Very new, Questions about jumping in and how to use money.

[Christopher Alley]

Hello everyone, This is my first post here, looking forward to hearing from everyone. I have started to read " The book on rental property investing" and I have a few questions. So far my my strategy is going to be to stick pretty much to " plan 2 " in the book, but modify it slightly and use small multi family properties instead of single family homes. My first questions is, right now I have only about 5,000 in savings total that could go toward a down payment, but that would be everything, should I work my butt off at my job and increase my savings or should I consider using the equity I have in my current home that I would estimate would total around 20,000. In my current job I could pull in about 200 extra dollars a week overtime but which would be more effective? I have a brother that has been showing interest in properties as well should I consider going in as partners and splitting the cost of the down payments? Also I'm considering starting an LLC for my investments, thoughts?