Hi @Dave Meyer, im a huge fan of you guys. im i truck driver and listen to bigger pockets during my 14 hour shift. real estate changed my life.  

If you're applying for a Conventional/FHA/VA/ or USDA loan, then they will do a "global cash flow" where they take into account your PITI (Principal + Interest + Taxes + Insurance (hazard and flood) on all properties (second mortgages included), HOA payments, car payments, student loan payments, credit card payments, and installment loan payments in the numerator and your gross income in the denominator.

If you do this you'll have a huge pile of money that will allow you to pursue whatever strategy you want very quickly.If I had to do it all over again, I would buy a personal residence as soon as I could, probably house hack, then buy a new personal residence as soon as I had the money for another down payment then turning the old house into a long term rental.If you're just starting I'd also recommend listening to the Bigger Pockets and Real Estate Rookie Podcasts.

Happy to help with some referrals if you need any.Also, a great resource I learned a lot about BRRRR is by listening to free audiobooks about the subject.  

Someone recently told me, and I think there is a lot of truth to this, if they hear the same information from a trusted person who is not you, they will take it to heart, become interested and listen and learn.

Recovering addicts will listen to someone who has been in their shoes and is knowledgeable.

This conduct, in my view, is not something to brag about.Scott, First I'm a huge fan, read your first book many times beginning to end and referred to all my nephews and anyone who would listen.

Also, just want to say I'm a big fan of your "On the Market" podcast, and have been listening since it came out.

So my advice would be to keep self-educating, ideally by reading some books, and listening to the podcast.

In 2016 I started listening to more BP podcasts and caught the bug.