Landlord Starting Out Need Advice

[Charles Cackler]

Hello BiggerPockets forums.

As a bit of background, I'm in Memphis, TN, and while I have well over a decade's experience in investing, I have never done any real estate investments other than some REITs.

I have about $12k to invest and excellent credit, and am looking into investing in rental properties.

My thoughts are that I should start with multi-family units with existing tenants, as I'd ideally like to keep some of that money left over in case of unforeseen expenses, and I really don't want to dip into my backup funds unless I have little other choice.

My questions are 1: Is this a workable strategy? 2: What pitfalls should I keep in mind? 3: What sort of financing should I be looking into? Owner-financed, traditional mortgage, or what?

Any other comments are appreciated as well. Thank you for any help you can provide.