First Rental House, First Step In Financing

[Drew DeSousa]

Happy Thanksgiving BP Forums!

My wife and I have been researching into real estate investing the past year or so and are ready to pull the trigger and buy our first investment!

We are looking at a buy and hold duplex or triplex.  Because this is our first investment property, we will likely be using a conventional mortgage with 20-25% down.  My question is: What do we need to have lined up from a financing perspective and what do those steps look like in order to move quickly on a deal when we find one?   I assume we should go to a bank to get pre-approval before we pursue a deal?  Do I call many different banks to get pre-approval and if so how many?    Would love to hear from someone what those financing steps looked like on their first couple investment properties with a conventional loan.

If there is a blog post on this that I missed I apologize but most of the posts I've read have to do with the different finance options or steps for a hand money loan, not the steps to get a conventional loan for an investment property

Thanks in advance!

Drew