We are doing OK with rental: good tenants and positive cash flow but we're now trying to solve the puzzle of how to finance REI #2: another cash out refi against our primary, a heloc, etc..

@Michael Gabin Hi Michael,It sounds like you are getting ready to jump and that you have already done a good deal of legwork - people have already identified the key categories: Single Family Homes, Multi-Familys 1-4 for residential investments and 5+ for commercial, Retail property and commercial properties - and then there are the specialist areas like Hotels and Mobile Home Parks etc.Some general guidelines are:Decide on your ultimate income requirement per month or per year - tax benefits and appreciation are often factored into these calculations but if you want somewhere to start that would be a good place.Once you've done that you can then start to work on the cash-flow per unit - a good rule of thumb is $200-$400+ for a SFR and $100-200+ for a unit in a multi-family ( that's Cash flow after expenses)If you plan to diversify within your Real Estate portfolio then you would be looking at a mixture of those cash-flows to make your required incomeThat leads you to think about how you would like to manage the properties - do you want to engage management or manage yourself - this is another piece of the puzzle to decide so you can get startedOnce you've got a clearer idea of the overall shape then you would decide about the best way to organise the investments in terms of capital outlay...Basically you would either;Pay cash outright - NOT a great plan financially probably don't need to go into that!

Refinancing is typically a puzzle to be solved...I swear banks make it purposefully arduous simply to weed out those who won't do the leg work. 

The process starts when a buyer asks that first question and ends when a commitment is made to purchase, close of escrow or cancellation of the purchase agreement.The process is something like a solving a puzzle with the goal of building a complete and accurate profile of the property.

A calculator is a very small piece of the puzzle and often wrong because one wrong assumption can turn a profit into a loss.

I think the biggest piece of the puzzle is to identify which category you fall in. 

It’s also been so fun to learn the processes and figure out the puzzles (I’m also an engineer).

Conceptually I unveiled my real estate puzzle, it's time to come out of the shadows :).

The investor relations arm is the third piece of the puzzle, which is constantly raising capital and maintaining communications with investors.How to Get Started as a Full-Time Real Estate InvestorWhether you wish to transition from a W2 job to an active or a passive career path, the first step is education.

If you're already a broker and investor, and you have property management experience, what pieces of the puzzle are you missing?