Closing on first rental and rdy to shoot for moon! Advice needed

[Aaron W.]

Tired of 9-5 grind and want some freedom. Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to paint the full picture...

We just got under contract on our first place and should be closing soon. Here are the details:

Small $150k 1/1 condo near the beach (50 miles from us) with 10% down. A friend of ours rents theirs (monthly min) in the same complex for $1950/mo off-peak season. Maybe $500+ more in peak season (Nov-March ish). $280/mo HOA fees. We're guessing around $15k to get the place looking good. We're both very handy and plan on doing as much of the work as we can. We're not expecting a lot of monthly cash flow initially tbh but we've been dragging our feet for so long, that we basically forced ourselves to just jump in so we could actually get some experience.

All of this is done in my wife's name for now with the intention of doing one in my name next. The real issue that I'm having is how to scale with so little cash flow and how we should spend our money (or get loans) to do so.

Long story short, we were VERY poor savers in our 20s and early 30s and at some point started "paying ourselves first" by dumping as much as we could afford into our 401(k) accounts. We paid off two expensive cars and the only other debt we have is $22k left on a pool loan (originally $100k) that we paid down really quickly with our own money and the help of a small windfall.

Currently, we're contributing 10% and 12% to our 401(k) accounts, with matches of 4% and 3%, respectively. Wife also has a healthy 10% profit sharing. I've been contemplating reducing those to the minimum so we'd have more cash on hand each month to put toward REI. Right now I'm looking into a HELOC (of $50k) to jump start us for part of the down payment and all of the repairs/remodeling and mortgage payments until the place is ready to rent.

Some (hopefully) relevant info:

• Current home (value): ~$700k+
• Current home (owed): $320k
• Jobs: ~$230k gross combined
• Cash on hand: $10k-$15k
• Person Investment Accounts: $25k
• 401(k) and other retirement: $550k
• Both of us have excellent credit

How should we proceed beyond this first rental property?

We have been consuming as many books, podcasts, and YouTube videos as we can to learn. And I'm sure the next few months will be an eye opener for us. But we are ready to commit 110% to moving away from our 9-5 jobs and having some financial freedom.

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!