Quote from @Evan Arkell: I am 20 years old and ready and willing to work and reach financial freedom!!

Ensure you have an emergency fund for vacancies or repairs and verify market trends to confirm the investment supports your long-term financial plan.This post does not create a CPA-Client relationship.

I'm located near Great Falls in central Montana.I have been self-employed for about 4 years and love what I do, so my goal is to build total wealth long-term, not to maximize cash flow for FIRE/financial freedom in the near-term.

Make sure you have enough equity to move forward and also you have to be below 50% debt to ratio income. 

"Fixed rate debt or floating rate, what is your preference?"

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.

@Michelle SharkoAnswering questions in step by step fashion:- Is it a good thing to do or not is a personal finance decision and it depends on the person asking it, their risk tolerance which in part has to do with how this HELOC or line of credit works and how your personality fares relative to taking on new debt (a person more adverse to debt might have sufficient savings and temperament to pay down/back the debt versus a financially liberal person might get in over their skii's as).

You could do 5% down Fannie Mae program and quitclaim into LLC but the debt with still report to personal credit.DSCR is the way to go.

Great tools that get updated regularly.I am on the lending side of things and would be happy to hop on a call with you anytime to discuss financial strategies and help answer any questions you may have about nearly any loan product available to help you on your journey, even if they are not products my capital partners offer.We are all here to help you learn and grow.

Any LTR operator knows that a lease offers some legal protections to the lessor, and this includes financial obligations on the lessee.