So another solution is to save up for another deal with your cashflow + savings, and pull money out when/if the interest rate gets lower?

Traditional lenders don't care about your savings or net worth; they care about your employment and earnings.3.

He is working on getting this number for me, but they only expect it to be around 60-70k, which I most likely will get a private lender to come up with that money.

Quote from @Jose Remor: Yes, you can save $500 by managing yourself, but you can also lose a lot more than that with some rookie management mistakes.

It seems like you are making money in you job, as it seems like you've saved $200,000 (50% of $400,000.)

The first way you get to learn the secret behind doors, see things get ugly, get your hands dirty, it may or may not save you money but will get you the working experience you needed so you can appreciate the work and know how to talk to people.

Even if you can't use the full bonus depreciation in 2022, the tax savings could still be impactful in future years.It's great that you’re planning to work with a real estate-specific CPA, as they can help ensure you're compliant and help optimize your strategy for future tax savings.

At a high level, this is generally the path people take - we see a lot of people have success in this route - start building the portfolio with banks, low down payments, and then **generally** when you hit around 5 or so properties - it starts to make sense to switch over to LLCs, its too hard to qualify/deal with paperwork of banks and switch towards private lenders like DSCR Loans - (LLC friendly, easier) to scale past 5 or so.

I have already talked to a private lender of mine that tentatively agreed to lend on the deal.

If you don't have savings to get more property, the leverage would only increase and the risk so why risk something when you are creating a strong foundation?