Question about financing

[Dan Benjamin]

I'm currently considering my first investment purchase, and plan to use leverage to increase ROI. I'm considering either getting a loan in advance or purchasing the property in cash and then refinancing. The latter seems like the better option to me, but I really don't know much about financing investment properties so I wanted to get opinions/advice on this matter.

My current situation is that I've got no income but a good amount of assets, mostly in cash. I've spoken to one lender who specializes in investment properties and they said they could offer a loan as low as 5 1/4, depending on the property. I haven't made any inquiries about potential refinance terms.

If it's relevant, the medium-term goal is to repeat this process once the first property proves profitable.