What's the best way to snow ball your REI portfolio? (Rental REI)

[Brian Dudash]

I've had a few discussions about the best way to create a plan in order to "snow ball" your way to owning many REI properties (buy and hold for rent).

After Googling around and even reading blogs on this site, I've thought about doing something like the following:

• Buy my first rental property (SFH) with cash (around $60-70k) where I'd expect about $500 cashflow per month
  • Currently I have about $105-110k available (after taking out an emergency fund)
• Then shortly after, buy my second rental property (SFH) but take out a mortgage and put down around 25% on a $60-70k house
  • The cash flow on this property specifically would likely break even (at or near 0) but this would be on a 15 year mortgage and I can use some (or most) of the cash flow from the first to help pay down that mortgage faster, along with my corporate job monthly savings too
  • I feel I could pay it off anywhere from 5 - 10 years depending on the exact strategy 
• If/When I get the 2nd one, then shortly after that, try and get a 3rd SFH rental property and continue this snow ball effect to build up by rental portfolio

Obviously this is easier said than done, along with risks and I honestly do not have any real experience with rental properties as this is my first time diving into this type of investing.

My main questions would be -- 

• Has anyone done a similar strategy to help build their portfolio quicker?
• What are some of the major pros / cons of this type of strategy?
• Has anyone taken the risk of buying a rental property with a mortgage (like 15 year), where your cash flow is at or close to break even?
• Any other tips / tricks / experiences are appreciated!

Thanks!

-Brian