Starting point: help with goal setting and next move

[Lisa Maturo]

Thank you in advance for reading my long-ish story here!  I’m a newbie to intentional real estate investing, although I do own 3 properties. This has been percolating (the idea of becoming a real estate investor) for years, and recently I committed to making it happen.

My ultimate goal is to achieve enough income from real estate investing to let go of my current job.

I have a decent income at current job (biz owner), I take home between $75-125,000 annually. I’m grateful for my income but I do not want to keep doing what I’m doing for longer than another 5 years (at most), I’d like to be up and running with real estate investing enough to do that full-time within 5 years. Or….at least move into a part time gig on current job and mostly real estate investing- I’d be okay with that too. I don't hate what I do, but I'm burning out.  I don't want to be tied to the time for money model, which I'm tied to currently.

Right now I own 3 properties. One is now a paid off (3br 2ba SFH), worth approx $250-270,000. Brings in $1530 mo rent, have been renting it out since 2011. I also own an 1800 sq ft office condo which I have around $100,000 in equity? I'm not sure how much it is worth now, bought it in 2013 for $175,000, still owe about $110,000 on mortgage, pay $850 a month payment, 4% apr. Tough to figure out an estimated equity on commercial propery I'm finding. And then we own the house we live in, purchased in 2011, and have about $190,000 in equity, refinanced at 3.32% 20 year mortgage. So if I am right about the combined equity I have in all 3 properties, it is around $500-550,000, estimated. My credit is excellent.

I don’t have much $$ in savings. I’m aggressively saving for a down payment to purchase our next investment property. Hoping to have $20,000 saved up within 6 months, might take me longer. So I’m cash poor.

If you had my situation, what would be your first move in order to wisely invest in the next property to move me closer to my 5 year goal of becoming full time real estate investor?

Since I’ve naturally already gravitated toward buy and hold investing, I’d like to buy my 4th property with same strategy, only this time with more intention of maximizing rental income. I’m considering a multifamily as next goal, 2-4 unit, but I know those deals can be tough to find in Phoenix area where I live. Maybe I need to look in other states too, open to that.

I’m immersing myself in all that I can learn from books, blogs and info on BP, while aggressively saving. I’ve cut any and all frivolous spending I can to increase the rate that I can save for down payment.

My biggest quandary at the moment is whether to wait until I have $20,000 saved up for down payment, or, leverage some of the equity I have in the other properties to purchase another rental income property. What would you do if you had my situation?   Thanks for any insights!!! :-)

Lisa