I should be looking at I would greatly appreciate it. 

[Theresa Harris]

20 homes in less than 20 years is ambitious.  Rather than focusing on the number of homes, I'd suggest focusing on how much cash flow you want.

Take the time to get your credit in order and look at why you have the debt and problems with your credit score. While you are doing that, do your research.  Think about duplexes, don't just focus on cash flow (because some houses that look good on paper are anything but in reality), focus on areas that you are familiar with.  

If your house is paid off, you are in a good position; but the last thing you want is to grow your RE portfolio too quickly and not have the reserves needed if you have an unexpected repair or vacancy.  With rentals, sometimes everything happens at the same time (vacancy, fridge breaks, furnace problems-all happened to me in the last 6 months in different properties).