Keep in mind your goals, time, energy, and the lifestyle you want to have or are willing to have. 

Rentals create cash flow, and that's what we want as real estate investors, but you need cash on hand for unforeseen circumstances.The AC needs to be replaced, that's $7K to $10K or more depending on the size of the house and if you have one rental, it will eat all your cash flow, same to replace a roof, etc, or if tenant trash the home, you need money to fix it again.To me personally a nice rental portfolio that is healthy consists about 10 units, so if you have an issue with a house the portfolio can cover the repairs and still healthy, but when starting you need to have cash on hand just in caseYes, there are multiple strategies you can use to hack your way to buy your first rental with minimum cash, but I would start wholesaling or fix and flip a few deals to create that cash as fast as possible

That is really the epicenter of growth in Metro Phoenix for the next decade.Since Metro Phoenix has a healthy inventory of homes in your buy box and interest rates are keeping many buyers on the sidelines, it's a good time to be a buyer in Metro Phoenix.Hope this helps,Melanie

Did you join Lifestyles Unlimited?

Put aside a healthy allowance for vacancy on the other side and repairs on both. 

But ultimately, it’s about what fits best with your lifestyle and goals.

(Healthy body healthy mind)I'm an agent and Property Manager in the Pocono Mountains area.

If you can net a 6% return on $1,500,000, that is about $90,000 / annual return.You mention having a healthy IRA, what is the balance of this and how much do you plan to take out?

You'll go with 1 car family lifestyle.

But consider your lifestyle and what you want to have access to while you are living there and also where the tenant pool is strong and demand is high.