I use apartments.com, so the money didn't end up in my account until 1/6/25.Is this considered income for 2024 or 2025? 

My goal is to leverage that equity for additional income.

Focus on long-term guests, like corporate clients staying 30+ days, because it’s easier and brings steady income.

Real estate investing has been a passion of mine for time with my mother also having invested early on where I likely have gotten the love and desire to follow similar foot steps.I have taken last 6 months to educate myself and currently own a single family home as primary residence and would like to expand to multi family properties (2-4 units) for additional stream of income, not to mention potential tax benefits for long-term investing.Based on current living situation, I have a fair amount of equity established in my primary residency along with having enough cash to either pay off house completely or use towards investing in a multi family property.Given that I'm the sole source of income for our household with my wife being the home maker for our two kids under 2, trying to weigh out risks with getting started now or perhaps waiting. 

I mean myself and any bank would need more details, but if you utilize that large sum as a downpayment and have a small mortgage, wouldn't you easily qualify for the debt to income?

Many of these are low income, government subsidized housing units.

Owner occupied united increased by 8.4%"Still, although the overall share of households that rented decreased, the number of rented units increased by over a million units (43.3 million to 44.6 million)."

@Mitchell RosenbergYou can analyze median income of an area.

Their income is only 3X rent, they lack credit history, and the household is much larger, which could result in more wear and tear.

Typically 75% of rental income can be applied towards your DTI for qualification.