How to Scale MF Rental Business

[Michael L.]

Hello Everybody,

A friend and myself have been researching investing in real estate together for a little while.  We both agree that we would like to be in the rental space and would eventually like to turn this from a side hustle into our full time jobs.

Baby steps...

One thing we are having a hard time figuring out/understanding/strategizing is how we go from one property, to two, to three, five and more.

If we each put 10k or 15k down for our first multi-family rental, that would be all the funds we could both invest.  From there, without outside investors, I don't understand how we would be able to buy another property in a reasonable timeframe to scale our business.  It would take several years before even breaking even from the CFs from the initial property.

If we needed to bring in outside money (would be from family), what kind of deal structure would typically satisfy an investor in this type of situation?

I just don't want to see us buy 1 house and be stuck with just that one house for years until we save/make enough to buy another.  I want to be able to buy a house and buy 2 more within 3 years.