Should I wait or should I jump in right now?

[Jocelyne Sema]

Hi BP members,

I am a newbie, aspiring investor in RE. Here's my situation:

I own my residential house, located in Laval (Quebec), appraised at 350K, and still 50K left of mortgage to pay. With the current reimbursement schedule, mortgage is expected to be fully paid by the end of 2022. It's my only RE property.

Initially, I wanted to wait to be mortgage free before using  a portion of the equity on my house as down payment for a multiplex or any other multi-family/appartements, but I don't know anymore. I think I have made that decision just for the sake of finishing something before starting another. There's no real other logic behind it.

Can I already jump in the RE investment world now, or should I wait? What would you do? And if you would decide to go ahead and start hunting for income properties now, what precautions should be taken in my specific situation?

Thanks for your input.