Question on how to get started

[Matt Rauer]

Hi All,

I've been on here for about 2 years now. Initially we were ready to jump in, but then we had a baby so we decided to put our REI dream on hold for a while. Well, now that time has come and we are ready to get started.

Our background:

wife is in medical field and I’m an engineer. I used to work on cars in HS and college and I house hacked my first house I bought with a friend. We had roommates paying our mortgage and we did the roof, finished the basement, and did a full bathroom remodel while living there. My friend bought me out of the house and I built a house with my wife.

Our goal statement:

Have 10 buildings (60/40 or 70/30 mix of small MFH/SFH) in 10-15 years. We'd like to have $4k-$6k monthly cash flow (after debt and expenses), and >$10k/month cash flow (after expenses) once debt is paid, for our retirement.

Our current situation:

We have around $25k saved and have a house that we built 2.5 years ago. The house is probably worth around $350-360k and we owe around $275k.

It seems to me that once you get 4 or 5 properties that are cash flowing, very quickly can you save enough funds for the next property, snowball effect. However, the thing that is stumping me is how do you quickly get your first 4 or 5 properties? I know there is BRRRR, but are there any other strategies to do this?

Our current house LTV is just under 80% so a HELOC or cash out refinance won't help much. We do have a family member that may be interested in being the money partner while we do everything else. I just need to convince him that this investment would do better than the stock market or REITs.

One thought we’ve had was to move into a MFH and house hack, while renting our current home out. Do this for 1-2 years, find another MFH and rinse/repeat. Thoughts on this strategy?

We do have young kids, but I feel that the quote “live like no one else, so that you can live like no one else” (or however it’s worded) really applies here. Moving a bunch over the next 5 years would be less than ideal, but if it gets us our first 4 properties in that time frame, it could help accelerate our portfolio.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Matt