Deduct NEW property taxes after you buyDeduct home insurance costsDeduct maintenance percentage, typically 10%Deduct vacancy+tenant nonperformance percentage(we recommend 5% for Class A, 10% Class B, 20% Class C, good luck with Class D)Deduct whatever dollar/percentage of cashflow you wantNow, what you have left over is the amount for debt service.Enter it into a mortgage calculator, with current interest rate for an investment property, to determine your maximum mortgage amount.Divide the mortgage amount by either 75% or 80%, depending on the required down payment percentage - this is your tentative price to offer.If the property needs repairs, you'll want to deduct 110%-120% of the estimated repairs from this amount.Be sure to also research the ARV and make sure it's 10-20% higher than your tentative purchase price.As long as the ARV checks out, this is the purchase price to offer.It is probably significantly below the asking price.

Eliminate debt, establish a budget, and save.

To your point, you're more likely to put yourself in a less favorable short term cashflow situation if you take on debt to acquire property since you are living for free.

Also syndicators massaging debt to make deals pencil to entice LP investment and are now struggling with existing deals blowing up.

I think now would be a good time for me to invest because I don't have any debt at the moment, a decent amount of money saved up, good credit score, and I have access to VA loan benefits where I could get a very low down payment.

It also includes debt tracking and seven years of history.

What if you're a cardiologist with no debt and making $250,000 annually?

Deduct NEW property taxes after you buyDeduct home insurance costsDeduct maintenance percentage, typically 10%Deduct vacancy+tenant nonperformance percentage(we recommend 5% for Class A, 10% Class B, 20% Class C, good luck with Class D)Deduct whatever dollar/percentage of cashflow you wantNow, what you have left over is the amount for debt service.Enter it into a mortgage calculator, with current interest rate for an investment property, to determine your maximum mortgage amount.Divide the mortgage amount by either 75% or 80%, depending on the required down payment percentage - this is your tentative price to offer.If the property needs repairs, you'll want to deduct 110%-120% of the estimated repairs from this amount.Be sure to also research the ARV and make sure it's 10-20% higher than your tentative purchase price.As long as the ARV checks out, this is the purchase price to offer.It is probably significantly below the asking price.

I recommend aiming for 35-40% down to avoid being burdened by debt service.

I suspect they drew you a flow cart and then your conversations went something like this: I need to transfer my properties to an LLC for anonymity.They are told they are not anonymous & that is not asset protectionBut I need it anyway for tax savings.They are told there’s no meaningful tax advantages  But I can get non recourse debt because the LLC is the borrower.They are told they still have to personally guarantee the loanNo, I can get non recourse debt I read all about it.They are told yes, while that is true, the leverage is customarily low, applies to much larger CRE transactions and there are still carve outs.