Managing Outstanding Loans

[Eric Griffin]

Hey Everyone,

I'm just beginning my real estate adventure by reading and educating myself and am excited about the potential the real estate has. My wife and I bought our home about a year and a half ago and have decided that rental properties could be a great way to build wealth. I've read a few books and have been practicing analyzing properties, but have not yet purchased anything because I don't feel quite ready yet. My question/statement is this:

I'm stuck on the fear of having multiple loans on multiple properties down the road. I could buy a cheaper rental property right now with a 20% down payment and the monthly expenses (if I had to cover them) wouldn't be a huge burden to me or my wife. If we had a tenant renting it out we'd obviously be making money. But, my fear comes from owning multiple properties, having multiple loans, and multiple vacancies. I'm sure this is a thought several others have had so I'm trying to gather input from people to be rational.

Leverage is clearly a great method to build wealth, but obviously with higher amounts of leverage, comes higher risk. Thoughts on how to get over this hump so I can begin pursuing real estate investment?

Thanks!

Eric