Locating my first real estate purchase

[Brian B.]

Hello,

I live in Portland Oregon and my house has appreciated a lot in the past seven years. I have about 150k in equity in my current house. I am thinking about trying to get a cheap rental to buy and hold. My interest is in acquiring a large portfolio of properties for retirement (not for thirty years). But since my house went up, so did everyone elses. The cheapest I can find a house right now is about 350 in my area. I don't know if I have enough equity to get a HELOC and put 20% down on a 350 house, and get enough rent to pay my extra HELOC payment and my new mortgage on the rental.

However, a couple hours away there are a couple duplexes that I am interested in. They are currently selling one for $270 that has two renters in it both paying about $950 a month. If I did my math right, which maybe I did not this seems to be preferrable...

Borrow 55k out of my home for about 350 a month extra
New loan about 1400
Rental income about 1900

Which should leave me about $500 cash flow.

200 for rental agency and 300 a month into a fund for repairs until that gets reasonably high and I can start taking profit.

Am I missing something? I know I am. This is the first time I have thought about doing something like this, and I don't want to screw it up.