I guess I need to determine my market, style and risk tolerance.

My risk tolerance is pretty low just starting out and I’m not big on debt, even though there are many investors that are very successful at leveraging.

Flirt with the edges of your risk tolerance.

Every investor has different goals, strategies, risk tolerance, etc and it all will affect how they decide to go about their acquisitions.That being said, when talking commercial real estate you ultimately have one goal: keep your income as high as possible and your expenses as low as possible which then translates into a higher NOI and in consequence a higher value of the property.

@Julie Hill What option(s) you decide to take will be dependent on: Balance sheet  - how many $ are you willing to invest, how quickly and for how long;Time commitment;Risk/return expectations - newbie investor only look @ returns, whereas they should be focusing on understanding riskLiquidity and risk tolerance - closely linked with the earlier point on risk/return expectations.I would focus on picking a niche and taking a deep-dive.

The first double-up is highly aggressive but may be doable depending on your risk tolerance and strategy.

I understand that buying cheaper homes is way more risky but I know folks that had been able to make it work for them really well and is just more in alignment with my risk tolerance.

We do this because it fits what our goals are however because each deal is different and each persons risk tolerance is different you may or may not want to leverage. 

But keep in mind we've never had a client audited for amending with Form 3115 so it's a personal choice and depends on your risk tolerance.

@Ricardo CristobalHi Ricardo, It depends on your risk tolerance and your ability to manage from afar.