Finally looking to get started

[Jonathan Godden]

Hey folks, I joined the forums almost 7 years ago thinking I was ready to begin real estate investing but in reality I don’t think the timing was right for me. Since then I’ve earned my engineering degree and have been working for a few years, while at the same time growing my family by 4 kids. I’m once again looking to get into REI but not sure which path to take based on my current financial situation. I’m not looking to leave my job so I won’t have too much time to do rehabs myself and due to my family size I’m not sure house hacking is an option. I do know that I’m looking to supplement/replace my income with cash flow at some point in the future but am open to anything that makes sense. Based on this I would think the BRRRR would suit me but maybe there’s better options? Current situation: -200k mortgage on our primary house -16k left on our car loan -14k student loans -Within the next 6 months I’ll probably have around 15k in cash saved I’d like to ask your advice on what the best way for me would be to proceed with the my personal finances to put me in a better position to begin my REI career. Try and pay down my student/car loans to lower my DTI ratio or try and build up as much cash while paying the minimum on my loans? Other info: -My wife and I both work, me full time and my wife part time -combined we probably just break 6 figs, so we don’t have a ton of disposable income right now factoring in our loans above -I have ok credit (700ish) and my wife has bad credit -We’re in the Oklahoma market. Sorry for the info overload, any advice is much appreciated. Thanks!