New to the forum..want to start REI

[Mike Sales]

I'm a 23 year old college student. When I get out of the military(officer). Instead of buying a home, I'm confident, that I'm buying a 4 unit owner occupied, live in one and rent out the other three. Hopefully, If I finese it right I should be able to cover the mortgage on the place, and live rent free. The savings over a 5 year period, I want to start to invest in real estate as long term investment vehicle. My goal is is establish an LLC, and hopefully acquire about 100 units over the course of my life. I figure if I'm able to reach this goal and hold and let the tenants pay of the mortgages, I'd have considerable net worth and plenty of cash flow in retirement. Obviously a lot can change. But I'm pretty set in my belief that real estate is a long term investment vehicle that is relatively safe. My question is what is the best strategy to go about this as safely as possible? It would take forever doing this by acquiring two and 4 units.