A more conservative path to REI?

[Daniel Walker]

All,
I'm a young guy who hopes to get started investing in the next couple of years. My mindset (and my wife's) has always been to avoid debt like the plague. This of course creates a conflict when trying to use other people's (bank's) money to finance a deal.

How many of the pros out there have a similar, no-debt approach? Thoughts? To those who do see, and use, the benefits of leverage, where is the sweet spot where you are making good return without being over-leveraged?

Thanks!

[Rob K.]

Daniel Walker You sound like a fan of Dave Ramsey. I too am anti debt. However, I would have never been able to buy this many houses without some debt.

You could grow your business slowly by paying cash for your properties. While I avoid car payments and credit cards, I'm ok with debt on real estate since it (hopefully) goes up in value. I would never finance anything else.