Hey @Brett Riemensnider,A HELOC could be a smart move if you want to tap into your home's equity while keeping it.

See if you can get a copy of The Millionnaire Real Estate Investor by Keller.The Slight Edge and Atomic Habits too.Awesome board with many smart people having own suggestions and ideas to grow wealth!!

Being new I would suggest started with existing builds but building small multifamily in a small town with a rental shortage could be a smart move (someone's gotta do it).

But he was smart enough to only take over properties with equity so he was able to refi out of them before the underlying lienholders could foreclose.  

But in smart buying, if someone has enough cash to pay cash for a property, they could easily stash a good chunk of that away to cover downed months and still leverage to increase the overall returns on their portfolio.

For STRs, properties near the beach or downtown tend to perform well.Start Small and Smart: If this is your first property, focus on something manageable.

The easy answer is the smart buyers aren't. 

House Hacking Strategy: Living in one unit while renting out the other(s) is a smart way to offset your mortgage.

This is a great idea that I think I will incorporate.Your point about a contingency line item is smart, I will need to talk to my lender about that possibility. 

to your point, if you save up so that you're in a strong financial position, house hack a solid duplex in a decent neighborhood, make smart decisions, and hold it indefinitely, you'll be fine.conversely, if you have $0 and somehow start out with a risky flip, or borrow $20K and spend it all on a magic mentoring program, or buy a terrible property in a neighborhood you've never been to, you may not be fine.