This is long but I think you might be able to see the point I want to say here...
The way I see it, people that really want to invest in Real Estate as a career start like everyone else does in any other career, that is from the bottom up. There are people like you with savings and people like me, with only assets, no savings.
Our options, as I see them are... (someone please, correct me because this is the way I understand it)
Partnering with someone with money.
Use your bank for a line of credit, which you will need to have a good credit score and a good salary to get qualified.
Use hard money lenders (accepting their conditions but you need money to fill a gap since they do not finance you 100% of the project).
Use crowdfunding money.
Have cash of your own to finance a whole project.
It doesn't matter what method of financing you use, knowing all the facts on a specific property will be required and the list is long beginning from the year built. Besides, know all the numbers of such property, these are (see the Capital Letters to familiarize with RE acronyms)our Debt-Coverage-Ratio, the Annual-Debt-Constant and the Loan-to-Value to come up with the Net-Operating-Income. these numbers will let you know how to make an offer and how to approach a lender and it is imperative you have them correctly.
You know why you want to be in Real Estate Investing right? then continue with no doubt.
Is your niche in wholesaling? hacking? forcing equity or renting?
Having money is as important as having good credit, but knowing what you want to do and your numbers are more important.
You mentioned wholesaling but you are in doubt. Wholesaling might give me a lot of five thousand dollars and million headaches, but headaches might respect you.
What about using your money to cover a gap?
What about not using your money at all and use hard money to invest in forcing equity? If I was your age, I would put my money on a five-year cd or until I become more proficient at REI.
What about lending your money, you can find out here at BP how to become a lender.
I want to learn how to qualify and to use OPM to invest in Real Estate until I could buy with my own money the house of my dreams anywhere I want.
I hope you see you have more options for your money here... You might have other options I didin't come up with...
