House Hacked as I learned to fix the property myself to minimize expenses.

Anyone got ANY TIPS AT ALL to minimize wasting time with UNQUALIFIED and/or UNSERIOUS tire-kicker buyers that call you?

@Ryan Rossi, if you can tough it out for a year in the house, you'll at least only pay the long-term CG taxes, which may be minimal depending on your other income.Why refi?

You can put a bigger downpayment on new props to minimize your loan payments so that if you have vacancy it's not as big of a hit - there are a lot of ways to arrange your debt and equity so that you're putting that capital to work using 'OPM' (other people's money - in the case the bank and the tenants who pay the loan for you) while still having enough of a safety net to feel confident moving forward. 

But once you bring a good brick SFR back from the brink and are watching the maintenance carefully on it, you can keep one of those things chugging along nicely for minimal maintenance costs practically forever.So I'm completely with Linda on quality as No. 1 determining the upper limit of our single-family properties, and adding in good, regular maintenance as the No. 2 qualification.I think our maximum number self-managing and self-maintaining single-family properties is going to be 25 in properties like these before it becomes too much for one guy, me, assisted by on-again, off-again day laborers to reliably handle.

Purchase price: $137,500 Cash invested: $29,000 Entry level build with minimal fixes required to get onto the rental market.

Hey Zak,Kudos to you for going into this with your eyes open.Your not just looking at the tip of the iceberg which is the part where the only work you do is cashing your passive income checks.It does seem like a good idea to start with house hacking as Nick advises.This way you can add some practical experience at minimal risk to the excellent research you've already been doing.Wishing you all the best!

Doing so provides you with checkbook control, minimize the fees charged by the IRA custodian and minimizes the time/involvement of the IRA custodian.5.

Using an FHA loan you can put minimal money down, secure a cash flowing property and house hack.

I decided to purchase this one as the cost was low and hopefully will minimize the seriousness of my potential first timer mistakes.