Is this a solid idea? Just wanna know if this is an 'attainable' path.

[Jason Greenway]

Hello,

I was on here about 6-7 years ago, but I underestimated where I was in my life (ended up having a couple kids). Now, my situation has changed (divorced now, and the kids are a little older) and I am looking to revisit real estate investing in the buy and hold realm. Here is my situation :

I am 40 years old, I have no mortgage, and my only bills are my car lease, phone bill, car insurance (my partner covers utilities) and groceries for me, girlfriend and my kids (when I have them) and my take home from my day job is about $900 a week. I have about $300 on my credit cards (just finally paid them off for the most part, and have about $20,000 limit).

My cash on hand is relatively light, but what my plan was was to find some single family homes in the north Detroit area (currently anywhere from $40-$60k and put about $15-20k tops into any repairs or fixes (not looking for total rehabs, mostly something I can do some small repairs here and there and paint, personally I am knowledgeable about renovating up until complex electric and plumbing). Rents in the area are anywhere from $1k-$1300 a month.

My plan was to get a hard money loan to get it going and fixed up and ready for tenants, then within about 6-7 months refinance the home with a traditional lender, then sit with that home for awhile until I get fully comfortable with the one house. Rinse and repeat.

My question is what do I need to do to get started? LLC? Bank accounts? What are the first steps I should be taking?