newbie from St. Louis, Missouri (Metro East)

[DJ Cummins]

Hello Everyone! Today is my first time posting, as I just became a member today. I found the site about 3 weeks ago(that is how long it has taken me to listen to all 80 something podcasts!). Lots of great info on this site--glad I found it.

So, the wife and I(semi-newly weds) are looking to buy our first rental property in the next 6-12 months. We are going to be using savings, stocks, and some 401k money. I know we will take a tax hit, but thats ok, it is a means to an end! I have been interested in starting to invest in real estate for a few years, just had to come up with some cash first! At a quick glance, in my area of Illinois, just outside of STL, i have found a few different multi-family 4 unit properties, all for around the 150k mark, and all have rents around the $600.00 mark. This is what we are thinking about purchasing for our first property. We will have a little over 30k for the down payment that is available to us. We are excited to get started, but are planning on being patient and making sure that the first deal is the right deal. We are planning to buy after the end of this year, unless something jumps out at us sooner.

Just wondering if anyone else would love to share how they came up with the money to finance their first property? Salaries here in the midwest are by comparison much lower than on the coasts, but that is due to lower cost of living. It has been hard work to even save up this 30k, which doesn't sound like much compared to deals I have been hearing about/reading about on this site.

Any info is good info to me!
Thanks Y'all!
DJC