The low down payment house hack is the way to go.

Is it high appreciation area with a low rate mortgage?

It could be 50% high, 50% low or right on the money but no matter which of those three it is makes no difference.

If you join a brokerage with low or no monthly fees, your annual expenses could be as low as a few thousand dollars.

But if you have a low LTV, it's not likely an issue anyway.

That is a really low rate which is good so second or heloc would be better unless you didnt have the cash to get a second mortgage and the rate difference * cost of second home dont exceed the rate difference to your primary * principle left.I would lean fixed heloc then you could always refinance if rates go down.

Cost to Rent vs Own and Return to Work PoliciesThis can mostly be attributed to the massive increase in home prices, particularly from 2010 to today, making people opt to rent for longer, especially today in the elevated rate and home price environment making renting the substantially cheaper option, on top of historically low inventory to choose from.

Quote from @Josh Dickson: Hello all,I've been flirting with real estate for a long time but due to my low earning potential, thus far I have never felt comfortable taking on the risk.

- The current low rent is probably to offset maintenance issues at the property.- Try to raise the rent and the tenant will give you a list of all the maintenance issues they want you to fix. --- They will offer to fix them in exchange for lower rent, but ask yourself, if the tenant has been living there for 25 years, why isn't everything fixed already?

I also got great value from a very expensive course on how to properly buy & manage residential real estate.Regardless of cost, the ones that offered low value were the ones where the founder wanted to sell education as their main business.