newbie with a little cash - what to do

[Jon Lafferty]

So I have a bit of a dilemma without even begining my great REI career. Just a bit about me:

I earn an above avg income

Owe 245k on my personal residence (married 3 kids). No other debt.

My long term REI goals are to build enough passive income through buy and hold rentals to quit the day job. I really want to build a business that my wife and children will have the ability to join me in long term.

the dillema: I have around 40k in cash and am not sure where to begin. I'd like to stay within an hour of my primary residence while staying within the 30-40k cash deal. I am thinking SFR or duplex. Does it make more sense for me to pay cash for a property and pay in full or should I be looking to buy as many properties as I can for the 40k and leverage loans to pay the excess amounts.

example

SFR @ $40k - put 10-15k down and finance the rest through HML or personal loan - cash flow @ 200 / month

multifam @ 120k - put 20-30 down and finance the rest through HML or commercial loans- cash flow @ 100-200 / month

That would be three doors of cash flow and I would be out 40k in my cash. The plan was at this point level out, learn to landlord and a year later do a heloc or refi on these homes to leverage equity into new homes. Wash rinse repeat. Maybe this puts me at 6 rentals in 2 years and a decent cash flow.

Thoughts? Is this a newbie way of thinking this through? Should I wait and save more cash?

Thanks all