Leverage Partnerships or Save Up Capital

[Norwin Lanot]

As someone starting out, I just wanted to get a take from more experienced rental property investors.

I want to present you with two routes that a guy like me is considering to take: 1) save up capital generated from some sort of active income (a job or side hustle) and then get my feet wet by investing in a lower class, lower capital intensive area/property OR 2) find a willing partner with money they are willing to invest with me and use their cash as leverage for something like the down payment or any repairs that needs to be made.

From my current perspective, Option 1 will take more time, but provides me a little more security in the sense that I'm not putting anyone else's money at risk nor am I diving into the deep end of a higher end market (in my case, Southern California). It may take longer, but I can get my feet wet by learning the buying, negotiating, marketing, and managing aspect of the business in a much smaller scale.

Option 2, on the other hand, will allow me to have access to more capital and potential ROI sooner, assuming I even find a partner (and who knows how long that would take or how realistic that actually is?). Depending on how you see it, it may even be more risky, or just outright ballsy for a first investment. But for this scenario, I have a partner with capital and can afford to invest in a market with more demand.

Again, this pertains to rental properties of any kind, and the goal is to simply just make a positive NOI. Thanks BP!