In order to get started just make sure you have high enough W2 or self employed income that you can qualify for the monthly mortgage plus savings for the down payment and closing cost.

Since Friday I have been mostly occupied with trying to help my old employer get crucial services back up and running in Asheville.

Absent that, the big differences will be which forms you report the income, your ability to deduct business expenses against the income, and applicability of self-employment taxes. 

Currently, I'm focused on selling new construction duplexes in downtown Indianapolis, which offer great potential for long-term investment.While I'm still relatively new to the industry, I've found that consistency and reliability often trump the allure of high-risk, high-reward strategies.

Some will list major employers, but often none of the residents work for any of those employers and likely never will due to income or location. 

This is ideal for investors with multiple properties or self-employed individuals, as it allows them to qualify based on the cash flow of the asset rather than personal tax returns or W-2s.2.

Perhaps the conventional 5% down, but since I am self-employed and write everything off, I am being told that I would still need to put down 20% and provide a year's worth of bank statements to satisfy the underwriter.My question for the community is: does anyone have any ideas on how I might structure my first deal to acquire property number one?

@Natalie Johnstone My former employer who was a privately traded company that owned over a billion dollars of real estate and had an ancillary management business with revenues that exceeded $100M annually would sometimes form entities in Delaware because business cases are tried in front of a judge w/o a Jury and case law that's applied to decisions is very well developed in the State.

We pay a percentage to our brokerages, have marketing and education expenses, and are self employed so we pay for our health insurance, gas, etc.  

Determine a goal you’d like to work toward financially, is it “financial freedom” (whatever that means to you), buying a business, becoming self employed, becoming a full time real estate investor, having enough cash for your kids college education, having enough to retire, becoming a centi millionaire, etc.3.