A single or multiple rental properties

[Rick Eicon]

Has anyone done the modeling or experience determining which investment strategy is best.

For modeling purposes lets use 600K self directed IRA funds would be made available.

A) 1 single multi unit rental property paid cash, no financing.

OR

B) ~$150-200K (25-30%) down or less and the rest financed for each of 3 multi unit rental properties

OR

C) ~600K down on a single $2M multi unit rental property

There's various factors to consider such as no loan, 3 loans and rates, one large loan/potential lenders, cash flow for each scenario, exit strategy (hold for 10 yrs, less, longer) and property appreciation etc...

Q1- What key factor(s) would you use to make this decision?

I.e. The deal that provides the maximum monthly cash flow

Q2- has anyone gone the rental path and the moved to buy/improve/flip or straight to buy/improve/flip and found this a better path to building earlier/faster profits then moved to larger rental deals?