Getting started and looking for first deal.

[Todd Lightfoot]

So I have just over 10K in savings and I keep adding to it each month. Of course 10K does not go far when it comes to down payment and the last thing I want to purchase is a house in a bad part of town. So any ideas of coming up with down payment money? I would rather keep all or most of the 10K I have in the bank for reserves to start out with. I have put ads out looking for people who may want to get out of their homes for whatever reason. However, I have found some properties on MLS that would cash flow good but I get stuck at down payment amounts. Any tips you can send my way will help a lot. Love this site. Looking forward to getting this rolling forward.

[Filipe Pereira]

Originally posted by @Todd Lightfoot:

So I have just over 10K in savings and I keep adding to it each month. Of course 10K does not go far when it comes to down payment and the last thing I want to purchase is a house in a bad part of town. So any ideas of coming up with down payment money? I would rather keep all or most of the 10K I have in the bank for reserves to start out with. I have put ads out looking for people who may want to get out of their homes for whatever reason. However, I have found some properties on MLS that would cash flow good but I get stuck at down payment amounts. Any tips you can send my way will help a lot. Love this site. Looking forward to getting this rolling forward.

Todd, people will flock by the droves here and say "get into a partnership!" and "50% of a deal is better than 0% of no deal!". 

I'm here to tell you to focus on your personal balance sheet before jumping into partnerships. They don't always pan out. Guess what though, if you screw something up on your first deal, it's on you and you don't have to worry about damaging a relationship with a partner. 

Get on a budget, get 2 more extra jobs, sell everything in sight and hustle. Make money. Save money. Rinse. Repeat. Look into Dave Ramsey and EveryDollar (app) if you need help setting a budget. I'm a pretty frugal guy, but even I was surprised at where my money was going when I made a monthly budget.