@Adam Zach, @Carmen Lewis My understanding they will need to save for a down payment.

As it's my understanding AZ is a community property state, you could treat the 50-50 husband-wife LLC as disregarded and file Sch E under Rev Proc 2002-69 instead of a 1065 to save compliance costs.Talk to your tax CPA/EA and attorney.

Being an electrician by trade can come in very hand and save a lot of money. 

Saving 24k didn’t seem worth it.  

My goal was simple, increase income to the point where my personal budget was at equilibrium and I did not need to withdraw from retirement savings until age 65.

Remember, you won't need a real estate agent to sell to the Lease Optionee (You will use an attorney & save a ton of money) so that saves you about 6% in selling costs. 

However, the realtor told me that I can only buy multifamily if I have 20% down.Looking at the current mortgage rate (close to 5%), I am indeed a little bit cautious if I decided to buy a house (SFH or MFH).My game plan now is to save up my money for the next 12 months, so that I have enough principal to put 20% down for a property while learning real estate investing concepts since I am very new to all of this.May I ask what do you all think about this strategy?

I suspect many landlords will appreciate a tip that can save them a trip to the bank. 

With only 10K the fasted way is like to drastically modify your life style to embrace the frugal and save every penny going forward until you have enough for a DP, closing costs and a reserve fund. $10K after closing costs and holding back a reserve fund will leave you about $5K for a DP.

I was a senior in college studying business management, evaluating my personal financial situation, and determined to be a wise steward of my first paycheck after I graduated, knowing I’d be climbing my way out of about $20,000 of student debt and several grand in auto loans.WhIle searchIng for somethIng productIve to lIsten to on a jog I found the bIggerpockets podcast.Ive learned more from BP than I ever dId In college.Despite math, my wife and I made the personal choice that we’d pay off our student and car loans before we got started.Fast forward three years later we paid everything off and saved $20,000.