Hi Tim, active duty Air Force here. Is house hacking an option for you? I’m super new at all this too but accidental house hacking is how I got started and it helps ease you into real estate and being a landlord. Works especially well with military since it’s usually a really tight knit group, friends/co-workers can refer others, steady income stream, and people PCS in and out all the time.
Even if you buy just one property and house hack at every new duty station, that's 6-9 properties or more over the course of a 20 year career. I only have one SFH since I just started getting into it as well, but looking at a few MFH and SFH in other areas now and house-hacking in conjunction with everything I learned and am still learning from BP helped me build the confidence to expand.
There are a ton of amazing benefits out there for military like interest free loans that you can use for down payments (I got a $24K 3-year loan with 0% interest a few months ago) or to pay off higher interest loans, SCRA/MLA benefits on credit cards (waived annual fees and additional benefits.. I haven't paid for a flight or hotel in years), VA loans (no down payment necessary, great interest rates), etc.
Every mission/operation has some risk, the trick is to find ways to mitigate that risk to acceptable levels.
Feel free to hit me up if you have any questions, I’m still learning too! Good luck.
