@Victoria Hil, I would recommend reading Brandon Turner's book "The Book on Rental Property Investing". Prior to reading this book I had owned small multi unit building for a decade, I was stuck and was not sure on scaling and was even thinking about getting out of Real estate all the way. I followed his advise and now I own 20 doors ( duplexes, multi units). I am split between in state and out of state properties, self manage, work full time. I scaled in last 3 years and thanks to the book, my ROI is in double digits. My goal is to reach 40 doors by next 3-5 years.
My advise for you, one of these day sit back, have a beverage of your choice and ponder on net income per month that would meet your goals, that was my starting point. I can say I have already achieved my initial number in three years, and unlike other investments this number will always stay same or go higher.
In my opinion, real estate is key to building long lasting wealth, it will be slow and not glamorous. I am thinking about quitting my day job in near future (2-3 years) and moving to Europe with my family and I am not European.
I recommend finding good real estate agent, next part is finding good contractors, I would recommend asking your agent for contractor that is reasonable.
When starting out and you are buying property 4 or less units don't worry about LLC, make sure you have umbrella coverage besides the insurance. Also stay away from big name insurance companies they are way too expensive, go with a broker and ask them for A to A- companies only. Finally don't file a claim for small items, my rule is 10k or above, so I set my deductibles accordingly.
Good luck and take a splash in this awesome journey if you haven't already done so.
Pete...
