You must find a model where a purchase price will yield a certain amount of rent back, that will enable you make money for your needs. 

Threw off a boat load a cash and enabled me to proceed to my next pretty quickly....If I can make 1 suggestion it would be to try to buy your first investment relatively close to where you reside..

We will build a portfolio of buy-and-hold properties that will both cash flow well enough to get us out of the rat race, and appreciate over time.We will start our journey by house hacking a four-plex in Visalia that will enable us to put more of Eric’s retirement income towards real estate activities.We stumbled upon BP while learning about passive income.

If you buy a duplex, you can apparently count part of the actual/potential rent from the other side right out the gate to increase the income you can show on your loan application for that first property, which can qualify you for a higher loan amount (thus enabling you to buy a larger duplex or in a nicer neighbourhood).

But the fiscal stimulus has bridged that gap for the time being which enabled forbearance and stimulus checks, etc.

Can you find the deals that will enable you to pull out a big chunk of money after renos?

But, what if you spent lots of money changing your systems over to enable them to gather the new data fields?

Screening enabled me to find great long-term tenants that treat my property as if it were their own.Yes, it requires due diligence upfront, but ultimately pays off exponentially in the long-run.

So asset management is a strategic role enabling a solid return on the lifecycle of the individual investment, and portfolio management is concerned more broadly with asset allocation and risk management.

@Stephanie PotterThat's very informative, thanks for sharing the latest revision on FHA guidelines, as well as the link.I may be wrong but if I follow your math on the last bullet correctly, an FHA down-payment required, may include 3.5% + 1.75% (upfront MIP), thus, lender financing up to 94.75  vs 5% down-payment conventional enabling a 95% financing.