First Investment

[Travis Hauser]

I am 37 years old married with 2 young kids. I have been studying the forums and reading books for a year now. Does anyone have some advice on the best entry path. I would like to do sfh or small multi family. My primary goal is to build cash flow. I believe the brrrr method is where I want to go. Advice????

[Thomas S.]

Learn your state landlord tenant codes, keep a copy handy at all times, get a team together and , my suggestion, stay away from SFHs. Multi units are you safest start point for beginners when cash flow is the priority.

Put as small of a DP as possible as equity in a rental is basically money lying dead eating up your cash flow.

Screening of tenants is your number one priority and keep in mind buying a occupied unit will likely require getting rid of tenants and replacing with your own selection.

Once you own a property, having fully learned the state landlord tenant codes, you then begin the arduous process of training tenants. This is where having tenants on M2M is particularly important. Tenants are like a puppy, you are fully responsible for training, assume they know nothing or have been very poorly trained in the past.  Bad tenants are 9 time out of 10 the result of a landlord not properly training. Late payment for example is always the fault of poor training. Untrainable tenants need to be terminated.