Advice on starting out

[Kevin Trumbull]

I'll try to be brief.  Looking for some advice on how to start out:

Goals:

• Cash flow focused (SFR or Small Multi)
• 'Retire' in 10-15 years (expenses covered, $7K a month)

Issues: 

• Full time job
• 8 month old daughter
• Barely any free time
• Very little initial investment capital (putting together $20K)
• I live in Monterey, CA area (high entry cost)
• No REI experience

Positives:

• Stellar credit (~815)
• Saving $1500 a month to invest with
• High paying job for 8+ years

I've been doing a ton of research/learning, and my initial idea was to finance a $75K to $100K turnkey from a highly reputable company in the midwest cashflowing $100 a month.  I would reinvest cashflow, and should be able to come up with $20K a year, so I could do 1 turnkey a year... but would take a while to accelerate.

I read another thread where somebody was in a similar boat and they recommended finding a JV with a flipper to help build capital. I'm open to something like that, but I'm not really sure what I could bring to the table on something like that, since I have no time, not a lot of money, and no expertise. :)

Anybody have any suggestions/ideas for me?  I know there are tons of ways to make money in real estate, but I feel like my options are very limited right now.

[Joel W.]

@Kevin Trumbull One kid and a hopeful is the perfect time to owner occupy a smaller apartment.  It will take some sacrifice, but there comes a point where your wife will not make that sacrifice, For us it was somewhere around our 4th boy. It just is not feasible to do it.  If you want to house hack, I'd do it now.