Growing your portfolio

[Chris F.]

Hello all,

I've been sandbagging a bit, but I thought I might jump in with a question for starting out. Bit about myself- I've been interested in real estate for a long while but I've been focusing on my "day job". I'm coming to a point in my life where I'm ready to take the leap, with eyes wide open.

That said, I'm looking to do long term buy and hold- this strategy appeals to me most, and I wondered how those of you with multiple properties (say 3+) were able to grow your investments past the intitial house? Clearly putting 20% down on property after property can be expensive and probably not realistic if you don't have a tidy sum, so what different types of methods have you used to grow? Was it just building equity and pulling it out to finance new deals, getting partners, "no/low money down" schemes? flipping/wholesaling in combo with buy and hold? all of the above?

I'm looking to get started with say, $20K, with the realization that this could be eaten up in one or two transactions, so moving beyond that, or maximizing my intial investment is something I'm keen on. I appreciate any sound advice.