Should I flip a few houses before investing in rentals?

[Breyan Lallas]

Hi all,

I have been learning SO much about real estate investing over the past few weeks. I have a little capital to start with and I want to pull the trigger soon here. My long term goal would be to own rentals for passive income. However, I am wondering if that will tie up all my capital in between purchases or if there is a strategy that I am unaware of? 

Example: If I have 50k to start with and have to put it all down on an investment property, do I have to save another [50k or some other amount] to put down on my next investment property?

Would it be a good idea to do some flips first to build some more capital? 

I want to move ahead quickly in the real estate investment game and I'm just wondering what's the best and fastest way to do this.