Hey all, first post here.

I'm going to be getting involved in Real Estate and I'm trying to form a strategy. I've been researching wholesaling, flipping, as well as single/multi family buy and hold investing. I've read a handful of books on each topic, as well as almost all the ones commonly recommended on these forums.

I've decided to take the approach of buying, rehabbing, and renting for a few years before selling and using a 1031 exchange to defer taxes on the profits. I run my own business and have a fair amount of cash that I want to put to work over the next 3-5 years. So here are my questions:

1. Can I purchase a property with cash by getting a loan from the bank first?

2. Can I purchase a property with cash and then get a loan for the home equity at a later date?

3. Is there a limit to this? Can I buy 50 properties in cash and then get a loan for the equity?

4. In my research on wholesaling I quickly learned that it is a very competitive field. This is where the term "cash buyer" kept coming up and I realized that might be more of my thing. Can you typically get properties at a significant discount to the market when buying from a wholesaler, or are you paying close to listing price?

My concern with buying properties with cash is that it limits my purchasing power when compared to a typically 20% down mortgage.

I'm still in the early stages and trying to get clarity on a few things. Thanks for the help!