Well, a lot of life happened and now I am getting back to zero no debt and I'll be renting for now and I am considering a duplex to buy cash or maybe land and some sort of unconventional home but still purchasing cash.

Long term $ can range from 6's-10% range depending on all types of factors - LTV, location, unit count, debt coverage, borrower strength, full doc or lite doc programs, etc..

An update one year later after this post, I now have:- Got my property and casualty license and wrote 370+ policies in a year- Saved up a few more thousand dollars in investable cash, paid off $20K in debt and raised my credit score by 100 points- Launched a direct to seller cold email marketing campaign and generated leads for cheap- Got connected with a few real estate investing communities like Subtle Asian Real Estate and Pace Morby's SubTo- Aggressively read and studied as much as I can get my hands onThat being said, I decided to run a marketing campaign to generate distressed seller leads in Phoenix, Arizona, mostly because:1.

The majority have evictions on their record, don't make enough income or have a lot of debt under their name.Comparing other rentals on Zillow, my asking rent is $1100 while other properties are trying to rent at $1200.

Showcase real-life success stories and emphasize how real estate income, combined with tax savings (e.g., deductions, 1031 exchanges), could potentially outweigh your current W-2 salary over time.Suggest a trial period for the first deal, involving him in decisions to build trust and confidence in the process.

I'd consider real estate debt funds and private lending but that's not on my immediate radar right now. 

I bought my first two rental houses with a combination of using a HELOC on my primary and using my retirement $.

Used your HELOC to fund the down payment on a second property if the right opportunity presents, otherwise those returns wouldn’t be juicy enough for me to take on more debt for the sake of scaling if you’re buying at retail. 

@Eli Fazzojust curious - i am assuming your NY rentals have debt on them. 

I have 880 credit score, decent savings, and no other debt except for 300K mortgage on my primary residence (worth $1.5 million).