how soon should i buy my 2nd rental property

[Gabriel Benavidez]

Now that I closed on my first deal yesterday and already have tenants living in there how soon should I start looking into buying another rental home? And also is it dumb that I am still renting while I'm doing the BRRR'D method or should I look into house hacking?

[Andrew Johnson]

@Gabriel Benavidez I'll be the unpopular respondent that says: "Give it 6 months".  See if you like being a landlord, see how maintenance costs map to your projections, see how you feel getting calls at random times, etc.  You might love it or you might hate it.  If you hate it, you can invest in real estate but you have to build in the cost of a property manager.  If you love it, then you can move forward with your acquisition strategy.  "Scale" does help you in real estate but if you're going to "learn a lesson" it's much less financially hurtful to do it with one property instead of three.  And, most of the time, there's always some unexpected hiccups that come with owning/renting/landlording for the first time.  Heck, there are lessons that you learn managing a property manager for the first time