First Deal Strategy Opinions

[Jacob Spain]

Alright guys! Opinion panel time!

So, right now I'm starting from square one. Virtually no cash on hand, 0 experience as a home buyer/investor, and whooooole lot of directions I could go. I'm having trouble settling on a strategy and niche.

Ultimately, I want to get into rentals. Of any variety, SF, MF, commercial, doesn't matter. Right now though, I'm not sure that's the best option. I'm leaning more towards doing fix and flips until I can get the cash to start buying up houses. Something about that doesn't feel right though. Do you guys think I should just do rentals from the get go? Or is a strategy that can lead to fast cash generation a good move early on?

[Chace Fraser]

@Jacob Spain a few things come to mind. 

1) @Jason D. 's advice is simple, profound and full of wisdom.

2) Work to LEARN instead of work to EARN. 

Find a job with someone doing what you want to do... maybe even work for free for them. If you want to own 10,000 units find someone who already has that many and learn from them. If you haven't already, read/listen to @Anson Young 's book "Finding and Funding Great Deals." He gives a ton of great advice in his book.

3) Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast

Adding something like house hacking to your investment strategy would allow you to add 4 units per year or two to your portfolio in addition to minimizing/eliminating your housing costs (or even being paid to live)... which would then enable you to direct more money to investing thus expediting the process of scalability. 

As someone who is "starting from square one. Virtually no cash on hand, 0 experience as a home buyer/investor" you'll need to gain the experience and learn to drive before asking how to race a formula 1 car. 

Crawl -> Walk -> Run -> FLY

Start with crawling, and if you're lucky someone along the way will show you the next (few) steps. 

Good luck!