Rookie investor seeking advice: Out-of-state & scaling

[Nicholas Pisano]

Hello, 

I am a rookie who has been studying and getting ready to pull the trigger.  Some background:
My fiance & I live and work 9-5 in NYC. Ideally, we could buy a duplex as our first property, FHA loan, and house-hack. Unfortunately this is not an option for us as there is no inventory available nearby, and NYC prices are out of range... so we are shifting our perspective to possible out-of-state investing in order to get started down the path. Our NYC rent is cheap ($500/ea), so we are happy to continue renting for now.

Let's say we have $60,000 in our life savings, and let's say we'd be willing to spend $30,000 of it on a real estate investment. Let's also say we can only save  $1,000/mo from the W2 job.

We are looking at building teams in cheaper markets such as Cleveland, Rochester, Syracuse, etc. So let's say we buy a SFH or a duplex for $125,000 putting 20% down. And let's say this property cashflows ~$200. What's the next step?

We have now cut our liquid capitol in half.  The cashflow will not be substantial, and our personal savings will be slow to rebuild via the day jobs.

Is this a good idea? Is there a way to then quickly add a second property in the same cheap market?  (now that we have a good team in place)

Are there thoughts on value-adds to increase the equity in that first investment? 

Are there creative ways to leverage that first property fairly quickly (within 1 year) to buy a second one? And how would our position change after aquiring the second one? After the second one, could the same formula be repeated to own 4?

Eager to find ways to increase our wealth without relying solely on the W2.  

This is my first post after 1 year on BP.  Thank you.